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On Monday FanDuel is offering a full slate of 8 games to choose from. The first game begins at 7pm Eastern and the last one starts at 10:15pm Eastern so please be sure and select players that you are absolutely certain will be playing on Sunday. Also please consult local weather for any possible delays or rainouts.
We are entering the most volatile week in Daily FanDuel baseball; team that have clinched playoff berths are resting players, lousy teams are traipsing out minor leaguers and teams fighting for the playoffs are using their normal lineups so be doubly sure that the players you've selected are actually playing.
Tonight's reduced slate does leave us a couple of pitching opportunities tonight.
Pitching
As you've probably already figured out my philosophy is to roster a top tier pitcher as I believe there are or at least will be plenty of value sticks available for me to put together a roster that I feel can win for me on any given night. The other thing I'm looking for is value; I want to get at the very least 1 point per $1000 dollars spent.......now that you understand my philosophy here is what I'm looking at tonight.
Corey Kluber ($9,700) and the Indians are still in a wild card fight as are the Twins and as luck would have they are playing each other tonight in Cleveland. Over the course his career Kluber has had good success against the current Twins team but has struggled in his last 2 starts failing to get past the 4th inning in either of these starts. The strikeouts are still there but so are the bombs and that is a concern tonight with Kluber.
Zack Greinke ($12,600) is on the road against the eliminated San Francisco Giants. Greinke has pitched well against this current collection of Giants and over his past 5 starts Greinke is striking out 7.64, walking 1.78 and less than 1 bomb per nine innings pitched. He's also gone 6 or more innings in all five of those starts and he'll face a Giants team with a 18.8 percent strikeout rate, .321 wOBA and wRC+ of 108 against righties this season.
Lance McCullers ($8.700) has a game tonight in Seattle against the Mariners. The sample size is small but successful against this current Mariners team and over his last 5 starts he's striking out 8.42, walking 3.19 and has allowed 1.16 bombs per nine innings pitched. McCullers has lasted 6 or more innings in 4 of his last 5 starts and he's facing a Mariners team that has a 21.8 percent strikeout rate, .312 wOBA and wRC+ of 100 against righties this season.
Lance Lynn ($8,600) and the St Louis Cardinals are in Pittsburgh for a game that has NL Central Pennant implications. Lynn has been so-so against this collection of Pirates and has lasted 6 or more innings in 3 of his last 5 starts. He's striking out less than 5, walking nearly 5 and has allowed less than a bomb per nine innings. The Pirates on the other hand have a 20 percent strikeout rate, wOBA of .315 and wRC+ of 100 against righties this season.
The value play tonight just might be the Pirates J.A. Happ ($7,300). Happ is so so against the current Cardinals but over his last 5 starts he's been darn good with 10.92 strikeouts, 1.21 walks and less than 1 bomb per nine innings pitched. One drawback to starting Happ is that he's only lasted 6 innings or more in 2 of his last 5 starts and he'll be facing a Cardinals team that has a 23.5 percent strikeout rate, .294 wOBA and wRC+ of 84 against lefties this season.
Stacking Opportunities for Sunday
I don't think there are very good stacking opportunities except for right-handed bats Chris Young ($2,400), Alex Rodriquez ($3,000) and Robert Refsnyder ($2,200) against the leftie Eduardo Rodriquez. Right handed hitters have a home wOBA of .314 against Rodriquez this season.
On this edition of Phil's Fantasy Sports Phil is giving away a 25 dollar pre-paid Visa card to one lucky listener per week for signing up at his new Daily Fantasy Sports site Draft Dragons. Rotowire NHL writer Brian Rutherford and Phil discuss Fantasy Hockey mid-tier forwards, Fake Teams Ray Guilfoyle joins Phil and the guys try and figure out who will be the #1 Fantasy Baseball player taken in next seasons draft as well as several Cubs players and pitchers and their possible 2016 values. Draft Kings Playbook writer Jason Walker joins Phil and the guys share their FanDuel and Draft Kings Fantasy Football picks and Rotowire NBA writer Alex Rikleen and Phil discuss Fantasy Basketball sleepers and busts at the Center position. You can download the show from my site or listen below.
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