Daily Fantasy Lineup Picks – June 21, 2017

Daily Fantasy Lineup Picks – June 21, 2017

Welcome to Lineup Lab’s Best Daily Fantasy Lineup Picks, where we feature our top players for our MLB Lineup Optimizer on Fanduel and Draftkings. Put your favorite stacks from the article below in our lineup optimizer and hit calculate. You can let it fill in the rest of the spots for you or choose your personal favorites from the MLB Player Lab.

Starting Pitchers

Jeff Samardzija @ Atlanta Braves
Park – SunTrust Park

We have a big main slate with a whole lot of average pitchers. While we have an ace in Carlos Carrasco, he’s facing the Orioles in Camden Yards and hasn’t been the same pitcher as of late. He’s leaving pitches in the zone and it’s resulting in a higher than ever hard contact rate. Instead, we’re going to move down a bit and take a look at Jeff Samardzija. Samardzija hasn’t been amazing this year, but he’s been as expected. He eats up innings and does a good job of limiting opposing offenses to just 2 or 3 runs at most. He will get his 7 or 8 strikeouts and work his way into plenty of wins. He faces a very poor Braves team, that happens to be without their only ++ hitter, Freddie Freeman. Since Freeman got injured, the Braves have ranked 28th in baseball against righties with a .294 wOBA. There is literally nobody to be afraid of and it just comes down to how well Samardzija can pitch. While cash games are in question as a whole on this slate, this is your best option as a whole.

Jose Berrios Vs Chicago White Sox
Park – Progressive Field

Jose Berrios has been very good. He was one of the top prospects in all of baseball for a few years and has already shown why. He’s acted like a prime number 2 this year, usually going around 7 and allowing 1 or 2 runs. Berrios has been absolutely dominant against both sides of the plate in his 8 starts, sporting a .265 combined wOBA. He’s striking out over 8.5 batters per 9 innings and has posted a very strong 0.8 HR/9. He’s also been extremely consistent, which is rare to see out of a 23-year-old. Berrios has gone at least 6 innings in all but 1 start, in which he went 5 innings. This kid is special and will be a pitcher we target for a long time. He is however very young and he can still implode at any time. Fortunately, he’s facing off with the White Sox. They have been one of the worst teams all year long and hold the 4th lowest wOBA on the road in all of the majors. Berrios has plenty of opportunities here, but it really just comes down to whether he can keep the ball in the zone. Nobody on this White Sox team is going to battle and put up consistent at-bats in Progressive Field.

Offensive Stacks

New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels (Ricky Nolasco)
Park – Yankee Stadium

This offense is pretty easy to love tonight. When initially looking at the slate, they stand out like a sore thumb. When any team holds an implied run total over 6 runs and that team is outside of Coors Field, you must take notice. The Yankees are in that spot tonight and I find myself thinking they may be in that spot somewhat often with how their offense is rolling. They face off with arguably the worst pitcher on the entire slate. So far in 2017, Ricky Nolasco has managed to sport a .386 wOBA against righties and a .357 to lefties. He’s also allowed an insane 21 home runs in less than 21 innings. Yes, you read that correctly. Both Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez are hitting home runs every night and both look like the next Babe Ruth. If you’re stacking the Yankees, you play them both. You can then go a lot of different ways. Matt Holliday deserves a lot of consideration and hits righties extremely well. Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks are both solid, but should be highly owned and aren’t must plays. Personally, I will have a ton of exposure to the “main stack” in both cash games and tournaments. The Yankees are very safe tonight and if they go down in flames to Ricky Nolasco, I’ll take the loss and move on.

Main Stack – Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Starlin Castro, Matt Holliday

Sneaky Stack – Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks, Didi Gregorious

St. Louis Cardinals @ Philadelphia Phillies (Nicholas Pivetta)
Park – Citizens Bank Park

The Cardinals are a pretty weird team to target as a stack. it’s always tough to figure out what you do with guys like Yadier Molina, Kolten Wong, and Paul DeJong. Statistically, they can hit home runs. However, they don’t aim for the fences and often find themselves labeled as “boring” or as having “no ceiling”. Instead, I like to look at these guys as under-owned. You can get these lower in the order bats at a much lower ownership and if they happen to drive in some runs, you’re in a splendid spot. The Cardinals are facing off with the Phillies and Nick Pivetta tonight. Pivetta has been atrocious against both sides of the plate, holding a .361 combined wOBA. Matt Carpenter and Dexter Fowler are obviously your top 2 targets, with Aledmys Diaz and Stephen Piscotty up next. The Cardinals offense isn’t very concentrated, so feel free to take a shot on a guy who sneaks into the lower part of the order.

Main Stack – Matt Carpenter, Dexter Fowler, Aledmys Diaz, Stephen Piscotty

Sneaky Stack – Matt Carpenter, Dexter Fowler, Yadier Molina, Jedd Gyorko