*Chris Durell*
DraftKings / FanDuel MLB Lineup Picks for August 18, 2017
Welcome for another big Friday in daily fantasy baseball. With one afternoon matchup(TOR @ CHC) it leaves us with a big 14-game slate starting at 7:05 p.m. ET tonight. Let’s take a look at a couple of the top pitching and stacking options.
Starting Pitchers
Max Scherzer
Opponent – @SD
Park – Petco Park(Pitchers Park)
Vegas Favorite (WSH – 198)
Vegas Total (7.0)
The price is steep, especially on DraftKings where he has reached the $14K mark once again but Max clearly has the best matchup and most upside of any pitcher tonight. He and the Nats will travel to Petco Park to take on the Padres who have scored a league low 466 runs this season and also rank 27th in wOBA and 26th in wRC+ vs. right-handed pitching with a 25% strikeout rate. Scherzer is currently the leading CY Young candidate in the National League and is running a career-high 12.35 K/9 rate and is second to only Kershaw with a 2.25 ERA on the season. On a full slate, there will be more than enough value plays to fit Scherzer in your lineups in all formats.
Matt Moore
Opponent – vs. PHI
Park – AT&T Park(Pitchers Park)
Vegas Favorite (SF -150)
Vegas Total (8.0)
I won’t be considering Moore on FanDuel in the mid $7K range but on DraftKings he makes an excellent SP2 at $5K if you are planning on using a lot of Scherzer and still want some bats in your lineup. The combination keeps you under $20K for your pitching staff and allows you an average of $3,862 for the remaining eight spots in your lineup. I am definitely not suggesting he is a safe play with a 5.71 ERA and 4.92 but with has shown more K upside lately(16 K’s last two starts) and has picked up double-digit DK points in seven of his last 10 starts, scoring 20+ in two of them. Not bad for just $5K.
Top Stacks
There are a lot of different ways to go tonight and I really think that helps spread the ownership out quite a bit. The Coors Field ownership is definitely helped by the fact there are two CY Young candidates on the mound (Scherzer & Kluber) in great matchups and are priced as such. I prefer the Rockies who are currently projected to score almost seven runs as they face-off with Matt Garza who doesn’t miss bats(6.05 K/9) and has struggled this year with a 4.38 ERA and even worse 4.97 xFIP. The Brewers are also on my radar despite the second half struggles as they come at a discount and very well could fall outside the Top 3 in ownership. The team I project to push the Rockies for the top owned team tonight is the Texas Rangers who have been on fire this week winning four straight games while scoring 37 runs (9.3 per game) with 10 long balls. They are also a team I will run multiple variations as they are loaded with power throughout the lineup. For value tonight, I love the Tampa Bay Rays left-handed bats (Corey Dickerson, Logan Morrison, Lucas Duda, Brad Miller) going up against their old teammate, Erasmo Ramirez who has been much worse vs. lefties(.357 wOBA vs .281 wOBA vs RH).