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Welcome, RotoBallers to the first FanDuel Lineup Picks of the season! While few of us will be at our local ballpark to inhale all the wonderful sights and smells of Opening Day, it does not take away from that wonderful sense of hope and rebirth that comes with a new season.
That applies to DFS and making our FanDuel lineups too! I hope you are as excited as I am for this first MLB DFS slate!
I'll be providing you with my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for the FanDuel main slate on 4/1/2020. Be sure to also check out all the MLB player news, including late scratches, and the projected and confirmed daily MLB lineups for each DFS slate. You can also read more DFS advice and lineup picks for sites like DraftKings, and other sports.
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FanDuel DFS Pitchers
Cash Game/GPP Anchor Play:
Tyler Glasnow - TAM at MIA ($10,000)
Gerrit Cole is going to get most of the attention on Opening Day, but given his lower salary (both DFS and actual MLB salary), I'm going with Glasnow. Glasnow has an eye-popping 38% strikeout rate last year, which was the third-best in the league. Yes, it's a limited sample size, but his 97 MPH heater and knee-buckling curve are far from limited. But it seems Glasnow has added a third quality pitch to his arsenal, a cutter/slider, often referred to as a "slutter". It looks pretty devastating to me:
Tyler Glasnow, Filthy 89mph Slutter...and whatever that swing was.
10th K thru 5 pic.twitter.com/EJgtu7CBz4
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 27, 2021
Grab Glasnow and enjoy the savings while you can.
Potential Alternate Play
Clayton Kershaw - LAD @ COL ($9,00)
A trip to Coors is never ideal. But this might be the cheapest we see Kershaw all year. Kershaw is a stud year in and year out. And he's actually coming off one of his better years with a WHIP of 0.840 and k/9 of 9.6, both three-year bests. And the Rockies are no push-over, but opposing pitchers will no longer have to worry about Nolan Arenado in the lineup. Kershaw could be a huge leverage play.
FanDuel DFS Infielders
Freddie Freeman - 1B, ATL at PHI ($4,200)
Let's start with the son of Acadamy Award-winning actor Morgan.
I think you know I'm kidding. But given that Morgan has been stupendous in his roles as both President and God, Freddie has also been meeting lofty expectations as an elite player. Freeman's already lofty OPS has risen each of the last three years, including last year's 1.102. And Philadelphia's ball-park doesn't exactly suppress power. Lock him in.
Jake Cronenworth - 2B, SDP vs ARI ($2,600)
To afford Freeman, we are going to need to save money somewhere and there might not be a better place than Croneworth. Sure, I'd rather spend up for Fernando Tatis or Manny Machado. But Croneworth's 2020 season gave us a glimpse of his potential when he hit .285/.354/.477. He also swiped double-digit bases each of his five years in the minors until he got to the show last year. Croneworth could be a very pleasant surprise.
Eugenio Suarez - 3B, CIN vs STL ($3,200)
Suarez smacked 15 homers in the shortened season last year. Jack Flaherty meanwhile sported a 4.91 ERA. I'm liking the chances of Suarez starting the season with a nice little power boost.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa - SS, TEX at KC ($2,500)
I like Brad Keller. Is he a bonafide ace? Let's not get carried away. He only struck out 16% of batters last year. Yes, I do think Keller can come away with the "W", but he's not coming away unscathed. And IKF, should he bat higher in the order as projected, should do more than enough to justify his salary.
FanDuel DFS Outfielders
Tommy Pham - OF, SDP vs ARI ($3,000)
Madison Bumgarner is not the pitcher he once was. I'm not giving a whole lot of weight to last year. But his 6.48 ERA last year was the seventh most bloated in the league and is indicative of the trend. So yeah, I'm stacking Padres. Furthermore, Pham has absolutely demolished lefties. Since 2018, Pham sports a .440 OBP, .164 ISO and 155 wRC+ versus southpaws. Pham is one of the best values in a San Diego stack for Opening Day.
Jesse Winker - OF, CIN vs STL ($2,800)
And I'm mini-stacking Reds. After hitting nearly .300 in both 2017 and 2018, Winker saw his average drop below .270 each of the last two seasons. His BABIP was also below .300 each of those two seasons, which means Winker should see some positive regression. That should start immediately against the aforementioned Jack Flaherty and his 4.91 ERA. Also worth noting are the reports that Flaherty's fastball is a tick slower this spring.
Brandon Lowe - OF, TB at MIA ($3,300)
If Glasnow is going to get the W, he'll need some run support, so why not take one of the Rays best hitters? I love the left-handed Lowe going against Sandy Alcantra, a right-hander. In 2019, he logged 259 plate appearances against RHP and slashed .278/.355/.543. Lowe hit .350 during Spring Training. Lowe will see some ups and downs, but I think he will start the season on an upswing.
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