Good morning everyone! Yesterday was such a strange day of daily fantasy baseball, hopefully not too many of you got burned by ownership of Clayton Kershaw and you somehow found a way to alleviate your sadness if you did. Here’s to another day, start over fresh!

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Weather

It looks to be sunny all across the nation today. No weather concerns in any of the games on the slate.

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Positional Breakdown

Starting Pitcher

Yesterday, in the opinion of most, Clayton Kershaw was just about a sure thing. Well, now we know that he is human. After a brutal shellacking at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, it’s key that we find the right pitchers today. Although he’s been susceptible to a few blowup games of his own, Felix Hernandez has to be one of the top pitchers on the board today. Felix had his last start ruined by some bad calls in his last inning at home and ended up being knocked out giving up four earned runs. However, he pitched much better than his stats would have indicated and finally got back to striking some guys out. I’ve mentioned before that the Twins are a middle of the road team in terms of strikeouts, but I still love Felix today.

Cole Hamels sliced and diced the Cincinnati lineup yesterday and now he passes the ball on to Cliff Lee. While Lee doesn’t have the put-away  stuff that Hamels does, I still like his chances maneuvering around this depleted Cincinnati lineup. He has his groundball rate up to about 50% and has no issues with control. Should he be feeling it today, he should produce admirably.

Others to consider: James Shields, Marco Estrada and Jordan Zimmerman.

Catchers

Sunday is the hardest day to recommend catchers, especially before lineups come out. Sundays are usually a day game after a night game and the time when managers allow their big guns to take a backseat and relax for the afternoon. Be aware of this before inserting any catcher in your lineup. Two guys with my favorite platoon advantages today are Jonathan Lucroy and Yasmani Grandal. Grandal gets the favorable matchup with Juan Nicasio at Coors Field where runs were finally scored last night and Lucroy gets to face left-handed pitcher Travis Wood. Keep in mind, Lucroy has essentially been an auto-play against left-handed pitchers in the past and will be highly owned.

First Basemen

I feel like the bats in Colorado are going to explode yet again today so Justin Morneau is a guy at the top of my list. Morneau gets the platoon advantage against young right-handed pitcher Don Roach at Coors Field today in what should be the highest scoring game of the day. Morneau has cooled off of late, but has one of the best matchups of the day.

I watched Chris Carter hit an absolute moonshot foul yesterday and while it doesn’t count, it caught my eye. Carter is a name unfamiliar to most, especially in the land of daily fantasy sports, but he has a super sweet matchup today against “Gas Can John Danks.” Danks is horrendous, just a really bad major league pitcher and the Astros team can swing the bats a little bit, especially against bad pitching. Carter will be extremely cheap and extremely risky, but has the potential for a double dong type of day.

Second Basemen

It’s finally going to happen today. I’m going to recommend Robinson Cano and he’s going to hit a homerun, I can just feel it. Ricky Nolasco has actually pitched above his potential this year and while I don’t think this Mariners’ lineup will threaten him, I do love me some Robinson Cano. Cano hasn’t been bad this year, but the lack of power has been a bit disappointing. I realize that the park shift to Safeco has changed a lot, but this is still one of the best hitters in baseball. Sign me up with the platoon advantage against a weak right-handed pitcher today.

So you’re tired of being burned by Robbie, ok, use Jose Altuve. Right, right, I know, you’re worried because by now I’ve already recommended two Houston Astros. Well, feel better because Altuve is actually a very solid major league second baseman. He’s not a homerun hitter, but this guy has a lot of upside. He’s got 14 stolen bases on the year already and is a doubles machine and spark plug at the top of this Houston order. What’s best about Altuve? He rarely strikes out and always gives you a chance when he puts it in play!

Third Baseman

This was honestly the hardest position for me today, and I’m still struggling to really find the guys I want to be able to plug in the lineup. With Prince Fielder out of the lineup for the time being in Texas, I think Adrian Beltre has to pick up the slack. Now, it’s tough to throw out any statistics that give us any indication of what he might do today against the knuckle-baller R.A. Dickey, but I feel like it’s going to be a good day. Beltre loses a bit of protection, but who are we kidding? Prince wasn’t hitting anyway. In a good run scoring environment, I like Beltre today.

Others to consider: Chase Headley and Evan Longoria.

Shortstop

#1 Troy Tulowtizki. I should probably just stop there because it really doesn’t even make any sense to roster anyone outside of Tulowitzki. Tulo is just on an absurd start to the year and frankly, I’m really glad he’s on my most important yearly team. But I guess I should let you know that other shortstops do exist and that I like Jose Reyes today. Reyes faces the young right-hander Nick Martinez today in the newly minted “Globe Life Park in Arlington.” I feel like this will be a higher scoring game today and Reyes could be the spark plug at the top of that Blue Jays order.

Others to consider: Hanley Ramirez and Jean Segura.

Outfield

Of my three favorite outfield plays yesterday, both of the guys who played hit homeruns and had awesome nights. One of those guys I’m going to recommend again today. Seth Smith has been on an absolute tear and has the perfect ballpark environment at Coors Field again tonight. Smith has been very underrated his whole career and is just in a perfect situation in that Padres lineup right now. He’s still underpriced and is performing admirably; roster him against Nicasio.

Ryan Braun is on my list as one of the top outfielders today against a left-handed pitcher. Braun is a career .345 hitter against left-handed pitching and has a decent track record against Wood in the past. With all the high scoring games today, he might fly under the radar.

Last but not least, Carlos Gonzalez finds his way in to my top plays. CarGo is a familiar face to this section but has been off the board for a while now as he’s seen a ton of left-handed pitching recently. Today he gets that sweet matchup with Don Roach in Colorado in what should be a slugfest. While Blackmon provides a lot of potential hitting leadoff, I like CarGo just a tad bit more hitting behind Tulowitzki today.  They are going to have to pitch to him with runners on base and CarGo is going to make them pay.

Others to consider: Andrew McCutchen, Jacoby Ellsbury and Yasiel Puig. 

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