Today I’m entering a Double Up, a Triple Up, the 10x Booster and the Daily Dollar. As always, I recommend that you enter your lineup in a mix of contest types. Go with a few safer options like Double Ups or Triple Ups and try to hit in big in something like the Moon Shot. Don’t forget to get your deposit bonus here.

Starting Pitchers

The construction of your roster depends so much on who you choose for your two pitcher slots. This seems rather obvious to say, but the total you spend on your pitchers has a huge effect on the types of hitters that you can buy. For example, there are plenty of ultra-expensive aces going today. Yu Darvish and Clayton Kershaw are going for $13,000. Felix Hernandez is going for $12,300. That’s essentially a quarter of your budget to take one of them and half your budget to take two. And of course on the other end of things you could take Tyler Chatwood (who has a 3.15 ERA) and Joe Kelly (who has allowed one run in his last 17.1 IP) and spend less on those two combined than you would on just one of the expensive guys.

I’ll admit that I like to spend on pitching. Pitching is far easier to predict than hitting within an individual game, so I like to spend my money on the players I have a better idea about what to expect out of them. But it would be a mistake to spend on the big three today because if you’re going to spend that kind of money, it has to be a sure thing. Unfortunately, all three have less than sure thing matchups. The right-handers, Darvish and Felix, face offenses that are top ten in wRC+ against right-handers. Kershaw will face the Cardinals who are below average against lefties, but not so atrocious that I’m willing to pay such a steep price. But if you wanted to go with Kershaw, I wouldn’t think it was a mistake.

Ultimately, I’m going to go with a starter in the second tier according to price and one of the cheap options listed above. Chris Sale costs significantly less than the aces mentioned above ($10,400), but he’s an ace in his own right and has a much better match up. He’ll get the Yankees who had the 4^th worst wRC+ against left-handed pitching before they got held to one run over six and two thirds by Jose Quintana last night.

And I have to go with Chatwood against the Mets who have the 8^th worst wRC+ against righties and the third highest strikeout rate. Chatwood’s elite ground ball rate (57.5%) will play even when he pitches at home in Coors, but I especially like him on the road. The wind will be blowing out to left in New York, but that’s more of an advantage to right-handers, and it’s lefties who have the platoon advantage over Chatwood.

The Lineup

When I pick hitters, I like to look at the favorable factors for run scoring and then identify the hitters that will receive the benefits of those factors. The main things I look at are weather (hot weather and winds blowing out), favorable ball parks, and the opposing pitcher (those susceptible to the long ball). Once I identify those situations, I’ll choose players in those situations with the platoon advantage. Below is a list of the most favorable run scoring conditions today broken down by category.

• Weather: Kansas City (86°), St. Louis (82°, wind out to right), Mets (wind out 11 mph to right)
• Ballpark with most favorable listed first
  • White Sox (for LHH and RHH)
  • Cincinnati (for RHH and LHH)
  • Astros (for RHH)
  • Diamondbacks (for RHH)
  • Philadelphia (for LHH)
• Opposing pitchers
  • Josh Johnson (RHP, 1.77 HR/9, 5.48 ERA vs. LHH)
  • Bud Norris (RHP, 5.43 ERA vs. LHH, allowed 12 HR to LHH this year)
  • Jeremy Hellickson (RHP, 4.98 ERA vs. LHH, allowed 12 HR to LHH this year)

Big ticket items: If you didn’t spend much on pitching, consider these stud hitters.

Shin-Soo Choo ($5,400)  – Choo has been much better at home than on the road with the Reds this year. He has a .422 wOBA at home compared to a .357 wOBA on the road. He’s got the platoon advantage over mediocre Oakland starter Dan Straily.

Evan Longoria ($5,000) – Arizona is one of the favorable ballparks listed, and Longoria will have the platoon advantage over Wade Miley.

Reasonable options: These are the types of guys that usually make up most of a lineup.

Seattle left-handed hitters, varying prices – Josh Johnson is by far the worst and most homer-prone starter going today, so I want to load up on the Mariners who have the platoon advantage against him. And there are quite a few of them because the Mariners have a few good left-handed hitters as well as several switch hitters who are good from the left side. I’d take at least two of these guys: Kendrys Morales ($4,200), Justin Smoak ($3,800), Kyle Seager ($4,600), Nick Franklin ($4,100), Michael Saunders ($4,200), and Raul Ibanez ($3,800).

Anthony Rizzo ($4,500) – As mentioned in the list above, Philadelphia is a favorable park for left-handed hitters, and Rizzo may be able to take advantage of that against Philadelphia’s right-handed starter, Kyle Kendrick.

Thrifty options: If you spent big on pitching and need to save or if you want to find a bargain so you can splurge elsewhere, give these guys a look.

Nate Schierholtz ($3,600) – see: Rizzo, Anthony

Brad Miller ($3,100) – This is yet another Seattle lefty to run out there against Johnson.