Happy Saturday!  Welcome back to the Daily Fix here at the Fantasy Fix. For those who aren’t yet Daily Fantasy baseball players at DraftKings head over there via this link and join. DraftKings gives you $50,000 to draft eight hitters (one at each position) and two pitchers. They will double your initial deposit up to $600, so it’s a great time to jump in.

Let’s take a look at today’s slate, and see where we can exploit the matchups! You can find me on twitter @RyNoonan if you have player specific questions.

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Game times and Weather

There are four early games today, starting with the Yankees hosting the Blue Jays. I’m going to focus on the evening games only today though.  It’s quite difficult to build a strong lineup in the Early Only games without massive duplication amongst your competition. The weather appears to be a non-factor today, with just a threat of light showers in Philadelphia.

Stacking options

There are so many ways to skin this proverbial Daily Fantasy Sports cat, and a very popular way to construct your DraftKings team is by stacking your roster with multiple players from one team. Today, that team is the Cleveland Indians.  The Indians, second best in the majors with a wRC+ of 112 when facing a right-handed pitcher, face Jeremy Guthrie and the Royals. The team success is magnified by the staggering number of individual successes these Indians have had lifetime against Guthrie. You’ll see many, many Indians below.

Pitchers

Saturday is a day to sit back and watch some of the more talented arms in the game do their thing. The two best left-handers in the game are in action today, Clayton Kershaw ($13,400) and Chris Sale ($12,300). You could use more than half of your budget and roll these two beasts out there and white-knuckle your offense, but I wouldn’t advise it. Let’s search around and find some better values. Few starters have been as hot as Sonny Gray ($9,100) has of late. Keeping the walks down and ground ball rate rising has been the receipt for Gray’s success, and he’s facing a Rangers team that’s hitting .167 over 23 innings against him this season. Julio Teheran ($9,800) is another appealing option, as he’s home against the league’s worst offense against right-handed pitchers, the San Diego Padres, but I’m looking to save some cash with my second pitcher today. I like what we’ve seen from Tom Koehler ($6,800) of late, and he’s facing a Marlins team that’s hitting just .225 against right-handers this season. He’s pitched well in three of his last four, and comes at a discount today.

Catcher

Here’s the first of many Indians; I’m going with Carlos Santana ($4,800) at catcher today. Fresh off of his two homer performance last night, Santana owns a .421 lifetime average against Jeremy Guthrie, who’s likely to see a lineup stacked full of lefties ready to hack away. Travis d’Arnaud ($2,600) is really affordable, but Santana is the no brainer here today.

First baseman

No Indians hitter has seen Jeremy Guthrie as often as Nick Swisher ($4,100) has, and he’s parlayed those matchups into a .370 career average against Guthrie. Swisher in on my radar as a player I expect to have a decent second half. His plate discipline is slipping slightly, but he’s still capable of plus power down the stretch. With the way he’s been swinging the bat, I’d expect Jose Abreu ($5,200) to be even more expensive, so if you’re not stacking here, he makes for an interesting play for lefty Logan Darnell.

Second baseman

I know some DFS players don’t love the batter versus pitcher stats, but I do. Like anything else, it’s a piece of the puzzle and not the end all be all. Yes, the sample sizes are often small, but there’s something to be said for a guy having success against a certain pitcher. At second base today, I’m riding Jason Kipnis ($4,900). He’s 10/17 lifetime against Guthrie, and again, his left-handed bat will exploit the matchup against the Royals starter.

Third baseman

Lonnie Chisenhall ($3,900) rounds out my Indians infield stack today, for all the same reasons mentioned above. His teammate, Mike Aviles ($3,300) would make for a nice plug-in here as well if in the lineup today.

Shortstop

You must find a discount in the group if you’re going to have a top starting pitcher. The value that an ace provides is worth the cost risk, assuming you can find a Charlie Culberson ($2,800) to start. Culberson can play all over the field, and with Troy Tulowitzki out of the lineup, I expect Culberson to find his way into the lineup today at home. His teammate, Josh Rutledge ($4,000) comes at a steeper price, but is also a nice play today against lefty Jeff Locke.

Outfielder

I’m going to stay in Colorado for my outfielders today, but I’m going with the visiting Pirates here. All-World outfielder Andrew McCutchen ($5,900) and super-utility man Josh Harrison ($3,900) face the very hittable Tyler Matzek today in Colorado. There are other options in this game that are worth your attention, but none that offer the combination of cost and expected results as Clutch and Jay Hay. Another great value on the board today is Brewers left fielder Khris Davis ($2,800). He and his fellow outfielders Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun should have a day too, but they’re nearly double the cost of Davis.

Good luck on DraftStreet today!

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