Below we’ve got a (very brief) discussion of the starting pitching situation as well as the best teams to use for stacks for Thursday’s eight-game slate around the DFS industry. Today’s article is brought to you free, courtesy of our friends at RotoQL. To take a deeper look into the tools that RotoQL has to offer, I’ve added a few screen shots of some of their offerings below, but please head on over to the site to get a full look at how they will help you build better lineups on a daily basis.

Today there is a handful of games with weather concerns, so please be sure to to consider that when developing your cash and tournament plays at FanDuel since there is no late-swap. RotoQL offers players an easy way to monitor the weather when making their lineups. You can see images like this under the game tabs:

You’ll still have to follow the weather guys on Twitter and/or around the interwebs prior to finalizing your lineups, but this is a fantastic place to start. With that in mind, on to today’s tough slate:

PITCHING PERSPECTIVE

Pitching is a mess today. As mentioned above, you’ll want to roster arms that have a lower probability of being rain delayed “during” the game. Often times when games go into a delay mid-game, starters won’t return to the bump if the delay is too long.

Danny Salazar is the chalk today and should be considered in both cash and tournaments for his strikeout upside. Ubaldo Jimenez will see a Twins’ team that posted the league’s fifth-highest strikeout rate along with the fifth lowest wOBA against right-handed pitchers last season. At just $7,500, Jimenez presents enough value and upside that will also allow you to get in some of your expensive bats.

Here’s another look at the RotoQL application that allows us to sort by player projections. You can see Ubaldo Jimenez and Rubby de la Rosa’s projected point totals for the day along with average, floor and ceiling for each player:

STACK OPTIONS

Chicago Cubs – This will be the chalk stack of the night with an over/under of nine runs in Arizona. If you’re looking to get some exposure of Chicago’s 1-6 it’s going to cost you a pretty penny, but I like any combination of this lineup, especially Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber. Again, this will be chalky, so you may want to limit your exposure to the Cubs bats in tournaments, but should feel confident in rolling these guys out in cash games.

Oakland Athletics – An over/under of 8.5 runs with the wind blowing straight out to center is what we see as of now at O.co Field. The Athletics  have a trio of inexpensive left-handed bats at the top of their lineup to face off against right-handed gascan Mat Latos. Billy Burns, Jed Lowrie and Josh Reddick can be had for under $12,000 and provide both speed and power upside.

Texas Rangers  – This might look a bit weird since I have Hector Santiago as a top three pitching option tonight, but I think that says more about the lack of pitching depth than it does for the potential of the right-handed Rangers’ bats in Anaheim. This is a tournament play for me as opposed to a cash game suggestion and doesn’t look like a traditional stack. There’s a run total of 8 with the wind blowing out to center in Anaheim, so I’ll be looking to get some right-handers with the platoon advantage against left-handed hurler Hector Santiago. Adrian Beltre (.393), Rougned Odor (.336), Delino Deshields (.334) and Ian Desmond (.328) posted fine wOBAs against lefties and is the perfect place to start.

New York Yankees/Houston Astros  – As we saw in the Bronx yesterday, both of these teams have the ability to put up a ton of runs, especially the lefty bats with the short porch in right field. Today’s contest does have some weather, so keep an eye on that situation in New York, but it also features an over/under of 8.5 runs. Last season both the Yankees and Astros bats posted top five wOBA in the league against right-handed pitching. If you’re on the Astros, I’ll be leaning to Correa with their left-handed bats – Colby Rasmus, Preston Tucker and Luis Valbuena. Any combination of the Yankees’ lefties will do the job, but I’ll be focusing on the middle of their lineup to get some value and upside.

Baltimore Orioles – Like many of the other East Coast contests, rain is an issue here at Camden Yards. However, the wind is blowing straight out to center field at the time of the writing, so I’ll be looking to get the Orioles power bats in my lineup that posted the league’s third-best wOBA against opposing right-handed pitchers last season. If you like costly bats elsewhere, I can see a Wieters, Hardy, Schoop and Rickard stack at the bottom of the O’s lineup, but I really want a piece of Manny Machado and Adam Jones today. Therefore, I’ll likely be going 8,9,1,2,3 or the traditional 1-4. With an implied run total of five, it’ll be essential to get some Orioles into the lineups.

PLAYER RANKINGS

DRAFTKINGS

CATCHER

1. Kyle Schwarber – $4,500
2. Buster Posey – $4,500
3. Matt Wieters – $3,500
4. Wellington Castillo – $3,200
5. Brian McCann – $3,800

FIRST BASE

1. Adrian Gonzalez – $4,400
2. Albert Pujols – $4,100
3. Anthony Rizzo – $5,300
4. Jose Abreu – $5,100
5. Justin Bour – $3,400

SECOND BASE

1. Jason Kipnis – $4,800
2. Chase Utley – $3,400
3. Jonathan Schoop – $3,600
4. Rougned Odor – $3,800
5. Anthony Rendon – $4,400

THIRD BASE

1. Manny Machado – $4,900
2. Kris Bryant – $5,000
3. Adrian Beltre – $4,400
4. Luis Valbuena – $3,600

SHORTSTOP

1. Carlos Correa – $4,800
2. J.J. Hardy – $3,100
3. Jed Lowrie – $3,400
4. Ian Desmond – $3,800

OUTFIELD

1. Mike Trout – $5,400
2. Adam Jones – $4,500
3. Dexter Fowler – $4,500
4. Delino Deshields – $3,700
5. David Peralta – $3,700
6. Chris Davis – $4,800
7. Colby Rasmus – $3,400
8. Billy Burns – $4,400
9. Josh Reddick – $4,400 or Christian Yelich – $4,300
10. Preston Tucker – $3,200 or Michael Taylor – $3,600

STARTING PITCHER

1. Danny Salazar – $9,700
2. Ubaldo Jimenez – $7,500
3. Hector Santiago – $7,800
4. Alex Wood – $6,600
5. Mike Fiers – $9,000