If you’ve never played daily fantasy baseball before, it’s time to start. Unlike traditional leagues, you’re able to select the players you want on that specific day only, giving you a different squad to root for each and every day.
And while there are many platforms to play daily fantasy baseball on, one of our favorites is from our partners over at DraftKings.com. Never played over there before? It’s time for that to change. Sign up now and use our optimal lineups here at numberFire.com to crush the competition. You won’t regret it.
As for today's lineups -- those can be found here. The information below is to help you understand why particular players are being picked, because we don't want you going into the things completely blind. We want to help you. Keep in mind, however, that things often change up until the games start, so make sure you're refreshing the optimal lineups as close to the start of games as possible.
To get a general idea of who we're picking in tonight's slate, check out the video below, courtesy of Periscope. And be sure to follow us on there, @numberFire!
Top Pitchers
Gio Gonzalez – Gonzalez is the smartest pick at pitcher tonight, as the slate is full of guys low in their rotation. The difference with Gio, of course, is that he's on the best staff in the bigs with incredible hurlers ahead of him in the rotation. But he's still good. Very good. And he should be solid tonight against the Phillies, a team that's already started the year with the league's fourth-worst wOBA and 10th-lowest K rate. Gonzalez struck out a little over one batter per inning last year, and we should expect similar results tonight. Just make sure the weather is looking good.
Tim Lincecum – If you're looking to spend a little less cash on pitcher, Lincecum against the Padres could be your guy tonight. As we saw last night, Petco Park is a favorable one for pitching, and the Padres lineup, despite their offseason additions, is still nothing extraordinary. Lincecum will have the split advantage -- though he's kind of a reverse split pitcher -- against the entire top half of the Padres lineup, as long as it remains as it has the first week of the young season. Though his strikeout rate has declined over the last three years, most projection systems still see him K-ing about eight batters per nine innings, which is solid for a lower-priced option.
Best High-Priced Hitters
Adrian Gonzalez - Gonzalez has been the best hitter in baseball to start the year, chillin' with his 1.260 wOBA and 1.308 ISO. (Don't you love early-season numbers?) The Dodgers get a nice park shift to Chase Field, which is a top-10 hitter's park in the league. They'll also be facing Chase Anderson, who, in 114 innings last year, had a 13.6% home run to fly ball ratio with a 39.9% ground-ball rate. And he's a righty -- Gonzalez's ISO is a nice .233 against right-handed pitching (.166 against lefties). He's easily the top hitter on the board tonight, and you'd be foolish not to pay up for him.
Paul Goldschmidt - In that same game, going with Goldy tonight against lefty Brett Anderson should bring some points, too. Against left-handed pitchers in his career, Goldschmidt has a .274 ISO (.215 against righties) and an absurd .423 wOBA (.374 against righties). As I noted with Gonzalez, he'll be in a hitter's park, playing at home in Arizona. Anderson's a ground-ball pitcher -- 55.4% ground-ball rate over his career -- but the situation is strong enough to warrant the salary you have to spend on Goldschmidt tonight.
Most Cost-Effective Hitters
Dan Uggla - Uggla is a nice punt option tonight against Jerome Williams, who has a career 4.52 FIP and 5.79 strikeout rate. The Nationals are a decent team to stack given a lot of their bats are cheap across the industry, and considering Vegas thinks they'll score over four runs, it's not a bad thought to get some exposure. Uggla is one really cheap way in doing so. Despite the fact that he's a righty and will be facing one, he's been a reverse split hitter throughout his career, hitting to a .348 wOBA against right-handers (.327 against lefties). Our numbers aren't ultra high on him because he's Dan Uggla, but as a punt, you could do worse.
Khris Davis - Davis has been in this spot before within the column this year, and he's generally not produced. However, tonight the Brewers will finally face a lefty pitcher in Pittsburgh's Jeff Locke -- maybe this is the night they finally get their bats going. Locke gives up almost half a home run per nine innings more against right-handed bats, and Davis sees an ISO rise of roughly 60 points when he gets a favorable handedness split. Given his nice cost across sites, he's a really solid option, even if you don't want to stack Brewers.