While you're home tonight watching the NFL Draft, why not throw a baseball lineup together and try to win some money?
DraftKings has contests going on each night where you can win real cash prizes. And with a nice slate tonight in baseball, it's the perfect chance to join and play.
Not sure who to select? Don't worry, we've got you covered with tonight's optimal lineup.
Be sure to check out our optimal lineups prior to games starting to ensure each player is in his team's lineup.
| Player | Position | Projected FP | Cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Harvey | SP | 1000 | 11200.00 | 2.13 |
| Scott Kazmir | SP | 1000 | 7400.00 | 2.16 |
| Mike Trout | OF | 11.43 | 5200.00 | 2.2 |
| Rajai Davis | OF | 10.73 | 4900.00 | 2.19 |
| Ian Kinsler | 2B | 9.44 | 4500.00 | 2.1 |
| Alexei Ramirez | SS | 9.6 | 4000.00 | 2.4 |
| Kyle Seager | 3B | 8.91 | 3900.00 | 2.28 |
| Stephen Vogt | 1B/C | 8.55 | 3800.00 | 2.25 |
| Ike Davis | 1B | 9.95 | 2700.00 | 3.69 |
| Jeff Francoeur | OF | 7.46 | 2200.00 | 3.39 |
Matt Harvey is our top pitcher tonight, despite being priced lower than Max Scherzer. A decent reason for that is because we're giving him higher odds to get the win against Scherzer (Vegas doesn't appear to be as confident), but in truth, the matchup for him is a little stronger. The Nationals have the eighth-worst strikeout rate in baseball to start the year, while the Mets are striking out four percentage points lower. Harvey's at home, and has the better strikeout per nine rate over his career. Even if the two guys are close to even in your mind -- and they're close in terms of our projections -- use cost as the tiebreaker. Harvey, then, wins out.
We went a little cheaper with our second pitcher, opting for Scott Kazmir, who's sporting a 9.88 K/9 rate in four starts this year. That'll surely regress, but his 7.75 rate during his first season with the Athletics last year wasn't bad at all, either. He's facing the Rangers in Texas, getting an unfavorable park shift, but the Rangers are a middle-of-the-road team in terms of strikeout rate, and rank 29th in wOBA so far this season. Part of that is due to a low BABIP, but Texas isn't exactly getting strong hits, ranking dead last in the bigs in line-drive rate. Vegas likes the A's to win the matchup, which is a plus, and Kazmir should have a good outing on DraftKings given his cost.
Speaking of the A's, our numbers like two of them against right-hander Colby Lewis: Ike Davis and Stephen Vogt. Davis is known for his huge platoon splits, and over his career, has seen a .199 ISO and .354 wOBA against righties (.121 and .259 against lefties). Vogt should be in the lineup given his lefty bat, too -- he's hitting to a .462 wOBA against right-handers so far this year, and still has a respectable .330 mark over his short career.
The biggest question mark in the lineup is undoubtedly Jeff Francoeur, who should hit cleanup for the Phillies tonight given their opponent is throwing a right-hander on the mound. Make no mistake: Francoeur is simply a punt play given his cost, but because DraftKings won't penalize you for poor play, he won't kill you even if he scores zero points. His spot in the lineup is attractive though, even if he's not hitting well to start the year.