Sunday, April 10, winds down the weekend with variety of slates across Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. Let’s get into the top MLB DFS picks for pitchers and stacks for Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy baseball lineups. As always, you can head over to the Awesemo MLB DFS & Fantasy Baseball home page for all the fantasy baseball content you need for any given slate.
MLB DFS Picks Today: Spotlight Pitchers and Top Stacks | Sunday, April 10
Yahoo Stack of the Day: New York Metropolitans at RHP Erick Fedde — 5.1 implied runs
This is a terrible matchup for Erick Fedde, who has a below-average strikeout rate and relies on inducing ground balls at a 50% or greater rate to survive his starts. Unfortunately, he cedes a tremendous amount of power, and while not all of it is in the form of home runs, when the infield is not clearing the bases with double plays, Fedde can give up runs in bunches.
The Metropolitans are fully healthy and boast a loaded lineup with offseason acquisitions Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar playing prominent roles, along with Robinson Cano, who is back after being suspended last season. This is in addition to Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor. Heck, Jeff McNeil, who has spent significant time in the top half of the order over the last three seasons, is batting eighth. That is just an embarrassment of riches for the Mets.
Mid-Afternoon Slate
St. Louis Cardinals vs. RHP Bryse Wilson — 5.2 implied runs
Former Atlanta prospect Bryse Wilson has struggled during his time in The Show. Over his last 395 batters faced he has suffered a 5.16 xFIP with a .200 ISO, all courtesy of a pathetic 15.7% strikeout rate. Focus on the top half of the Cardinals lineup, with Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill being the core four. Corey Dickerson and Paul DeJong are betting fifth and sixth while providing cheap power upside across the main DFS sites.
Late Slate
San Diego Padres at LHP Caleb Smith — 5.1 implied runs
Caleb Smith looked like he was going to be yet another talented Marlins pitcher with a ceiling as a borderline ace after his 2018 campaign. That season he had an elite 10.24 strikeouts per nine innings while limiting walks and power. Since then he has struggled with home runs, as opposing batters know the hard stuff is coming and they are able to get it in the air with great success. There will be matchups this season when we look to Smith as a cheap tournament option, though today is not that day.
Manny Machado, Luke Voit and Wil Myers are the power trio to target from the Padres. Jake Cronenworth, Eric Hosmer and Trent Grisham can all hold their own against same-handed pitching, and gamers tend to shy away from hitters in lefty-lefty matchups. Finally, Austin Nola is a perfect way to fulfill the pesky catcher requirement if he is behind the plate this afternoon.
Spotlight Pitchers
Top MLB DFS Picks Target: RHP Corey Kluber vs. Baltimore Orioles — 3.5 implied runs
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $34 | FanDuel $8,300 | DraftKings $7,400
Veteran Corey Kluber will be making his Tampa Bay debut this afternoon against a hapless Baltimore offense. This early in the season most starters can be penciled in for 75 to 85 pitches, though with so many fresh arms in the bullpen, managers are likely to have a quick hook. Now is a good time for a refresher of the various strategies and scoring systems across the three most popular DFS sites. Yahoo and DraftKings each require two starting pitchers per lineup, while FanDuel has only one. The twist for FanDuel is that starters have the opportunity to earn points for a quality start, which is defined as completing six or more innings while allowing fewer than four earned runs.
The Rays are generally careful with their starters, and they like to employ a bullpen-heavy strategy. That means Kluber is likely to be limited to four or five innings. This takes him out of consideration on FanDuel, where getting a quality start with at least a strikeout per inning is crucial. On Yahoo and DraftKings, Kluber has an appealing salary and he fits in nicely as a secondary pitcher.
Today’s top shelf aces do have some questions that make them tricky to trust this early in the season. Hyun-Jin Ryu has a nice matchup against Texas, while his squad is also 2-1 favorites to garner a victory. The risk with Ryu is that he no longer has much in the way of strikeout stuff and we are allocating a lot of salary towards him, which requires that he get the win. Freddy Peralta has a nice matchup against the Cubbies, though hardly any win equity with Marcus Stroman on the bump for Chicago. Michael Kopech is a talented youngster who will be on the mound for the White Sox; however, he dealt with COVID-19 for the early part of the abbreviated spring training and may not be ready for more than 70 or so pitches. Finally, Atlanta will be rolling out the pride of their farm system in Ian Anderson today, but he had a rough go in spring training. These hurlers are all viable options, though with their various risks, suddenly the mid-tier options start to seem very appealing for the cost-conscious gamer.
Mid-Afternoon Slate MLB DFS Picks Target: RHP Bailey Ober vs. Seattle Mariners — 4.0 implied runs
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $38 | FanDuel $9,800 | DraftKings $8,400
Bailey Ober held his own last year across 20 starts for the Twins. The main knock against him is that he may find strikeouts hard to come by in The Show. It needs to be pointed out that he did post 9.36 strikeouts per nine innings last season while averaging one home run allowed per start. Aside from the middle of the order, Seattle does not project to have much power on offense. If Ober is able to navigate Mitch Haniger, newcomers Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez, and inconsistent youngster Jarred Kelenic, he likely will be in line for a solid afternoon.
Late Slate MLB DFS Picks Target: RHP Anthony DeSclafani vs. Miami Marlins — 3.9 implied runs
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $39 | FanDuel $8,200 | DraftKings $8,600
Yesterday Miami squared off against hard throwing southpaw Carlos Rodon, and today they get the exact opposite in righty Anthony DeSclafani. The one knock against the pitcher affectionately known in the fantasy world as Disco Stu is that he struggles against opposite-handed hitters. Fortunately, that is a commodity that the Marlins are lacking with Jesus Aguilar and Joey Wendle being their only two lefties with above-average power. DeSclafani has seen a dramatic improvement over the last two seasons against opposite-handed batsmen, allowing a reasonable 0.163 ISO with a 20.4% strikeout rate across 393 hitters during this timeframe.
Final MLB DFS Thoughts for the Sunday, April 10 Fantasy Baseball Slate
Once again it is chilly today across most venues, though there are no precipitation risks in the forecast. Enjoy a lazy afternoon of wall-to-wall baseball.
