MLB DFS action on Tuesday, April 13, features 17 games across five slates with giant contests on Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. Before locking in MLB DFS picks and lineups, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy baseball top stacks, picks, rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some MLB DFS picks and daily fantasy baseball stacks, including the Astros, Blue Jays, Dodgers and more.
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MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Hitters and Stacks, Tuesday, April 13th
Yahoo Stack of the Day: Washington Nationals at St Louis Cardinals — 5.3 implied runs
Today things are shaping put for a potential pitcher’s duel between a pair of righties in Stephen Strasburg and Jack Flaherty. It is going to be on the cool side in Busch Stadium tonight with temperatures in the upper-50s, which will favor the pitchers. So why recommend the Nationals bats, you ask? Well, this looks like a nice leverage spot against a popular pitcher with some discounted batsmen.
Juan Soto is basically matchup-proof, and he is worth consideration against anyone, save for the top five best pitchers in the game. Trea Turner has been excellent in same-handed matchups throughout his career, and Washington has indicated they are looking to steal more bases this season to jump start their offense.
For bargain hitters, gamers can look to a pair of new Nationals in Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber. Both have above-average power against righties, if attacking Flaherty as a leverage strategy, this duo needs to be in the plans. While it is not advisable to go overboard here, two or three of these Washington hitters can provide a nice leg up on the masses if Flaherty falters.
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Early Slate
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. LHP Jesus Luzardo — 4.5 implied runs
Choosing the Diamondbacks over the Athletics in this spot was a tossup, but attacking Jesus Luzardo seems like the better play. Be aware that this will be the first appearance of the season for Zac Gallen, who suffered a hairline fracture in his forearm while taking batting practice in spring training. Matt Olson has been dealing with a sore left knee this season, and last night he left the game after being hit on his left thumb while batting in the seventh inning. It would make sense for him to get today off, which takes one of the best bats out of the A’s lineup, and they are already missing the designated hitter since this game is in a National League park.
Luzardo has pitched 81.1 innings in The Show over the last three seasons, and he has demonstrated excellent strikeout stuff with a 9.85 K/9 rate. Of course, he also has allowed a fair amount of power with a 1.33 HR/9, While his walk rate has been better than league average in his limited innings, command and control can disappear without warning in-game at any time for young pitchers.
Definitely look at the righties first, and the D-Backs should have at least three or four at the top of the lineup, including switch-hitters Asdrubal Cabrera and Eduardo Escobar. Cabrera still has some pop against southpaws, with a .200+ ISO over the last two-plus seasons, and Escobar has similar numbers. This veteran duo is not going to be sending many rockets over the wall, but they are savvy and get the job done.
Carson Kelly did not play last night, so he should be in the lineup today. While he generally does not hit higher than sixth in the order, he could be promoted up one or two spots in this matchup. Nick Ahmed is a discount dandy with pop at the shortstop position. Finally, while Tim Locastro does not have much pop, he should get five at bats this game as the leadoff hitter, and he has not been caught in his 28 career stolen base attempts, which is an MLB record.
Main Slate
Toronto Blue Jays vs. RHP Jameson Taillon – 4.6 implied runs
The Blue Jays have been a frequent mention in this article series, and they will continue to be desirable options when playing in their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla. It is still surprising how many gamers think they are taking the field in the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
Jameson Taillon has been a decent pitcher throughout his career, though he has not lived up to his lofty prospect accolades. His first four seasons were spent pitching in PNC Park for the Pirates, which is a far better situation than what he will be facing now as a member of the Yankees and starting over half of his games in the American League East band box stadiums. Taillon has had similar results against batters of either handedness. While he strikes out same-handed hitters at a higher frequency, lefties have the edge when it comes to free passes.
The core to target from Toronto will be the top six in the order, with the preferred ranking being Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Randal Grichuk, Lourdes Gurriel, Cavan Biggio and Marcus Semien. The bottom third of the lineup can be used for differentiation or as salary cap relief depending on how popular this stack is projected to be tonight.
Evening Slate
Houston Astros vs. LHP Matthew Boyd — 4.5 implied runs
Since the beginning of the 2018 season, Matthew Boyd has allowed 81 home runs, which is the most in the league over this timeframe. Tonight he has the unenviable matchup against an Astros squad that has traditionally crushed southpaws. Yes, George Springer is now with the Blue Jays and theoretically the Astros are not stealing signs, but this is still a fierce lineup.
Boyd has struggle with the longball throughout his career with a combined 1.67 HR/9 to batters swinging the stick from either side of the plate. Though he has a reputation in the DFS world as a strikeout artist, that was buoyed by one amazing season in 2019. Otherwise, he has been just above league average. Proportionally he allows the same HR/FB rate to lefties and righties. This makes Yordan Alvarez a top option, though gamers will still be on him despite the lefty/lefty matchup as he is the cleanup hitter. However, Kyle Tucker is someone that they are unlikely to land on with frequency, and he is an excellent differentiation option in Houston stacks.
The traditional batters to target will be Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yuli Gurriel and Carlos Correa. Yahoo and DraftKings have done a good job with the fantasy salaries for the key hitters. FanDuel, however, is lagging behind, which is going to artificially inflate popularity of Astros stacks on their site.
Late Slate
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. RHP Antonio Senzatela — 5.3 implied runs
With just two games on the late slate, the Dodgers really stand out against Antonio Senzatela. On the main slate they are also worthy of top-five consideration. Since the beginning of the 2018 season, Senzatela has survived for the most part while having Coors Field as his home park. In this timeframe he has just over a 50% ground-ball rate, which limits the big innings from opponents. For his career, he has a solid 14.5% HR/FB rate while allowing 1.16 HR/9. The tradeoff is that he has sub-5.0 K/9 over his last 200 innings. This means a lot of hard hit balls are in play, and if they end up being gappers or line drives with runners on base, that is no fun for Rockies fans.
While the Dodgers lineup is not quite as mighty with Cody Bellinger out and Mookie Betts dinged up, their depth is impressive. Senzatela is relatively splits-neutral, with neither righties nor lefties having a dominant advantage. Focus on the best Dodgers batsmen first in Max Muncy, Justin Turner, Corey Seager and Will Smith. If Mookie Betts is in the Los Angeles lineup tonight, then he definitely should be among in MLB DFS lineups as well.
Final Thoughts for the Tuesday, April 13th MLB DFS Slate
The main slate looks safe from a precipitation standpoint, though there are generally cooler temperatures across the country this evening. Be sure to watch for weather updates leading up to first pitch. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a home run play on Yahoo may be a below-average MLB DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.
