Daily Fantasy Strategy – 8/18/13 – For Draftstreet

Sorry for the slightly tardy post, but hopefully most of you can wait until noon or so for your Draftstreet lineups. Sundays are notorious for players (especially catchers) getting “day game after night game” breathers, so you’ll want to double check all your starting lineups just before game time. For fantasy leagues with daily lineup movements, I like to use my streaming spots for a couple util-type hitters on Sundays/Mondays (since I can sub out guys getting the day off on Sunday and those whose teams don’t play on Monday) and then use those slots for pitching streamers the rest of the week. Make sure you are hitting those “games played” maximums!

On the weather front, today appears to be one of the best days for baseball this season; at least in term of rain chances. Philly, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Boston may see a few sprinkles, but nothing washout worthy.

The wind will be blowing in from right at Target Field, so downgrade all of your left-handed Twins/White Sox hitters a touch. Wind should be blowing out in Los Angeles and Oakland, so if you were thinking about starting any fly-ball hitters on the Angels, Astros, Athletics and A-Indians, today might be a nice day to do so.

PS: I know some people have had trouble with the freeroll links this week. I hope this one now works, but we’ll double check with Draftstreet tomorrow in case it isn’t.

The Daily Five

Samuel Deduno – $8,524

As I mentioned above, the wind should be blowing in from right at Target and the White Sox have scuffled their way to the one of the American League’s worst hitting teams. I normally am not a fan of Deduno and his mediocre strikeout rate, but he gets groundballs and the wind should help the 20% or so balls that try to get to the wall.

Homer Bailey – $13,085

Now that Aramis Ramirez is back, the Brewers are trotting out something better than a Triple-A lineup, but have still be a bottom-third offense over the last couple of months. Bailey has scuffled a bit in his last two starts (Oakland and Chicago), which has probably driven down his cost a bit, but his xFIP remains a tidy 3.16.

Martin Prado – $7,933

Prado’s iffy start is quickly becoming a distant memory. Well, his August BABIP has rebounded (actually a bit of an overcorrection, near .400) giving up a triple-slash for the month of .407/.470/.610. Using your 3B slot on him may free up enough cash to upgrade to one of the “elite four” shortstops.

Adam LaRoche – $6,379

Normally a second-half masher, LaRoche was a bit cold after the all-star break, leading some fantasy owners to jump ship. Like Prado, however, his BABIP has rocketed back in August, helping push him to a 1.000 OPS over the last three weeks. He’ll go up against the right-handed Julio Teheran; quality opposition, but not a lefty-killer.

Mike Trout – $10,672

A “duh” pick, Trout is facing the lefty Brett Oberholtzer, at home, with the wind blowing out. Not to mention that his two-week Draftstreet running average is two points above his season mark. It’s a high price to pay, but (outside of maybe Miguel Cabrera) he’s the best $10,000+ option I see on the board.

This post, covering one of the leading sites for daily fantasy is sponsored and made possible by the generous support of Draftstreet. FanGraphs will maintain complete editorial control of the postings, and brings you these posts in our continued desire to provide the best analytical information on the latest in baseball.