Daily Fantasy Strategy — April 11 — For Draftstreet

It’s ace day! Jose Fernandez (my personal favorite), David Price, Yu Darvish, Madison Bumgarner, Chris Sale, and Felix Hernandez all take the bump today. If none of those guys make you feel all tingly then you can watch one of the other fantastic hurlers (Teheran, Ryu, Cueto, Cashner, etc.) instead. Seriously, tonight is stacked with phenomenal pitching. And I’m not sure about your interests, but pitching is my absolute favorite part of the game.

Despite all of the fantastic pitchers toeing the rubber today, there are still some good match-ups. C.C. Sabathia has suddenly turned into a nice pitcher to stack against. Both Dustin McGowan and Chris Tillman can be a little homer prone, and they’re facing off in Camden Yards.

There is so much good pitching out there today that you’re probably really going to have to show out on offense in order to place near the top. Now that I’ve typed that sentence watch four or five of the best starters get shelled. So, let’s get to it.

The Daily Five

Red Sox stack

Mike Napoli – $5,875
Xander Bogaerts – $4,904
Dustin Pedroia – $5,738

Sabathia’s fall has been well documented. His velocity isn’t there anymore and it appears he hasn’t been able to adjust to the pitcher has now has to be quite yet. Enter the homer happy Sox. We all know that Yankee Stadium is a bandbox, especially down the lines. Bogaerts is cheap, and even though he hasn’t left the yard yet his patience and ability to hit for average has still made him a valuable asset to this point. Pedroia is still very good. He’s expensive, but his place in the batting order should allow for a nice return. And, finally, Napoli just crushes lefties (career 141 wRC+).

Rick Porcello – $13,568

Porcello has long been a darling of many writers. Today’s match-up isn’t perfect, considering that the Padres deploy a good bit of left handed batters, but I’m still buying. The Padres offense has been dreadful so far – ranking dead last in wOBA. Porcello’s groundballs play nicely anywhere, but his penchant for giving up the longball to lefties should be stunted by the vast ground of Petco Park.

Anthony Rizzo – $6,877

Rizzo has performed well to date this season, and he gets a nice match-up tomorrow. Kelly has historically struggled a good bit with left handed batters. Rizzo’s never had much of a problem hitting righties, so it is a very appealing match-up to take advantage of.

Bonus Pick: Tyler Skaggs – $10,137

The Padres offense has been bad, but the Mets haven’t been much better. So far, they’re striking out ~27% of the time. And when they make contact, nothing much is happening (18 extra base hits in 284 plate appearances). Best of all, Skaggs’ price is so low that it won’t take much for him generate a nice return.

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