Daily Fantasy Strategy — May 3 — For Draftstreet

Ah, it’s Saturday again. Saturdays are awesome because: A) most of us are off from work, and B) there’s baseball for the majority of the afternoon and night. Unfortunately, Saturdays can also be a pain – although, usually less so than Sundays – because rosters lock a little earlier. So if a player or two ends up having the day off, your chances of winning any money dip a great deal. Baseball giveth, and it taketh away.

As mentioned above, mind the day games. There are five early games today.

Probables Chart

Weather forecasts look good all the way around today, so we can focus solely on match-ups. Hisashi Iwakuma is making his season debut tonight, so that should be fun to watch, but I doubt you planned on buying any Astros. Jake Odorizzi has struggled so far this year, especially once he begins working his way through the lineup multiple times. He and Jake Arrieta are my favorite stacking targets. Ryan Vogelsong could also surrender a ton of runs tonight, considering he doesn’t miss a ton of bats and Atlanta’s ability to go off at any minute.

The Daily Five

Cardinals stack

Matt Carpenter – $6,433
Matt Adams – $5,609
Allen Craig – $6,577

Craig has begun to come around, and that’s huge for him because Oscar Taveras is breathing down everyone’s neck; Jon Jay is probably feeling a little more heat though. Carpenter hasn’t been able to duplicate his 2013 success yet, but he should still have a couple of opportunities to cross home plate today.

Jason Heyward – $5,561

Heyward’s been a fantasy disappointment so far, but he – like Craig – has begun to come around. Since April 20, not including last night, he’s slashed .302/.333/.395. Not exactly lighting the world on fire, but except for a lack of power, he’s quietly been pretty good lately.

Garrett Richards – $13,491

Richards’ platoon issues have’t bitten him yet. He’s held left handed batters to .218 wOBA so far – a far cry from his .328 mark last season. The Rangers’ offense hasn’t been very good so far, in part because of injuries and Prince Fielder’s struggles.

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

We know you play in all sorts of leagues. So to help you fine-tune the analysis you’d like to read, we’ve added three tags to the categories on the right: Roto, Head to Head, and Daily Fantasy Update. Use these to get the information that is most relevant to your leagues!