Daily Fantasy Strategy — May 6 — For Draftstreet

Today is a day of returns, and one maybe significant debut. Clayton Kershaw returns from his month long DL stint. Obviously, it’s a big deal for fantasy players, but it might be an even bigger deal for the Dodgers. They’ve played well so far, but so have the Giants. The Dodgers have essentially been in survival mode due to the injuries their players have suffered. Today, they get their largest piece back.

Gavin Floyd returns from Tommy John surgery today, and the Braves will hope to catch lightning in a bottle with him the way they have with Aaron Harang this year and other pitchers in the past. Josh Tomlin also makes his return to the majors in Cleveland, delaying Trevor Bauer’s impending arrival even further. Thanks for nothing, Tomlin.

Robbie Ray and Blake Treinen square off in Washington. It’s Treinen’s first career start (3 relief appearances). The main attraction, though, is Ray. He’s making his major league debut against the Astros. Due to those reasons, neither will be featured in the chart below.

Probables Chart

Marco Estrada is probably going to give up a homer today. That’s life. Just hope you pick the correct Diamondback if you’re going against Marco. The aforementioned Tomlin draws the Twins today. In past years that’d be a nice outing to reestablish one’s self; not in 2014. Both Juan Nicasio and Robbie Ross have to attempt and stifle their opponents in Coors Field tonight. I’m not sure I like either of their chances, especially Nicasio’s.

The Daily Five

Rangers stack

Shin-Soo Choo – $8,491
Prince Fielder – $7,233
Adrian Beltre – $6,767

When in doubt, choose Coors. There are a few good match-ups today, but I like the overall cost/upside of this one the most. Fielder hasn’t been very good in 2014, but signs of life might come in bunches tonight.

Giancarlo Stanton – $7,327

Stanton’s facing Colon today. The latter throws pretty much fastballs exclusively. Stanton has slugged .602 versus fourseam fastballs in his career and .525 versus sinkers. Oh, and he’s on fire.

Henderson Alvarez – $12,610

Alvarez’s upside is somewhat limited thanks to his low strikeout rate, but he’s also pretty unlikely to blow up on you. Alvarez has been fantastic so far limiting damage, thanks to a 54% groundball rate.

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