MLB

MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 7/12/13

Strasburg against the Marlins? Yes, please.

We know that people play all sorts of fantasy platforms, not just from from our friends at StarStreet but on other platforms such as FanDuel, Draft Kings, and Fantasy Feud as well. So once again, we have four optimized rosters, all for you, the numberFire reader. One is for free here; the others can be found in our Premium section.

As always, the full tables for today's action are available at our Daily Fantasy Projections page. Make sure to check it out to see where the best values are for your team.

Our baseball projections are updated throughout the day, so make sure to come back to double-check your optimized rosters for any last-minute lineup changes. Since most action happens later in the day, we will be ignoring the early games (if there are any) and focusing solely on the late contests. That way, you can use and tinker with our optimized rosters throughout the day.

StarStreet Optimized Roster

PlayerPositionProjected FPCostValue
Stephen StrasburgSP26.28$32,4000.81
Corey KluberSP26.11$21,3001.23
Buster PoseyC13.68$5,8002.36
Manny Machado3B12.87$5,6002.30
Jean SeguraSS13.88$5,6002.48
Darin Ruf1B13.26$5,2002.55
Ian DesmondSS14.03$5,2002.70
Carlos GomezCF12.68$5,0002.54
Nate McLouthLF12.84$4,8002.68
Justin RuggianoCF12.73$4,6002.77
Daniel Murphy2B11.5445002.56

Fan Duel, Draft Kings, and Fantasy Feud Optimized Rosters

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The Top Two Pitchers

Stephen Strasburg - You don’t need to think too much about this one. Strasburg is striking out more than a batter an inning, and he gets to face the punchless Marlins who rank dead last in the majors in average, OBP and slugging percentage. He struck out 30 batters in his last four starts, spanning 27 innings. He’s the top fantasy matchup tonight, and really, any starter facing the Marlins looks pretty good.

Corey Kluber - Kluber’s actually pitched much better than his 4.23 ERA, as reflected by his 3.53 FIP. He has excellent command and his 4.52 K/BB ratio would be eighth in the majors, just behind Chris Sale if he had enough innings to qualify. He’s coming off an outing in which he struck out 10 batters in 6.1 innings. Oh, and he gets to face the Royals, who as a team slug .378 – 28th in the majors, ahead of only the lowly Astros and Marlins.

Kris Medlen - Medlen has been having a solid year, plugging along with a 3.45 ERA. But he’s been well above average when pitching at home, to the tune of a 2.83 ERA. Well, he’s at home tonight against the Reds. Cincinnati, despite boasting some of the best hitters in the NL, has put up somewhat underwhelming offensive numbers as a team. The Reds are just 17th in the league in team average at .250 and 18th in slugging percentage at .393. Look for Medlen to keep pitching well at home.

Top High-Priced Hitters

Buster Posey - On the one hand, you have Buster Posey, reigning NL MVP and proud owner of a .394 wOBA, sixth in the NL. On the other hand, you have Sean O’Sullivan, making his first major-league start since 2011. Oh, and he has a career 6.13 ERA in the majors. Bug, meet windshield. And if that’s not enough: how about this – Posey’s 9-22 with two doubles and a homer in his last five games.

Manny Machado - Machado has been hot, going 7-18 with a triple and a homer in his last four games. Also, Machado loves to hit line drives (24 percent of his balls in play), and this year, Buerhle’s been giving them up (21.5 percent). Not a good combination if you’re a Jays fan.

Mid-Range Cost-Effective Hitters

Daniel Murphy - For his career, Daniel Murphy has primarily been a platoon player, mostly just getting plate appearances against right-handed pitchers. This is a good thing, since he hits rights pretty well, and lefties…well not so much. For his career, he boasts a .295 average and .438 slugging against righties, against .265 and .371 when facing southpaws. The good news for fantasy owners is that he’s facing a righty tonight in Charlie Morton. The better news is Morton can’t get left-handed batters out. Like, at all. For his career, he’s allowed a .322/.408/.505 line to lefties. Basically, he makes every left-handed batter he faces look like David Wright. Yikes. Happy Daniel Murphy night everyone!

Carlos Gomez - Gomez is facing All Star Patrick Corbin tonight, which is a tough task for any batter. But Gomez is an All Star too. And while Corbin has basically been unhittable against lefties, he’s been uh… kinda hittable against righties. He’s still only allowing a .241 average against, but righties have also slugged a respectable .415 against him. He also has a 20.5 percent line drive rate against, so there’s some hope for Gomez.