MLB

Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 7/19/13

Anibal Sanchez is back to prove his first half wasn't a fluke.

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
Anibal SanchezSP24.78$29,4000.84
Chad GaudinSP19.53$19,8000.99
Yasiel PuigRF14.23$8,2001.74
Michael CuddyerRF16.39$7,1002.31
Evan GattisC13.6$5,4002.52
Everth CabreraSS12.92$5,4002.39
Manny Machado3B11.75$5,2002.26
Logan Morrison1B11.87$5,1002.33
Dan Uggla2B12.67$4,9002.59
Carlos GomezCF13.44$4,9002.74
Justin RuggianoCF13.2346002.88

Fan Duel, Draft Kings, and Fantasy Feud Optimized Rosters

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The Three Top Pitchers

Anibal Sanchez is having a monster year. He’s striking out more batters an inning than Max Scherzer, has a lower FIP than Felix Hernandez and is walking fewer guys than Justin Verlander. He missed time in June with a right shoulder injury, but after the All Star break, he should be at full strength. He’s also a righty facing a Royals team with lefties as their two best hitters (apologies to Billy Butler).

Chad Gaudin - Gaudin is having a career year, posting a 2.39 ERA and a 3.28 FIP. He’s been lights out at home, posting an insane 0.69 ERA in San Francisco, where he happens to be pitching tonight. He’s been practically unhittable at AT&T park, with batters hitting just .191 and slugging a meek .236 against him. He also has a goofy reverse split for his career, meaning he pitches righties better than lefties. That’s good news tonight, as two of Arizona’s best hitters – Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Hill – bat right-handed.

Jake Westbrook – Westbrook, like most of the Cardinals’ pitchers, had a solid first half, putting up a 2.88 ERA in 75 innings. His peripherals don’t look great, and his nearly 1:1 K/BB ratio is frightening, but tonight he gets to face the Padres and their .381 slugging offense, 25th in the league. Westbrook has gone 7 innings in each of his last two starts, and has a 2.57 ERA in August.

Top High-Priced Hitters

Yasiel Puig - You might have heard of this guy. He’s the one batting .391 and slugging .616 to start his career. He crushes line drives (23.9 percent) and rarely pops out (just 3.6 percent). Puig’s got a tough matchup tonight against Strasburg, but you could also say Stras has a tough matchup against Puig.

Michael Cuddyer – Cuddyer, like basically everyone else on the Rockies, is raking this year. He’s got a .330/.391/.568 slash line with 16 home runs. Not too shabby. Tonight he’s facing the Cubs at home, where he’s hitting .362. Oh, and he’s facing Jeff Samardjiza, who’s struggling to the tune of an 11.81 ERA in July. (And a 4.20 ERA in June.)

Mid-Range Cost-Effective Hitters

Dan Uggla – Uggla may be having the best year ever for someone hitting .200. Dude already has 18 home runs – 7th in the NL. He also hits lefties (.215) a little better than righties (.196). His slugging percentage against lefties is a very solid .462, and he has a 132 wRC+ overall against southpaws. Why is all this important? He’s facing left-hander John Danks tonight.

Carlos Gomez – It’s weird that Gomez, an All Star, is still a mid-priced hitter, yet here we are. He’s hitting .296/.338/.534 on the year, to go with 21 steals. He, like Cuddyer, is facing Jeff Samardjiza tonight, who has been scuffling.