MLB Fanduel Lineup Advice 5/7

It was an easy day to eight straight days of cashing, and both my early day and 7:05 lineups cashed! Even though Gerrit Cole had an off outing, my hitters were able to get us to the promised land. Onto nine straight cashing days for Thursday, let’s look at the all-day slate and see who the optimal plays are!

Pitchers

Chris Archer, TB – $8,900

I anticipate the Rays flamethrower to be highly owned tomorrow in cash games, and for good reason. Despite their offensive output yesterday, the Texas Rangers are one of the worst hitting teams in baseball and pose a good matchup for most pitchers facing them. Archer has some good career success against some Texas hitters, and no one is really formidable in that lineup outside of Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre. Start Archer with confidence on Thursday and confide in the fact that if anything goes wrong, he should be highly owned. However, I expect the Rays hurler to have an elite outing with 7 or more K’s in that same number of innings.

Tim Hudson, SF – $6,800

Hudson had a great outing in his last start, going 8 IP with 3 ER allowed against the Angels. He will look to continue his momentum on Thursday, going up against the Miami Marlins in AT&T Park. Hudson has a great matchup against the right-handed dominant Marlins lineup, and pitching in one of the most notorious pitchers-parks in the league certainly can’t hurt. It’s hard to expect a lot of strikeouts from the veteran right-hander, but I expect Hudson to have a great outing tomorrow (6+ IP, 1 ER) and hopefully he can surprise us with some bonus K’s.

Other options: A.J. Burnett (PIT), Collin McHugh (HOU), Drew Pomeranz (OAK)

Hitters

Kris Bryant, 3B, CHC – $3,600

Is tomorrow the day that Kris Bryant hits his first major league home run? I think John Lackey doesn’t pose that much of a challenge, and I think Bryant has a great shot of hitting a dinger tomorrow. The young Cubs phenom is hitting better against righties (.311 vs .200), which is curious but bodes well for Bryant’s prospects on Thursday. There aren’t a lot of pure platoon matchups to exploit at 3B on Thursday, so look to Bryant as a reasonably-priced option with a ton of upside going up against a pedestrian veteran pitcher.

Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, NYY – $4,500

Ellsbury has been on absolute fire over his last 40 or so at-bats, and DFS players are going to continue to want to ride the lightning on Thursday as the Yankees outfielder has a saucy matchup. The former Red Sox player is going up against Chris Tillman, who has been a large disappointment thus far this season and has been hit hard by lefties. Ellsbury is hitting a robust .419 against lefties so far in 2015, and his tantalizing speed and power combination make him a slam dunk play even at his high price.

Other options: Yasmani Grandal – C (LAD), Addison Russell – 2B (CHC), Josh Reddick – OF (OAK)

Recommended Stacks

A’s lefty hitters vs. Nolasco (Vogt, Burns, Davis, Reddick)

Orioles (lefty) hitters vs. Eovaldi (De Aza, Paredes, Jones, Davis)

Today’s Lineup

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