Friday Night Fantasy Baseball Contest on Fantasy Feud
It's time to win your share of $5,000 in prizes in the 5K Friday contest at Fantasy Feud. Haven't played over at Fantasy Feud? There's no better time to get started. Join today and receive a free qualifier ticket ($11 value) to gain entry to next week's 5K Friday contest.
Not sure who to pick? Well, to make the offer even better, you can use numberFire’s optimal lineup for today, which is listed below.
April 4th, 2014 Friday Night Optimal Lineup and Analysis
| Player | Position | Projected Fantasy Points | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Trout | CF | 2.82 | $107,700 |
| David Wright | 3B | 2.23 | $91,900 |
| Andrew McCutchen | CF | 2.07 | $86,300 |
| Shin-Soo Choo | LF | 2.08 | $85,700 |
| Dan Straily | SP | 6.11 | $83,500 |
| Carlos Beltran | RF | 2.16 | $81,100 |
| Dustin McGowan | SP | 5.63 | $71,000 |
| Matt Holliday | LF | 2.02 | $70,500 |
| Jenrry Mejia | SP | 7.10 | $70,300 |
| Mark Teixeira | 1B | 1.79 | $69,900 |
| Jhonny Peralta | SS | 1.22 | $59,100 |
| Dioner Navarro | C | 2.05 | $56,000 |
| Jeff Baker | 2B | 1.41 | $46,400 |
We've got a seven-game slate tonight for the 5K Friday contest over at Fantasy Feud, and with the back-end of most rotations throwing, we could be in for a big night of hitting. And you'll notice that's what our lineup reflects - big bats full of potential.
Let's start with the biggest bat of all, Mike Trout. Trout will face righty Lucas Harrell tonight, who gave up 1.17 home runs per nine innings a year ago, pitching to a 5.42 FIP. Trout already has two multi-hit games on the year, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him do work tonight against the Astros. I mean, it is Mike Trout, after all.
Andrew McCutchen also made the lineup, though he hasn't started the season off as strong. With just one hit, Cutch will try to get things on track against Shelby Miller. In 22 career innings pitched against Pittsburgh, the young Cardinals pitcher is 0-4 with an ERA above 5.32, giving up three hits to McCutchen on nine at-bats. It's not a bad matchup for the Pirates center fielder.
Shin-Soo Choo is another player our algorithms like tonight, facing the Rays' Jake Odorizzi. They've only battled each other four times, but Choo has two hits, and we think the righty/lefty matchup should definitely favor the Rangers new leadoff man.
Aside from bigger names like Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliay, David Wright and even Mark Teixeria, the lineup has a low-budget batter as well in Jeff Baker, who the algorithms have consistently seen as undervalued in daily fantasy baseball. Baker was 1 for 4 with two runs scored in yesterday's game against Colorado, and will see Eric Stults tonight, a lefty who put up middling numbers a year ago. Baker is simply a value play that allows you to spend elsewhere.
Because the lineup boasts some powerful hitters, the pitchers are a little more risky. One of them, Dan Straily, is an inexperienced righty going up against a team that's been hitting the ball well over the first week of the season. Why choose him? Well, we're not projecting him to be the best pitcher of the day, but his cost puts him at the 11th-best, which we think is too low. Straily is capable of getting you six strikeouts in an outing, and given what he does to the rest of the lineup (I mean, take a look at the bats in this thing, people), he's worth the big risk.
Another pitcher in the lineup is Jenrry Mejia, another young arm who struck out nearly one batter per inning in limited work in 2013. He ended up taking the last spot in the rotation for the Mets, but we still like him despite that given his cost. He'll take on a Cincinnati Reds lineup that struggled to score runs in their opening series, and our projections think that he'll strike out almost six batters in close to seven innings of work. Fantasy owners should be rooting for the Reds to continue their slump at the batters box.
Keep in mind that these lineups are alway subject to change, especially as lineups are released. Our optimal lineups section will always have the most up-to-date information.
For now, what are you waiting for? It's time to get playing over at Fantasy Feud.
