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Mike Schwarzenbach highlights the top FanDuel MLB DFS lineup picks for 5/26/21, and a couple of sleepers to consider while building daily rosters.
It's Wednesday which means another fun-filled night of MLB DFS action. This Wednesday is unique, however, as one of the most-anticipated games of the season will happen in Houston. That's right, everyone's favorite trash-can banging, sign-stealing lineup will be facing the one man who has been more vocal about the Astros than anyone: Trevor Bauer, who now plays for the team Houston beat in the 2017 World Series.
There will be plenty to talk about in that game and every network and baseball personality will get their two cents in on that matchup today. For DFS, though, I'm avoiding that game for the most part. Bauer ($11,500) has among the highest salaries we've seen this season on FanDuel and I'm not sure it's warranted against an Astros lineup that hits RHP well. Dodger bats are in play, but they should be very popular. There are plenty of other games on the slate to attack so let's get right into it.
Read below to find out what player I will be suggesting for your lineups, as I provide my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for the FanDuel main slate on 5/26/2021. Be sure to also check out all the MLB player news, including late scratches, and the projected and confirmed daily MLB lineups for each DFS slate. You can also check out today's DraftKings MLB DFS lineup picks, and read more DFS advice and lineup picks for other sports too. With that out of the way, here are my picks for tonight.
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FanDuel DFS Pitchers
Cash Game/GPP Anchor Play:
Tyler Glasnow - TB vs KC ($10,700)
The pivot off of Bauer is Tyler Glasnow who is coming off his first truly bad start of the season. The Rays' lefty couldn't escape the fifth inning in his last outing against Toronto and let five runs cross the plate. Worst of all, Glasnow only struck out two (TWO!?!?!) in that start. Glasnow hadn't had less than six strikeouts in any other start this season and had at least 10 K's in four of his previous five starts.
What we're getting at here is Glasnow gets a pass for his last start, which happened to be in Dunedin, one of the best hitter's parks. Now, back in the spacious confines of Tropicana Field, Glasnow should be able to bounce back against a mediocre Royals lineup. Glasnow has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this season with a 36% strikeout rate, 16.2% swinging-strike rate, and 33.3% called-plus swinging strike rate. All of those metrics rank in the top 10 of qualified pitchers. Even if their salaries were flipped I'd still probably prefer Glasnow to Bauer tonight. Given the $800 savings, Glasnow is an easy choice as the cash-game SP tonight.
GPP Play
Chris Paddack, SD @ MIL ($7,500)
Remember a couple of years ago when Chris Paddack broke into the Majors and was all the rage? The kid came up and dominated. Everyone in fantasy baseball was tripping over themselves to rave about this new prospect that was going to be the ace of the next great Padres team. Well, since then Paddack has fallen off a bit. He's dealt with some injuries that haven't helped and the Padres re-loaded with more exciting prospects and pitchers.
Now, in 2021, it seems the good Paddack is showing signs of coming back and I want a piece before the masses get back on board. Paddack's surface stats look good. He's got a respectable 3.96 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and 34 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings this season. Digging deeper, we see plenty of signs of a pitcher on the verge of a breakout. His ERA indicators are lower than his actual ERA as he's got a 3.87 xERA, 3.25 FIP, and 3.95 xFIP. He's also generating swinging strikes at an 11.5% rate and earned a healthy 15 swinging strikes in his last start, a win over Seattle. He's still only $7,500 and faces a non-threatening Brewers lineup that has plenty of swing-and-miss in their game.
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FanDuel DFS Infielders
Jake Cronenworth - 1B/2B, SD @ MIL ($3,200)
Rake Cronenworth is one of the most underrated players in fantasy and among my favorite DFS options to deploy when he has a good matchup. San Diego's offense has been hot, they've scored six-plus runs in four of the last five games, and Cronenworth has been a big part of it. Cronenworth is in the top three percent among hitters in whiff rate and is in the top two percent in outs-above-average. He's an elite contact hitter facing a pitcher in Adrian Houser that doesn't rack up a ton of K's. The Padres are my top stack of the night and I'm not omitting Cronenworth.
Ryan McMahon- 2B/3B, COL @ NYM ($3,100)
I genuinely cannot remember the last time I recommended or played a Rockies hitter in a road game. This offense is just so putrid without the help of Coors Field they're primary use in DFS is to target them with pitchers. McMahon is the exception here as he's been red-hot lately, including hitting a homer in each of the first two games of this road series in New York. Going back five games, McMahon has five homers, five RBI, and five runs scored in that span.
Evan Longoria - 3B, SF @ ARI ($2,800)
We talked about the San Diego offense already but the other stack I'll be leaning on tonight is the Giants playing in Arizona against Merrill Kelly and his 5.05 ERA. Longo is playing like it's 2012 with eight hits in his last five games including a three-run homer last night. Kelly is not striking anyone out (20% K-rate this season) and is allowing hard contact over 42 percent of the time. Longoria should bat third for the Giants and a Giants stack is very affordable if playing Glasnow or Bauer.
Trea Turner - SS, WAS vs CIN ($3,800)
We've got to spend money somewhere right? Turner is one of my favorite DFS players to plug in any time there's extra salary lying around. With the affordability of the Giants and Padres, Turner will be my primary one-off either in the SS spot or in the UTIL spot to maybe fit Fernando Tatis Jr. and Turner into the same lineup as both should crush tonight. He hits for power and average while providing fantasy points on the basepaths with steals and runs scored. The Nationals have an implied run total over five tonight which is as much of an invitation as DFS players should need to play Tuner as he almost never puts up a goose-egg when the Nats offense is in a good spot.
FanDuel DFS Outfielders
Jurickson Profar - 2B/OF, SD vs MIL ($2,600)
Another Padres hitter priced under $3K? Sign me up. Profar has been batting third in the absence of Manny Machado and has been a spark atop the San Diego offense. He's reached base 11 times in his last 23 plate appearances and has scored eight runs and stole two bases in that time. He doesn't have the power to be a one-off option, but if stacking Padres, Profar needs to be included.
Danny Santana - OF, BOS vs ATL ($2,700)
Santana has played four games with Boston so far and has hits in three of them including a triple yesterday. The switch-hitter has a .164 career ISO against left-handed pitching and will face Drew Smyly tonight. Smyly has been pitching better lately, but this is still Drew Smyly and he had a stretch this season where he allowed 15 runs across three starts. He's not a strikeout pitcher and Santana should see some pitches to hit tonight.
Mike Yastrzemski - OF, SF @ ARI ($3,000)
Yaszremski will have the platoon advantage against Merrill Kelly and likely bat leadoff for the Giants. Behind Kelly is a bad Arizona bullpen that is tired after the snakes allowed eight runs to these Giants yesterday. Yaz should get five at-bats tonight and I like his odds of doing damage in this matchup.
Good luck with your entries!
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