After looking at all of the tools available at Fantasy Alarm, the example lineups page should be used to help validate your thoughts, as well as help you consider some options that may not have been on your radar for the slate.  In addition to the example lineups, below you will find a breakdown of possible routes to take when building your MLB lineups tonight. While we are focused on FanDuel and DraftKings, this breakdown can be used for all sites. Please use our live chat feature to share your thoughts, and receive any feedback leading up to first pitch.  Good luck!

Please note that this was written before all lineups have been posted, which may open up new routes to consider.  

Top Pitching Targets

I always start my lineup building with pitching, as it’s the most important part of building your lineups. I tend to look for pitchers who I believe can pitch six innings, strike out six, and give up no more than two runs.  Feel free to set up whatever parameters you want to, but should set yourself some type of “floor” when it comes to how you select your pitchers.

Five Second Cheat Sheet:  Not feeling 100%, but Gerrit Cole and Kenta Maeda are your best targets.

Thirty Second Cheat Sheet: I prefer Cole, but Kenta’s price tag is worth the discount in order to grab an extra bat or two.  Robbie Ray is the largest favorite of the slate, while Derek Holland and Carlos Martínez are pitchers for teams that are smaller favorites to win.  Plenty of other routes to take if looking at both high and low priced gpp options.

Gerrit Cole is the highest priced pitcher by a large margin tonight, but doesn’t have the ideal matchup.  We saw this yesterday with Kluber, which is what is making lean towards the cheaper priced Kenta Maeda . James Paxton is too much of a risk until he completes a full start, and the Aaron Nola vs David Price matchup isn’t ideal outside of gpp’s, although I did make the case for the cheaper Price as a #2 SP on DK in the playbook.  I listed a bunch of mid-priced options in the playbook, and although I feel like Robbie Ray is in the best spot, I’m leaning slightly more towards Tyler Anderson in gpp’s.. I don’t mind Derek Holland for cheap on FD, but wouldn’t go under Holland on DK tonight if with some of the tempting low price tags.

Thoughts from the Fantasy Alarm Team:  Our pitching coach, Brett Talley, likes Kenta if paying up, with Ray as his mid-priced option.  He’s OK going cheap with Wei-Yin Chen on DK, and Holland on FD for his value plays.

Our projections have Kenta leading the way, followed by Cole, Paxton, Ray, and Nola.  Holland is the top FD value play, while Lauer and Chen are the cheap value options on DK.

Top Hitting Targets

There are plenty of other routes to take with details given in the playbook, coaches, and our other tools if wanting to look elsewhere. I provided my overall options in the playbook, with some additional thoughts below.

Five Second Cheat Sheet:  Plenty of top priced, and value priced options tonight, and comes down to how you see the games being played out.

Thirty Second Cheat Sheet:  Teams like the Braves, Indians, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox are hovering around five projected runs for tonight, and thinking we’ll see some spread out ownership levels in all formats, with the Indians likely having the slightly higher ownership levels out of these teams.  Seven out of the nine games of the slate have projected totals between 8.5-9.5 runs, which keeps tonight wide open.

Positional Thoughts:

Catcher:  As mentioned in the playbook, I’m really not sold on the catching options tonight in terms of both their matchups, and their too high price tags.  Going the mid-priced Tyler Flowers may be your best option outside of team stacking on DK. J.R. Murphy was mentioned in the playbook as a gpp option, with Yasmani Grandal and Buster Posey my preferred options if paying up.

First Base:  The options from the top teams in Paul Goldschmidt , Edwin Encarnación , Yonder Alonso , and Freddie Freeman all make up the top tier plays, while Justin Bour would be my cheap FD play and Ryan McMahan or Yuli Gurriel would be cheap DK options.

Second Base:  I would punt with a cheap Brandon Drury if not batting ninth on FD, or could pay slightly more for Jason Kipnis or a Boston option.  Chase d’Arnaud would be my DK play if leading off, but can see Brian Dozier having some higher ownership. Ozzie Albies works best on FD if looking to pay up.

Third Base: José Ramírez is likely your best option if playing cash games, while Nolan Arenado , Matt Chapman , Eduardo Escobar and Manny Machado are all solid pivot options.  Martín Prado is a top value play, as well as Johan Camargo , but more on FD for him.

Shortstop: I made the case to go against Francisco Lindor in the playbook, but could go with him if paying up if you’re not a fan of the other possible options in Xander Bogaerts or Asdrubal Cabrera .  Escobar is in play on DK, while Nick Ahmed and Jorge Polanco are solid FD value plays.

Outfield:  As mentioned in the playbook, OF tough tonight with the top priced options mainly coming from the PHI/BOS game.  If not on the pitchers from this game, Rhys Hoskins and J.D. Martínez would be my top two targets. In a similar spot, if not on Kenta, Christian Yelich is a top option that has been on fire.  There’s a large group of value OF options in play tonight, and wouldn’t be against targeting most of them. Derek Dietrich and Melky Cabrera would be top targets, but could go plenty of other routes depending on your team targets.

Thoughts from the Fantasy Alarm Team:  

Our hitting coach, Jon Impemba, likes Goldschmidt, Ramirez, and Freeman if paying up, while Melky and Martini are his top mid-priced options.  Prado and Hedges are his top value plays.

Our projections have the Indians duo of José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor as the top two of the slate, with a D-Backs duo of Goldy and Pollock also in the top five.  Mookie Betts is the lone Red Sox to round out the top five. Alen Hanson is currently the top value play.

GPP’s

If playing gpp’s, your best approach is stacking.  Pick a game, or two teams that you think will blast off, then go all in on them.  Yes, entering your cash lineup, or another type of lineup can cash in a gpp, but if looking to finish in the top 1%, you need to hit with a stack. Of the top options listed above, I prefer the Indians, and mentioned my four pack route in the playbook.  Outside of Cleveland, I like the A’s, Marlins, and Braves.

Thoughts from the Fantasy Alarm Team:  Our stacking coach, James Grande, makes the case for Arizona as his top stack, while Toronto would be his lower owned route..