Daily tournament plays and lineups: 7/7

Deciding between Max Scherzer and Corey Kluber is fun to start, but the hitter options are rich, especially Dodgers bats against righty Chad Billingsley.

By Heath Cummings

Jul 7, 2015 at 11:08 am ET • 3 min read

Scherzer of Kluber tonight? Find out on Daily Fantasy Live at 6 PM EST

Note: FanDuel is hosting a one-day Fantasy Baseball league tonight. It's $5 to enter and pays out $100,000 in cash prizes. First place wins $10,000. Sign up now!

This is what you call dodging a bullet.

I heard from one of my readers that the cash lineup on Monday cashed, even with the Royals yesterday. That's fortunate, but if you played the Royals that probably means you aren't following me on Twitter, because I switched them out due to the weather around 6:30. If that's the issue, correct that now and follow me @heathcummingssr.

Even on days when I don't set lineups I try to at least answer questions, and I'll almost always update any late changes I make due to weather. For now, let's just be thankful that Sale and the Dodgers were good enough to carry to dead weight.

Tuesday's slate is interesting if only for the debate between Max Scherzer ($12,500) and Corey Kluber ($11,000). Scherzer has been the better pitcher this year and I always lean towards the pitcher with the NL matchup. Kluber has the high-K Astros and a much worse opposing pitcher. I have them at about a dead heat with the tiebreaker being that the weather in Cleveland is questionable at best this afternoon.

If you're going to pay that much for a starting pitcher then you couldn't ask for a better hitter set up. Our favorite righty crushers are all priced way too low, starting with Joc Pederson ($3,300) and Adrian Gonzalez ($2,900). Add in Yasmani Grandal ($3,00) and Andre Ethier ($2,300) and you have the top pitcher and the top stack of the day and plenty of money left to spend.

Think I've gone too far with the Dodgers? Remember me raving about how bad Sean O'Sullivan was against lefties? Chad Billingsley has been even worse. Against 43 LHH Billingsley has surrendered a .475/.512/.800 slash line and a .559 wOBA. Those numbers are astonishing even if they do come with the small sample size caveat.

Outside of Los Angeles there are an inordinate number of hitters I like, starting in the outfield. Mike Trout ($5,600) is extremely hard to overlook in Coors, even for that price. Nelson Cruz ($3,300) and Josh Reddick ($2,800) face mediocre pitchers they have great splits against. Cruz in particular has a monstrous OPS over 1.400 at home vs. LHP. His teammate Austin Jackson ($2,200) is also better against lefties and is much cheaper. Reddick gets Nate Eovaldi and the short porch at Yankees Stadium.

Speaking of cheap, there are a couple of Marlins at Fenway who are known to exploit left-handed pitchers like Wade Miley. Adeiny Hechavarria ($2,400) and Jeff Baker ($2,200) are a pair of solid punts up the middle depending on where they hit in the order.

My biggest struggle today came at third base, where I feel like there are three really good plays. Josh Donaldson ($4,100) has the toughest matchup, but Jose Quintana doesn't scare me with the way Donaldson hits lefties. Matt Carpenter ($3,100) and Kris Bryant ($3,500) probably have better matchups, but what do we really know about Dallas Beeler and Tim Cooney? Ultimately I went with Carpenter because it allows me to play Cruz against Kyle Ryan.

In tournaments, I'm using a combination of those three and a couple of cheap pitchers. I love Kevin Gausman's ($6,700) matchup against a Twins team that struggles against righties and Taijuan Walker ($8,100) has done more than enough to earn a higher price tag. Of course, I'll also have my fair share of Scherzer and Kluber in tourneys as well.