Yahoo MLB Expert Picks: Thursday, April 5th

Each day when there are two or more MLB games, our daily fantasy sports experts will provide their top plays for Yahoo. These picks will help you find the best values and top overall plays to build a foundation for all types of contests. Our top-ranked experts will also provide the reasons for their picks, so you can make informed decisions when setting your lineups.

Thursday, April 5th

The main Yahoo slate starts at 4:10pm and consists of six games, so that’s where I’m going to tailor this article to. Let’s take a look at my favorite plays of the day.

Standout Arms

Masahiro Tanaka vs Orioles: $51
My strategy is pretty simple today in that I’m paying up for my pitchers, chasing the strikeout upside, and then fill in the best bats that I can. Tanaka had a nice start against the Blue Jays where he looked great. He went six innings, gave up just three hits and a run, along with eight strikeouts, and his slider was working well. Last season he had a 3.52 SIERA, 25.8% K%, and a 15.1 SwStr%. The Yankees are a heavy (-225) home favorite and the Orioles have a low 3.4 implied run team total. There is plenty of strikeout upside when facing the Orioles and I have Tanaka projected for the highest strikeouts on the slate. There is always risk when facing the Orioles, who have plenty of power in the lineup, especially in Yankee stadium, as it’s a known hitters park, but Tanaka had great home splits last season and the cold weather today should help suppress the Orioles offense.

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About the Author

kirkdiese
Chris Kirkwood (kirkdiese)

Chris Kirkwood (aka kirkdiese) graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Economics. He’s been steadily climbing the DFS rankings since 2014, and in 2015, decided to pursue it full time. A 2016 FanDuel WFBC finalist and 2019 DraftKings FBWC runner-up ($350,000 prize), Chris is consistently one of the top-ranked Grinders in the industry. He considers NBA, MLB, and MMA his best DFS sports and makes a habit of watching every NBA game with his dog Phil (named after Phil Ivey). Follow Chris on Twitter – @Kirkdiese