Tastefully curated M-F by LineStar fantasy experts.

The elements completely destroyed our newsletter for yesterday as the Phillies / Mets and Rays / Yankees games were snowed – yes snowed – out. Are those fields still Frozen? Either way, we'll let it go and move forward with the assumption that we'll see some baseball will be played in New York, Cincinnati, and anywhere else in the league could be hit by the white stuff. We had Easter Sunday and Nor'Easter Monday – what does Tuesday have in store?

TOP MLB Plays Today 4/3/18 📈

A lot of teams are turning over their rotations today so we'll see some pitchers making their second starts of the season. A few of today's pitchers like Chris Sale want to build on a solid opening day start while others such as Jon Lester want to put their first outing of the season behind them. Is there value in a guy like Lester who may have just had Opening Day rust? We shall see:

Power Pitching Targets:

1. Clayton Kershaw ($ 12,200 DK, $ 11,500 FD)Arizona batters are hitting just .203 in their careers against Kershaw, who went 2-0 against the D'Backs last year with a .058 ERA. There's NBA wine drinkers that have higher blood alcohol content than that. Kershaw started the season with 6.0 IP against the Giants with7K and 1 ER. He did give up 8 hits however including a HR to Joe Panik.

2. Justin Verlander ($ 11,600 DK, $ 10,300FD)Forget Tim Tebow, it's Verlander that “all he does is win.” Counting last year's regular season, playoffs, and last Thursday's opening day victory Verlander is 10-1 with the Astros. The 2018 opening day win included 6.0 IP of shutout ball with 5K. The current Orioles roster has just a .219 average against Verlander in their careers.

Value Pitchers:

1. Ben Lively ($ 6,300 DK, $ 5,700 FD) The Mets have the #1 OBP in the MLB (.415) but their first series of the year was against St. Louis who definitely has some rotation issues. Lively had a .426 ERA last year, but was 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA against the Mets. Yesterdays snow day possibly could have put hitters all out of whack as well.  

2. J.A Happ ($ 7,900 DK, $ 7,100 FD)The White Sox early batting numbers are largely inflated by Opening Day's 14-7 win over Kansas City. Happ got the loss in his first start of the year in Giancarlo Stanton's 2HR debut for the Yankees. Happ actually pitched well though with 4 hits over 4-2/3. Plus only two of the Yankees 6 runs in that game were credited to Happ.

#HomeRunWatchlist 💥

>>> HRW brought to you by Daily Matchup Tool <<<Bryce Harper went deep again yesterday and will look to be a stalwart on this list no matter how high DraftKings and FanDuel raise his salary. There's also some insider buzz that FanGraphs is adding some “hits well in snow” splits so we'll see how that adjusts this list.

1. Bryce Harper – 3 HR in two days means Harp is getting hot. You're going to have to cut a hefty paycheck for him ($5,300 on Draftkings) but he's also crushed Julio Teheran for a .459 average and 7HR in 37 career AB.

2. Adam Jones – Not a seemingly great play up against Justin Verlander who allowed just 4hits to Texas in the opener but Jones has went deep 3X against the pitcher in his career.

3. Hanley Ramirez – The Red Sox utility player could be in line for a big series against his old team the Marlins. He went deep yesterday and has a good matchup versus Jose Urena tonight. Urena gave up 2HR and struggled with his control hitting three batters in the opener against Chicago.

4. Paul Goldschmidt – There's a big question mark surrounding Goldschmidt in this one. He's still the #2 costliest 1B on DK ($4,400) but he just got his first hit of the season yesterday (.083). Plus it looks like the Dodgers are sending some kid named Kershaw to the mound tonight. Your opponents will avoid Goldy, so maybe it's a good time to swoop him up – he does have 2HR off 'Shaw in 44 AB.

5. Edwin Encarnacion – Eddie is off to a great start through the first week of the season, hitting .308 with 3HR. He's had success against tonight's starter Garrett Richards posting a .417 average with 2 HR in 12 AB.

Stacks on Stacks 🥞

The top of the MLB batting stats is a train wreck right now but the cream is expected to rise to the top soon. Until then however, stick with the unexpected:

1. MIL – Cain / Anderson / Yelich – Milwaukee is 8th in the MLB in runs and has a very favorable pitching matchup against St. Louis tonight.

2. TEX – Andrus / Choo/ Beltre – Oakland's Graveman gave up 3HR in 5+ IP on Opening Day to LAA.

3. COL – Harper / Eaton / Rendon – The Rockies are 10th in OBP and are up against Tyson Ross who had a 7.71 ERA last year.

4. LAD– Grandal / Bellinger / Taylor – D'Backs Godley making his first start of the season and Dodgers have 21 runs their last three games.

The Put Me In Every Lineup Play – or Don't

• Paul Goldschmidt – The Arizona slugger doesn't have a hit through 8 AB yet this year, but he has drawn 4 BB. He's got good past numbers against Monday's opponent Hyun-Jin Ryu hitting .429 with 2 HR in 21 AB. Do you take him?

As the old baseball classic showtune goes, “You're making DFS players spiteful --- let it (not) snow, let it (not) snow, let it (not) snow”

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