Tastefully curated M-F by LineStar fantasy experts.

It's a unique schedule for tonight's MLB slate as a few teams have been given the rare Friday night off. This was done to ease players into travel at the beginning of the season as well as to have 'insurance days' in case games had to be made up because of weather issues. The main games tonight still have 7 strong contests as we head into the official second week of the beautiful MLB season.

TOP MLB Plays Today 4/6/18 📈

The betting 'under' was 8-2-1 yesterday showing that pitchers definitely have the advantage this time of year. Two teams (Miami and Milwaukee) were shut out altogether. There's not really a top tier pitcher taking the mound today, but that almost means there's better opportunities for value.

Power Pitching Targets:

1. Lance McCullers ($ 12,300 DK, $ 8,600 FD) McCullers is listed as DTD, but that's due to a comebacker that lined off his leg in his first start of the year. In that start McCullers had excellent stuff, striking out 10 Rangers batters while giving up just 4H. The good news is that McCullers could be even better today as he makes his home debut – where the right hander averaged 35.9% more fantasy points last season.  

2. Kyle Hendricks ($ 9,400 DK, $ 8,200 FD) Hendricks is definitely familiar with “Wrigley North” aka Miller Park as he is 4-1 with 8 career starts there, compiling a 2.31 ERA. The Brewers offense definitely looked overmatched Thursday night managing just 4 hits in a 0-8 shutout loss to the Cubs. Hendricks was solid in his first start of the year, giving up just 1ER and 4H to the Marlins.

Value Pitchers:

1. Trevor Williams ($ 7,100 DK, $ 6,400 FD) Williams was great in his first start of the season, pitching six innings of no hit ball against the Tigers before getting pulled after just 85 pitches. On paper he has a favorable matchup against Cincinnati today, but the Reds have hit .360 against him which is why Williams is priced so low. The right-hander doesn't strike out a ton of batters (7.2 K/9) but is worth a play against a Reds team that has scored 2 or less runs in 3 of 5 games in 2018.

2. Derek Holland ($ 6,100 DK, $ 5,900 FD) There's not a whole lot of value pitching plays on tonight's slate which means it could be a big night for scoring. One option is San Francisco's Derek Holland who is up against the Dodgers tonight. Holland's first start of the season was against this LA team and although he got the loss, he did allow just 3H but 3ER. LA has scored just 1 run the last two games and was shut out two of four times in the season opening series against the Giants.

#HomeRunWatchlist 💥

>>> HRW brought to you by Daily Matchup Tool <<<

Stacks on Stacks 🥞

With some less-than-marquee names taking the mound tonight, it could – or should – be a big night for the stack lineups.

• CLE – Encarnacion / Ramírez / Alonso – Worth a shot if Duffy struggles like he did in his 1st start.

• NYY – Stanton / Judge / Sanchez – Gausman allowed 3HR in 4IP his 1st start. NYY have scored 20R in 3 home games.

• CHI– Bryant / Contreras / Russell – Cubs offense could be heating up with 8R last night

• HOU– Reddick / Altuve / Correa – Correa should be back in the lineup against a San Diego starter that gave up 5ER in 4.0 IP his first start.

Alternate Stack to Snack O?

As we put a bow on the first full week of newsletters, hopefully they have led to some success. Next week we'll have even more data to work off of so in the immortal words of Howard Jones, “things can only get better.”

Catch us on LineStar MLB Chat!