NEW! – In our graphic below, you will find an actual score for the ballpark hosting a game instead of just it’s name. This score will help you break ties in hitters and pitchers you roster today. For hitters, green is good. More detail below the graphic in the explanation section.

Our next installment of “The Hard Nine” has been released. So far, the reviews of the 1st and 2nd innings have mentioned the series looks very promising for beginners. If you want to see what will be covered at a glance click on OVERVIEW. This is a 9+ part series that should bring you up to speed on questions the newest player has like key stats, stacking, how to breakdown a slate, etc. We should see a few more articles released this week.

**In case I haven’t mentioned it, and you don’t know where to find the DFS ARMY, just look HERE. We are a growing community of soldiers dedicated to teaching YOU how to build better LUs through education, not selling player picks. Sure, we have premium content if you want a little extra depth, but we don’t have anything lined up for MLB until at least May. So, get in while it’s a free-for-all and see if you like us. You can follow us on Twitter with @ffootballgeek, @dfsarmy, or by hashing our LU clubs….. #50Club for NHL, #300Club for NBA, #Club200 for MLB and see the lineups we’ve taught our platoon to build. Also, #Learn2Build is another great one we use.**

First, an overall view of our games today, where they are played, Vegas view, run line, relevant weather and start times.

Home and Away teams are simple. Ballparks are something you are going to want to know. Great American Park in CIN is a homerun launching pad. Yankee Stadium gives HRs up to lefties. Camden Yards is a nice hitters park. Some others are nasty like San Diego and even STL’s Busch is a pretty bad hitters park. Those tend to benefit pitchers, though. We will break ballpark factors down more in our 10th Inning of “The Hard Nine” when we get there.

Wx is a “weather” column. Weather in baseball matters. BIG TIME! Again, green is good and red is bad. Yellows and oranges indicate some delay possibilities. Delays are somewhat tolerable for hitters, but really, really bad for starting pitchers. The closer to red, the more you should be off the game for pitching purposes. The number zero indicates a dome team……always nice weather in a dome. This is our 9th Inning piece.

The next three columns are from Vegas. Vegas P is more for pitching. The bigger the number, the darker the green, the better your pitcher has a shot at earning the win, per Vegas odds. Vegas B is more for hitters/batters. It’s simply the run total for the game, or the “over/under.” Again, the bigger the better for offensive purposes (darker green). For pitching, you want smaller (red) because you don’t want your pitcher in a high-scoring game obviously. These are further broken down in our 4th Inning of “The Hard Nine” series.

The new column is “Ballpark Factor.” This is a number averaged over several seasons that tells you the percentage above/below average a ballpark ranks offensively in comparison to the league average. A 100 is an average score. Higher than 100 favors hitters. Lower than 100 favors pitchers. This rating is derived by averaging both runs scored and home runs hit in the park over the last 3 seasons. This number is not foolproof, though. For example, if we assembled a team of weak hitters and had them play half their games in a great ballpark, we would undoubtedly see a suppressed ballpark factor rating. But, it does give us a great idea on a given slate where we may/may not see runs scored. Use in conjunction with the Vegas B column. If you see a green number in both columns, you can consider rostering hitters from that game.

In researching pitchers, I want a heavy favorite in Vegas, a red number in Vegas B, and good weather. I also want to see a ballpark that’s bad for hitters, if possible. That’s really about it to narrowing down my list of choices for who I’ll start as a pitcher.

In researching hitters, I want a green Vegas B number, good weather (but it doesn’t have to be perfect), and a hitter’s park to play in, if possible. But, mostly I want terrible pitching on the mound. This is indicated by high run totals (green Vegas B) and even the Vegas P column because a team that is heavily favored “can be” facing terrible pitching. But, that’s getting a bit specific for this quick-hitting column. That simple graphic can really tell you a lot in 30 seconds.

All Day slate of 15 games. Main Slate of 14 games. Since basically the same, let’s run them down. First, a word…….if playing the All Day slate, remember you won’t see most of the later LUs released before lock on FD. Play non-platoon players and watch those catchers. You had better know if your pitcher has a “personal catcher” that is not the normal starter. If you are good in this area, you have a nice advantage over the field of inexperienced players that will be forced to take zeros when their player doesn’t take the field. Otherwise, stay off this type of slate and just play the Main or the smaller slates once released.

COL @ CHC – Kyle Hendricks isn’t a scary pitcher although he carries a huge Vegas favorite tag today. This has more to do with the lack of COL pitching and the CHC offense. Bettis is pretty bad, so the Cubbies are stackable again. That said, though, don’t sleep on the Rockies bats. They will be lower owned because, as Keith always says, people shy away from them on the road. Wrigley is a slightly better than average park for scoring and when broken down, righty bats have the edge in the power department here. I’m on both bats this weekend, but I’m not playing them this slate.

MIL @ PIT – I’m not afraid to roster bats vs these two teams, either. In fact, I might stack Pirates because they have some high OBP numbers for the start of this season, some speed on the bases, gap power, and a little over the fence pop. I don’t see myself rostering many Brewers outside of Miller Park much this year. I need a little better situation than this. Neither pitcher is in play for me.

WAS @ PHI – Hellickson is “almost” rosterable, so I won’t take you to the wood shed and flog you if you did in a GPP. Joe Ross, however, is targetable. PHI is favored here, the bats are cheap, they will also be lower owned, but the ballpark isn’t the greatest. I don’t see the need to look anywhere but Murphy or Harper for the Nats, unless you wanted to continue to ride the lightning with Wilson Ramos since he’s fairly hot right now.

SEA @ NYY – Once again, “meh” to both pitchers means the bats on both sides are playable. I’m not excited about either, though. If wanting a piece, the lefty Yankee bats are where I’d go. Lefties have a Yankee Stadium rating of 153! I’d start with Teixera and McCann. But, Cano and Seager are in play as well…..so is Leonys Martin should he hit higher than 7th in that Mariner LU.

ATL @ MIA – Chen carries a heavy Vegas favorite tag today and is well in consideration. They may not strike out a ton, but I’m definitely settling into picking on the ATL bats for the win. Chen is nearly 5k cheaper than Clayton Kershaw tonight, too. I might also stack Marlins. I’m completely off ATL in every way outside if Nick Markakis…..whom I won’t play if I roster Chen, obviously.

TOR @ BOS – Off pitching. Targeting bats. Both teams have totals over 4.0 runs and are in a nice hitters park. By the numbers, Fenway favors right handed hitters. Pedroia, Bogaerts, Hanley, Papi are the bats I’m stacking here from BOS, as they have nice numbers against Dickey. Bautista and Encarnacion are where I’m starting with Jays bats. You might want to look to this game for your fireworks tonight.

CWS @ TBR – Sale is a nice GPP pivot off Kershaw since he’s about $800 less. But, he isn’t as likely to get the win….not that Kershaw is imo. Neither TBR or CWS are striking out a ton, but both pitchers can miss bats. I’m probably completely off this game for cash games. But, it poses some interesting creativity potential for GPPs.

NYM @ CLE – Cody Anderson is a sneaky pitching play being favorited by Vegas (although not by much), in a nice pitching park, facing the Mets who rank 10th in Ks so far, and with a little support in his own LU being that Bartolo Colon hasn’t started off this season as balls on fire as he did last season. You could do worse. Personally, I’m off this game though.

BAL @ TEX – Both pitchers are off the table here because this is the other area I’m looking for small explosions to detonate tonight. TEX is the 2nd best hitters park by our metrics. I’m rostering any and all bats here. If you only played 4 teams offensively today, imo, you’d be looking here and BOS for them…..and you’d be mixing and matching.

DET @ HOU – That said, this isn’t the worst idea, either. Mike Pelfrey is far from a silencer when it comes to ringing La Bella de Dingo-Dongo. He is one of the worst pitchers on the slate and sits in a home run park. I might avoid Keuchel tonight for other matchups, but in GPPs, rostering against the HOU pitcher with some DET power bats might work out for you as well.

LAA @ MIN – I can’t get excited about this game other than a reach for Garrett Richards in hopes of racking some MIN K’s. But, I don’t think I’ll even do that. Meh….next game.

CIN @ STL – Yeh yeh…..Cardinals homer warning. But, CMart is a pitcher I’m going to be looking heavily into tonight. He has a little better matchup imo than Kershaw and saves you a couple large. CIN isn’t fanning like I would hope, but like Garcia yesterday when Martinez is on with his stuff, it dances around bats. There’s a little risk here though because also like Garcia, when a little off (or in CMart’s case, a little too excitable) he can come off the rails and get into some nasty jams. The thing that worries me about Cardinal bats here is Melville is only starting his 2nd game. If he was a lefty, I’d be yelling at you to avoid this spot like Black Death. But, being a righty, the Cards might have a shot here. They are very prone, though, to overthinking film study and can seem lost at the plate with no “book” on the opposing pitcher. It really is frightening. I’m probably steering clear, but if you roster up Cards bats, I won’t fault you the way they’ve been scoring in their last 6 games.

KCR @ OAK – Yuk….no thank you. No hitters park, no premium pitcher, no clear favorite from Vegas, low-ish game total……….screams NEXT GAME to me. I can’t run away any faster.

SFG @ LAD – Kershaw vs MadBum, huh? Well, I shouldn’t have to tell you to fade the bats unless you are putting together a long-shot GPP LU out of several other entries you are running. Pitchers are sort of in play, and before you question me, think about why….. When two bonafide aces hit the hill, who’s going to get the win? Can you tell me for certain? No, you can’t. Vegas is leaning Kershaw in this one, and I would too if I was betting this game. But, the smart move is to likely look for other pitchers in DFS and save the money because there are some other decent strikeout pitchers on the mound facing teams they can beat handily. I will be watching this game, though, just to watch greatness unfold on both sides. You just don’t get the billing around big pitcher’s duels that often in today’s game. I hope both carry shutouts into the 9th where a sac bunt getting a guy to 2nd base feels like it could be the team’s only shot at winning.

ARI @ SDP – Yuk again. Crap total. Crappier ballpark to hit in. SD hasn’t scored a run at home yet to my knowledge, so I’m so far off those bats I’d rather roster Royals and Athletics tonight. I can find better pitchers to attack than James Shields. I am, however, expecting Greinke to get back on track here and fling some Ks on the board. If he gets any run support whatsoever, this might be your cash game lock of the night. It’s just going to cost you like Kershaw. For what it’s worth, the Vegas line HAS MOVED from a varitable coin flip to a now -132 in favor of ARI tonight. That does change my feelings on Greinke for the better.

Pitchers we like: Grienke>CMartinez>>Kershaw>>>Chen. GPPs- Sale, Keuchel, Richards

Bats to stack up: BOS, TEX, TOR, BAL, CHC (all day slate), HOU, MIA, PIT, PHI……with all these choices, why would you look anywhere else? I’m not. I’m also heavily focused on the first 4-6 teams on this list.

Shoeless Joe: “Ok, kid, so the last two were up and in. He’s not going to want to load the bases. Where you going to look?”

Archie Graham: “Well, it’s either going to be low and away……..or in my ear.”

Shoeless Joe: “Right, so look low and away…………………….but watch out for in your ear.”