We have two short slates for Thursday, with six games in the afternoon and four for the evening slate (not counting Game 2 of the Astros-Twins doubleheader). It’s recommended that you try to limit your cash play on the short slates and focus a little more on the tournaments. MORE: Hitter, SP picks | 2016 Fantasy Football Draft Guide The pitching is relevantly clear cut with the top guys today....

Today features an interesting slate with several top end pitchers going, but quite honeslty I am not sure we have a clear best option. Cole Hamels faces the Orioles, who are always a bit of a threat. Johnny Cueto takes on the Phillies, who destroyed the Giants yesterday. Cueto also has gone less than six innings in each of his past three starts. Chris Sale takes on a Tigers team that has won seven games in a row....

Jacob deGrom (vs. PHI) will be very popular, and disappointing-but-talented studs Gerrit Cole and Johnny Cueto both have great matchups in their head-to-head showdown. Surprises Jason Vargas and Ervin Santana are also going head-to-head, while preseason sleeper Jon Gray (foot) will be making his first start since April 13. Ray (vs. Rockies), McCullers (vs. Yankees), Gray (at Diamondbacks), and Mike Leake (vs. Nationals) all have tough matchups, but they’re still in play given their respective talent levels....

The red-hot Aaron Nola doesn’t face a high-strikeout offense in the Mets, but they are 4-8 in their past 12 games and Nola has recorded seven-plus strikeouts in eight of his past nine starts. He’s been rolling, and he should keep it rolling. Jon Lester and Dylan Bundy have great strikeout matchups, and Carlos Martinez and Severino have had great history this year against their opponents. Pomeranz is worth considering against a Yankees team continuing to strikeout at a high pace lately....

In the early slate, Rich Hill has a good matchup against the Mets, previously torching them this year with eight strikeouts earlier this year. Also, Zach Davies is coming off back-to-back great outings and has a great matchup against the Rays. Opposite him, Alex Cobb is coming off his worst start this year, but he’s a good bounce-back candidate against the strikeout-prone Brewers. In the evening, Danny Salazar is the top choice....

Marcus Stroman (vs. TOR), Sonny Gray (vs. MIA), Jose Quintana (at ARI), and Jose Berrios (at BAL) all are set for afternoon tilts, so if you’re only playing the main slate, you can forget about them. Chris Sale is clearly the top choice among the evening starters, and you can expect to see him on a ton of cash rosters. He should probably be on most GPP rosters, too....

It’s a light day with only a couple of aces going, so picking a pitcher for your DFS lineup won’t be easy – unless you go the obvious route and just take Jon Lester or Matt Harvey. After those two, every pitcher comes with risks. Zack Greinke will likely be a popular pick, too, as he has a great chance at a win, but any pitcher in Colorado is tough to trust....

Tonight’s slate features a bunch of aces (Max Scherzer, Noah Syndergaard, Madison Bumgarner, David Price, Yu Darvish) and the debut of, perhaps, a future ace (Jameson Taillon). Add in a bunch of solid “second-tier” pitchers, and there are plenty of choices for tonight’s DraftKings and FanDuel contests. MORE FANTASY: Prospect rankings | Waiver wire pickups | Hitter picks Let’s take a look at today’s full starting pitcher rankings and picks....

Every team is in action on Sunday, so we have plenty of options to choose from. There are no overwhelmingly obvious options at starting pitcher, but I do think there are a bunch of solid ones that should be feel comfortable using in cash games. There are also some good tournament options. MORE: Waiver Wire | Fantasy football rankings The first base position is absolutely loaded with red-hot bats in high-quality matchups....

We have a ton of top-notch starters taking the hill today, so it should be quite difficult to fit some of the bigger bats if you’re paying up for pitching. The reason why you want to pay up for pitching is simply because pitching tends to be the most predictable position in DFS MLB. Yes, it’s possible for Max Scherzer to lose against the lowly Brewers, but that tends to be a rare occurrence....

READ MORE: Today’s SP rankings | Hitter matchups to exploit | More DFS content The DFS MLB Playbook PRO comes with a full top 10 at each position every day, optimal lineups for each DFS site, deep stats and daily projections, suggested lineup “stacks,” hitting and pitching strategies, a live DFS scoreboard to track your players and much more. Check out today’s free DFS plays below, and check out FantasyAlarm....

First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET. READ MORE: SN Fantasy | Daily hitter splits | DFS Playbook Editor’s note: Play daily fantasy baseball for cash! FanDuel is hosting a $115,000 league for today’s MLB games, and first place wins $10,000. Enter now! STARTING PITCHER RANKINGS CALL TO THE ‘PEN It was a bad day for Mariners closers old and new, as both Fernando Rodney (hit, walk, two runs) and Carson Smith (two hits, two walks, two runs) got roughed up on Saturday....

Let’s take a look at some of the best (and most unique) options: RELATED: DFS Playbook | More Tuesday DFS values STARTING PITCHER: Mike Montgomery, Mariners @ San Diego ($7,100) Fresh off of a shutout with 10 punch-outs, Montgomery’s price has jumped up quite a bit today. The 10 strikeouts were even more impressive when you consider that they came at the expense of the Kansas City Royals, a team known for not striking out (league-low 15 percent)....

Tonight’s games feature just three players on FanDuel and only two on DraftKings that are priced at $10K or higher, and with two listed as point guards, it will be a very hard fade to leave one of them out if playing cash games. Please remeber to follow the player alarms to keep track of player news up to lock time. Good luck! MORE: Sporting News DFS | GO PRO with Fantasy Alarm...

Fantasy Alarm’s DFS Playbook PRO members will find detailed breakdowns for all positions, as well as full rankings, matchups, optimal daily fantasy lineups and a variety of tools to help you get the edge you need to stay cashin’ this NFL season. Also, one Playbook PRO subscription gets you access to all of our daily fantasy strategy and tools for NFL, MLB, NBA and college football as well. Get in the game with Playbook PRO!...