WHAT WE’RE READING The articles you’ll want to save and share with your friends 1. The story of how an AAU program benefited from a big win on "Deal Or No Deal" is a must read from the New York Times. [READ MORE] 2. The Bobcats are looking like a playoff team, something that wouldn't happen without this man: Al Jefferson. [READ MORE] 3. See some of college basketball's top seeds in the tournament get high-fashion makeovers....

WHAT WE’RE READING The articles you’ll want to save and share with your friends 1. Shaquille O'Neal is trying to bring back Shaq-Fu! [READ MORE] 2. Danny Kelly offers an excellent look at the NFL scouting process for SB Nation. [READ MORE] 3. "The True Story of How Kobe Became a Laker" is a great educational read for those who just think the Charlotte Hornets made a particularly strange trade....

As a feature on Sundays, we'll showcase five of our favorite feature stories from the week that you might have missed. These are the stories that make you tweet "tl;dr" on a Wednesday. But it's Sunday! So sit back and enjoy some of the best sports writing from the last week. WHAT WE’RE READING The five articles you’ll want to save and share with your friends 1. Stop complaining about the USMNT World Cup draw....

The two afternoon games on today’s nine-game slate will not be included in this Playbook, but that’s ok because it’s actually not a bad slate considering the limited number of games. There are a few decent pitchers to choose from and a ton of quality bats. You can really go several different directions with your strategy. MORE: Optimal FD lineup | 2016 Fantasy Football Draft Guide There doesn’t appear to be much rain in the forecast, as this is the biggest heat wave we have seen this season....

For more daily fantasy baseball advice and sleeper picks, check out our starting pitcher rankings and the DFS MLB Playbook from our partners at FantasyAlarm.com every morning. You can also get pregame lineups with BvP stats at Fantasy Alarm. Meanwhile, here are our picks for hitters to buy and sell in today’s key matchups. MORE: SN Fantasy | Today’s pitcher rankings | DFS Playbook Daily fantasy baseball hitter matchups - Mikie Mahtook (....

The afternoon games don’t feature a ton of splits-based stacking opportunities, but with a game in Colorado and Daniel Mengden making his MLB debut in Cincinnati (among other mediocre pitchers in action), there are plenty of opportunities to find high-upside players. The Cardinals and Rangers stand out as go-to teams in the evening slate, and you can bet plenty of people will try to pick on Zack Godley making his season debut down in Arizona....

This playbook will cover the nine-game evening slate for Thursday. We have the return of Coors Field with two terrible pitchers to go along with it. We will see very heavy ownership with the highest expected run total by far. MORE: Tournament lineup | 2016 fantasy football rankings The premium Coors bats are expensive so lineup construction will be interesting. There should be some runs in the Texas and Minnesota game also, so it would be a good idea to pay attention to the bats in that game if affordable....

The first Friday of the 2016 MLB season features a 10-game night slate that stretches from coast to coast. As always, there are plenty of high-cost DFS options at every position on the FanDuel board, but in order to afford a few of them, you must discover some of these hidden gems laying low on the pricing list. MORE DAILY FANTASY: More hitter picks | Pitcher ranks | Optimal lineup | Play FanDuel!...

Pitching is loaded today with some of the best aces in the league, but finding value hitters is going to be key in affording those expensive pitchers. MORE: Optimal DFS lineup | Hitter picks | Pitcher rankings | Play FanDuel! With seven afternoon games and six night games, we’re including picks for both slates in today’s Playbook, along with optimal lineups for both slates for Playbook PRO members. Let’s take a look at today’s MLB DFS Playbook, full of daily fantasy baseball picks, strategy and advice....

Tuesday was a bit of a disaster with a Coors game that nearly got rained out, Zack Greinke leaving after two innings, and the Mets-Nationals game getting a long delay that knocked out Matt Harvey and Lucas Giolito. MORE: Waiver Wire | Fantasy football rankings We have another split slate for Wednesday with seven afternoon games and eight evening games. Hopefully we can avoid the weather issues, but we’ll see....

First, I did not run the numbers for today’s early slate. Thus, the Playbook, Rankings and Optimal Lineups – all available to our Playbook Pro members – will NOT feature players from the early games. All of the big-money contests and qualifiers acoss the industry are for the evening slate, so that is where my attention is. For those playing the early games, the two pitchers I like are Steven Wright (at Royals) and Rich Hill (vs....

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. Plus, PRO members get access to the DFS Playbooks for every other sport with one subscription. Check out today’s free daily fantasy baseball plays below, and check out FantasyAlarm....

READ MORE: Today’s SP rankings | Hitter matchups to exploit | DFS values | 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 tonight’s free DFS plays below, and check out FantasyAlarm....

There are plenty of high-quality guard and wing options, with James Harden, Gordon Hayward, C.J. McCollum, and Rajon Rondo, among others, all in action during tonight’s five-game slate. Spending up at the PF and C spots makes sense with so many guards and small forwards readily available. MORE FANTASY: Tuesday’s optimal NBA lineup | 2016 football rankings | Play FanDuel! As usual, the experts at FantasyAlarm.com will publish their top daily fantasy basketball picks at each position across various DFS sites in the Playbook (free preview below)....

As usual, the experts at FantasyAlarm.com will publish their top daily fantasy basketball picks at each position across various DFS sites in the Playbook (free preview below). Playbook PRO members get even more daily fantasy basketball advice, along with detailed analysis and strategies, suggested team “stacks” and optimal daily fantasy lineups. Also, PRO members get access to all the DFS Playbooks and tools for every sport, including NFL, college football and NHL, with one subscription....

Fade higher-owned players to a certain degree in GPPs, but don’t avoid them completely; they’re high-owned for a reason and do provide foundational blocks for the more creative lineups that can win tournaments. After dissecting the indicators, these players boast a case for high DFS ownership on FanDuel in Week 14. MORE: Week 14 fantasy football rankings:Quarterbacks | Running backs | Wide receivers | Tight ends | Defenses | Kickers...