There are always sleepers and value picks to be found based on splits and matchups, but you have to dig deep to find them today. A heavy-hitting righthanded Brewers stack against Phil Hughes looks good, and it always pays off to load up on lefties against Rubby De La Rosa (Update: Arizona will start Archie Bradley instead of De La Rosa tonight.). Colorado hitters get to take aim against Dan Straily in one of the few parks that’s almost as hitter friendly as theirs, so that’s another potential stack in FanDuel and DraftKings contests.

MORE FANTASY: SP rankings | MLB Playbook | Optimal lineup | Play FanDuel MLB!

Ultimately, there are going to be a lot of similar picks on short slates like tonight, so don’t be afraid to take some chances.

Daily fantasy baseball picks

AFTERNOON GAME

Xander Bogaerts is a career .321/.386/.453 hitter against lefties and was even better last year (.365/.424/.468), and Dustin Pedroia is also a reliable lefty-killer (.850 career OPS; .834 last year). If you’re looking for a high-upside sleeper against J.A. Happ, try Chris Young, who posted a .972 OPS vs. LHPs last year. Travis Shaw has also hit well against LHPs in his short MLB career (.952 OPS), but that flies in the face of his minor league numbers.

Clay Buchholz has actually done a good job in his career of taming Toronto’s big bats. Jose Bautista is just 14-for-58 with 13 Ks against Buchholz, and Edwin Encarnacion is 7-for-38. That’s not reason enough to avoid Bautista or Encarnacion today, but we just wanted to make you aware.

EARLY EVENING GAMES

Jerad Eickhoff has been completely dominant against righthanded hitters in his brief MLB career (.160/.199/.246), but lefties have had some success (.267/.330/.471). Adjust accordingly with Mets’ hitters.

MORE: SN DFS | Fantasy Alarm Playbook PRO

Mike Leake was lights out against righthanded batters last year (.215/.277/.358), but he’s actually done a pretty good job in limited chances against a few of Chicago’s big lefties. Jason Heyward (1-for-14), Dexter Fowler (3-for-14), and Miguel Montero (3-for-11) haven’t done much against Leake, but Anthony Rizzo (10-for-30, four extra-base hits) has had some success.

Aside from Mike Trout, who hits everyone well, the Angels don’t have many players who traditionally take advantage of lefties like Carlos Rodon. Geovany Soto is your best bet if he plays. Kole Calhoun would be a big contrarian play, though his career stats vs. LHPs (.249/.317/.397) don’t portend to much success.

Todd Frazier (.908 OPS vs. LHPs last year; .816 for his career), and Brett Lawrie (.825 OPS last year) get bumps in value against Hector Santiago.

MORE DFS: SP rankings | MLB Playbook | Optimal lineup | Play FanDuel MLB!

Chase Anderson has been solid against lefthanded batters (.240/.317/.408) and not-so-solid against righties (.282/.328/.458) in his career. The Twins don’t have many DFS-caliber lefties who are worth worrying about, but guys like Miguel Sano and Brian Dozier look a little better today.

Phil Hughes isn’t pitching horribly this year, but he’s still giving up homers, as per his M.O. Righties have always hit noticeably better against Hughes, so getting at least one of Ryan Braun, Chris Carter or Domingo Santana in your lineup is a good idea.

  • Stats as of 4/17