Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Pitchers for March 31

Jon Lester
Jon Lester
Tommy Gilligan USA TODAY Sports

There was a push this winter to make MLB’s Opening Day a national holiday. While the White House passed on it (by saying only Congress has the power to declare federal holidays), the concept is exciting. To many, it really is a holiday.

The first day of the seven-month long grind that will ultimately crown a World Series champion attracts even mild baseball fans. It is a signal that a long winter is finally coming to an end, and everybody still has a shot at the World Series. Except the Astros.

And with the new year, of course, comes the start of the fantasy baseball season. So, we’re here to help you put a winning team together in DraftStreet‘s daily fantasy leagues. So if you’re in need of some cheap, but effective, Opening Day pitching options, look no further than this.

Jon Lester $15,441 – The last time we saw Lester pitch in meaningful games, he picked up two wins in the World Series against the Cardinals, allowing one run in 15.1 innings. He seems to be plenty comfortable this year, even as questions about his future contract talks linger on. Lester and the Red Sox know he is the ace heading into this season and he’ll get Boston’s title defense going against Baltimore. He hasn’t been worked particularly hard this spring, appearing in just three games. But he was excellent when he did throw. Over 12.2 innings, he had a 0.71 ERA and 14 strikeouts.

Justin Masterson $16,120 – Coming off his first All Star Game appearance, Masterson is leading the Indians rotation again. He turned in a nice 2013 season, during which he pitched especially well early on. In his first start of the year, he allowed just three hits and one run over six innings in Toronto. He is set up well to do the same thing again this year. He is coming off an excellent spring. He was 4-0 in six starts with a 0.81 WHIP, and he was averaging more than a strikeout an inning. He doesn’t have the most favorable of matchups against the Athletics, but with his early season track record and great spring, he’s worth a look.

Ricky Nolasco $12,562 – We’re now past the point at which “this is finally going to be the year” for Nolasco. He’s been there a few times over, but was never able to follow through. For the first time in his career, he is calling a team outside of Miami his own to start the season, and he’s drawn the Opening Day start for the Twins. He’s coming off one of his better seasons and enjoyed a decent run with the Dodgers after a mid-season trade. He was 8-3 with a 3.52 ERA with L.A. Maybe all he’s needed was a home outside of south Florida. Though his spring performance left quite a bit to be desired, he does have a nice matchup to start off this new stage of his career. He’ll throw against the White Sox, who had the American League’s worst offense last season.

Julio Teheran $15,022 – After just one full Major League season, Teheran has already picked up an Opening Day start for Atlanta. The 23-year-old has earned it following a very impressive freshman campaign for which he finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting. Granted, he got the nod partially because of injuries, but he’s still plenty capable.  In 2013, he was 14-8 with a 3.20 ERA and showed the ability to pick up double-digit strikeouts. This spring, he managed a 1.80 ERA in 25 innings over six starts and kept the strikeouts coming. He’ll face the Brewers today and, in his one career outing against them, he turned in a quality start.

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Tony Consiglio
Tony Consiglio is a lifelong baseball fan and has worked for television and radio stations throughout New England. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');