3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 3/28/19

Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels

Price: $4,800

The most expensive of all hitters on opening day, Mike Trout is well worth paying up for.

Trout did typical Mike Trout things in 2018, finishing fourth in the Majors in home runs, with 39, while adding 101 runs scored, 79 RBI and 24 steals. He doesn't annihilate baseballs the way Judge does, but a 44.0% hard-hit and 16.0% soft-hit rate on a 45.3% fly-ball rate in 2018 is more than high enough to back up his strong home run total, and his stolen base upside also gives his ceiling a nice boost.

Trout hasn't finished a season with a wOBA south of .400 since his 40-game rookie season in 2011, and 2018 saw him set a new career-high with a .447 mark, which came with his second-best ISO (.316).

Trout's also not in a bad spot on opening day, taking on righty Mike Fiers and the Oakland Athletics.

After struggling to the tune of a 5.22 ERA and 4.52 SIERA in 2017, Fiers had something of a bounce-back in 2018, with his ERA improving to a strong 3.56. That came with only a 4.25 SIERA, though -- an indication that his pitching wasn't as improved as that ERA would suggest.

He also gave up some of the most hitter-friendly contact of his career in 2018, getting tagged for the second-highest fly-ball rate (43.2%) and highest hard-hit rate (39.1%), as well as the lowest soft-hit rate (15.1%) of his career.

Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.