MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 8/15/17

The beauty of daily fantasy baseball is that the top targets are different each and every day. Whether it's the right-handed catcher who destroys left-handed pitching or the mid-range hurler facing a depleted lineup, you're not going to find yourself using the same assets time after time.

While this breaks up the monotony, it can make it hard to decide which players are primed to succeed on a given day. We can help bridge that gap.

In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals. We've also got our Solo Shot Podcast, which breaks down the MLB daily fantasy slate each day. Here's today's episode.

If you need help getting started on that trek, here are some of the top options on the board today.

Pitchers to Target

High-Priced Pitchers

Danny Salazar ($9,500 on FanDuel): Although Alex Wood has apparently fixed a mechanical issue to deal with his declining velocity, it hasn't translated to his previous punchout levels yet, leaving Danny Salazar as the higher upside play. Since returning from the disabled list, in four starts, Salazar has been an absolute monster, putting together a 2.92 SIERA, 37.1% strikeout rate, and 18.6% swinging-strike rate. Add all that to a 19.2% hard-hit rate allowed, and it's hard to find many reasons not to jump on the Salazar bandwagon. Of course, an elevated 9.3% walk rate remains the lone blemish, but when you're mowing guys down at this rate, you have more room for error. Still priced under five-figures, the implied team total against the Minnesota Twins is a smidge higher than we like (4.00), but the massive strikeout potential makes Salazar viable in both cash games and tournaments.