MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Monday 8/21/17

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 Pitcher

Alex Wood ($9,700 on FanDuel): Despite recent concerns about his declining velocity, Alex Wood had a promising performance in his last start against the Chicago White Sox, striking out six batters in seven innings of one-run ball -- his most punchouts since July 5th. Since making a mechanical adjustment, Wood has displayed a swinging-strike rate above 14% in each of his last two starts. This is all great news, but the the truth remains that his average velocity still hasn't returned to its early-season glory, and it's fair to wonder if the improved results have had more to do with his opponents -- the Sox are in the midst of a rebuild, and the Arizona Diamondbacks struggle against southpaws. Still, on a very limited pitching slate, Wood remains the safest play on the board, and has one of the lowest implied team totals against the Pittsburgh Pirates (3.74). Should the negatives concern you, though, there is a surprising alternative...