3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 8/27/19
Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-priced studs. These guys take up by far the biggest chunk of your cap space, but they also offer the highest ceiling, and in the case of pitcher, by far the highest floors for production.
For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce well too, increasing our chances for runs and RBI. For pitchers, we want big strikeout numbers, while the ability to go deep in a game and pick up a win is also valuable.
Taking up so much salary, and playing such a big role in your lineup's ceiling, you're not going to want to whiff on these guys, so let,s take a look at a few top-end options that you can count on to anchor your lineup today.
Walker Buehler, P, Los Angeles Dodgers ($11,600)
Whew -- what a pitching slate this is.
The plethora of quality arms -- Justin Verlander, Patrick Corbin, Luis Castillo, Charlie Morton and Lucas Giolito to name a few -- should lead to pitching ownership being spread out, so that may result in us being able to roster Walker Buehler at Petco Park without having to eat a ton of chalk.
Buehler has flashed an absolutely elite ceiling this season, twice going for 79.0 FanDuel points, one of which he did in a masterpiece against these San Diego Padres -- and that was before Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the shelf (and Franmil Reyes was dealt). The Padres own the second-highest strikeout rate against righties (26.5%) along with the sixth-worst wOBA in the split (.303). At home, San Diego has a 25.6% strikeout rate.
While Buehler has been worse away from home -- .311 wOBA allowed on the road, compared to a .221 wOBA at home -- Petco is about as accommodating of a road venue as there is. On a night with so many good pitchers going, Buehler has as good of a ceiling as any of them.
Charlie Blackmon, OF, Colorado Rockies ($4,500)
As if all the good pitchers available didn't make this slate fun enough, we've also got Coors. And, boy, do we have Coors. It's Rick Porcello against Rico Garcia, so there could be a ton of runs. The early over/under is 13.5, a full 3.5 runs more than any other game.
Obviously, there are a lot of guys in play from this game, but in the interest of giving you a better look at the whole slate, let's check out just one Coors guy (instead of making both hitters from this game, which we could easily do). That guy is gonna be Charlie Blackmon.
Blackmon has mauled righties at home this year, posting a .512 wOBA and 44.6% hard-hit rate in the split while striking out just 13.0% of the time. Lefties are getting to Porcello this season for a .347 wOBA and 47.3% fly-ball rate to go along with a 15.7% strikeout rate.
Juan Soto, OF, Washington Nationals ($4,200)
Don't sleep on the Washington Nationals tonight as they're in a money spot against Aaron Brooks, carrying a gaudy 6.00 implied total. Brooks owns a 4.86 SIERA with a measly 17.7% strikeout rate, and he's surrendering an identical 39.0% mark in fly-ball rate and hard-hit rate.
Juan Soto is on some kind of tear right now. In 84 August plate appearances, Soto nearly has as many homers (9) as strikeouts (12). He's kinda locked in. He's got a .402 wOBA, 41.6% hard-hit rate and 44.4% fly-ball rate in the second half. He's tagged righties for a .414 wOBA this season and is the top-ranked non-Coors stick, per our models.
