FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 9/6/20
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.
If you need help getting started on that trek, here are some of the top options on the board today. We'll be focusing exclusively on the main slate.
Pitchers to Target
This is a fun pitching slate. We have several really good options, and there are four hurlers with five-figure salaries.
Shane Bieber ($11,800 on FanDuel) tops the heap for me. Not only has he been ridiculous in 2020 -- sporting a 2.32 SIERA and 42.4% strikeout rate -- he gets an amazing matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers, an offense that is striking out 26.5% of the time, the second-highest clip in baseball. The Brewers hold a measly 2.78 implied total, and while it's easy to talk yourself into some of the other high-salary arms on this slate, Bieber is my clear top pick.
After Bieber, I am into Jacob deGrom ($11,500) and Tyler Glasnow ($10,100).
Glasnow is taking on a Miami Marlins team that has the fifth-worst strikeout rate (25.8%) as well as the slate's second-worst implied total (2.85). He's tossed at least 87 pitches in each of his last three outings, including a season-high 96 two starts ago, so workload isn't much of a concern. With a 39.6% strikeout rate, Glasnow is capable of matching Bieber's upside if he is dialed in.
DeGrom has a much more difficult matchup versus the Philadelphia Phillies, but he brings a great floor/ceiling combination to the mound every time he starts. And deGrom could go overlooked a bit on this slate since his salary is only $300 cheaper than Bieber's. The New York Mets' righty has been his usual excellent self, posting a 2.72 SIERA, 36.3% strikeout rate and 20.6% swinging-strike rate this season. He could be a swing play in GPPs.
Stacks to Target
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are on the road against Asher Wojciechowski, a righty who is allowing a 40.4% hard-hit rate this season. The Bronx Bombers' 5.44 implied total is a slate-high mark as of Sunday morning.
While this Yankees offense is short-handed, there's still plenty of pop available, and we should try to get lefty exposure to Wojciechowski as he gave up a .367 wOBA in the split in 2019.
Aaron Hicks ($2,800) is an economical way to get access to the middle of New York's lineup. If they start, Mike Tauchman ($2,500), Mike Ford ($2,300) and Brett Gardner ($2,500) will hit from the left side.
DJ LeMahieu ($3,900) is much better against southpaws, but he put up a solid .349 wOBA and 38.5% hard-hit rate last year in righty-righty spots last year. On the contrary, Luke Voit ($3,900) had reverse-splits a season ago, registering a .368 wOBA and 40.1% hard-hit rate against right-handers.
Minnesota Twins
The slate's second-highest implied total (5.33) belongs to the Minnesota Twins as they host Casey Mize.
A top prospect, Mize hasn't been bad early on, but he also hasn't had a long leash, never working past the fifth inning or throwing more than 76 pitches in any of his three starts. So stacking Minny today is stacking against the Detroit Tigers' bullpen as much as it is Mize, and the Tigers own the fourth-lowest strikeout rate among 'pens (20.9%).
Other than Nelson Cruz ($4,000), the Twins are modestly priced across the board, so it's not that difficult to stack them alongside one of the slate's top arms.
Jorge Polanco ($2,800) could hit leadoff with Max Kepler out, and Eddie Rosario ($2,900) had a 40.7% hard-hit rate and 45.3% fly-ball rate against righties last season. Josh Donaldson ($2,800) tagged righties for a .384 wOBA in 2019, and I love Jake Cave ($2,200) as a low-salary dart throw if he starts.
Chicago White Sox
Matt Harvey doesn't appear to have much left, and the Chicago White Sox could feast today. A year after allowing a 42.6% hard-hit rate and striking out only 14.7% of hitters, Harvey has surrendered a 66.7% hard-hit rate with a 13.6% strikeout rate through a very small sample of 7 2/3 frames this season. Other than the randomness of baseball, there's no reason to think Chicago won't light him up.
Harvey was tattooed by left-handed hitters last year to the tune of a .399 wOBA and 50.6% hard-hit rate. That makes switch-hitters Yasmani Grandal ($2,800) and Yoan Moncada ($3,200) super appealing. Nomar Mazara ($2,300) may be the only other lefty in the lineup.
We can feel good targeting Chicago's righties, too, and the White Sox have plenty of right-handed pop. The only negative is that most of their righties come with a high salary. Edwin Encarnacion ($2,900) is an exception, but if you can get to the likes of Eloy Jimenez ($3,400), Luis Robert ($3,600), Jose Abreu ($3,800) and Tim Anderson ($3,700), they're all superb plays today.
