FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Tuesday 9/8/20
Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process. Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered!
And don't forget to take a listen to The Solo Shot podcast with Jim Sannes, who breaks down the MLB daily fantasy slate each morning.
On that note, let's highlight some of the top options for today's FanDuel main slate. Below are tonight's projected starters with their 2020 stats. Opposing team strikeout rate and wRC+ date now show this year's splits against a given pitcher's handedness using up-to-date active rosters, per FanGraphs.
| Pitcher | Salary | L/R | Opp. | SIERA | K% | BB% | Opp. K% | Opp. wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walker Buehler | $10,400 | R | @ARI | 3.91 | 28.1% | 8.3% | 22.2% | 80 |
| Mike Clevinger | $9,600 | R | COL | 5.11 | 20.0% | 10.4% | 22.6% | 76 |
| Andrew Heaney | $9,200 | L | @TEX | 4.10 | 26.3% | 8.4% | 26.3% | 60 |
| Sixto Sanchez | $9,000 | R | @ATL | 2.76 | 26.8% | 1.4% | 23.8% | 129 |
| Lance Lynn | $8,800 | R | LAA | 4.02 | 27.2% | 8.2% | 20.9% | 118 |
| Dylan Cease | $8,400 | R | @PIT | 5.77 | 15.9% | 11.4% | 25.5% | 67 |
| Tyler Mahle | $7,900 | R | @CHC | 4.14 | 28.5% | 9.8% | 25.0% | 106 |
| Spencer Turnbull | $7,600 | R | MIL | 5.58 | 20.4% | 15.1% | 26.4% | 76 |
| Michael Wacha | $7,300 | R | BAL | 3.80 | 28.1% | 7.3% | 22.9% | 103 |
| Alec Mills | $7,200 | R | CIN | 4.87 | 16.5% | 7.0% | 24.3% | 101 |
| Luke Weaver | $6,900 | R | LOS | 4.04 | 26.2% | 6.7% | 19.9% | 128 |
| Logan Webb | $6,700 | R | SEA | 4.53 | 21.7% | 9.3% | 23.6% | 101 |
| Joe Musgrove | $6,600 | R | CWS | 4.74 | 26.3% | 13.8% | 25.3% | 106 |
| Ljay Newsome | $5,900 | R | @SFG | 3.59 | 18.5% | 0.0% | 22.0% | 115 |
| Kyle Wright | $5,800 | R | MIA | 7.23 | 16.0% | 21.3% | 24.4% | 94 |
| Adrian Houser | $5,800 | R | @DET | 4.12 | 16.2% | 7.5% | 28.2% | 92 |
| John Means | $5,600 | L | @NYM | 5.33 | 13.5% | 4.5% | 18.3% | 125 |
| Chi Chi Gonzalez | $5,500 | R | @SDP | 4.44 | 22.0% | 9.8% | 21.3% | 134 |
Let's check out the top spots on tonight's main slate.
Pitchers
Walker Buehler ($10,400) gets a plus matchup against the Diamondbacks, and it's of little surprise to see him earning one of the night's lowest implied totals (3.60). Buehler blanked the D-Backs over five innings in his last start but only threw 71 pitches after missing a turn with a blister issue. He should see a better workload tonight, and while he hasn't hit 100 pitches in 2020, he logged a season-high 92 his start prior to the injury and racked up 11 strikeouts against the Rockies. The upside is there, and Buehler arguably deserves top billing tonight.
However, the guy who gets perhaps the slate's best overall matchup is Andrew Heaney ($9,200), taking on a poor Rangers squad. The Angels have taken the shackles off Heaney since about mid-August, letting him go 117, 104, 97, and 101 pitches in his last four outings. He's coming off two straight strong performances -- including one against the formidable Padres -- and he should definitely be on your short list.
Mike Clevinger ($9,600) is a tough one to gauge, as his numbers remain underwhelming through five starts. In his Padres debut, he only allowed two earned runs over six innings, but it also came with just two punchouts. That was against a low-strikeout lineup in the Angels, though, and he gets a far easier draw versus the Rockies, who are notoriously terrible away from Coors. Oddsmakers are low on Colorado (3.42 implied total), and Clevinger's swinging-strike rate remains encouraging (12.1%), so he deserves to be on the radar.
Lance Lynn ($8,800) rounds out the best options in a tough matchup against the aforementioned Angels. There are few in the Majors who can match Lynn's workload, as the veteran right-hander has exceeded 100 pitches in all nine starts. Although Lynn got roughed up by the Astros in his last appearance, he's otherwise been fairly consistent over a tough 2020 schedule, so don't count him out against the Angels.
In large-field tournaments, Sixto Sanchez ($9,000) and Tyler Mahle ($7,900) also deserve consideration. Sanchez is in an especially difficult spot against Atlanta but has impressed across his first three MLB starts. Mahle is a top value on the slate, benefiting from 17 MPH winds blowing in at Wrigley and a Cubs team that doles out extra punchouts.
Hitters
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres enjoy a soft matchup against Chi Chi Gonzalez, a pitcher who posted a 5.71 SIERA, 16.6% strikeout rate, and 11.9% walk rate in 2019. Rodriguez only has nine innings of work this season (three appearances), and in his lone start, he coughed up two dingers and three earned runs over just three innings.
Rodriguez probably won't pitch deep into the game, but that's no problem for the Padres, as the Rockies' bullpen isn't anything special, either.
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,700) ranks third overall in barrel rate this season, and luckily there are plenty of low-salaried bats to help you fit him in -- Trent Grisham ($3,200), Mitch Moreland ($2,900), Wil Myers ($3,100), and Jake Cronenworth ($3,100).
Jason Castro ($2,200) is a boom-or-bust punt with power versus righties (.242 ISO dating back to last year) despite a high strikeout rate.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers display the evening's highest implied total (5.40) versus Luke Weaver, who has strong strikeout numbers but can't keep the ball in the park.
Weaver has a massive gap between his 7.44 ERA and 4.04 SIERA, so some poor luck has factored in. But he's also allowing a 45.5% hard-hit rate and 48.0% fly-ball rate, so those dingers don't appear to be a fluke. His Statcast data is similarly ugly throughout, including a high barrel rate allowed.
All of the usual suspects are in play for the Dodgers, but you may need to pay down at pitcher if you want to roster multiple stars. There's still plenty of value here, though, with A.J. Pollock, Will Smith, Gavin Lux, and Chris Taylor all checking at $3K and below.
If he's in the lineup, Edwin Rios ($2,200) is barely above minimum salary and has produced a .326 ISO over his 99 career plate appearances.
New York Mets
Left-hander John Means has the slate's worst strikeout rate and is struggling with home runs, so it isn't surprising to see him having a tough time this year. If you're not missing bats and giving up hard-hit fly balls -- he's allowing an average exit velocity of 96.3 mph on balls hit in the air -- the results aren't going to be pretty.
Unfortunately, a lot of the New York Mets' top sluggers bat lefty, but we still get the righty sticks of Pete Alonso ($3,700), J.D. Davis ($2,600), and Todd Frazier ($2,600). It's not like Means has dominant splits in lefty-lefty matchups, though, so guys like Michael Conforto ($3,200) and Robinson Cano ($3,400) could also find success.
For a more contrarian stack, the San Francisco Giants may be worth a look versus the inexperienced Ljay Newsome, who is making just his second MLB start and third appearance.
