3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 7/15/22
With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.
As a result of this, the primary method of selecting hitters is to "stack" certain teams in good spots to produce. Most of the top stacks on a given day come with hefty salaries. In addition to that, a vast majority of pitchers with the upside to win tournaments are high-salaried hurlers.
Therefore, crushing your value plays -- whether it be a pitcher unexpectedly piling up strikeouts or a low-salaried batter racking up points -- can be the secret sauce to taking down a tournament.
Which budget options stand out today on FanDuel?
Jose Urquidy, P, Houston Astros ($8,600)
With a soft matchup, Jose Urquidy is a value pitching option to consider tonight.
On a loaded 13-game slate -- that also includes Coors Field -- there are plenty of top-tier hitters to spend for. This could leave you for some savings at pitcher, and Urquidy is a viable option.
Let's just call a spade a spade; Urquidy is an average pitcher. He comes in with a 17.3% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate, 4.46 SIERA, 45.3% fly-ball rate, and 50.5% medium-contact rate. It's a mixed bag for Urquidy, but he has managed to find some consistency as of late, posting 31 FanDuel points or more in four straight starts.
He could continue that tonight because his matchup against the Oakland Athletics is a favorable one. This season, the Athletics come in with a 23.8% strikeout rate versus right-handed pitchers, which is the seventh-worst in the league. On top of that, they come in with a 71 wRC+ (29th), .118 ISO (28th), 37.9% fly-ball rate (14th), and 27.1% hard-contact rate (28th) in this split.
It's one of the weakest offenses in the league, and it's a matchup worth attacking.
Juan Yepez, 1B/OF, St. Louis Cardinals ($2,400)
The St. Louis Cardinals carry a strong 4.90 implied run total and are a team to trust tonight. The birds are taking on Hunter Greene, who carries a wide range of outcomes.
Greene's 26.7% strikeout rate versus right-handed hitters is very solid, along with a 4.09 xFIP. After we move past those marks, we see he is allowing 2.74 HR/9 and a .548 SLG, .376 wOBA, 49.6% fly-ball rate, and 35.3% hard-contact rate. Greene can no doubt strike out hitters, but when he gets hit, he gets hit really hard.
This puts the Cardinals' righties in a favorable spot, and Juan Yepez is a viable source of salary relief. It's his first year in MLB, and he's carrying a 124 wRC+, .341 wOBA, .232 ISO, and 46.1% fly-ball rate versus right-handed pitchers.
Yepez is the third-best value option, according to numberFire's projections tonight.
Jack Suwinski, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates ($2,600)
Any time you can get a value hitter at Coors Field, you should do it. We all know the potential upside for anyone playing in the best hitter's park in the league. Players can blow past their value in a hurry simply due to the overall game environment.
That is what we have with Jack Suwinski, who comes in as the second-best value option, per numberFire's projections. That has him going for 12.6 FanDuel points tonight while clocking in under $3,000.
The Pittsburgh Pirates carry a 5.09 implied run total tonight and are taking on German Marquez. This season, Marquez allows a .447 SLG, .349 wOBA, 1.18 HR/9, and 36.1% hard-contact rate versus left-hand hitters.
Suwinski has some surprising power with a .250 ISO, 121 wRC+, 46.7% fly-ball rate, and 35.9% hard-contact rate versus righties this year.
