MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 8/17/22

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Aug 17th, 2022
Carlos Rodon has been straight cooking for the Giants, and he leads our pack of top-flight options. Which other stud players stand out?

Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-salary 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 pitchers, the high-salary options typically come with the highest floors, too.

For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce, as well, 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.

With your high-salary picks playing such a big role in your lineup, you need to be right on these guys, so let's take a look at a few top-end options you can count on to anchor your lineup today.

Carlos Rodon, SP, San Francisco Giants ($10,700)

After back-to-back brilliant performances from rotation-mates Jakob Junis and Alex Wood, Carlos Rodon of the San Francisco Giants will take aim at shutting down a Arizona Diamondbacks offense that hasn't been so great this season.

The Snakes rank in the bottom third of the league in a variety of categories, including team wOBA (.305), ISO (.159), on-base percentage (.306), and strikeout rate (22.1%).

Meanwhile, the left-handed Rodon has been outstanding in 2022. Over 134 1/3 innings pitched, he's fired his way to a 2.40 FIP, 31.2% strikeout rate, and 27.5% hard-hit rate allowed.

We project Rodon to lead the way at 38.1 FanDuel points, and he could be a big scorer for DFS squads on Wednesday.

Corey Seager, SS, Texas Rangers ($3,700)

Looking at Adam Oller's numbers for the Oakland Athletics, they almost read a little bit like a typo. Sadly, they aren't.

Oller has been slammed by left-handed batters this season. In the split, he's allowed a .634 slugging percentage, and of the 20 hits he's allowed, a whopping 13 of them have been for extra bases. Woof.

Corey Seager has quietly bopped his way to 26 home runs and boasts a 125 wRC+. A 40.2% fly-ball rate and 39.8% hard-hit rate shows he's been quite impressive against right-handed pitching.

We rank Seager as a top-10 hitter this evening, making him a great play.

Yordan Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros ($4,200)

For both season-long and DFS players, it would be really nice if Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros would awaken that monster bat at the dish.

In August, Alvarez hasn't exactly been at his best. His 71 wRC+ is easily the worst monthly mark of his season (and one of the worst of his career), and he also has an ugly .082 ISO in that time.

Perhaps facing Michael Kopech of the Chicago White Sox will fix some of his ails. The right-hander has been a little loose with his control and command, walking 11.9% of batters. Against lefties this year, Kopech has posted a 54.7% fly-ball rate that could also get him in trouble.

I'm liking Alvarez for a big rebound tonight.


Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.