FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 8/28/22
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!
Pitchers
Justin Verlander ($11,400)
At his most expensive salary point this season, Verlander rates as numberFire's second overall pitcher with a 38.5 FanDuel point projection against a Baltimore Orioles' lineup with a .300 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and 25.9% K-rate.
In his most recent four starts in August, Houston's veteran continues to make his run towards another Cy Young Award, recording a 2.93 expected Fielding Independent Rating (xFIP), a 28.0% strikeout percentage, and a 11.8% swinging strike rate through 25.0 innings.
With six Baltimore batters with K-rates between 21.4% and 31.2% and contact percentages ranging from 67.0% to 75.2%, Verlander has a clear and easy path towards achieving Sunday's third highest strikeout prediction at 6.91.
Max Scherzer ($11,000)
After a 4.3% salary decrease, New York's 38-year old ace ranks first among Sunday's 22 pitchers in several categories with his 44.1 fantasy expectation, 4.01 value rating, and 8.63 strikeout expectation against a Colorado Rockies' team with an attackable .299 wOBA in their last 527 plate appearances against right-handers.
While Scherzer has not been in premier form in August (4.31 xFIP in 33.2 innings), the Mets' veteran has still produced a steady floor with a 13.9% swinging strike rate, a 24.1% strikeout percentage, and six or more punch-outs in 60% of these appearances.
Dylan Cease ($10,600)
Chicago's 26-year old strikeout artist is another elite option with a 3.29 xFIP and a sizzling 31.8% K-rate standing at his second lowest salary point in August.
Although Cease has struggled in his most recent four starts when examining his 4.75 xFIP and 12.4% walk rate through 22.1 innings, the White Sox's Cy Young contender still ranks third overall with a 38.1 FanDuel point projection and second in strikeouts with a 7.80 mark against an Arizona Diamondbacks' team with five batters with strikeout percentages over 21.6% and contact percentages between 69.7% and 78.6%.
Stacks
With a fully healthy lineup, the Phillies' 5.5 gaudy run total is an attractive offensive spot against Pittsburgh's young right-hander Roansy Contreras.
In his first extensive opportunity starting in the Majors, the 22-year old is due for some regression through 63.0 innings when examining the vast difference between his 4.55 xFIP and his 3.86 Earned Run Average, his troublesome 10.7% walk rate, and his opposing 11.5% barrel percentage.
With most of Contreras' struggles occurring against left-handed hitters (5.26 xFIP, 1.60 strikeout-to-walk ratio), Kyle Schwarber (21.2% barrel rate, .540 expected slugging) and Bryce Harper (.599 expected slugging, 14% barrel rate) are the main components of a potential stack while Alec Bohm (.296 expected average, .440 expected slugging, Rhys Hoskins (11.8% barrel percentage, .467 expected slugging), Nick Castellanos (.403 expected slugging), J.T. Realmuto (9.5% barrel percentage, .443 expected slugging), and Jean Segura (.310 expected wOBA, 41.8% hard hit rate) all deserve consideration,
In a mouth-watering opportunity against Tucker Davidson, the Blue Jays' 5.7 run total still appears undervalued versus a well-below average lefty with a depressing 6.08 xFIP and a walk percentage (15.5%) somehow higher than his strikeout metrics (11.3%).
To ideally attack Davidson's trouble against right-handed bats (5.66 xFIP, .345 wOBA) and his strong overall ground-ball tendencies (43.1%), Toronto combinations can include any of their top fly-ball or power batters including George Springer (8% barrel rate, 39.5% fly-ball percentage), Teoscar Hernandez (42.4% fly-ball rate, 13.8% barrel rate), Matt Chapman (14.3% barrel percentage, 46.4% fly-ball percentage), Bo Bichette (9.4% barrel rate, .424 expected slugging), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (12% barrel percentage, .490 expected slugging).
Jon Heasley will make his 15th start this season versus a well-rounded San Diego lineup with a 5.6 run total in a boosted offensive environment with 14 mph winds blowing out to left field.
Since his call-up from Triple-A on August 23rd, Heasley has not displayed much improvement from his seasonal form (5.40 xFIP, 1.45 strikeout-to-walk ratio), accounting for a 5.59 xFIP, a 6.5% swinging strike rate, and a 11.1% walk percentage in his most recent three starts.
With left-handed bats doing the most damage versus Heasley (.386 wOBA, 19.6% home-run to fly-ball percentage), Juan Soto (12.5% barrel percentage, .527 expected slugging), Josh Bell (.359 expected wOBA, .445 expected slugging), Jurickson Profar (.321 expected wOBA), and Trent Grisham (8.2% barrel rate) stand out first while Manny Machado (.442 expected slugging, 9.4% barrel rate) and Brandon Drury (10.6% barrel percentage, .416 expected slugging) provide power from the right side.
