FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Friday 6/23/23

Tonight's 10-game slate is slightly smaller for a Friday main slate, and while we have plenty of quality pitchers in play, this could be a lower-scoring night at the position overall. There are a handful of games with weather concerns, which will be something else to monitor late in the day.

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!

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate.

Pitching Breakdown

Despite having double-digit games available to us, there isn't a single pitcher with a strikeout rate cracking 30%, and just two arms exceed 25%. With that in mind, we can look to pitchers who are excellent in real life but aren't necessarily ones we tend to prioritize in DFS.

Logan Webb ($10,200) is one of the first guys who stand out. While Webb rarely pops for a huge fantasy score, he's a remarkable innings eater, falling short of six innings just twice in 15 starts and going seven or more frames eight times. His 24.5% strikeout rate doesn't leap off the page, but a stellar 60.7% ground-ball rate and 4.8% walk rate have helped him achieve a 3.19 SIERA. Overall, that's contributed to him logging 11 quality stars, and with this level of consistency, he's scored at least 40 FanDuel points eight times.

Unfortunately, this isn't the best matchup against Arizona. The D-backs are an above-average offense versus righties, and their active roster has an upside-suppressing 18.9% strikeout rate versus right-handed pitching. But we might see lower strikeout totals across the board tonight, and Arizona isn't expected to do much damage, coming in with a modest 3.50 implied team total.

Putting it all together, Webb is probably the safest option in the context of this particular slate.

Chris Bassitt ($9,300) and Joe Musgrove ($8,900) fit a similar mold as Webb, as they probably won't rack up a ton of Ks, either. But they have plus matchups against the Athletics and Nationals, respectively.

Bassitt's put up rather pedestrian numbers this season, including a 20.6% strikeout rate, but he's another pitcher who tends to go deep into games. He's notched quality starts in 10 of his 15 outings, and he's reached at least seven innings five times, even posting a complete-game shutout in May.

Oakland's active roster owns a 92 wRC+ and 25.0% strikeout rate versus right-handers, which naturally boosts Bassitt's prospects tonight. However, it's worth noting that he's struggled against left-handed batters specifically this season (5.34 xFIP), so if the A's go heavy on lefty sticks, that could make things a little tougher on him.

Musgrove has a solid if unspectacular 4.20 SIERA, 20.9% strikeout rate, and 6.5% walk rate over 10 starts. It's a boring line for fantasy purposes, but it wouldn't be surprising to see him blank Washington over six-plus innings.

Against righties, the Nats' active roster is low on punchouts (18.4%) but is otherwise a fantastic matchup with middling marks in wRC+ (92), ISO (.135), and walk rate (5.9%). Washington has a slate-low 3.30 implied team total.

You can arguably throw Brayan Bello ($8,700) in this same high-floor, low-strikeout grouping, and that makes him intriguing at his salary. Bello has produced a Webb-esque 58.2% ground-ball rate, and his strikeout rate is actually slightly higher than both Bassitt's and Musgrove's at 22.2%. The young right-hander is also fresh off a season-high eight strikeouts against the Yankees, which is a promising sign for his future upside.

This could particularly be the case against a predominantly right-handed White Sox lineup, as Bello's strikeout rate jumps up to 26.5% in same-sided matchups. Chicago's active roster has a 90 wRC+ versus righties this year, too. Given his easier path to strikeouts, he's my favorite value play, just edging out Musgrove.

For pure strikeout upside in tournaments, Kodai Senga ($9,900) is our boom-or-bust play of the night. Senga boasts the slate's highest strikeout rate (28.3%) but the issue is that it comes alongside the highest walk rate (13.4%), too.

While the Phillies' active roster has a 23.5% strikeout rate versus righties, further enhancing Senga's strikeout potential, this lineup has its share of potent bats, which is backed by a scary 4.82 implied team total. Further complicating matters is that rain is expected in Philadelphia.

Still, if the weather looks safe and Senga is at his best, it wouldn't be shocking if he leads the slate in punchouts, and he's boomed for 55, 58, and 49 FanDuel points in three of his last six starts.

Hitting Breakdown

The Los Angeles Angels are visiting Coors Field tonight, and as you might expect, that means a hefty implied team total (6.23). They'll face Kyle Freeland, a left-hander who is struggling against righty sticks, showing a 5.09 xFIP and 13.7% strikeout rate while allowing 1.60 home runs per 9 innings off a 41.9% fly-ball rate.

Mike Trout ($4,400), Brandon Drury ($3,600), Taylor Ward ($3,500), and Hunter Renfroe ($3,100) are the top right-handed options. Chad Wallach ($2,700) is a pinch-hit risk, but he could be worth a shot because he's performed significantly better with the platoon advantage over his career. Freeland is naturally better versus lefties, but his numbers are hardly enough to scare us off of rostering Shohei Ohtani ($5,000) -- if you can find the room for that massive salary.

The Toronto Blue Jays have the second-highest implied team total (5.57), and they may very well be facing the slate's worst starting pitcher. This season, James Kaprielian has put up a 5.34 SIERA, 19.1% strikeout rate, 11.7% walk rate, and 30.2% ground-ball rate, giving us pretty much everything we could possibly want in a stacking matchup.

Further strengthening this stack is the fact that the Blue Jays have low salaries tonight, so it's easy to roster the usual suspects in Bo Bichette ($3,200), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,000), George Springer ($2,900), and Matt Chapman ($2,900). Kaprielian's numbers worsen even more against left-handed bats (6.32 xFIP), so Brandon Belt ($2,500) and Daulton Varsho ($2,900) are also great choices.

The San Diego Padres are the other obvious non-Coors choice. That's because they're facing left-hander Patrick Corbin, who is enduring yet another long season, recording a 4.96 SIERA and 14.1% strikeout rate over 15 starts.

As is always the case with Corbin, we want to primarily attack him with righties. Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,300) is getting up there in salary, but we can also look to Manny Machado ($2,900), Xander Bogaerts ($3,000), and Gary Sanchez ($2,800) at value salaries. Ha-Seong Kim ($2,600) and Nelson Cruz ($2,300) are respectable options lower in the order, though Cruz is a pinch-hit risk at this stage in his career. While Juan Soto ($3,500) doesn't benefit as much in the lefty-lefty spot, we should be able to get him at a lower roster percentage, which is never a bad thing.

The Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies are others to consider. The Rockies will presumably be the less popular side at Coors, and while left-hander Patrick Sandoval is getting grounders (50.9%), his 17.3% strikeout rate could lead to all sorts of trouble. The Dodgers also face a low-strikeout pitcher in J.P. France, a righty who's actually been worse in same-sided matchups, allowing 2.36 home runs per 9 innings in that split. The aforementioned Senga has issued 3-5 walks in all but 3 of 13 starts, so the Phillies could cash in if he can't find the plate.