FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Friday 7/7/23

It's a large Friday slate as always, but a handful of pitchers emerge above the rest tonight. And while we don't have Coors Field on tap, we still have one team sporting an implied team total over six runs.

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

In my estimation, there are three pitchers who immediately stand out: Zac Gallen ($10,600), Luis Castillo ($9,700), and Hunter Brown ($9,000).

When factoring in salary, Brown is arguably the first guy to look at, particularly in a high-strikeout matchup against Seattle. While Brown has produced mixed results lately, he's been facing some rather tough opponents, and this is the right opportunity to bounce back with a big score.

The Mariners' active roster has some pop, but they also have the second-highest strikeout rate versus right-handed pitching (25.2%). Brown's 55.7% ground-ball rate will help keep the ball in the yard, and he should be able to rack up the punchouts with a 27.5% strikeout rate, one of the slate's better marks.

On the other side of that game, Castillo will be toeing the rubber for Seattle against a watered-down Astros lineup without Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve. Although Houston is still an average matchup for generating Ks, without those players, their roster's wRC+ against righties drops to just 94.

Perhaps Castillo has been a smidge lucky to have a 3.05 ERA, but it's hard to scoff at a 3.60 SIERA, 27.9% strikeout rate, and 6.9% walk rate. His workload is incredibly consistent, too, as his 95 pitches last week broke a streak of seven straight starts where he logged 99 or more pitches, including a season-high of 109.

Gallen's salary is the slate's second-highest mark, but it still isn't an exorbitant cap hit. Following a concerning dip in strikeouts over the last two months, the right-hander opened July on a high note, striking out 12 batters versus the Angels, his first game with double-digit Ks since the end of April.

He'll face the Pirates, who are a below-average offense versus righties and have one of the slate's lower implied team totals (3.64). Even with the up-and-down strikeouts, Gallen's 26.8% clip is right in line with his career average, and he's someone who consistently churns out innings, ranking fifth overall in the category this season (111 1/3).

After that trio, Andrew Abbott ($10,600) is an intriguing wild card. On the one hand, he's coming off a 12-strikeout, 60-FanDuel-point performance and boasts a 29.4% strikeout rate. Milwaukee's active roster owns a 26.2% strikeout rate versus southpaws, so the matchup checks out, too. On the other hand, Abbott's just six starts into his MLB career, and his 1.21 ERA has been aided by a lot of luck, including an unsustainable .190 BABIP.

At the slate's highest salary, Abbott is a risky play for sure, but that's also likely to reduce his popularity, making him a viable contrarian option.

Hitting Breakdown

The Boston Red Sox have just about everything going for them tonight between hitter-friendly weather, their home ballpark, and a weak opposing starter (Luis Medina). Boston's 6.19 implied team total leads the slate.

Medina has lackluster marks across the board, entering the day with a 5.07 SIERA, 20.1% strikeout rate, and 12.7% walk rate. He has poor splits against both lefties and righties, but the latter is crushing him for 2.48 home runs per 9 innings. In fact, 9 of his 11 home runs allowed have come off right-handed bats.

While most of Boston's top bats are lefties, that split should push us toward righties Justin Turner ($3,400) and Adam Duvall ($2,900), and even catcher Connor Wong ($2,500) could be worth a look as a punt. Otherwise, all the usual lefty sticks are in play, with Rafael Devers ($3,700) naturally leading the way. Oakland's bullpen remains one of the worst in the league, as well, further enhancing this spot for all Red Sox hitters.

The Texas Rangers also have a hefty implied team total (5.52) in Washington, where high temperatures and a shaky Trevor Williams await them.

Williams' 4.95 SIERA points to some regression coming his way, and that could come first and foremost versus left-handed hitters. While the right-hander is coughing up dingers against both sides of the plate, an ugly 5.68 xFIP and 11.7% strikeout rate when facing lefties suggests that more of them should be coming off those bats.

That places Corey Seager ($4,200) on a pedestal, and then Nathaniel Lowe ($3,000) and Jonah Heim ($3,100) are appealing at lower salaries. Williams' metrics in same-sided matchups are technically better, but a 22.7% strikeout rate and 41.8% fly-ball rate show why he's giving up bombs to righties, so Adolis Garcia ($3,900), Marcus Semien ($3,600), and friends could get in on the fun, too.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are against a competent starter in righty Griffin Canning, but you know the drill -- they're just about always in play. Canning's allowing 1.95 home runs per 9 innings to righties, and even though some of his advanced metrics point to bad luck, it's an issue that's persisted over his career. And then, against lefty bats, his strikeout rate plummets to 21.4%. In all, it's another night where we can pretty freely pick and choose any of the usual suspects for Dodgers stacks.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, and Minnesota Twins are other offenses in play. Veteran lefty Rich Hill is generating a modest 21.6% strikeout rate and 32.6% ground-ball rate versus batters with the platoon advantage, and Arizona should have a righty-heavy lineup. The Guardians also face a left-hander in Daniel Lynch, and he's showing a 5.41 xFIP against right-handed hitters -- his ERA should be far higher than 4.14. Southpaw Cole Irvin is giving up 1.69 home runs per 9 innings to righties off a 45.6% fly-ball rate, and the Twins are another team that will load up on that side of the plate.