FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Monday 7/30/18

The beauty of daily fantasy baseball is that the top targets are different each and every day. Whether it's the right-handed catcher who destroys left-handed pitching or the mid-range hurler facing a depleted lineup, you're not going to find yourself using the same assets time after time.

While this breaks up the monotony, it can make it hard to decide which players are primed to succeed on a given day. We can help bridge that gap.

In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy-looking team to put up some big point totals.

If you need help getting started on that trek, here are some of the top options on the board today. We'll be focusing exclusively on the main slate.

Pitchers to Target

High-Priced Pitcher

Gerrit Cole ($11,100 on FanDuel): Cole stands out as the lone option priced above $10,000 on tonight's slate, giving you a big decision to make when it comes to roster construction. After a month-long rough stretch in the heart of the season, Cole's numbers have been dominant over the last 30 days as evidenced by his 2.99 SIERA and 36.5% strikeout rate in the span. The walks have remained an issue, however, as his walk rate sits at 10.4% over that timeframe and 8.7% for the entire season. That might not be a huge issue against the Seattle Mariners as they come into tonight with the third-lowest walk rate against right-handed pitching, but they couple that with the fourth-lowest strikeout rate. Given the contact-heavy nature of the Mariners' lineup, this appears to be more of a floor spot rather than a matchup with a massive ceiling. Cole remains locked and loaded as a cash-game target even at his elevated price, but he remains far from a must-play on this wide-open nine-game slate.