3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 4/3/19

Gerrit Cole, P, Houston Astros

Price: $11,200

The choice for a top pitcher on this slate comes down to Gerrit Cole and Ross Stripling. There may come a time this season when we're longing for the days of a sub-$10,000 Stripling, but he's just not built up enough fantasy consistency to get the edge over Cole as the top pitching stud of the night.

Stellar in his season debut, fanning five while allowing no runs, three hits and one walk, Stripling was still yanked after 5 1/3 innings. He didn't make it past seven innings in any of his starts last year, either, and for as good as he's capable of being, the potential that he doesn't get deep into the game hurts both his floor and ceiling.

Cole went six innings in his first start of 2019, and last year the Houston Astros let him pitch at least 7.0 in 10 of his 32 games.

He punched out 10 with a 13.9% swinging-strike rate in that first start of the year, and while the sample is small, that makes it look like we're going to keep seeing the Cole we saw last in 2018 (34.5% strikeout rate, 14.1% swinging-strike rate) rather than the Cole we saw in his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Playing on the road against the Texas Rangers certainly isn't an ideal spot, but the Astros are still the second-biggest favorites on the slate (-170 moneyline), and the only bigger favorites are Stripling and the Los Angeles Dodgers.