MLB

FanDuel MLB Sunday Night Baseball Single-Game Helper: 8/11/19

Austan Kas  —  @AustanKas Aug 11th, 2019
The Giants' left-handed hitters are in a nice spot tonight versus Jake Arrieta. Who can deliver on this single-game slate?

FanDuel's single-game slates are a great way to make any MLB matchup more exciting, and FanDuel is offering single-game contests for the Sunday Night Baseball clash each week. What better way to wrap up the MLB week than to play a little DFS on Sunday night?

Single-game contests are a different beast. You have $35,000 to fill out a five-man lineup. There are no positional requirements, but there are three utility spots, one All-Star slot, and an MVP position. The player you put in the MVP spot has his points multiplied by two while the All-Star position gets his points multiplied by 1.5. The three utility places are scored like normal.

This Sunday's game is a matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park, and first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EST. The pitching probables are Jake Arrieta and Conner Menez, and our models forecast a Phils' win by a score of 4.28-4.12.

Let's get to it.

Rhys Hoskins ($9,000)

Against lefties in 2019, Hoskins has a .433 wOBA, 52.0% hard-hit rate and 45.5% fly-ball rate. That gives him decent homer odds even at the pitcher-friendly confines of Oracle Park. Menez does have a lengthy minor-league track record of getting punchouts, including a 33.9% strikeout rate this year in 44 1/3 frames at Triple-A, so I'm not super into the Phils in this matchup. But Hoskins has to be on our radar on any single-game slate in which he's facing a southpaw.

Mike Yastrzemski ($8,500)

For me, the Giants are the more attractive of the two offenses today, and it's not often we can say that. I mean, Mike Yastrzemski is their top-priced bat. But maybe I need to put some respect on Yaz's name as he's sporting a 44.3% hard-hit rate and 48.8% fly-ball rate this year with the platoon advantage.

Arrieta has an ugly 7.1% swinging-strike rate overall, and lefties have beaten him up to the tune of a .379 wOBA and 40.2% hard-hit rate while striking out just 14.5% of the time (with an 11.2% walk rate). So, yeah, loading up on San Fran's lefties is a very appealing route to take.

Brandon Belt ($8,000)

As we just said, this is a money spot for the Giants' lefties. Belt fits the bill, and he's posted a 39.3% hard-hit rate and 50.9% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage. As has been the case for a few years now, Belt has been much better away from home -- .348 wOBA on the road, compared to a .281 wOBA at Oracle -- but he's a great piece to have if you're loading up on San Fran.

Jean Segura ($7,000)

Segura could go overlooked for those who take a stars-and-scrubs approach, and he's got a .369 wOBA versus left-handers in 2019. He's donged more homers against lefties (six) than he has righties (five) this season despite logging 257 more plate appearances against right-handers.

Scooter Gennett ($5,500)

What was that about San Fran's left-handed bats? Oh, yeah -- we want them on this slate. Gennett got a huge park-factor downgrade when he went from Great American Ball Park to Oracle Park at the trade deadline. That dings his value in the long run, but he's firmly in play on this single-game slate. While 2019 has been a miserable year for him, Gennett is just a season removed from mauling righties for a .375 wOBA.