FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 9/1/19

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 Pitchers

Justin Verlander ($11,900 on FanDuel): Verlander is on the road versus the Toronto Blue Jays. Against righties in 2019, the Jays sit 23rd in wOBA (.308) with the eighth-highest strikeout rate (24.6%). Verlander, who is a slate-leading -300 favorite, has a 35.0% strikeout rate, 16.0% swinging-strike rate and 4.8% walk rate -- just insanely good numbers for the 36-year-old righty. Our models project him to score 38.6 FanDuel points, and the Jays own just a 3.43 implied total

Patrick Corbin ($11,200): Corbin gets to face the Miami Marlins, a team that has a feeble .291 wOBA against lefties this season. While Corbin's numbers aren't quite at the level of Verlander's, this could be a ceiling spot for him, and a 28.2% strikeout rate and 13.8% swinging-strike rate are pretty dang good. Corbin has a great shot to get a win (-270 favorite), and our projections forecast him for 39.2 FanDuel points.

Value Pitcher

Michael Pineda ($9,500): Pineda is a solid value arm who has a nice matchup, drawing the Detroit Tigers on the road. The big righty has a stout 12.1% swinging-strike rate for the season, which tells us his 21.9% strikeout rate could be a notch or two higher. He also limits free passes with a 4.5% walk rate. If you make these Tigers hit their way on, they usually don't as they sport a .285 wOBA with a league-worst 27.0% strikeout rate against righties. Pineda's bugaboo is his batted-ball profile -- 39.9% hard-hit rate and 39.5% fly-ball rate -- but that's not as big of a worry against the Tigers.

Hitters to Target

High-Priced Hitters

Max Kepler ($3,500) and Nelson Cruz ($4,000): On the flip side of that Tigers-Twins clash, Minnesota is on the stacking radar for their matchup with Spencer Turnbull. After a decent start to the campaign, Turnbull has tanked, posting an ugly 5.15 xFIP and 10.6% walk rate in the second half while allowing a 54.4% hard-hit rate. The Twins have a 5.50 implied total, second-best of the slate, and you can look to several of their bats. Kepler has a .362 wOBA, 44.4% hard-hit rate and 47.2% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage while Cruz has tagged right-handers for .410 wOBA and 50.3% hard-hit rate.

Kris Bryant ($3,900) and Javier Baez ($3,800): The Chicago Cubs play host to Gio Gonzalez, who has a 10.3% walk rate and 5.02 SIERA over 64 1/3 frames. Right-handed hitters have gotten to Gonzalez for a .360 wOBA and 10.8% walk rate. Bryant and Baez have pummeled lefties this season. Baez has put up a .391 wOBA and 41.1% hard-hit rate in the split while Bryant owns a .464 wOBA, 40.3% hard-hit rate and 48.6% fly-ball rate against left-handers.

Value Hitters

Jake Cave ($2,600): Cave has really come on of late, blasting five dingers in his last six starts. He's a cheap way to get exposure to the Twins, and he'll likely be a pretty popular value target, especially for those who pay up for Corbin or JV. For the year, Cave has a 46.4% hard-hit rate against righties.

Ryan O'Hearn ($2,600): The Kansas City Royals have some under-the-radar stacking appeal against Aaron Brooks. The Baltimore Orioles' righty has struck out just 18.3% of hitters on his way to a 4.79 SIERA. O'Hearn has been bad this year -- there's no two ways about it -- but he's only a season removed from producing a .458 wOBA and 48.2% hard-hit rate against lefties in a sample of 129 plate appearances.