FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 8/29/20
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
Dylan Bundy ($9,500 on FanDuel) is in his own tier tonight. Facing the Seattle Mariners, a team that sports the fourth-worst wOBA (.301) and fans at the 10th-highest clip (24.4%), Bundy has a floor/ceiling combination that's unrivaled on this slate. He's been outstanding so far in 2020, boasting a 28.9% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate and 3.45 SIERA. I won't fade Bundy in very many lineups.
After Bundy, I like Ross Stripling ($7,300). He's on the road versus the Texas Rangers, an offense that has been dreadful this season with a 29th-ranked .278 wOBA. Stripling hasn't been so good himself this year, holding an ugly 6.8% swinging-strike rate through 29 2/3 frames. But he had a 25.1% strikeout rate and 10.4% swinging-strike rate last year, and Texas' 3.91 implied total is a number we can feel good about.
Lance Lynn ($9,500) and Brett Anderson ($8,000) are worth a look. Anderson has a sweet matchup with the Pittsburgh Pirates and has put up 31 and 40 FanDuel points in his last two outings. Lynn is a pivot off Bundy and shouldn't see much ownership thanks to a brutal matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers. I'm not sure I can go here, but Lynn does have a 28.4% strikeout rate in 2020.
Stacks to Target
Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres
It's Adrian Morejon versus Antonio Senzatela today at Coors. We should get a lot of runs. I'm not going to list every expected starter, but if they're in the lineup, they're in play. I do, however, want to highlight a few of the moderately priced bats.
Colorado Rockies righties Garrett Hampson ($3,400) and Matt Kemp ($3,200) are easy to like at this price as they'll hold the platoon advantage against the lefty Morejon. If Hampson is in the leadoff spot, he might be the slate's highest-owned hitter. Jake Cronenworth ($3,300) and Jurickson Profar ($3,000) are cheaper ways to get access to the Padres and both will hit from the left side.
Washington Nationals
Chris Mazza is taking the ball for the Boston Red Sox, and the Washington Nationals have a juicy 5.79 implied total as a result. Outside of a nice ground-ball rate in the minors, nothing in Mazza's profile is noteworthy.
Juan Soto ($4,700) is getting up there in price, but the dude is a monster. He's got a laughable .525 wOBA against righties in this year's small sample. The only negative is that he'll likely be popular -- even at this price. Trea Turner ($3,900) is the Nats' other expensive bat, and he's worth the price, as well.
However, I think the best route to take might be to load up on a four-man stack of cheap Nationals and spend the rest at Coors. Asdrubal Cabrera ($2,800), Adam Eaton ($2,800), Howie Kendrick ($2,700) and Eric Thames ($2,300) are a fun four-man pairing that doesn't break the bank.
Boston Red Sox
On the other side of that game, the Red Sox have a 5.71 implied total. They're up against Anibal Sanchez, who is currently posting career-worst marks in hard-hit rate (44.3%) and SIERA (5.28).
You would've gotten some odd looks from people a few months back if you would've said Mitch Moreland ($3,900) is gonna be the most expensive Red Sox bat by $500, but that's the case today. It's fully deserved, too, as he's mashed righties to the tune of a .522 wOBA, 56.1% hard-hit rate and 51.2% fly-ball rate this season.
The 1-2-3-4 hitters will probably be Alex Verdugo ($3,000), Rafael Devers ($3,400), J.D. Martinez ($3,400) and Xander Bogaerts ($3,400). Verdugo shapes up as one of the slate's best point-per-dollar plays if he's leading off. He owns a .390 wOBA and 41.8% hard-hit rate against righties in 2020. He's a nice one-off pick if you don't want to full-on stack Boston.
Other Stacks to Consider -- The Arizona Diamondbacks against Trevor Cahill (5.04 implied total) and Milwaukee Brewers versus JT Brubaker (5.14) implied total.
