FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Monday 9/7/20
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, which is starts at 6:10 p.m. EST.
Pitchers to Target
Dinelson Lamet ($9,000 on FanDuel) has the swing-and-miss upside we crave, and he gets a delightful home matchup against the Colorado Rockies.
Away from Coors, the Rox sport the second-worst wOBA (.282) with the ninth-highest strikeout rate (25.2%). Lamet is putting up ace-like numbers so far in 2020, holding a 3.59 SIERA, 31.7% strikeout rate and 14.4% swinging-strike rate. While his 40.4% hard-hit rate is a concern, the matchup paired with Petco Park mitigates some of those worries. Lamet offers a juicy floor/ceiling combo.
Whenever a pitcher the caliber of Max Scherzer ($11,000) is on the slate, we need to at least mention him. Scherzer draws a rough matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays, who are in the top 10 in both ISO and wOBA. With that said, Tampa Bay does own the seventh-highest strikeout rate (24.7%). As we know, Scherzer can deal against any lineup, but he's a touch behind Lamet for me, especially when you factor in the $2,000 difference in salary.
With a salary similar to Scherzer's, Zac Gallen ($10,600) may sneak under the radar, particularly given his clash with the San Francisco Giants as San Fran has been surprisingly stout offensively. Gallen, however, has a 3.79 SIERA, 27.8% strikeout rate and 12.3% swinging-strike rate. If the masses flock to Scherzer and Lamet, Gallen could be a swing play in GPPs.
Something is going on with Kevin Gausman ($7,700), and he's worth consideration in a nice spot at home versus the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Gausman is generating a ton of whiffs this season, producing stellar marks in strikeout rate (31.0%) and swinging-strike rate (14.8%). You may be inclined to think we're seeing some small-sample noise, but the swinging-strike rate is the exact same clip he had over 102 1/3 frames a year ago. Arizona boasts the third-worst wOBA (.294), though their 20.4% strikeout rate is the third-lowest in baseball. All in all, considering the modest salary, Gausman is firmly in play.
Stacks to Target
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres get a cozy Petco Park matchup with Kyle Freeland, who is striking out just 15.0% of hitters this season. The Padres do work against lefties, checking in with the eighth-best wOBA (.344) and third-best hard-hit rate (46.6%) in the split.
Fernando Tatis ($4,600) and Manny Machado ($4,000) are a great core to a San Diego stack. While they have high salaries and will be popular, both guys punish southpaws. Tatis has a laughable .478 wOBA against lefties for his career while Machado produced a .441 wOBA versus left-handers in 2019.
Wil Myers ($3,200) is a nice point-per-dollar pick as he had a .368 wOBA in the split last season, and Jurickson Profar ($2,700) will also hit from the right side, which is his better side (.354 wOBA in 2019).
Even though it's a lefty-lefty spot for Eric Hosmer ($3,700), he has shown a little pop against southpaws this year, jacking two dingers in 42 plate appearances in the split this campaign.
Cleveland Indians
After the Padres, there aren't many great stacking spots on this six-game main slate. The Cleveland Indians are enticing in their matchup with Brad Keller, and they have a 4.92 implied total. The Kansas City Royals' righty has a lowly 17.2% strikeout rate in his career, and he's giving up a career-worst 37.8% hard-hit rate this season.
Jose Ramirez ($3,800) and Francisco Lindor ($3,400) will have the platoon advantage. Lindor finished 2019 with a .359 wOBA and 43.7% hard-hit rate versus right-handers while Ramirez posted a .338 wOBA and 42.5% hard-hit rate in the split last year.
Franmil Reyes ($3,000) is the only other Cleveland bat with a salary of at least $3,000. Following a 48.3% hard-hit rate in righty-righty clashes a season ago, Reyes has a .425 wOBA and 50.6% hard-hit rate in the split in 2020. He's a fantastic option at this salary.
Also deserving of a peep are Tyler Naquin ($2,900), Cesar Hernandez ($2,800), and Carlos Santana ($2,700). Naquin is a righty-killer who carries a gaudy .403 wOBA in the split so far in 2020. Hernandez will likely be atop the lineup while Santana -- who owns a hard-to-believe 19.4% walk rate -- had a .366 wOBA against righties a season ago.
Toronto Blue Jays
This one is a little bit of a reach as Jordan Montgomery is a solid pitcher. But Montgomery doesn't appear to be fully in the groove as he works his way back from injury, and the Toronto Blue Jays have some righties who offer big-time pop. Toronto's 4.77 implied total is a number we can feel good about.
Even if you don't want to full-on stack the Jays, Randal Grichuk ($3,300) and Lourdes Gurriel ($3,000) are a fun two-man pairing that won't break the bank. Grichuk had a 39.9% hard-hit rate and 42.0% fly-ball rate against southpaws last season, and he's trimmed his overall strikeout rate by 4.8 percentage points compared to his 2019 mark. Gurriel tagged lefties for a .403 wOBA last year.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,100), Jonathan Villar ($2,700) and Danny Jansen ($2,300) also get you righty exposure to this lineup. Jansen had a nice batted-ball profile (40.7% hard-hit rate and 47.3% fly-ball rate) in the split in 2019.
