MLB

FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 9/20/20

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

Carlos Carrasco ($9,900 on FanDuel) is a priority for me on this slate. He gets a dream matchup versus the Detroit Tigers, an offense that has the highest strikeout rate (27.3%) and the sixth-worst wOBA (.306). Carrasco owns a 27.2% strikeout rate and 12.6% swinging-strike rate. A 9.1% walk rate is an eyesore, but it may be small-sample noise as Carrasco hasn't had a walk rate above 6.0% since 2013. Detroit's 3.42 implied total is a slate-low clip.

After Carrasco, we have two low-salary options I'm pretty into, though if I'm making one lineup, I'll take Carrasco's safety over either of them. But these guys are awfully appealing on a Coors slate.

Josh Lindblom ($6,700) is a smashing point-per-dollar play in a matchup with the Kansas City Royals (3.88 implied total). KC sports the 10th-highest strikeout rate (24.3%) with the 7th-worst wOBA (.307), so the matchup is there. Lindblom's SIERA (3.92) is much better than his ERA (5.26). He quietly has a 29.8% strikeout rate and 13.2% swinging-strike rate -- numbers we can rarely get access to for a salary this low.

Jose Urquidy ($6,500) has barely pitched this year due to an injury, but he has posted a 21.6% strikeout rate and 11.6% swinging-strike rate across 57 2/3 career innings. While the Arizona Diamondbacks don't strike out much (21.3%), they also don't offer much pop (.296 wOBA, third-worst). Urquidy has thrown 90 and 88 pitches in his last two starts, so the workload is fine.

Stacks to Target

Los Angeles Dodgers

I could basically copy and paste what I wrote yesterday as the Los Angeles Dodgers are once again in a smash spot at Coors. Today they're taking on Antonio Senzatela, and LA has a slate-best 7.24 implied total, which is roughly 1.5 runs clear of any other implied total on the slate.

Anyone in the Dodgers' starting nine is worth a look, especially lefties as Senzatela gave up a .394 wOBA to them in 2019.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros pummel left-handers, and Madison Bumgarner is riding on fumes right now. MadBum has a 12.4% strikeout rate and 5.98 SIERA this season. He's been one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Houston's 5.54 implied total is second to only the Dodgers' gaudy mark.

George Springer ($3,700) and Alex Bregman ($3,500) are a great core to any Houston stack. Bregman has a .455 wOBA against southpaws this season after producing a .473 wOBA in the split in 2019.

Jose Altuve ($3,100) is having a miserable year, but he racked up a .429 wOBA with the platoon advantage just a season ago. Yulieski Gurriel ($2,600) and Carlos Correa ($2,200) are economical ways to get access to righties in the Astros' lineup.

New York Mets

The New York Mets have been awesome versus right-handed pitchers this season, ranking second in wOBA in the split (.361). They'll see a struggling Kyle Wright, a righty who has a 6.36 SIERA and 16.4% walk rate in 2020. Over his career, which is only 50 2/3 innings, Wright has been crushed by left-handed hitters to the tune of a .480 wOBA.

Michael Conforto ($3,400) is a fantastic play at this salary. He has mashed his way to a .435 wOBA and 41.1% hard-hit rate with the platoon advantage this campaign, and he had a .382 wOBA in the split a year ago.

The Mets have several other quality left-handed hitters we can target, led by Dominic Smith ($3,500), Robinson Cano ($3,300), Brandon Nimmo ($3,200) and Jeff McNeil ($2,900). We can also look at righties Pete Alonso ($3,500) and J.D. Davis ($2,800), both of whom offer plenty of pop.