MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 5/5/21

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle May 5th, 2021
Yu Darvish mans the bump tonight, and he is primed to explode. Which other big plays should we consider?

Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-salary studs. These guys take up by far the biggest chunk of your cap space, but they also offer the highest ceiling. And in the case of pitchers, the high-salary options typically come with the highest floors, too.

For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce well, too, increasing our chances for runs and RBI. For pitchers, we want big strikeout numbers, while the ability to go deep in a game and pick up a win is also valuable.

With your high-salary picks playing such a big role in your lineup, you need to be right on these guys, so let's take a look at a few top-end options you can count on to anchor your lineup today.

Yu Darvish, SP, San Diego Padres ($11,800)

There's a tough choice to be made today at the very high end of starting pitching -- do we pay up for Shane Bieber ($12,200), or do we save a few bucks and pivot down to Yu Darvish?

By the slimmest of margins, we are taking the cost savings and going to Darvish. Both are good choices, but there are a few slight reasons to lean towards Yu.

He faces a Pittsburgh Pirates offense that whiffs at a slightly higher clip (23.0%) than Shane Bieber's opponent, the Kansas City Royals (21.3%). The Pirates are a weaker overall offense, too. They sport a .291 wOBA to KC's .310, and they own a league-worst .123 isolated power (ISO) versus Kansas City's .162.

The salary is up there, but we expect a monster night out of Darvish the tune of 48.2 FanDuel points -- which is 2.2 more than any other hurler.

Rafael Devers, 3B, Boston Red Sox ($3,700)

The Boston Red Sox just keep hummin' along, slaughtering all pitchers in their way. After throwing up an 11-spot an evening ago, they will stay in the friendly home confines of Fenway Park, and this time, the aggrieving party is Casey Mize.

Mize has not been good this season. Spanning 26 2/3 innings pitched, the righty owns a 5.06 ERA and 1.42 WHIP, and opposing lefties have slammed him for a .432 wOBA and .619 slugging percentage over 124 total batters faced.

Devers is a top bat, per our model -- pay up and expect a big evening.

Ronald Acuna, OF, Atlanta Braves ($4,300)

After a lat strain sidelined him for a bit, Ronald Acuna has been a bit shy to swipe bases. However, the power -- that ish cray.

Crushing another long home run last night (he now has 10 home runs on the young season), Acuna takes his robust .337 batting average and 27 runs batted into tonight's contest against Erick Fedde.

Fedde has been okay this year -- he owns a 4.43 ERA and 1.32 WHIP over 22 1/3 innings pitched -- but the walks are killing him. The right-hander has an 11.3% walk rate so far this season, and if Acuna comes up with a few teammates on base, take cover in the outfield bleachers.

Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.