FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Monday 5/24/21

Monday gets the week started with a six-game main offering, and we have a pretty appealing selection of hurlers for a slate of this size. That does limit the number of potential stacks that stand out, though, and in terms of implied totals, the Chicago White Sox enter the day as the leaders in the clubhouse.

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Let's check out the top options on tonight's main slate.

Pitchers

Lance Lynn ($10,000): While Brandon Woodruff is great and all, his matchup against a tough Padres lineup isn't ideal, which makes him a riskier option than usual despite his impressive resume. He's still in play, of course, but Lynn arguably deserves a slight edge over him due to his easier spot versus the Cardinals. Although St. Louis isn't an exciting matchup for strikeouts, their active roster only possesses an 89 wRC+ against right-handed pitching. As for Lynn himself, he's sporting a solid 3.69 SIERA, 27.7% strikeout rate, and 7.2% walk rate over his seven starts.

Blake Snell ($9,300): Between his salary and upside, there's a strong case for Snell being the top choice in tournaments. That 13.7% walk rate is an eyesore, but as he demonstrated last week against Colorado (52 FanDuel points), his 33.0% strikeout rate still gives him a path to a high ceiling. The opponent is right for a similar performance, as the Brewers' active roster is carrying a 28.1% strikeout rate versus southpaws and has a modest 3.66 implied total.

David Peterson ($8,000): And speaking of Colorado, that's who Peterson faces at Citi Field tonight, a venue that's a sizable step down from the confines of Coors Field. As usual, the Rockies have been terrible on the road -- they have just two away wins all season -- so it shouldn't be surprising that they have a slate-low 2.99 implied total. Peterson has been inconsistent this season, but a 3.43 SIERA, 28.9% strikeout rate, and 52.6% ground-ball rate are all positive signs. Considering he only held a 19.5% strikeout rate in 2020, it's easy to remain skeptical of the punchouts, but a 12.3% swinging-strike rate is encouraging, and the low salary makes him worth taking a chance on.

Others to Consider: Brandon Woodruff ($10,700)

Stacks

Chicago White Sox: As of this writing, the White Sox have the highest implied total (4.77) by a wide margin, with the next best totals hovering closer to 4.50. That should make Chicago a chalky stack pretty much by default, particularly because they're facing a left-hander -- the White Sox are annihilating left-handed pitching again this season with a 135 wRC+ in the split.

That said, Kwang-Hyun Kim isn't a complete pushover, owning a respectable 3.96 SIERA, 23.7% strikeout rate, and 7.0% walk rate, and he's only allowed one home run over his six 2021 starts. However, that isn't an imposing strikeout rate, and Kim is only displaying a 39.7% ground-ball rate, so the White Sox still have a clear path towards a big night.

Jose Abreu ($3,700) is the standout as usual, along with the power/speed upside of leadoff man Tim Anderson ($3,400), and then we find value righty sticks lower in order like Yermin Mercedes ($2,800), Yasmani Grandal ($3,100), and Andrew Vaughn ($2,300).

Detroit Tigers: Boy, you know it's that kind of slate when the Tigers are listed in the stacking section, but that says more about Sam Hentges than anything else.

The young Cleveland left-hander hasn't done anything to show he belongs in the big leagues between a lackluster 4.89 SIERA, 19.7% strikeout rate, and 11.8% walk rate over 15.1 innings. He's also allowing loads of hard contact and doesn't induce many grounders, leading to a high rate of dingers thus far, as well. Considering Hentges only managed a 5.11 ERA and 1.65 WHIP in Double-A a couple of years ago, we probably shouldn't expect a dramatic turnaround anytime soon.

Admittedly, the Tigers have been awful against left-handed pitching this season, but this should be an entire lineup of righties and switch-hitters, and they were actually quite successful versus southpaws in 2020, so we shouldn't completely write them off.

Robbie Grossman ($2,900) and Jeimer Candelario ($2,800) are solid hitters who bat high in the order, while Eric Haase ($2,500) is showing some pop over a limited sample. Obviously, this isn't exactly a deep, star-studded lineup, so it's probably best to stick with the upper two-thirds of the order for the most part.

Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles are another team that doesn't frequent these parts too often, but right-hander Matt Shoemaker is having a rough 2021 campaign. He's produced a poor 5.39 SIERA over eight starts, and his strikeout rate has plummeted to just 14.0%. He's also having trouble keeping the ball in the park -- something he also struggled with last season -- as he's already allowed 10 dingers at a rate of 2.25 per nine innings.

We shouldn't hesitate to stack both righties and lefties, but Shoemaker does have a 52.9% ground-ball rate versus righties, so Anthony Santander ($2,500) and Cedric Mullins ($2,600) get a slight boost with the platoon advantage. Trey Mancini ($4,300) and Austin Hays ($3,200) are the top right-handed power bats to prioritize.

Others to Consider: Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics