FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Monday 5/31/21

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 starts at 1:05 p.m. EST. Stats do not include Sunday's games as this article was written ahead of those contests being played.

Pitching Breakdown

Corbin Burnes ($10,600 on FanDuel) is well clear of the rest of the pitchers on this slate. He owns a 42.5% strikeout rate, 18.9% swinging-strike rate, 2.9% walk rate and 1.69 SIERA. Those numbers are a joke. Even in a bad matchup, he'd be the slate's top arm, and he has a matchup that is very far from bad as he takes on the Detroit Tigers -- a team that has the highest strikeout rate (28.3%) with the second-worst wOBA (.288).

I see no reason to use any other pitcher unless the weather winds up being an issue. Just lock in Burnes, swallow the chalk and take the points. Next.

But if you must, Charlie Morton ($8,800) edges out Jose Berrios ($9,100) to be the non-Burnes arm I'm most into. Morton is rolling of late, producing FanDuel outputs of 58.0 and 43.0 over his last two and fanning 17 across 13 innings in that span. I think he's the only other hurler who can get close to Burnes' upside. He's taking on a fairly average Washington Nationals offense and should have a nice day. But just roster Burnes.

Stacks to Target

Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins get a Camden Yards date with Jorge Lopez. Lopez has improved his numbers this season, but we could be dealing with some small-sample noise. The righty owns a career SIERA of 4.64 with a 19.0% strikeout rate. A season ago, left-handed hitters rocked him to the tune of a .363 wOBA.

For the most part, the Twins' salaries are pretty friendly, so you can fit them in alongside Burnes.

Alex Kirilloff ($3,400) and Trevor Larnach ($2,200) are a fun duo of left-handed bats -- both of whom have plenty of pop. Of course, righties Nelson Cruz ($3,600) and Josh Donaldson ($2,900) deserve a look, too. Miguel Sano ($3,000) has a .346 wOBA and 52.3% fly-ball rate in May, and Jorge Polanco ($2,500) led off on Sunday.

Oakland Athletics

Top prospect Logan Gilbert will be making his fourth career start, and things aren't going well so far as he's permitted nine earned runs in 10 2/3 innings. He hasn't surpassed 78 pitches in a game, so a Seattle Mariners 'pen that holds the fourth-lowest reliever strikeout rate (22.9%) should be busy. All that makes the Oakland Athletics a desirable stacking option.

Lefties Matt Olson ($3,500), Seth Brown ($2,500) and Mitch Moreland ($2,400) hit third, fourth and sixth, respectively, the last time Oakland saw a righty. Switch-hitter Jed Lowrie ($2,600) got the day off in that one but should be in a meaty lineup spot Monday. Olson has slugged his way to a .391 wOBA, 40.9% hard-hit rate and 43.5% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage this season. Moreland posted a .387 wOBA in the split a year ago.

If he's healthy Ramon Laureano ($3,200), who sat Friday and Saturday, will likely hit second, and Mark Canha ($3,800) should be leading off.

Cincinnati Reds

There is always a little part of me that is scared to stack against Vince Velasquez, because he can get whiffs. But he's walking 14.4% of hitters this year, and that should get him into a lot of trouble at Great American Ball Park.

Jesse Winker ($4,000) and Nick Castellanos ($4,100) are the pillars of the Reds' lineup. Their salaries are up there, but they're worth it -- especially Winker, who has a .477 wOBA against righties.

The rest of the Reds have modest salaries. Eugenio Suarez ($3,100) has been leading off lately while Tyler Naquin ($2,700) has put up really good numbers this year against righties (.355 wOBA, 47.4% hard-hit rate and 40.4% fly-ball rate). Switch-hitter Tucker Barnhart ($2,400) isn't a bad dart throw.