FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 6/5/21
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 7:15 p.m. EST.
Pitching Breakdown
When Jacob deGrom ($11,500 on FanDuel) is on a slate, we have to start there.
DeGrom gets a tough draw against the San Diego Padres, but there is no matchup that could scare me off a guy who owns a 1.62 SIERA, 45.8% strikeout rate, 21.1% swinging-strike rate and 3.9% walk rate. I mean, come on. And the salary isn't bad at all, so it's not that hard to use him and still get a good amount of exposure to Coors. The Padres' 2.90 implied total is a slate-low clip. I'll be locking in deGrom in most of my lineups.
If you want to look elsewhere, Kevin Gausman ($11,200) and Joe Musgrove ($8,300) are solid alternatives. Of the two, Musgrove makes more sense given that he offers a big salary discount off deGrom. As good as Gausman has been, it's hard to justify him when he's just $300 less than deGrom -- although that reasoning will surely cap Gausman's draft percentage and make him a fun GPP pivot.
As for Musgrove, he gets a New York Mets offense that has struggled this season (23rd in wOBA) and is short-handed at the moment. Musgrove's rate stats -- 33.5% strikeout rate, 5.1% walk rate and 14.1% swinging-strike rate -- are superb, but he hasn't gone more than 93 pitches in any of his last six starts, working past the fifth just once in that time. That lowers his ceiling and floor, but if deGrom duds, Musgrove could wind up as the top-scoring arm. Emphasis on the "if" and the "could."
Stacks to Target
Coors Field
The Coors clash between the Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics gives us a pitching matchup of Kyle Freeland and Cole Irvin. The Rox have an implied total of 5.61 while the A's carry a 6.03 mark. You're going to want pieces of this game, and as is usually the case with Coors, anyone who starts is in play. I'm not going to list everyone, but I'll hit on a few plays I like. I'll be looking at mostly midrange salaries to pair with deGrom.
Of the two sides, I prefer Oakland. Sean Murphy ($3,000) is the slate's top overall hitter, per our projections, and he may wind up as the night's most popular stick at his economical salary. Stephen Piscotty ($3,200) and Chad Pinder ($3,400) are two other value bats who could get into the lineup against a lefty. Mark Canha ($4,200) is an outstanding play if you have the salary.
For Colorado, Yonathan Daza ($2,500) will have the platoon advantage, and he hit second last night. He's got a .380 wOBA at Coors this season. Garrett Hampson ($3,300) could be near the top of the lineup versus a southpaw, and C.J. Cron ($3,700) has a good track record against left-handers.
New York Yankees
Before the season, I couldn't have imagined saying this -- the salaries of most of the New York Yankees make them a stack that is easy to use alongside deGrom and some Coors hitters.
Only Aaron Judge ($3,600) and Giancarlo Stanton ($3,400) are above $3,000. If you can get to them, both are sweet options against lefty Eduardo Rodriguez -- a matchup which results in New York getting a 4.97 implied total that is the best on the slate outside of Coors.
DJ LeMahieu ($3,000), Gleyber Torres ($2,900), Gio Urshela ($2,500), Miguel Andujar ($2,800), Gary Sanchez ($2,400) and Clint Frazier ($2,300) will all hit from the right side and come at salaries that are easy to stomach.
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants have been one of the surprise teams of the season. While San Fran's dope pitching staff has gotten plenty of praise, its offense has been surprisingly good, too, sitting ninth in wOBA (.321) for the season.
They just roasted Jake Arrieta last night, and they get to take on another meh right-hander today in Kohl Stewart, who carries a 12.5% strikeout rate across 67 career MLB innings. The Giants don't have a hitter above $3,300, so they're another stack that is easy to use with deGrom and Coors guys.
Alex Dickerson ($2,000) and Mike Tauchman ($2,100) will be go-to sticks for me -- especially Dickerson, who went ding dong last night and put up a .395 wOBA and 40.0% hard-hit rate against righties last season. Brandon Crawford ($2,800) and Steven Duggar ($2,400) will have the platoon advantage while Buster Posey ($3,100) and Evan Longoria ($3,300) are swinging like it's 2016, posting wOBAs of .413 and .372, respectively, this campaign.
