MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 6/18/21

Matt Olson has been hot at the dish this year, and he's got a solid matchup tonight. Which other top-end plays should you 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.

Robbie Ray, SP, Toronto Blue Jays ($11,000)

The main slate is a tricky one, There are a plethora of high-end options on Friday night's slate, but there are some princes that may turn into frogs.

Corbin Burnes heads to Colorado, and Carlos Rodon faces an Houston Astros team that leads the league in wRC+ (124) and has the lowest team strikeout rate (18.4%). And swirling around this spin rate conversation, Trevor Bauer has struggled. In the last two weeks -- and perhaps the sample size is too minute -- over 12 1/3 innings pitched he's been bombed for a 5.71 ERA and 1.70 WHIP.

With all of those factors considered, I like Robbie Ray. He faces a bad Baltimore Orioles offense that ranks at the bottom of the league in wRC+ (92) with very little pop (.155 isolated power).

Jose Ramirez, 3B, Cleveland Indians ($4,100)

Despite a very slow start to the season for the Cleveland Indians' offense, Jose Ramirez has been cooking with straight napalm this year. He's got 16 homers and 6 steals this year, and he's been on fire even more recently, logging a .948 OPS in the last two weeks.

And the matchup tonight is super juicy. Chad Kuhl has been a monster letdown in 2021, logging a 6.47 FIP this season over 29 innings pitched. Allowing 1.55 home runs per nine (HR/9) certainly isn't helping his cause, either.

Expect Ramirez to continue his strong run of form tonight.

Matt Olson, 1B, Oakland Athletics ($3,700)

The New York Yankees have showed some improved plate discipline recently at the plate but are being undone a bit by their poor pitching staff. Included in that mediocrity is Jameson Taillon, which makes Matt Olson a spicy play tonight.

Over 53 1/3 innings pitched, Taillon has allowed 1.69 HR/9 (not very nice), which shouldn't come as too big of a surprise with a 47.0% fly-ball rate. That's a bit of a scary proposition for Taillon, as Olson has ripped 18 dingers so far this year with his .603 slugging percentage.

In a game with an over/under of 10.0 runs, it looks like oddsmakers believe this is going to be a high-scoring affair, and Olson could play a major role in that.



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.