FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Tuesday 8/10/21

One ace stands out above the rest on Tuesday's 13-game main slate, but who are some worthwhile alternatives in tournaments? We also get a plethora of intriguing stacking opportunities jumbled together, with the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees leading the way in implied totals.

Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process. Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered!

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

Pitchers

Max Scherzer ($10,600): In terms of talent and 2021 metrics, Scherzer is pretty clearly the class of the slate, boasting a 2.98 SIERA, 34.5% strikeout rate, and 6.4% walk rate. This doesn't project to be a plus matchup for punchouts versus the Phillies, but we know Scherzer can provide plenty of those regardless of the opponent. He should be able to take care of business against an active roster with a pedestrian 92 wRC+ versus right-handers.

Sean Manaea ($10,000): Manaea's underlying numbers may look solid if unspectacular this season, but if we look from the beginning of June onward, he's put up an impressive 3.24 SIERA, 29.5% strikeout rate, and 5.6% walk rate over his last 11 starts. Those marks mirror Scherzer's own peripherals over that same span. Prior to last week's clunker, Manaea was coming off FanDuel performances of 55 and 67 points -- upside we typically haven't expected from the veteran southpaw. Cleveland owns an unimposing 82 wRC+ versus lefties this season, so look for Manaea to bounce back tonight.

Logan Gilbert ($8,900): On a per-inning basis, Gilbert looks the part with a 3.58 SIERA, 28.2% strikeout rate, and 6.4% walk rate in 14 starts. However, that hasn't resulted in lofty fantasy scores quite as often as we would like because he's struggled to pitch deep into games, reaching six or more innings just three times. But he now gets to face one of the league's worst offenses in Texas, which enters the night with a 78 wRC+ against righties. The Rangers have one of the lowest implied totals of the night (3.11), and with a bit more efficiency, Gilbert should be able to come through at this modest salary.

Others to Consider: Sonny Gray ($9,200), Eduardo Rodriguez ($8,000)

Stacks

Chicago White Sox: The White Sox face one of tonight's weakest hurlers in Griffin Jax. While Jax has actually only allowed a combined three earned runs over his last three starts (14 1/3 innings), that has more to do with a lucky .100 BABIP rather than any notable change in skill. For the season, he's sitting on a putrid 5.38 SIERA alongside a 16.2% strikeout rate and 53.5% fly-ball rate. All those fly balls have led to Jax coughing up 2.26 home runs per nine innings.

Although most of the damage has been done by righties, Jax has poor peripherals against both sides of the plate, so we don't need to nitpick who we stack too much. As always, Jose Abreu ($3,700) is a solid anchor to any White Sox stack, and we're seeing Eloy Jimenez ($3,400) coming on strong after back-to-back monster performances. There's also plenty of cheap pop in this lineup between guys like Yoan Moncada ($2,900), Andrew Vaughn ($2,700), and a now-healthy Luis Robert ($2,700).

New York Yankees: Despite an ugly 6.00 ERA and 1.59 WHIP over six starts this season, Daniel Lynch has actually enjoyed some good results over his three outings since getting called back up at the end of July. But he's still carried an unremarkable 4.63 SIERA and 17.1% strikeout rate over this period and hasn't induced a ton of grounders (43.1%).

Furthermore, while Lynch doesn't have awful peripheral numbers in Triple-A this season, it's hard to ignore a brutal 5.84 ERA and 1.61 WHIP over 57 innings at that level, too.

Aaron Judge ($4,300) and Giancarlo Stanton ($3,900) are the top options versus the lefty, of course, and then DJ LeMahieu ($3,400) and Luke Voit ($3,100) are other righty sticks we can look to. Catcher Kyle Higashioka ($2,400) has produced a .208 ISO this season if you need a value lower in the order. We don't have much of a sample for Lynch versus lefties, but Joey Gallo ($3,700) is pretty much always viable in tournaments.

Detroit Tigers: Left-hander Keegan Akin is enduring a difficult second season in the Majors, getting lit up for a 7.66 ERA and 1.74 WHIP across 51 2/3 innings. Against right-handed hitters, he's posted a 5.40 xFIP, 16.1% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate, and 37.6% ground-ball rate.

Akin only threw 35 pitches in his last appearance -- his second since returning from the COVID-19 injured list -- so he probably won't pitch deep into this game, but it's easy to like this matchup for a Tigers lineup that could be made up almost entirely of righties and switch-hitters.

Eric Haase ($3,400), Jonathan Schoop ($3,400), and even a revitalized Miguel Cabrera ($2,900) are righties we can hone in on, and switch-hitters Robbie Grossman ($3,200) and Jeimer Candelario ($2,800) should crack the top five, as well. Cabrera has recorded a .217 ISO in the second half with a 45.2% hard-hit rate and 40.3% fly-ball rate.

Others to Consider: Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds