MLB

FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 10/10/21

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 projections and 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.

Pitching Breakdown

The slate's four starters are Nathan Eovaldi ($8,500 on FanDuel), Drew Rasmussen ($7,000), Luis Garcia ($8,200) and Dylan Cease ($8,800). Our model has Cease and Eovaldi in their own tier, projecting them for 32.5 and 33.4 FanDuel points, respectively.

Cease has a brutal matchup against the Houston Astros, but he has the swing-and-miss upside we crave, finishing 2021 with a 31.9% strikeout rate and 14.8% swinging-strike rate. Houston's 4.13 implied total is a slate-low mark. The matchup couldn't be worse, though, so that pushes me to Eovaldi.

Eovaldi is taking on a Tampa Bay Rays offense that is good but also strikes out at the fourth-highest clip (24.8%). Eovaldi finished the campaign with a 3.60 SIERA, 25.5% strikeout rate and 12.5% swinging-strike rate. We project him for a slate-best 33.4 FanDuel points.

Stacks to Target

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox will see Rasmussen. With a 23.8% strikeout rate and 10.9% swinging-strike rate, Rasmussen isn't too imposing, and Boston's 4.29 implied total is the slate's second-best clip.

Kyle Schwarber ($3,300) and Enrique Hernandez ($2,900) are projected to hit first and second, respectively. Schwarber owns .410 wOBA, 42.0% hard-hit rate and 40.9% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage. He'll be a core play for me.

In addition to Boston's top-notch righties -- namely J.D. Martinez ($3,200) and Xander Bogaerts ($4,000) -- Rafael Devers ($4,100) posted a .401 wOBA, 45.8% hard-hit rate and 44.3% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage. He'll also be a core piece for me.

Alex Verdugo ($2,900) also makes a lot of sense. He finished with a .378 wOBA this year versus righties.

Chicago White Sox

You can make a case for using Luis Garcia on the bump, but you can also make a case for grabbing some bats from the Chicago White Sox.

While Garcia had a really good rookie season, he appeared to be running on fumes late in the year, recording a mere 15.0% strikeout rate across September and October. Lefties are where we need to focus as he permitted a .348 wOBA in the split, compared to a .241 wOBA against right-handed hitters.

Switch-hitters Yoan Moncada ($2,900) and Yasmani Grandal ($2,800) have modest salaries and make for easy-to-get-to exposure to the White Sox. Gavin Sheets ($2,500) will also hit from the left side.

While they are righties, Tim Anderson ($3,600), Jose Abreu ($3,800), Luis Robert ($3,500) and Eloy Jimenez ($2,900) are well worth a look.