FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 5/8/22
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!
Pitchers
Alek Manoah ($10,400)
Through 31.0 innings this season, Toronto's right-hander has duplicated his successful form in 2021, accounting for a 13.3% swinging strike rate and a 3.39 expected Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) rating.
Manoah will take the mound on Sunday afternoon against a Cleveland Guardians lineup with a 24.8% strikeout rate and a .295 weight on-base average (wOBA) against right-handers including four projected starters with contact rates lower than 78.7%.
The 24-year old currently stands as today's fourth rated pitcher with a 32.3 FanDuel point projection and 6.1 expected strikeouts.
Gerrit Cole ($10,000)
Despite a rough start to the season, New York's ace has quickly regained his overall form, producing a 3.37 expected FIP and a 27.0% K-rate in 24.0 total innings.
Cole will have a good chance to extend his turnaround against a Texas Rangers lineup with a 22.6% strikeout rate including 66% of their batters with strikeout percentages over 24.1% and contact rates lower than 73.5%.
numberFire's models currently project Cole as Sunday's top pitcher with a 40.0 FanDuel point projection and 7.2 expected strikeouts.
Tyler Mahle ($7,400)
Mahle is an intriguing value option in a favorable strikeout opportunity against a weak Pittsburgh Pirates lineup with a 24.6% K-rate, .247 weighted on-base average, and 73.7% contact percentage.
Despite an ugly 7.01 Earned Run Average, the 27-year old has been in relatively solid form, recording a 3.20 FIP and a 10.7% swinging strike rate.
Mahle currently ranks second among pitchers today with a 32.7 FanDuel point projection and 6.3 expected strikeouts.
Stacks
Wily Peralta will make his first start this season in Houston against an Astros lineup projected for a slate-high 5.0 runs. The 33-year old journeyman overall outperformed his 3.07 ERA in 18 starts last season when examining his 4.99 expected FIP and 4.73 expected ERA.
With slight splits against left-handed hitters, we can start Houston stacks with Yordan Alvarez (20.6% barrel rate, .472 expected wOBA), Michael Brantley (.325 expected average), and Kyle Tucker (12% barrel rate, .427 expected wOBA) while considering Alex Bregman (8.6% barrel rate, .353 expected wOBA) and Jose Altuve (9.3% barrel rate, .361 expected wOBA) as potential infield options.
The Blue Jays' lineup offer high-upside options with their scary right-handed bats in their road matchup against left-hander Konnor Pilkington.
Cleveland's inexperienced 24-year old will make his first big league start after he recorded a poor 7.06 expected FIP through 5.2 innings in Triple-A.
Toronto's top hitters from the right side including George Springer (8.9% barrel rate, .276 expected average), Bo Bichette (8.9% barrel rate, .297 expected average), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (13.8% barrel rate, .416 expected wOBA), Teoscar Hernandez (.373 expected wOBA) and Matt Chapman (9.7% barrel rate) are all ideal options while Lourdes Gurriel (48.8% hard hit rate) and Santiago Espinal (.369 expected WOBA) offer some value.
The Royals offer another potential undervalued stack in their underrated road opportunity against Jordan Lyles.
In his first season with Baltimore despite producing an Earned Run Average (4.50) lower than his career norm (5.19), the veteran is still due for regression with his 5.23 expected ERA and 4.96 FIP.
With fairly neutral splits against either side, we can target hitters in ideal form from Kansas City's lineup including Edward Olivares (.423 wOBA, 6.9% barrel rate), Salvador Perez (13.3% barrel percentage), Hunter Dozier (14.8% barrel rate), and Andrew Benintendi (.260 expected average).
