MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 7/1/22

With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.

As a result of this, the primary method of selecting hitters is to "stack" certain teams in good spots to produce. Most of the top stacks on a given day come with hefty salaries. In addition to that, a vast majority of pitchers with the upside to win tournaments are high-salaried hurlers.

Therefore, crushing your value plays -- whether it be a pitcher unexpectedly piling up strikeouts or a low-salaried batter racking up points -- can be the secret sauce to taking down a tournament.

Which budget options stand out today on FanDuel?

Alex Cobb, P, Giants ($7,600)

Admittedly, with Corbin Burnes and Gerrit Cole in good matchups, this isn't the ideal slate to go with a value arm as those two could deliver big-time ceiling games tonight.

If you're desperate to load up on Coors, though, Alex Cobb checks some boxes.

Cobb is pitching much better than his 5.48 ERA indicates. His SIERA is 2.95 while he owns a 26.5% strikeout rate and 7.0% walk rate. This is now two straight years of really good numbers from Cobb, who boasts a 3.54 SIERA and 25.5% strikeout rate since the start of 2021.

At home against the Chicago White Sox, Cobb can come through. Chicago is just 22nd in wOBA, and their 3.44 implied total is the fourth-lowest of the slate.

While I probably won't go here much, Cobb is a more-than-serviceable value option if you want a low-salary pitcher. We project him for 29.7 FanDuel points and slot him as the number-two point-per-dollar arm.

Chad Pinder, OF, Athletics ($2,100)

If you're using Cole or Burnes and want exposure to Coors, you need to find a couple of low-salary bats you feel good about.

Chad Pinder can be one such guy.

Pinder is useful against left-handers, and he'll see Marco Gonzales today. In this split for his career, Pinder has put up a 44.8% hard-hit rate. He hasn't been as good this season, but Pinder mashed southpaws for a .376 wOBA and 44.7% hard-hit rate a campaign ago.

Gonzalez is striking out righties only 13.2% of the time this season and has permitted 1.77 dingers per nine overall since the start of 2021.

Our model has Pinder as the top point-per-dollar hitter, projecting him for 10.6 FanDuel points. He's a nice source of salary relief on this slate.

Ketel Marte, 2B, Diamondbacks ($2,900)

Switch-hitter Ketel Marte figures to be one of the night's most popular bats in a Coors Field date with Antonio Senzatela.

Senzatela has a 4.71 SIERA and 12.5% strikeout rate. Yikes. Lefty bats have mashed their way to a .382 wOBA and 11.6% strikeout rate against him this year.

Marte is an economical way to get a piece of the Arizona Diamondbacks' 5.61 implied total. He's been hitting third and is so easy to love at this salary.

Marte can be paired with Alek Thomas ($2,700), who might be slotted second, as a modest-salaried stack, and I suspect many people will do just that.

The likely super-high popularity on a slate where we have tons of options is the only negative for Marte, who we project for 13.8 FanDuel points and rank as the slate's eighth-best bat.