3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 7/22/22
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, as well, 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.
Corbin Burnes, SP, Milwaukee Brewers ($11,300)
As we return from the All-Star Break, finding and nailing a starting pitcher can be confusing for sure. But tonight, we are locked into a great matchup with Corbin Burnes facing the Colorado Rockies, and he is gonna be worth every damn penny.
It's hard replicating a Cy Young award-winning season, but Burnes is actually on a path to doing it. Peep these numbers so far in 2022 -- in 113 2/3 innings pitched, Burnes has logged a 32.6% strikeout rate with only a 6.6% walk rate, and he's also posted a whopping 43.3% ground-ball rate.
Everyone knows that the Colorado Rockies get a bit worse offensively on the road thanks to that delightful home environment, but they clock in the bottom 10 in the league in team wOBA and isolated power (ISO) away from Denver.
Projected for 45.3 FanDuel points, Burnes could be primed for a monster night and lap the field.
Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees ($4,600)
After a tough double-header coming back from the All-Star Break, the New York Yankees will try and figure things out against Tyler Wells of the Baltimore Orioles in Camden Yards tonight.
Wells is an interesting pitcher. He owns a 4.06 FIP thanks to a sub-30% hard-hit rate, but the fly-ball rate is terrifying. Against righties in 2022, they've logged a 48.3% fly-ball rate and smashed him for 1.20 HR/9.
Judge has been arguably one of the league's best power hitters this year, smacking his way to 34 long balls and a 173 wRC+ mark this year.
It should be a good night for the slugger on a squad with one of the best implied team totals of the day.
Ketel Marte, 2B, Arizona Diamondbacks ($3,000)
If you are a Patrick Corbin guy, just keep scrollin', homie. This next blurb ain't for you.
Corbin has been absolutely annihilated by both lefties (.490 slugging percentage) and righties (.503) this season. On the road as he is this evening, Corbin has been even worse than anticipated, logging a 7.19 ERA on the year. A 39.6% hard-hit rate against righties doesn't help him much, either.
Enter Ketel Marte -- who may seriously need to consider giving up the art of switch-hitting and exclusively hitting from the right side. This year, he's been solid as a lefty (117 wRC+), but his 145 wRC+ as a righty shows he's got some legit pop in that bat.
A .878 OPS and identical 40.8% hard-hit and fly-ball rates show he's been in full beast mode in the split, too.
He may fall a little bit lower than our threshold we normally identify as a stud, but the Arizona Diamondbacks have a high implied team total on a shoddy day, and Marte has a dream matchup.
Fire him into your lineups with confidence.
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.
