3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Tuesday 7/26/22
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?
George Kirby, P, Mariners ($8,600)
George Kirby profiles as a sweet value option on Tuesday's main slate.
Kirby is showing a 3.47 SIERA, 22.6% strikeout rate and 3.3% walk rate. He's turning in a really nice rookie campaign, and his matchup with the Texas Rangers is a friendly one. Texas is 17th in wOBA (.306) with the 11th-highest strikeout rate (23.2%). They have an attackable 3.62 implied total.
Kirby probably can't match the upside of Carlos Rodon, Aaron Nola or Shane McClanahan if they are locked in, but he's a solid play who is at least $2,000 lower in salary than all of those guys ($3,000 lower than McClanahan) -- which is massive on a Coors slate.
We project him for 30.8 FanDuel points.
Kyle Garlick, OF, Twins ($2,100)
The Minnesota Twins' 4.71 implied total is only the night's eighth-highest, but they're a sneaky-good stack in a date with lefty Ethan Small.
Small has some nice Triple-A numbers this year, including a 26.4% strikeout rate, but he's also walked 13.4% of hitters. He's making only his second MLB start, and he's got a tall task against the Twins.
Kyle Garlick is a low-salary way to get a piece of Minnesota, and the salary relief is huge if you're trying to jam in McClanahan and/or load up on Coors. In a small sample (56 plate appearances), Garlick sports a .418 wOBA and 41.7% fly-ball rate against southpaws in 2022. He mashed his way to a .363 wOBA and 39.0% fly-ball rate in the split a season ago.
Our model has Garlick scoring 13.6 FanDuel points and rates him as the best point-per-dollar bat.
Jo Adell, OF, Angels ($2,100)
We're pretty into the Los Angeles Angels' offense against Angel Zerpa, projecting LA to score 5.39 runs. That's much higher than the Angels' 4.11 implied total, and with the Angels unlikely to be popular, they're a fun place to look for mini-stacks and one-off plays.
Jo Adell will have the platoon advantage against the left-handed Zerpa, who has a mere 12.8% strikeout rate through his first 12 MLB frames.
A former top-shelf prospect, Adell hasn't yet delivered the goods in The Show, but he amassed a .377 wOBA and 13 taters this year in 180 plate appearances in Triple-A. He's hit fifth or sixth in each of his past seven starts.
We have Adell totaling 11.8 FanDuel points, making him the fourth-best point-per-dollar stick, and the near-minimum salary is very handy.
