3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 7/28/22
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.
Shohei Ohtani, P, Los Angeles Angels ($11,100)
He may play for an absolutely terrible team, but Shohei Ohtani takes the bump for the Los Angeles Angels, and that makes him a no-brainer tonight.
Ohtani may darn well win the AL Cy Young this season. This season, he's struck out 35.9% of batters, logged a 6.2% walk rate, and induced a 24.7% hard-hit rate. Oh, baby.
And the Texas Rangers? They are a pretty mediocre offense with a .305 team wOBA and a 23.1% strikeout rate.
Projected for 42.2 FanDuel points, easily tops on the main slate, Ohtani is primed to go off on Thursday evening.
Teoscar Hernandez, OF, Toronto Blue Jays ($3,700)
We are sticking with the Toronto Blue Jays again, where they have a very strong implied team total of 5.56 runs against Tyler Alexander of the Detroit Tigers.
Alexander carries a reasonable 4.32 FIP into this matchup, but he needs to be careful around righties like Teoscar Hernandez. In the split, he's allowed 1.31 HR/9 off a whopping 46.4% fly-ball rate while posting just a 13.6% strikeout rate.
Hernandez, meanwhile, has absolutely bashed southpaws this season, logging a .302 isolated power (ISO) and 149 wRC+ against them in 2022.
Spend up for Hernandez, and you surely won't be disappointed.
Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers ($4,300)
After getting off to a rough start, Freddie Freeman has been white hot at the plate, and playing in Coors Field tonight makes him a great play.
He will face Jose Urena tonight in suburban Denver, and Urena has poor underlying numbers this season. While he's got a very interesting ground-ball rate (51.9%), he has an ugly 12.5% strikeout rate paired with an 11.0% walk rate.
Urena has also logged a pretty poor batted-ball profile, recording a .476 slugging percentage and 1.26 HR/9 allowed to left-handers this season.
We project Freeman as a top-five hitter tonight, making him a great play.
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.
