FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 8/20/22
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
Joe Musgrove ($10,500)
At his median salary point in the last two months, San Diego's veteran is ranked as Saturday's top pitcher with a 41.5 FanDuel point projection, a 3.95 value rating, and 7.0 expected strikeouts against a Washington Nationals' team with a .311 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and a 25.2% strikeout rate in their last 383 plate appearances.
While Musgrove's recent form in his last seven starts (4.04 expected Fielding Independent Pitching rating (xFIP) in 41.0 innings) is somewhat concerning, the 29-year old right-hander has displayed recent signs of breaking out of his struggles, by inducing plenty of ground-balls (43%) while also producing an above-average 3.82 Skilled Interactive Earned Run Average and a 10.9% swinging strike percentage.
Cristian Javier ($10,200)
Houston's strikeout machine is another high-ceiling option with a 3.75 xFIP and a 32.2% K-rate at a discounted salary after a 3.4% decrease since his last start.
In an intimidating but juicy matchup versus an Atlanta Braves' lineup with an above-average .350 wOBA and a 26.1% strikeout percentage including six projected batters with K-rates between 22.7% and 28.5% and contact rates ranging from 65.4% to 76.1%, Javier offers plenty of upside with Saturday's second highest strikeout prediction at 6.08 while also rating fourth overall with a 29.5 fantasy expectation.
Logan Gilbert ($9,800)
numberFire's second ranked pitcher has a favorable spot versus an Oakland Athletics' team with an attackable .280 wOBA and a 25.2% K-rate including four projected batters with strikeout percentages over 22.1 % and wOBAs lower than .299.
While his matchup clearly outshines Gilbert's recent form (4.68 xFIP in last 43.3 innings), Seattle's second-year right-hander has still produced a 10.3% swinging strike rate and five or more strikeouts in 50% of his last eight starts.
Spencer Strider ($9,600)
Atlanta's reliable rookie is another option to consider despite a tough matchup against a Houston Astros' unit accounting for a 20.8% K-rate and a .315 wOBA.
In his last 41.0 innings, Strider has been in premier form with a microscopic 2.23 xFIP and a sizzling 38.4% K-rate while also recording eight or more strikeouts in half of these appearances.
After an eye-popping 5.8% salary decrease since his last start on August 15th, the 23-year old right-hander currently ranks eighth in value with a 3.16 rating and third overall with a 30.3 FanDuel point projection and 5.96 expected strikeouts.
Stacks
Despite Friday night's disappointing offensive output, the Giants still contains today's top run total at a 6.3 expected mark versus Ryan Feltner.
Through 26.0 career innings pitching at Coors Field, Colorado's 25-year old rookie has been miserable in high altitude, accounting for a poor 5.38 xFIP, a 14.0% K-rate, and a nerve-wracking 20.0% home-run to fly-ball opposing percentage.
To best counter his struggles versus left-handed batters (5.88 xFIP), Joc Pederson (15.4% barrel rate, .522 expected slugging), Brandon Belt (.417 expected slugging, 12.9% barrel rate), LaMonte Wade Jr (.449 expected slugging, 12.2% barrel percentage), Mike Yastrzemski (11% barrel rate) and Brandon Crawford (7.3% barrel percentage) all rate well enough for stacking in baseball's most exciting offensive setting.
Glenn Otto will make his 19th start this season versus an underrated Minnesota Twins' team with a 5.0 run total.
In his second season pitching in the Majors, the 26-year old has struggled to a 5.11 xFIP through 89.0 innings including a troublesome 17.9% strikeout percentage and a 12.6% walk rate.
With an outstanding weakness against the opposing side of the plate, Minnesota combinations should include Luis Arraez (.343 expected wOBA, .292 expected average), Max Kepler (.347 expected wOBA), Nick Gordon (11.9% barrel rate, .496 expected slugging), Jorge Polanco (10.4% barrel rate, .454 expected slugging) and Jake Cave (9.5% barrel rate, .411 expected slugging) while Byron Buxton (16.2% barrel rate, .511 expected slugging) and Carlos Correa (11% barrel rate, .475 expected slugging) can still be mixed in despite batting from the right side.
In an enticing opportunity with a five expected run total against Madison Bumgarner, the Cardinals will challenge a below-average lefty with a concerning 4.75 xFIP, a 16.8% strikeout percentage, and a shaky 8.9% opposing barrel rate.
With overall neutral splits. we can target the Cardinals in best batted ball form starting with Paul Goldschmidt (.506 expected slugging, 12.7% barrel rate), Nolan Arenado (8.6% barrel rate, .450 expected slugging), Albert Pujols (10% barrel rate , .445 expected slugging), Tyler O'Neill (10.2% barrel rate), Paul DeJong (13.5% barrel percentage), and Lars Nootbaar (10.2% barrel rate, .335 expected wOBA).
