FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Wednesday 8/31/22

A pair of aces sit in a tier of their own at pitcher on Wednesday's nine-game slate. Stacks could be fairly wide open with several appealing spots to choose from.

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!

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate.

Pitchers

Jacob deGrom ($12,000): Ordinarily, it's easy to pass up on a pitcher when he's facing the Dodgers. But as we all know, deGrom is no ordinary pitcher.

The otherworldly right-hander now has five starts under his belt, and he's been absolutely ridiculous with a 1.25 xFIP, 44.7% strikeout rate, and 1.9% walk rate. That massive punchout rate has been backed by a 21.9% swinging-strike rate, as well.

Going back to the start of 2020, he's now produced a 1.86 xFIP, 42.6% strikeout rate, and 4.5% walk rate over his last 32 starts. Simply incredible.

Look, I know it's the Dodgers and all -- but deGrom is on another level these days.

The one thing that could slow down deGrom is his workload -- he's exceeded 90 pitches only once thus far -- but even that hasn't stopped him from exceeding 50 FanDuel points in three of his five outings.

L.A. has a slate-low 2.94 implied total, and deGrom is deserving of your top slot tonight.

Gerrit Cole ($11,100): Cole is the only pitcher who reasonably has a shot at dethroning deGrom, and he's aided by a far, far better matchup against the Angels.

The Angels' active roster carries a league-high 26.0% strikeout rate against right-handed pitching, and we know that Cole is capable of racking up plenty of Ks to begin with. Their 3.19 implied total is one of the night's lowest, too.

Cole is easily the next-best talent on the board with a 2.79 xFIP, 32.0% strikeout rate, and 6.2% walk rate. Outside of deGrom and Cole, no other arm has a strikeout rate that hits even 26% tonight.

We also never have to worry about Cole's workload. He's surpassed 100 pitches in 12 of his last 13 starts.

It's pretty much these two-top guys and then everyone else on Wednesday.

Lance Lynn ($8,900): Lynn will have his work cut out for him to keep up with deGrom and Cole, but the enormous gap in salaries could prove worthwhile in tournaments.

While Lynn has a solid if unspectacular 3.31 xFIP and 25.2% strikeout rate over 14 starts, we have to like what we've seen from him lately.

Over his last seven outings, he's amassed a 2.66 xFIP, 29.1% strikeout rate, and 2.6% walk rate. During that stretch, he hasn't quite reached 50 FanDuel points, but he's hit at least 40 on four occasions.

Considering he didn't make his 2022 debut until mid-June, it isn't unreasonable to imagine that it's taken him a while to fully get into a groove this season.

The matchup also checks out for Lynn. The Royals' active roster has posted an 89 wRC+ and 23.8% strikeout rate versus righties this year.

Ryan Feltner's ERA estimators suggest that he deserves better than his 5.87 ERA, but it's not like he has a whole lot going for him, either.

The Colorado right-hander has a middling 18.8% strikeout rate, and he's allowing a good chunk of home runs, giving up 1.61 per nine innings. Feltner has struggled both at home and on the road, so it's not like his issues have been strictly in Coors starts.

The Atlanta Braves could explode at the plate tonight, and they have a 4.99 implied total.

Both sides of the plate are getting to him, but it's the lefties who could really have the advantage tonight. In the split, Feltner is showing a 4.68 xFIP and 17.7% strikeout rate while allowing a 42.3% fly-ball rate and 38.5% hard-hit rate.

That moves lefty Matt Olson ($4,000) to the front of the line, and Michael Harris II ($3,600) will have added value if he's batting second again. Eddie Rosario ($2,200) is having a pretty forgettable campaign, but his punt salary can help you fit in the Braves' top bats.

We're still looking at pretty average splits for Feltner in same-sided matchups, too, so don't hesitate to roster Austin Riley ($3,900), Dansby Swanson ($3,800), and friends, too.

Chicago White Sox

Left-hander Kris Bubic is having a rough 2022, and he has a thoroughly mediocre 20.2% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate, and 41.5% ground-ball versus righty bats.

While the Chicago White Sox haven't really met expectations on offense this year, they can take advantage of matchups against southpaws by rolling out an all-righty lineup. Their 4.84 implied total is one of the evening's best marks.

The other great thing about stacking Chicago is that their salaries are low across the board, making them a perfect fit with deGrom or Cole.

The top four batters in the lineup could consist of A.J. Pollock ($2,500), Andrew Vaughn ($3,000), Jose Abreu ($3,200), and Eloy Jimenez ($3,000), and everyone else will be at $2,400 and below. Prior to last night, Romy Gonzalez ($2,000) got three straight starts at leadoff, so he would be an easy value play if he's back up top, too.

Outside of batting order, this probably isn't a spot to nitpick individual bats too much. Jimenez does lead the team in barrels per plate appearance, though.

Philadelphia Phillies

Despite his 3.25 ERA, lefty Tommy Henry may very well be the weakest starter taking the mound on this slate. Under that ERA lies a 5.13 xFIP, 16.4% strikeout rate, and 10.3% walk rate over five starts, and his 42.7% fly-ball rate makes him a good matchup for dingers, too.

Against the southpaw, the Philadelphia Phillies' top righties are Rhys Hoskins ($3,400), Alec Bohm ($3,200), J.T. Realmuto ($3,600), and Jean Segura ($3,100).

And while we have almost no data for Henry against lefties, his poor overall marks should lead us to still include the Phillies' top power lefties in Bryce Harper ($4,200) and Kyle Schwarber ($3,700).

Also consider the Toronto Blue Jays, who are slated to face Luke Farrell and the Chicago Cubs. Toronto has a tantalizing 5.60 implied total.