FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 4/27/23

Thursday's main slate comes in at just five games, but we actually have a rather deep pitching pool, leaving the stacks cupboard a little more bare than usual.

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.

Pitching Breakdown

Gerrit Cole ($11,600) has scored 50 or more FanDuel points in three of five starts, and he's a top option despite the slate-high salary. While he's gotten a little lucky with a .224 BABIP and no home runs allowed, his 3.54 SIERA, 29.3% strikeout rate, and 8.1% walk rate aren't too far off what we've come to expect.

The Rangers' active roster has been tough on right-handers this season, but if we expand out to include 2022, they have a 96 wRC+ and 24.0% strikeout rate in the split. Their implied team total is the second-lowest on the board (3.36), and Cole is projected for the highest point total in numberFire's model.

On the other hand, although Shane McClanahan ($11,300) hasn't hit 50 FanDuel points in any of his five starts, he's been remarkably consistent, scoring 40 or more in all of them. The left-hander has been a tad wild compared to what we've come to expect (10.5% walk rate), but the punchouts have been there (32.5% strikeout rate), and he's still getting a fair number of grounders (47.7% ground-ball rate).

McClanahan has a tougher matchup against the righty-heavy White Sox, but that shouldn't hinder his upside, as he has a 31.6% strikeout rate versus right-handed batters going back to last season. Chicago also has a slate-low 3.21 implied team total. McClanahan is an easy alternative to Cole.

Dylan Cease ($9,900) has to tangle with a pesky Rays team for the second straight start, but his salary comes at a nice discount compared to the previous two. Really, his 2023 numbers aren't that far off from McClanahan, as he's sporting a 3.93 SIERA, 28.6% strikeout rate, and 10.9% walk rate. However, in Cease's case, those free passes are more likely to stick given his 10.6% career walk rate.

It's no secret that Tampa Bay has been one of the hottest teams to begin the year, and a repeat matchup certainly doesn't benefit Cease, either. That said, the Rays were closer to a neutral matchup against righties in 2022, so their bats might be playing a bit over their heads, and their 3.79 implied team total is a fairly low one. Cease also has one of the best workloads available to us; he went a season-high 113 pitches two starts ago.

We don't necessarily need to stick with this trio at pitcher because we can also make a case for all of Kyle Gibson ($10,200), Tyler Mahle ($8,800), Andrew Heaney ($8,500), and Joey Lucchesi ($8,300). Pitcher is just that deep tonight.

Gibson is over-salaried when you can roster Cole, McClanahan, or Cease in roughly the same neighborhood. Still, his matchup is easily the best against the Tigers, keeping him in the running as a contrarian tournament play. Gibson scored 59 FanDuel points against Detroit in his last start, and while it might be tough to repeat that a second time, this Tigers active roster has been the worst team versus righties from 2022-23, owning a 77 wRC+ and 25.5% strikeout rate.

Mahle has produced a 25.3% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate, and he gets an easy draw versus the Royals at an appealing salary. Kansas City has the night's third-lowest implied team total (3.47).

Lucchesi is in a similar situation against the Nationals (3.47 implied team total), whose active roster has the worst wRC+ (91) versus southpaws going back to the start of last season. He put up a 26.1% strikeout rate in 2021 and went off for 58 FanDuel points in his 2023 debut.

If you're going to skip someone from this group, it's probably the left-handed Heaney against a predominantly right-handed Yankees lineup. He hasn't been able to match the strides he made in 2022, but he flashed his ceiling a few starts back against the Royals with 10 strikeouts and 51 FanDuel points. Given all our options, though, he's probably only worth sprinkling in if you're making a boatload of lineups.

Hitting Breakdown

All of that pitching naturally limits our stacking matchups on a five-game slate, and just four teams have implied team totals above four runs: the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, and Baltimore Orioles.

The Mets get Trevor Williams, who comes in with a 3.38 ERA that hides a lackluster 4.87 SIERA and 15.1% strikeout rate. He's struggled against left-handed batters this season, and that was the case in 2022, as well, when he recorded an 8.8% strikeout rate while coughing up 1.62 home runs per 9 innings. The right-handed Pete Alonso ($4,200) should headline Mets stacks regardless, but the pristine matchup for lefties bumps up what could be as many as six left-handed batters in the lineup.

The Twins can take advantage of their spot versus 39-year-old Zack Greinke. The veteran right-hander no longer gets many punchouts (16.5% strikeout rate), and his low ground-ball rate (39.1%) has contributed to him giving up 1.65 home runs per 9 innings so far this year. This stack is also silly inexpensive, as we can roster every player at $3,400 and below, with guys like Byron Buxton ($2,900), Carlos Correa ($2,800), Trevor Larnach ($2,800), and Max Kepler ($2,600) having especially enticing salaries. Joey Gallo ($3,400) is off to a fast start this season, boasting a ridiculous .548 ISO while leading the team in barrels.

The previously mentioned Yankees don't necessarily have a slam-dunk matchup against Andrew Heaney, but we've seen the lefty struggle with home runs throughout his career, and he's struggling with his control this year (11.1% walk rate). Even in what was his best career campaign in 2022, Heaney gave up 2.04 home runs per 9 innings to right-handed batters. Aaron Judge ($3,800) and Gleyber Torres ($2,900) are our best bets to cash in with round-trippers, but as noted earlier, we should see plenty of Yankees righties tonight.

Finally, the Orioles are facing Joey Wentz, a left-hander who's produced a 5.39 SIERA, 18.9% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate, and 28.8% ground-ball rate through four starts in 2023. Adley Rutschman ($3,600), Ryan Mountcastle ($3,500), Anthony Santander ($2,700), and Ramon Urias ($2,800) will all have the platoon advantage against the southpaw. Ryan McKenna ($2,100) is intriguing if he ends up batting leadoff as some sites are projecting with Austin Hays expected out.