FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 6/22/23
Due to scheduling, it's one of those early main slates on Thursday, beginning at 1:05 pm ET. Despite having just five games on the docket, we have some solid pitching and stacking options for such a small slate.
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
It took a long time to get there, but Blake Snell ($10,800) has been in great form lately, flashing that immense ceiling we know he's capable of when he's dialed in.
Over his last four starts, he's recorded a 2.12 xFIP, 42.4% strikeout rate, and 9.8% walk rate, leading to FanDuel scores of 43, 52, 58, and 64 points. That includes racking up 12 punchouts in each of his last two, and that's even more impressive when you see that one came at Coors Field and the other was against the Rays.
This is far and away Snell's best stretch of 2023, and while it's not like the walks are going anywhere, it's much easier to trust a boom-or-bust option when he's actually booming here and there.
The Giants will presumably load up on righties to counter Snell, so this isn't the easiest matchup, but their active roster has a 26.5% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate versus left-handers, so this isn't the worst spot to bet on Snell maintaining his recent hot streak.
With yesterday's game in Philadelphia getting washed out, Aaron Nola ($9,300) will make his start today instead, and he could be a popular play at this salary.
All of the same things apply to Nola as they did on Wednesday. This is a difficult matchup against Atlanta, but he's looked much more like an ace lately, bumping his strikeout rate to 31.8% over his last six starts. Nola has also logged at least six innings in 12 straight starts, resulting in him cracking the top 10 in innings pitched this season. Pitcher-friendly temperatures and winds could assist the righty in keeping the ball in the park against the Braves, too.
Joe Ryan ($10,500) hasn't exceeded 30 FanDuel points in any of his last five starts, and while some of that can be blamed on some tougher matchups, he most recently fell flat in what should've been a layup against Detroit.
Still, when looking at Ryan's season as a whole, he has an excellent 3.50 SIERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, and 4.5% walk rate over 14 starts, and his 2.44 xERA is in the 96th percentile. Better days should be ahead.
However, the Red Sox are an above-average offense versus right-handed pitching, and their active roster has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate (20.4%) in the split. That could make it more difficult for Ryan to have a bounce-back outing, but in terms of talent, there aren't many around his level on this slate.
Logan Allen ($8,400) is performing at about a league-average level, but that's good enough to put him on the map when the opposing team is the Athletics. Against left-handers, Oakland's active roster is showing a 23.5% strikeout rate and 91 wRC+. While Allen's strikeout rate has generally been trending in the wrong direction, he did pop for a season-high 10 Ks against Baltimore at the end of May, and this is be the right opponent for another big fantasy score. The A's have a slate-low 3.29 implied team total.
Hitting Breakdown
The Arizona Diamondbacks have a 5.14 implied team total and will almost certainly be a chalky stack against Jake Irvin -- but it's for a good reason.
Over eight starts, Irvin has put up a 5.75 SIERA, 16.3% strikeout rate, 13.3% walk rate, and 41.4% ground-ball rate, making him an incredibly appealing pitcher to attack. The right-hander hasn't performed particularly well against either side of the plate, but left-handed batters have knocked him around for a 6.41 xFIP, enhancing their prospects tonight.
Corbin Carroll ($4,200) and Ketel Marte ($3,900) are the obvious guys to start with, and Geraldo Perdomo ($2,800) gives us a low-salaried lefty leadoff man. Christian Walker ($3,600) is the top right-handed power bat, and then the rest of the lineup should come at affordable salaries.
The Minnesota Twins are the other team sporting a high implied team total. They'll be treated to a bullpen game of sorts, with Justin Garza serving as an opener before eventually giving way to Brandon Walter as the expected bulk reliever. Walter is a lefty making his MLB debut, and his Triple-A numbers don't exactly leap off the page. Across 61 2/3 innings this season, he's posted a 4.61 xFIP, 22.4% strikeout rate, and 9.1% walk rate.
It's all value in a Twins stack, too, as we can roster both Byron Buxton ($3,000) and Carlos Correa ($2,900) quite easily, and Royce Lewis ($2,800), Ryan Jeffers ($2,100), and Michael Taylor ($2,300) are other righties we could see lower in the order.
The San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, and Cleveland Guardians look like the best of the rest.
The Padres are up against left-hander Alex Wood, who's generally gotten good results but has an underwhelming 4.59 SIERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, and 10.1% walk rate. While the Nats aren't exactly an exciting offense, southpaw Tommy Henry has one of the worst strikeout rates on the board (15.1%) and is struggling to keep the ball in the park. Lefty JP Sears is one of Oakland's better starters, but he's another guy with home-run issues, and the Guardians can also take advantage of the A's shoddy bullpen.
