3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 5/8/18

Corey Kluber, P, Cleveland Indians

Price: $11,400

Corey Kluber is coming off a 2017 campaign that saw him rank third among qualifying pitchers in strikeout rate (34.1%) and first in swinging-strike rate (15.6%). His 2.68 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) was also good for second in that group. His 3.13 SIERA in 2018 is still an excellent mark, but we've seen significant drops in both his strikeout rate (27.5%) and swinging-strike rate (10.9%).

Seven games is starting to be a significant sample size, but there's still some room for optimism that we'll see him start fanning hitters at a higher rate again. Of his seven starts, four have come against teams that strike out at a bottom-10 rate against right-handed pitching.

He finds himself in a much more favorable spot today, taking on the Milwaukee Brewers -- a team that strikes out against righties at the 10th-highest rate in the Majors while also ranking only 23rd in wRC+.

You'll also likely get Kluber at reduced ownership tonight given a pretty good pitching slate and his recent results.

He has given up 6 home runs in his last three starts, but again, a deeper look reveals that not to be especially concerning. A whopping 30% of the fly balls he has allowed in that stretch have been home runs, but the highest home-run-to-fly-ball rate he has ever allowed in a season is 13.4%. It's not like he allowed an egregious hard-hit rate over those three games, either, with a 34.4% clip. Those home runs can mostly be attributed to Kluber being on the wrong side of variance.

Kluber's big strikeout upside at reduced ownership makes him an outstanding play in all formats.