3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 4/29/19

Andrew Benintendi, OF, Boston Red Sox

Price: $4,000

The Boston Red Sox have the second-highest implied total on today's slate (4.82) runs, and while that will always put J.D. Martinez (if he returns from his back injury) and Mookie Betts in play, Andrew Benintendi is also worth a really close look here.

Benintendi is making very different contact in 2019 than we've seen from him in the past. His previous career-high in hard-hit rate was 34.3%, and his highest fly-ball rate had been 38.8%. In 2019 he's up to a 38.6% hard-hit rate and 43.5% fly-ball rate, while his 15.7% soft-hit rate sits slightly below his career-average. He's whiffing more, with a 9.9% swinging-strike rate that's well above his previous career-high of 7.6%, but the increased strikeout risk is more than worth taking on to get exposure to his upside this year.

As we've seen in the past, he's still getting a nice boost with the platoon advantage, cracking right-handed pitchers for a 41.7% hard-hit rate, .365 wOBA and .191 ISO.

Oakland Athletics righty Frankie Montas has a promising 3.85 SIERA through five starts this season (a big improvement over his career-average 4.47), but he's still getting tagged for a 37.3% hard-hit rate with only a 9.6% soft-hit rate. He's also still giving up a .345 wOBA to left-handed bats, and while that's another big improvement from his career-average (.405), it's still a weak mark that leaves the door wide open for Benintendi.

Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.