MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Sunday 10/9/16

The beauty of daily fantasy baseball is that the top targets are different each and every day. Whether it's the right-handed catcher who destroys left-handed pitching or the mid-range hurler facing a depleted lineup, you're not going to find yourself using the same assets time after time.

While this breaks up the monotony, it can make it hard to decide which players are primed to succeed on a given day. We can help bridge that gap.

In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.

If you need help getting started on that trek, here are some of the top options on the board today.

Pitchers to Target

Rich Hill ($9,000 on FanDuel): Rich Hill has been absolutely dealing ever since he returned from his blister issue. In his six starts over that time, Hill has a 2.87 SIERA being supported by a 30.5% strikeout rate and 3.9% walk rate. His matchup isn't easy because the Washington Nationals smash left-handed pitching, but his individual talent helps make up for that.

Aaron Sanchez ($9,000): Aaron Sanchez wasn't quite himself the second half of the season, struggling with command issues at times, but his final two starts provided plenty of reason for hope. In those two games -- against teams that both ranked in the top four in wRC+ against righties this year -- Sanchez had swinging-strike rates of 12.6% and 10.3%, respectively. Prior to that, he had topped the 10.0% mark only twice in the second half. He also saw his average fastball velocity increase back up to 95.7 miles per hour, and if he's back to cooking again, the Texas Rangers could be in trouble.

Hitters to Target

High-Priced Hitters

Jose Bautista ($3,500): Rangers starter Colby Lewis allows boatloads of hard contact to batters on both sides of the dish, but with his fly-ball rate jumping up to 52.9% against righties, we're going to want Jose Bautista in our lives. Bautista has been just cranking dingers in the playoffs so far, a continuation of what he did down the stretch. After returning from the disabled list on August 25th, Bautista finished with a 47.3% hard-hit rate and 39.6% fly-ball rate. He may be the most popular batter on the slate, but we should be willing to accept that ownership.

Corey Seager ($3,700): Tanner Roark's second-half SIERA slid all the way up to 4.80, meaning the Los Angeles Dodgers bats should be high on our wish list today, especially Corey Seager. Seager finished the regular season with a 39.6% hard-hit rate and 13.7% soft-hit rate against right-handed pitchers all while holding just a 17.1% strikeout rate. The wind is blowing in from left field, so while it's still fine to invest in the Dodgers, we'll want to limit our ownership to high-powered lefties like Seager.

Value Hitters

Ezequiel Carrera ($2,700): Nobody will ever accuse Ezequiel Carrera of being the most talented stick on the Toronto Blue Jays, but his situation is nearly perfect. With Devon Travis potentially missing another game, Carrera could wind up batting leadoff again, which would make him an auto-roster at this price. To Carrera's credit, he had a 30.4% hard-hit rate after returning to the team on August 16th, so there is at least some reason to believe outside of just an ideal situation.

Brock Holt ($2,900): Brock Holt is similar to Carrera in that most of the enthusiasm for him centers around his situation rather than his individual talent. Holt started batting second the final weekend of the season, and it has carried over into the playoffs. With the Boston Red Sox facing Josh Tomlin and his batted-ball issues, we'll want exposure to their offense, and Holt and Andrew Benintendi are the cheapest avenues for doing so. Holt did improve down the stretch with a 30.0% hard-hit rate in a limited September sample, so he does have a bit of upside to go with his quality spot in the order.