Every day is unique for daily fantasy baseball, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Although we can’t simply plug and play our favorite studs day in and day out, each slate presents us with a chance for a new gem to vault us up the leaderboards.
Through the use of numberFire’s tools, we can better identify the players primed to succeed each day, making the process of filling out a lineup just that much easier. 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.
Which names stand out for today on the DraftKings main slate? Let’s check it out, starting with the pitchers.
Pitchers to Target
High-Priced Pitcher
Madison Bumgarner ($11,200 on DraftKings): Madison Bumgarner had his first good start since coming off the disabled list, and he'll look to carry that over into tonight's game against the Colorado Rockies. MadBum has not been very strikeout-heavy this season, producing just a 16.2 percent strikeout rate, however, that should increase as he gets healthy and closer to his old self. The Rockies are a moderate strikeout team at a 23.2 rate, 11th-most in the Majors. Bumgarner is also the second-largest favorite on the main slate, at -146.
Robbie Ray ($10,000): Coming off the DL, Robbie Ray finds himself in a solid matchup against the Miami Marlins. While the Marlins don't strike out that much -- a 23.2 percent strikeout rate that ranks 11th in MLB -- there is plenty to be optimistic about with Ray tonight. He has a slate-high 36.3 percent strikeout rate and a solid 3.33 xFIP. Although there are some peripherals that are very concerning, the pitching on this slate leaves a lot to be desired, so paying for Ray is certainly in play.
Low-Priced Pitcher
Wade LeBlanc ($7,800): Man, SP2 is ugly tonight. But I suppose we can go with Wade LeBlanc, because he has a solid matchup against the Baltimore Orioles. The O's strike out the seventh-most in the Majors, at a 24.0 percent rate, and they struggle to score runs. Their 82 wRC+ is tied for last in all of baseball and their .291 team weighted on-base average (wOBA) is also tied for dead last. LeBlanc only has a 19.1 percent strikeout rate, so there isn't an immense amount of upside. Just hope for some innings and the win.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
Paul Goldschmidt ($5,400): After a very slow start to the season, Paul Goldschmidt has turned things around in a big way. But he had never really been struggling against left-handed pitching this season, which people may not have realized. As we've become accustomed to, he has smashed them to the tune of a .465 wOBA and .403 isolated power (ISO). Over his last 10 games, Goldy has hit for a .300 average, 1.042 OPS and crushed 4 home runs with 9 RBI. He has a matchup against Marlins' lefty Wei-Yin Chen, who has a slate-worst 1.69 WHIP, 5.66 xFIP, 46.1 percent fly-ball rate and a 197 foot average batted-ball distance.
Aaron Judge ($5,400): Despite being a power-hitting righty, Aaron Judge also does most of his damage against right-handed pitching. He has absolutely destroyed them with a .414 wOBA and .301 ISO. The New York Yankees are visiting the Philadelphia Phillies, who will have Zach Eflin on the mound. Eflin has been okay this season, but his 23.9 percent line-drive rate, 40.6 percent fly-ball rate and 189 foot average batted-ball distance could get him into a lot of trouble against Judge and the power of the Yankees' lineup.
Mitch Haniger ($4,700): It would probably come as a surprise if I told you that Mitch Haniger is second in the Majors in RBI. Well, he is, and he has been absolutely dominant with 16 home runs to boot. He's done most of his work against right-handed pitching, as he has crushed them to the tune of a .362 wOBA and .246 ISO. He's got a solid matchup tonight against Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Alex Cobb, who has a slate-worst 15.5 percent strikeout rate and the second-worst WHIP (1.63).
Value Hitters
Christian Villanueva ($4,000): The San Diego Padres are taking on the Texas Rangers tonight and they -- reluctantly, I'm sure -- will have Mike Minor on pitching for them. He's struggled immensely this season, giving up a 41.9 percent hard-hit rate, 43.7 percent fly-ball rate, 88.7 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and a 194 foot average batted-ball distance. On the other side of the matchup, Christian Villanueva has destroyed left-handed pitching this season with an insane .481 wOBA and .479 ISO, and this is a fantastic matchup for him.
Asdrubal Cabrera ($3,900): Ivan Nova has been decent this season, but his 90.1 mile-per-hour average exit velocity stands out as terrible. Asdrubal Cabrera has done quite well against right-handed pitching this season, putting up a .356 wOBA and a .218 ISO. He's been even hotter as of late, hitting for a .333 average, .889 OPS in addition to 2 home runs and 7 RBI over his last 10 games. As a switch-hitter, once Nova is out of the game he only sees a slight downgrade in splits if he takes on a lefty from the bullpen.
Jose Martinez ($3,800): Shane Bieber has pitched quite well for the Cleveland Indians this season, but there are certainly some exploitable aspects of his game. He has a 1.36 WHIP. 45.1 percent hard-hit rate and a 90.1 mile-per-hour average exit velocity. The 2.61 xFIP is nice, but there are still some troublesome peripherals. Jose Martinez has done quite well against right-handed pitching this season, with a .383 wOBA and a .215 ISO, and could come in at low-ownership because of the perceived skill of Bieber.
Ryan Sheppard is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ryan Sheppard also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username donkshow_. 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.