After back-to-back small main slates, we jump back up to a more palatable eight games on Friday night, and while the pitchers are once again on the cheaper side, we have a number of appealing candidates to choose from. As has been the case for most of the week, the implied totals are lacking for offense -- no team is expected to surpass five runs -- but as we saw yesterday, that doesn't necessarily mean we won't see some fireworks when it's all said and done.
Note that tonight's game between the Twins and Phillies is looking awfully dicey with rain in the forecast, so it may be wise to stay clear of it unless we hear more positive news later in the day.
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On that note, let's highlight some of the top options for today's FanDuel main slate.
Pitchers to Target
Shane Bieber ($8,900 on FanDuel): As I noted from the top, pitching is rather inexpensive across the board, so all our top hurlers pretty much qualify as values tonight. Shane Bieber arguably deserves top billing, though, particularly with Nick Pivetta ($9,100) likely being taken out of the mix due to poor weather in Philadelphia. Although Bieber only posted a 4.55 ERA in 2018, he was rock solid in his first big league season, producing a 3.45 SIERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, and 4.7% walk rate across 114 2/3 innings. The main blemish was a 43.9% hard-hit rate he allowed, likely explaining some of the discrepancy between his ERA and SIERA. But he draws a plus matchup against the Blue Jays, who have scuffled a bit on offense to begin the year and have an active roster that fanned at a 25.3% clip to righties last season. Toronto holds a slate-low 3.45 implied total, further reaffirming Bieber's potential to put up some points this evening.