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
Lucas Giolito ($11,300 on DraftKings): Lucas Giolito has really become an absolute ace for the Chicago White Sox this season. He's got a 30.3 percent strikeout rate, a 3.67 SIERA and an incredible 0.56 HR/9. He will certainly have his work cut out for him tonight as the White Sox take on the Chicago Cubs — a team that has had plenty of success against right-handed pitching this season. While their 22.5 percent strikeout rate is 19th, it's their .334 wOBA — which is tied for the 6th most — that could be troublesome.
Andrew Heaney ($8,500): The Toronto Blue Jays are terrible, and since coming off the DL Andrew Heaney has been solid — especially from a strikeout perspective. He has an elite 34.1 percent strikeout rate and 3.34 SIERA. However, he has some struggles in other areas like a 49.0 percent hard-hit rate and ridiculously unsustainable 60.8 percent fly-ball rate. The Jays have a 23.9 percent strikeout rate against left-handed pitching, which is dead-middle, ranked 15th. However, their 25th ranked .288 wOBA is also encouraging for Heaney.
Value Pitcher
Joe Palumbo ($5,500): He made a four inning start on June 8th in which he allowed four earned runs, but he also struck out four hitters and that is where we land with Joe Palumbo. While those innings are the only ones he has above Double-A ball, his numbers in Double-A have been solid. He has a 30.8 percent strikeout rate and a 3.80 xFIP this season and has a solid matchup this evening against the Cleveland Indians. The Indians have a 23rd ranked .302 wOBA and a 21.8 percent strikeout rate (18th), so there is some upside potential here at a very cheap price tag.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
Anthony Rendon ($5,400): With the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals actually play tonight? Hopefully. We will avoid writing about Juan Soto again since we had a postponement two days in a row. Anyway, Anthony Rendon is in a great spot as he crushes right-handed pitching. So far this season, Rendon has tuned up righties with a .425 wOBA and .325 ISO which is pretty incredible. Jake Arrieta has given up a 38.3 percent hard-hit rate this season along with a 22.1 percent line-drive rate and an ugly 4.85 SIERA.
Shohei Ohtani ($5,200): In 2018 as a rookie, and also while he was pitching, Shohei Ohtani crushed right-handed pitchers with his .433 wOBA and .344 ISO. In 2019, after coming off Tommy John surgery and not pitching, Ohtani still has solid numbers against righties with a .339 wOBA and .237 ISO. Ohtani has only been getting better since making his season debut on May 7th. Since June 1st, Ohtani has smashed righties with a .435 wOBA and a .368 ISO. He'll face the Jays struggling righty Aaron Sanchez who has a 5.32 SIERA and horrendous 12.6 percent walk rate.
Josh Bell ($4,800): What an offensive surge we have seen from Josh Bell this season. Where did it come from? It's been incredible. He's a switch-hitter that has brought incredible power from both sides of the plate as his impressive .366 wOBA and .303 ISO against left-handed pitchers is dwarfed by his .435 wOBA And .348 ISO against righties. He's going to face right-handed Jordan Zimmermann — a pitcher that has a slate-worst 16.4 percent strikeout rate and an equally terrible 5.31 SIERA in just 30 innings this season.
Value Hitters
Matt Carpenter ($4,000): Matt Carpenter is pretty cheap tonight, though it does make sense considering his struggles against right-handed pitching. In 2019, Carpenter has just a .311 wOBA and .167 ISO, which is pretty bad for a left-handed hitter. However in 2018, he crushed righties to the tune of a .385 wOBA and .280 ISO. Tonight he'll take on a pitcher in Miami Marlins' Trevor Richards who has a 3.68 ERA but a much worst 4.96 SIERA. In addition, his .259 BABIP indicates he could be getting lucky. He is giving up a 41.9 percent hard-hit rate and a 43.5 percent fly-ball rate with just a 10.6 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. If he continues giving up that many fly balls and that much hard-contact, those home runs are going to start piling on.
Bryce Harper ($3,800): It sounds like Max Scherzer is going to pitch today despite breaking his nose yesterday. However, the prices on the Philadelphia Phillies are incredibly low and there is a real chance that either the injury hinders his pitching or they take him out early because of it. That could leave the Phillies' bats way cheaper than they'd be against pitchers other than Scherzer. Bryce Harper has struggled this season, but in 2018 he had an elite .379 wOBA and .258 ISO against right-handed pitching. As elite as Scherzer is, he's giving up a 39.3 percent hard-hit rate which is at least worth noting.
Enrique Hernandez ($3,200): He's got respectable numbers against left-handed pitching with a .335 wOBA and .191 ISO. Of course they are not elite, but Enrique Hernandez's price is so cheap that he makes for a great cost-savings one-off play to allow you to pay up elsewhere. He's got a great matchup against Drew Pomeranz of the San Francisco Giants — a pitcher that has struggled this season. Pomeranz has a brutal 10.8 percent walk rate, a 35.6 percent hard-hit rate, 24.7 percent line-drive rate and has given up 2.02 HR/9.
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.