MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 8/28/19

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Aug 28th, 2019
J.D. Martinez is back to slugging home runs, and he's got a great matchup in Denver tonight. What other top plays should we consider?

Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-priced studs. These guys take up by far the biggest chunk of your cap space, but they also offer the highest ceiling, and in the case of pitcher, by far the highest floors for production.

For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce well too, increasing our chances for runs and RBI. For pitchers, we want big strikeout numbers, while the ability to go deep in a game and pick up a win is also valuable.

Taking up so much salary, and playing such a big role in your lineup's ceiling, you're not going to want to whiff on these guys, so let,s take a look at a few top-end options that you can count on to anchor your lineup today.

Gerrit Cole, P, Houston Astros ($12,000)

With Max Scherzer potentially on a pitch limit restriction, the choice at the top of the main slate tonight is an easy one, and it's Gerrit Cole by a mile.

First, let's peep how brutal the Tampa Bay Rays have been offensively. Over the last two weeks, while they have cut down the strikeouts to 19.9%, they rank fourth-worst in team wOBA (.277) and sixth-worst in isolated power (.136, ISO).

Cole laps the field in terms of strikeout rate, and he's second-best today in implied allowed run total (3.22 runs). Spend up for Cole and he should post a monster evening.

J.D. Martinez, OF, Boston Red Sox ($4,700)

If I told you there was a dude on fire at the dish playing in Coors Field with a team implied run total of 7.53 runs, would you be interested?

Hell yea you would, so let's find a way to slot J.D. Martinez into our lineups.

Dating back to August 1st, Martinez has walloped eight home runs en route to a 1.187 OPS, averaging over 16 FanDuel points per game.

Now let's lock in his opponent, Peter Lambert, who could be best described as a warm body on the mound for the Colorado Rockies. The righty has logged a 13.7% strikeout rate over 70 1/3 major league innings, including a 37.8% hard-hit rate.

A hot-hitting slugger mixed with a struggling arm is a recipe for a big night for a guy like Martinez.

Francisco Lindor, SS, Cleveland Indians ($4,200)

To keep pace in the AL Central, the Cleveland Indians will lean heavily on Francisco Lindor, and he looks ready for a big effort.

Lindor, the switch-hitting wizard, has been far better from the left-handed side of the plate this season, which he will hit from tonight. He owns a .576 slugging percentage and .933 OPS as a lefty, but only a .414 slugging percentage and .753 OPS as a righty.

To make this matchup even more fruitful, Jordan Zimmermann takes the bump for the Detroit Tigers, and he has been blasted by lefties. In the past three seasons spanning 1,655 plate appearances, lefty swingers own a .355 wOBA, .510 slugging percentage, and a 40.4% hard-hit rate.

Load up on Indian lefties and expect a strong scoring effort.

Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. 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.