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
Dinelson Lamet ($10,700): This could be an uncommon play tonight with so many big-name pitchers on the slate, but Dinelson Lamet has been great this year from a strikeout standpoint. He has managed a 30.2 percent strikeout rate, which is second on the slate to only Shane Bieber. Lamet has not really shown much upside this season other than one fantastic game against the Seattle Mariners, but his opponent tonight -- the San Francisco Giants -- is pretty bad. While San Fran's 22.7 percent strikeout rate against righties is just 17th in the Majors, their .302 wOBA sits down at 27th.
Zack Wheeler ($9,000): Zack Wheeler has struggled immensely over his last three starts, but that was after putting up 21-plus DraftKings points in six of seven. So we hope he will turn things around against the Philadelphia Phillies tonight. They are a team that has the 11th-highest strikeout rate against right-handed pitching, striking out at a 22.9 percent clip. In addition, their .315 wOBA in the split ranks 19th, which is not very threatening. Wheeler has put up a 23.6 percent strikeout rate with a very solid 6.3 percent walk rate.
Value Pitcher
Max Fried ($7,500): A roller-coaster is the best way to describe Max Fried's season. He has been pretty inconsistent, jumping around from poor outing to great outing, but he seems to have settled down a bit as of late -- putting up 14-plus DraftKings points in six of his last seven starts. The reason why 14 points isn't terrible is that most of those games he was priced under $8,000. It's not a fantastic output, but it won't kill your lineup at this price. He's put up a solid 23.7 percent strikeout rate and actually has the second best SIERA on the slate at 3.99. On a Coors night, his cheap salary comes in handy.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
Max Kepler ($5,200): After putting up two solid starts -- his first two with the Detroit Tigers -- Edwin Jackson has fallen back down to earth with back-to-back outings without putting up 10 DraftKings points. Now he takes on the very good Minnesota Twins offense and could get himself into a lot of trouble here. Jackson is giving up an abysmal 46.3 percent hard-hit rate and 36.8 percent fly-ball rate, which has led to a horrendous 26.6 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. Max Kepler has brought a ton of power against righties this season, and his .357 wOBA and .298 ISO should smash E-Jax tonight. Just make sure Kepler is in the lineup after he sat the past two games.
Jose Osuna ($5,200): Jose Osuna crushed a home run last night at Coors Field, and here's to hoping he does it again today. Osuna has completely destroyed right-handed pitching this season and now gets another opportunity in this split in the best hitting environment in baseball. He has a .413 wOBA and .337 ISO against righties, which are absolutely incredible numbers. He'll face off against struggling Colorado Rockies righty Antonio Senzatela -- a pitcher with an ugly 5.75 SIERA, 37.3 percent hard-hit rate and 24.5 percent line-drive rate.
Bo Bichette ($5,000): This Toronto Blue Jays' rookie continues to smash the ball. Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. give the Jays some hope for the future -- at least from a hitting standpoint. Bichette has had his way with left-handed pitchers early in his career and looks to have a solid matchup against Houston Astros lefty Wade Miley. With a .486 wOBA and .350 ISO, albeit in just 43 plate appearances, Bichette will face Miley and his 36.4 percent hard-hit rate allowed. In addition, Miley's 3.13 ERA is clearly misleading as he's got a 4.58 SIERA staring him down, with a .263 BABIP inflating his numbers a bit.
Value Hitters
Manny Machado ($3,900): It is far from a great matchup against San Francisco Giants' left-handed ace Madison Bumgarner, but Manny Machado has been so good against lefties that a sub-$4,000 price is hard to ignore. I am not advocating to stack the San Diego Padres, but you can have elite upside for a cheaper price as a nice one-off. Bumgarner is giving up a 43.7 percent hard-hit rate and 23.0 percent line-drive rate, which helps us feel better about targeting Manny. Machado, on the other hand, has hit lefties to the tune of a .447 wOBA and .362 ISO -- numbers that are so good that I don't care about the matchup.
Josh VanMeter ($3,800): The Cincinnati Reds head to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals tonight. The Cards will have Dakota Hudson on the mound, and he has some interesting numbers -- one of which is his horrendous 10.7 percent walk rate. But the weird one is he's giving up a 40.9 percent hard-hit rate and a 22.4 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate but just a 19.7 percent fly-ball rate. So he doesn't give up many fly balls, but when he does, they are gone. Some of that is bad luck, but his hard-hit rate tells us it's not all misfortune. There isn't too much power with Josh VanMeter, but the matchup is great and his .357 wOBA and .183 ISO in the split make him worth considering.
Justin Upton ($3,700): They really need to price up Justin Upton a bit more, even in his slumps. He has put up a respectable .328 wOBA and .198 ISO against right-handed pitching this season, and while the power is not what it used to be, he has good hitters around him that can allow him to pick up a bunch of DraftKings points. Tonight against Nathan Eovaldi, Upton has an opportunity to pile up some hits. In a small sample of 39 1/3 frames, Eovaldi is giving up a horrendous 41.2 percent hard-hit rate along with a 36.4 percent fly-ball rate, which has resulted in a 20.9 home-run-to-fly-ball rate.
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.