MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 9/6/19

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Sep 6th, 2019
Arguably baseball's purest hitter, Anthony Rendon has enjoyed a monster 2019, and he has another plus matchup tonight. Which other studs should we be considering?

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.

Clayton Kershaw, P, Los Angeles Dodgers ($11,700)

Is it possible that maybe the vintage version of Clayton Kershaw is coming back? That would be pretty ideal, and his past results certainly indicate he could be.

While his last outing was a bit of a dud, prior to that stinker, Kershaw was back to being a boss. In those previous nine outings, the lefty had tossed 58 innings, good for a 2.02 ERA and 0.90 WHIP with 77 strikeouts to boot.

Now, peep the performance of his NL West buddies, the San Francisco Giants -- over the last two weeks, they rank second-worst in team wOBA (.278) and isolated power (.132). It all adds up to a monster night from the lefty.

Anthony Rendon, 3B, Washington Nationals ($4,500)

Picking which pitcher Anthony Rendon is most likely to blast is like trying to choose a favorite child -- they are all in for a nightmare. But with a lefty on the mound for the Atlanta Braves in Dallas Keuchel, rostering Rendon seems like a great choice.

Overall, Rendon is possibly putting up his finest season to date, but he has done some absurd damage to lefties (and their psyche) -- he's bombed them for a cool 10 home runs, .675 slugging percentage, and 1.115 OPS.

Keuchel, meanwhile, hasn't gotten the memo that hitters are striking out a ton in 2019 -- he's only got a 19.4% strikeout rate, a 9.2% swinging-strike rate, and 36.6% hard-hit rate allowed.

Expect some big numbers from Rendon and the Washington Nationals, who have popped their way to a .338 wOBA (seventh-best) in the last two weeks.

Matt Olson, 1B, Oakland Athletics ($3,600)

The Oakland Athletics have kept up the chase for a playoff spot, and if they are going to keep the pressure on in the wild card race, Matt Olson is likely to play a big role.

Olson and left-handed bats could be in line for a big night against Spencer Turnbull, who's really struggled in this spot. In 288 plate appearances against lefties in 2019, he's allowed a .464 slugging percentage and .358 wOBA.

The batted-ball profile is even uglier, as lefties have enjoyed a 44.6% hard-hit rate in this spot, making a guy like Olson a primo choice.

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.