FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Wednesday 10/14/20
Today's slate begins at 6:05pm ET, where we first find the Dodgers trying to dig themselves out of an 0-2 hole against the Braves, followed by the Astros attempting to escape a sweep at the hands of the Rays at 8:40pm ET.
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On that note, let's highlight some of the top options for today's FanDuel main slate. Below are tonight's projected starters with their 2020 stats. Opposing team strikeout rate and wRC+ date now show this year's splits against a given pitcher's handedness using up-to-date active rosters, per FanGraphs.
| Pitcher | Salary | L/R | Opp. | SIERA | K% | BB% | Opp. K% | Opp. wRC+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Wright | $9,400 | R | LOS | 5.83 | 17.9% | 14.3% | 20.2% | 126 |
| Tyler Glasnow | $8,800 | R | HOU | 3.04 | 38.2% | 9.2% | 19.8% | 102 |
| Julio Urias | $8,600 | L | ATL | 4.88 | 20.1% | 8.0% | 27.8% | 99 |
| Zack Greinke | $8,000 | R | TAM | 3.72 | 24.5% | 3.3% | 26.4% | 104 |
Let's check out the top spots on today's slate.
Pitchers
Tyler Glasnow ($8,800) is the slate's most talented arm by a wide margin, with his massive 38.2% doing laps around everyone else. Even in a matchup against a Houston team that suppresses strikeouts, he's an easy guy to lock in at a sub-$9k salary. After pitching on just two days' rest to help eliminate the Yankees on Sunday, he'll be fully rested this time around, and the Rays shouldn't be afraid to fully unleash him one win away from a World Series berth.
Zack Greinke ($8,000) has the second-best numbers at the lowest salary on the slate, but he's also failed to reach five innings in either of his postseason starts. He also dealt with some arm soreness prior to his last start, and his leash will be short with the Astros on the brink of elimination. Despite all that, he should be able to get some punchouts against the Rays and is more appealing than the alternatives.
Julio Urias ($8,600) has performed well in his two 2020 playoff appearances, but he's also only tallied 68 and 52 pitches. Considering his mediocre regular season marks, he's really only worth considering as a purely contrarian play.
Kyle Wright ($9,400) has a downright laughable salary as the worst hurler on the board. The rise is the result of his strong outing against the Marlins in the NLDS, but the Dodgers are an entirely different beast. Even while acknowledging that Wright made late-season adjustments that led to better results down the stretch, he still didn't post amazing peripheral numbers in September. He'll almost certainly be the slate's least popular pitcher, but that's about the only positive here.
Hitters
The Dodgers have an implied total exceeding five runs, something that's been pretty rare to see in these playoffs.
As noted earlier, Wright seemed to get things to click over his final three regular season starts (2.37 ERA), but he still only held a 4.69 xFIP, 19.2% strikeout rate, and 8.2% walk rate in those outings -- an improvement for sure, but hardly one to scare us from rostering the Dodgers.
If there's one takeaway from those starts, though, Wright did perform much better versus right-handed batters (24.2% strikeout rate), so we should give more attention to Corey Seager ($3,900), Max Muncy ($3,500), Cody Bellinger ($4,000), and Joc Pederson ($2,500). But overall, it's easy to like this lineup as a whole on Wednesday.
That being said, the high implied total will lead the masses to flock to Los Angeles, so in tournaments, you could always focus on other stacks with the hopes that Wright's recent improvements have more staying power than we expect.
Hopping over to the other side with the Braves is one such option, as Urias posted a middling 4.99 xFIP, 18.5% strikeout rate, and 8.3% walk rate versus righty sticks in the regular season. Ronald Acuna ($4,400) and Marcell Ozuna ($4,100) are obvious wants, and Ozzie Albies ($3,900) owns better career numbers against southpaws (148 wRC+). Travis d'Arnaud ($3,100) and Austin Riley ($2,700) are great ways to get cheap exposure.
The Rays are also a possibility against Greinke, who's struggled this postseason. For some reason, Greinke was far worse in same-sided matchups for 2020 (4.70 xFIP; 16.3% strikeout rate), but that goes counter to his career norms. In any case, it gives us another excuse to roster Randy Arozarena ($3,500), who continues to produce on a near nightly basis. Given Greinke's recent issues, we shouldn't hesitate to roster left-handed batters like normal, though, so Austin Meadows ($3,300) and Brandon Lowe ($3,300) remain on the radar despite struggling in these playoffs.
Finally, the Astros could be on their last legs in their brutal matchup against Glasnow. You're really only going here in non-Glasnow lineups where you're looking to be contrarian -- Houston has a slate-worst 3.74 implied total.
