FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 5/22/21
The beauty of daily fantasy baseball is that the top targets are different each and every day. Whether it's the right-handed catcher who destroys left-handed pitching or the mid-range hurler facing a depleted lineup, you're not going to find yourself using the same assets time after time.
While this breaks up the monotony, it can make it hard to decide which players are primed to succeed on a given day. We can help bridge that gap.
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.
If you need help getting started on that trek, here are some of the top options on the board today. We'll be focusing exclusively on the main slate.
Pitching Breakdown
The slate's top arm is Walker Buehler ($10,500 on FanDuel), who is on the road to face the San Francisco Giants. San Fran has swung it well this year, but Buehler is carrying a sparkling 3.23 SIERA, 27.6% strikeout rate and 3.6% walk rate into this clash. On a small six-game slate without many high-upside arms, Buehler is going to be in a lot of my lineups. Our model ranks him as the slate's best pitching option.
The other pitcher I'm interested in is Adbert Alzolay ($6,800). Our projections slot him second, and the salary is obviously very appealing. The matchup is decent against a St. Louis Cardinals offense that is roughly league average in wOBA. With a 27.5% strikeout rate and 13.4% swinging-strike rate, Alzolay has the swing-and-miss upside we crave. Given the salary, he may wind up as the most popular hurler.
After those two, it's bleak, but if I had to use one other pitcher, it would be Robbie Ray ($9,100). As always, he comes with plenty of risk, especially at TD Ballpark. He does have a good ceiling, though, with a 28.9% strikeout rate and 16.2% swinging-strike rate, and he's up against a Tampa Bay Rays offense that owns the fourth-highest strikeout rate (27.1%).
Stacks to Target
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays are a great team to stack when they're seeing a lefty, and that's the case today versus Shane McClanahan. McClanahan has been really good in 2021, but the Jays have a slate-best (as of Saturday morning) 4.89 implied total, which says a lot about this park and the Jays' potent offense.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($4,100) and Bo Bichette ($4,000) need no introduction, and if you use Alzolay, they're pretty easy to get to. As such, they'll surely be popular.
If you want to fade the Vlad and Bo chalk, Toronto has plenty of right-handed alternatives in Marcus Semien ($3,600), Teoscar Hernandez ($3,200), Randal Grichuk ($2,900) and Lourdes Gurriel ($2,300).
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are facing southpaw Patrick Sandoval, who started the year as a reliever and has made only one start, going just 57 pitches in it. Sandoval isn't a bad pitcher, but the A's will see a lot of the Los Angeles Angels' bullpen, which has the eighth-worst SIERA.
Mark Canha ($3,100), Ramon Laureano ($3,400), Matt Chapman ($2,700) and Jed Lowrie ($2,100) are a four-man stack -- all of whom will hit from the right side against Sandoval -- I really like. Lowrie is a smashing point-per-dollar option. Chapman has a .375 wOBA this year with the platoon advantage while Laureano has a .462 wOBA in the split.
Don't forget about Matt Olson ($3,400). He could see righties out of the 'pen, and he's got a .349 wOBA and 50.0% fly-ball rate in lefty-lefty matchups anyway. Stephen Piscotty ($2,000) is a viable dart throw if he's in the lineup.
San Diego Padres
Just like the first two teams, the San Diego Padres are also facing a left-hander as they get a home date with Justus Sheffield, who has a mere 17.7% strikeout rate this season.
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,500) and Manny Machado ($3,200) are the main attractions. Machado tagged lefties for a .400 wOBA last season and comes at a modest salary. Tatis is a monster with a power/speed combo that is unrivaled on this slate.
Austin Nola ($2,700) will have the platoon advantage, as will switch-hitter Jurickson Profar ($2,300), who hit second last night. Lefties Jake Cronenworth ($3,000), Eric Hosmer ($2,800) and Trent Grisham ($3,400) are worth a look, too.
