3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 6/30/21
Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-salary 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 pitchers, the high-salary options typically come with the highest floors, too.
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.
With your high-salary picks playing such a big role in your lineup, you need to be right on these guys, so let's take a look at a few top-end options you can count on to anchor your lineup today.
Aaron Nola, SP, Philadelphia Phillies ($11,000)
After turning out a brilliant gem in his last outing, Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies will look to build on that excellence and his matchup against a woeful Miami Marlins' offensive should certainly help things.
We know that Nola is a beast, but peep this South Beach offense -- they clock in second-worst in the league in team wOBA (.292), and their 26.0% strikeout rate paired with a .138 isolated power (ISO) ain't anything to tell mom and pop about, either.
Per our projections, Nola is head and shoulders above the pack tonight -- by nearly five points. Roster him with supreme confidence.
Marcus Semien, 2B/SS, Toronto Blue Jays ($3,300)
We generally target hitters at the $3,500 mark and above, but we are going to make a slight exception to that rule -- and Marcus Semien is a rule breaker for tonight.
Already an offense with a ton of talent, Semien came over to the Toronto Blue Jays this season, and the table-setter has been absolutely brilliant as their leadoff man. He's already slammed his way to 19 home runs, and his .533 slugging percentage is no joke.
Justus Sheffield of the Seattle Mariners has been up-and-down this season, as indicated by his 5.50 FIP. His biggest issue is the long ball -- he's given up 1.72 home runs per nine (HR/9), fueled by a 34.4% hard-hit rate.
The Toronto Blue Jays boast an implied team total of 6.35 runs, so they'll be very popular -- and we peg Semien as the top hitter in that stack (15.6 points).
Rafael Devers, 3B, Boston Red Sox ($3,600)
There are two teams tonight that boast an implied team total over 6.0 runs -- one is the Blue Jays, that we just stepped through, and the second is the Boston Red Sox, who sit just above that mark (6.04 runs).
That leads us to Rafael Devers, who's been a monster this season. Now, with a lefty-lefty matchup on tap tonight -- the Kansas City Royals will roll out Danny Duffy, weather-permitting -- this could be a bit of a head-scratcher. But there are two reasons we can be confident about Devers.
The first is that this beast is not your ordinary lefty. The batted-ball metrics showcase that he's still solid in this split, logging a 98 wRC+ this season. The second is that we know this thing could likely get turned over early to the Royals' bullpen, as the team is being careful as Duffy works back from an injury. And the KC pen ranks as one of the league's worst, sporting a 4.64 FIP and a whopping 4.73 walks per nine -- Devers could come up to the dish with runners all over the bags.
For all of those reasons, there's a lot to like about Devers.
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.
