3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 8/25/21

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.

Zack Wheeler, SP, Philadelphia Phillies ($11,000)

There's a plethora of high-priced options on Wednesday's main slate, but one that sticks out is a guy competing for the NL Cy Young, Zack Wheeler.

There are many different ways we can parse through the expensive arms -- and there's no shortage of them. But, Wheeler's got a lot of things going for him. First, his 49.1% ground-ball rate limits him from mega damage; he pitches deep into games, as evidenced by his 6.75 innings per start; and his 29.1% strikeout rate is among the league's elite, including a 5.4% walk rate.

And that ignores the fact that we still haven't dove headfirst into Wheeler's opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays. While they are an elite hitting option, they also provide plenty of strikeout upside -- over the last 30 days, they have struck out at a rapid 24.7% clip.

For all of those reasons, Wheeler is an outstanding option.

Justin Turner, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers ($3,900)

It will be interesting to see if the San Diego Padres have one last gasp in them in the playoff race, and if they do, it starts with this pivotal series against bitter rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers.

They are going to need one hell of an effort from Blake Snell tonight. The mercurial left-hander has struck out 29.1% of batters this season, and that's excellent -- but with a double-digit walk rate, and getting absolutely annihilated from righties, Snell has struggled this season. Peep these numbers against opposite-handed hitters, as they make him a serious target: a .463 slugging percentage, 1.47 HR/9 allowed, and a 37.3% hard-hit rate.

That makes righty and middle-of-the-order bat Justin Turner a great play -- he's been an equal opportunity against both lefties (135 wRC+) and righties (138 wRC+), including a .252 ISO against southpaws. Turner definitely has a chance to get loose for a big score tonight.

Rafael Devers, 3B, Boston Red Sox ($4,000)

After an 11-run outburst yesterday, and 20 runs scored total in the game, this game should see plenty of ownership and offense yet again. A 10.5 run over/under reflects that juicy goodness, leading to a healthy implied team total of 5.78 runs for the Boston Red Sox. And after going through a cold spell, the Sox have been cookin' -- their .340 wOBA has risen dramatically in the last 30 days.

It's a new day, and the Minnesota Twins are rolling out another arm that is struggling. Rookie Bailey Ober, like teammate Griffin Jax, is getting pummeled by the long ball. He's allowed 1.98 HR/9, an improvement from Jax. But the splits are just as bad -- he's been tortured by lefties, allowing a .525 slugging percentage and a .379 wOBA.

Devers is crushing righties for a .391 wOBA and 46.8% hard-hit rate, so spend up if you can. Even though Boston will be a chalk stack, it's tough to fade 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.