FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 10/9/21

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 projections and 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 four starting hurlers are Brandon Woodruff ($10,000 on FanDuel), Max Fried ($9,000), Kevin Gausman ($8,600) and Julio Urias ($9,400).

Woodruff is the top play in my eyes. He's taking on the Atlanta Braves, who sport a slate-low 3.56 implied total. Woodruff had excellent numbers this year, including a 3.31 SIERA and 29.8% strikeout rate. The matchup is far from easy, but that's how it is on playoff slates. We project Woodruff for 34.7 FanDuel points.

After Woodruff, Gausman is where I'll go. The salary is nice, and our model actually has him as the top arm, projecting Gausman for 35.5 FanDuel points. I prefer Woodruff due to Gausman's difficult matchup with the high-powered Los Angeles Dodgers, who are showing a 3.78 implied total. Gausman ended the year with a 3.42 SIERA and 29.3% strikeout rate, and he closed in red-hot form, with a 31.1% strikeout rate and 2.4% walk rate across 40 innings in September and October.

Stacks to Target

Milwaukee Brewers

While Fried is a solid pitcher, I view him as the best guy to stack against on this slate, and I'd assume the Milwaukee Brewers will be the day's chalk stack. Fried, a lefty, had just a 23.7% strikeout rate and flashed some reverse splits, so we have freedom with Milwaukee stacks.

Milwaukee has no bats above $3,400, so they pair well alongside the high-salaried Woodruff.

Willy Adames ($3,400) and Eduardo Escobar ($3,200) will swing it from the right side and are projected to hit second and third, respectively. Adames mashed his way to a .377 wOBA after being dealt to the Brewers, and he had a 44.3% hard-hit rate and 51.5% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage. He's a core play for me.

So is Avisail Garcia ($2,700), who put up a .363 expected wOBA overall and a .390 wOBA against left-handers.

Luis Urias ($2,700) would be a handy piece if he gets in the lineup. He'll have the platoon advantage and is eligible at three positions. We project Urias as one of the slate's top point-per-dollar hitters.

Lefties Christian Yelich ($3,200) and Kolten Wong ($2,900) are worth a look, too, given Fried's reverse splits. Wong may be leading off, and that's an appealing role at his modest salary.

San Francisco Giants

After Milwaukee, I don't love the idea of using a four-man stack with any other offense, but I do like some of the bats on the Giants.

San Fran will see Urias, a southpaw, and when the Giants went up against a lefty this year, Darin Ruf ($2,500) and Austin Slater ($2,500) were fun low-salary ways to get exposure to San Francisco. Slater usually hits leadoff versus lefties while Ruf hits cleanup. Ruf racked up a .419 wOBA and 43.0% hard-hit rate in the split, and Slater recorded a .379 wOBA and 47.3% fly-ball rate.

Fellow right-handers Buster Posey ($3,300) and Kris Bryant ($3,500) each went deep in Friday's Game 1. That'll likely have them on everyone's radar today, and they're really nice plays. Against lefties this year, Bryant posted a 41.7% hard-hit rate, 45.8% fly-ball rate and .381 wOBA. Posey had a .431 wOBA in the split.

I'll likely load up on Brewers, add two-man stacks from the Giants and mix in one-off plays around that core.