MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 4/13/22

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Apr 13th, 2022
Trea Turner has struggled to begin the year but has a tantalizing matchup on his hands. Which other stars should be on our radar?

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, as well, 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.

Framber Valdez, SP, Houston Astros ($10,000)

It's always hard to draw on super small sample sizes like these, as the season has just kicked off. But if there's one thing we are starting to notice, it's that the Arizona Diamondbacks could be in for a long season at the dish.

So far this season, the Snakes are last in team wOBA (.247), paired with a very poor isolated power (ISO) of 130 and a 23.8% strikeout rate. It shouldn't come as a major surprise that Framber Valdez is projected for 34.0 FanDuel points.

Other options like Aaron Nola and Max Scherzer are quite tempting, but given that these are two prolific offenses, I like Valdez a bit more today.

Trea Turner, 2B/SS, Los Angeles Dodgers ($3,700)

Alright, Trea Turner, quit playin'.

It's been a bit of a rough go to the beginning of the 2022 season for the presumptive top season-long fantasy baseball superstar. But that's the beauty of DFS, right? We just need our lineup to hit on that day, and Turner could be primed to explode.

The Los Angeles Dodgers sport a spicy implied team total of 4.72 runs, which is one of the main slate's stronger totals.

Turner will face a new member of the Minnesota Twins in Chris Paddack. The young righty has struggled with the long ball, especially against same-sided bats. They've dinged him for 1.65 home runs per nine (HR/9) in his career.

Expect Turner to bounce back tonight.

Matt Olson, 1B, Atlanta Braves ($3,900)

With kind of a bizarre main slate and some tricky weather to navigate today, one team that stands out is the Atlanta Braves, who blast the field with the only implied team total over five runs (5.29).

Headlining that list for me is Matt Olson, the new slugging star for the Braves. He faces Josiah Gray, and while I am excited to see Gray's growth this year, he's giving up way too much hard contact. Both righties and lefties have dinged him for slugging percentage marks greater than .500, but he's allowed a silly mark of 2.67 HR/9 to lefties. Yowza.

Now, let's peep Olson's career marks with the platoon advantage -- a 140 wRC+, .528 slugging percentage, and absurd .268 ISO. All of that leads me to rostering a lot of Matt Olson on Wednesday.


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.