MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Wednesday 5/25/22

Austin Swaim  —  @ASwaim3 May 25th, 2022
At near-minimum salary, William Contreras has performed like an All-Star for Atlanta lately. Which other bats can help save salary on Wednesday?

With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.

As a result of this, the primary method of selecting hitters is to "stack" certain teams in good spots to produce. Most of the top stacks on a given day come with hefty salaries. In addition to that, a vast majority of pitchers with the upside to win tournaments are high-salaried hurlers.

Therefore, crushing your value plays can be the secret sauce to taking down a tournament. That could be a low-salaried pitcher piling up strikeouts, or it could be a low-salaried hitter swatting a long ball.

Which budget options stand out today on FanDuel?

Mike Moustakas, 2B/3B, Cincinnati Reds ($2,800)

Weather is abundantly noisy on this slate, and that's no different in Cincinnati. Patience will likely be required to start this one, but it should dry later into the night.

If they can get this one rolling, the Reds have a sweet matchup against Kyle Hendricks. Except for a near-complete game against the Padres, Hendricks has been dreadful this season, sporting a 4.71 skill-interactive ERA to go with a whopping 40.1% hard-hit rate. That's not going to play well at tiny Great American Ball Park.

The Reds aren't a high-salaried stack, but there are only a couple of pieces below $3,000 on FanDuel. Mike Moustakas is the best one.

Moustakas has raked against right-handers his entire career. This season he is picking up where he left off in seasons past, posting a 98 wRC+ and .162 ISO with the platoon advantage.

Moustakas and Joey Votto ($2,400) are two solid veteran value bats to target in the Reds' improving offense.

Andrew Vaughn, 1B/OF, Chicago White Sox ($2,600)

At 42 years old, Rich Hill is just not an overpowering starter anymore.

The Boston lefty has just a 7.9% swinging-strike rate, and that's keeping enough balls in play to aid single-game offensive expectations for his opponents. Specifically, right-handed bats give him trouble. He's logged a 5.03 xFIP against them this season.

The White Sox's right-handed dominant lineup -- already crushing lefties for a 126 wRC+ this season -- is a terrible matchup for Hill.

It also doesn't take much salary to get to the Southsiders. Andrew Vaughn, projected in Chicago's two-hole, is an obvious starting point considering he's tattooed southpaws for a .922 OPS to begin his 2022 campaign.

Better yet, Vaughn is joined by Jose Abreu, A.J. Pollock, and Yasmani Grandal below $3,000 in the heart of this order -- all with plus marks against left-handed pitching. The Pale Hose take the cake as the day's top value stack.

William Contreras, C, Atlanta Braves ($2,100)

Willson Contreras has raked from behind the plate for the Cubs for years. His brother is now doing the same in Atlanta.

William Contreras' breakout campaign appears to be underway. He's posted a 1.054 OPS and a .452 isolated power (ISO) in his limited stint with the Bravos thus far. The organization has taken notice, sliding him into the heart of their order behind Ronald Acuna Jr.

He's an amazing source of salary relief for Atlanta's matchup with Ranger Suarez on Wednesday. Suarez significantly outperformed expectations in 2021, but he's fallen back to Earth a bit with a 4.20 SIERA in 2022. That's largely predicated on a significantly reduced 19.8% strikeout rate.

The Braves can crush lefties, and Contreras allows you to load up on their stars. Travis d'Arnaud also might sneak into the batting order as another value stick, but this offense could go bananas should the weather hold off at Truist Park.