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 -- whether it be a pitcher unexpectedly piling up strikeouts or a low-salaried batter racking up points -- can be the secret sauce to taking down a tournament.
Which budget options stand out today on FanDuel?
Trevor Rogers, P, Marlins ($7,400)
A year ago, we all would've jumped at the chance to roster Trevor Rogers at a $7,400 salary in a good matchup. While we shouldn't be as giddy to do so this year, Rogers is still pretty easy to like in this spot and at this salary.
Rogers' season-long numbers have plummeted across the board as he's posted a 4.67 SIERA, 19.2% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 9.7% swinging-strike rate. That's not good. But Rogers' average fastball velocity is exactly the same as it was in 2021, and he is a former first-round pick who had experienced nothing but success in pro ball until this campaign.
He can have a good outing in a matchup with the Washington Nationals. Rogers held them to two hits, two walks and one earned run while fanning four earlier this year. The Nats are a horrible matchup for strikeouts (league-low 16.3% strikeout rate against southpaws), but they don't pack much of a punch (21st-ranked .303 wOBA).
With Shohei Ohtani, Gerrit Cole, and Max Fried on this small slate, Rogers will need to find a way to get some punchouts to keep up with tonight's studs -- and we project him for 5.19 strikeouts -- but if you're targeting high-salary stacks, Rogers projects as the best low-salary arm.
We peg him to score 29.4 FanDuel points and rate him as the best point-per-dollar pitcher.
Joey Gallo, OF, Yankees ($2,300)
I recommended Joey Gallo yesterday against a righty, and he got the day off. Of course. I'm going back to him today against Dylan Bundy.
Gallo has put up 22.2 and 15.7 FanDuel points in his past two starts, showing signs of life after a rough start to 2022. But even in the midst of his slow start, Gallo has a .332 expected wOBA and 41.8% fly-ball rate. Against righties this season, he's registered a 347 wOBA, 43.7% hard-hit rate and 50.0% fly-ball rate.
Bundy has permitted 1.90 dingers per nine overall since the start of 2021. Lefties have tagged him for a .368 wOBA this season.
Gallo is a sweet value option and an economical way to get a piece of a New York Yankees offense that has 4.89 implied total, the night's second-highest.
Chad Pinder, OF, Athletics ($2,500)
Chad Pinder is a good guy to zero in on when the Oakland Athletics see a southpaw, and that's the case today as they're taking on Konnor Pilkington.
Pinder hit leadoff the last time the A's faced a left-hander, and that alone makes him enticing at this salary. But Pinder really mauled lefties in 2021, mashing his way to a monster .376 wOBA and 44.7% hard-hit rate in the split.
Pilkington has some good numbers early on in his brief MLB career, but righties have gotten to him for a 48.6% fly-ball rate in a small sample.
I like Pinder as a low-salary dart throw who can help you get to one of the slate's aforementioned aces.