3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Wednesday 6/15/22
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?
Randal Grichuk, OF, Rockies ($2,800)
Somehow, the Rockies are a value stack at Coors Field.
With the Braves and Red Sox surging recently, the home side in Colorado really isn't that high-salaried in comparison. Only the monstrous C.J. Cron sits above $3,300 in their projected starting lineup, and they're holding a 5.86 implied team total.
The reason why? They're facing lefty Konnor Pilkington, and the Rox are much better against left-handed pitching. Their right-handed dominant lineup has a 102 wRC+ against southpaws, and Pilkington has been tagged for a 4.75 xFIP and 41.7% hard-hit rate by right-handed batters this season.
Randal Grichuk is a huge catalyst for their lineup in this split. Grichuk has a .815 OPS against lefties versus just a .607 mark against same-handed pitching.
Grichuk, Yonathan Daza, and Jose Iglesias could all find quality lineup spots on Wednesday, and Grichuk's .333 batting average against lefties is the lowest of that group. This is a stack that could chain together hits and bully the Guardians' staff all night.
Frank Schwindel, 1B, Cubs ($2,500)
With that said, Coors Field gets the silver medal for hitting environments on today's main slate.
Winds of nearly 20 miles per hour are blowing out today at Wrigley Field in Chicago, and the ambient temperature is in the mid-90s. That's the formula that produced 17 total runs last night, but the Padres had the easier pitcher to attack and scored 12 of them. It appears to be the Cubbies tonight.
Ryan Weathers will toe the slab for San Diego, and I'm not sure if his 5.44 FIP from last season or his 6.88 FIP at Triple-A El Paso this season is more concerning for his prospects on Wednesday. He also had a 43.2% hard-hit rate last year, and hard-hit balls will go a long way tonight.
The Cubs' right-handed dominant lineup could feast on the Friars' lefty, including Frank Schwindel. Schwindel has pulled back from his raucous debut last season, but he's still posted a quality .739 OPS against left-handers this season.
Schwindel, Yan Gomes, Jonathan Villar, and Nico Hoerner could all be value options from Chicago in the right lineup spots. I'm hoping they shake up their lineup a bit since it's projected to have three C/1B options only in the top-six spots, and we can only fit a maximum of two in each lineup.
Teoscar Hernandez, OF, Blue Jays ($2,500)
Oh yeah -- on top of two pristine environments, the Blue Jays are also facing a lefty at home.
It's a struggling one, too. Baltimore's Bruce Zimmermann has come crashing down from his hot start to an unsightly 5.49 FIP and 41.3% hard-hit rate overall. Right-handed batters have a .884 OPS against Zimmerman this season, and Toronto's got plenty of them.
Teoscar Hernandez is always on the menu against a southpaw. He's posted another stellar wRC+ (127) against them this season, and it's a much lower mark against right-handed hurlers (89). That's par for the course of his career, and it's also what keeps his salary low.
It's not just Teoscar, though. Alejandro Kirk, Santiago Espinal, and Matt Chapman also enter this solid matchup below the $3,000 mark on FanDuel, which makes it much easier to get back to the Jays' studs at the top of the order.
