In daily fantasy baseball, success starts with nailing the starting pitcher spot in your lineup.

When compared to hitters, pitching performance tends to be much more predictable and stable throughout the course of the season. You know what you're getting from a top-level ace when you roster him: probably a dominant effort with only one or two implosions per season. In contrast, even the game's best hitters have days at the plate where they go 0-for-4.

As a result, lineup construction should begin with the starting pitcher. Which pitchers should you consider on today's main slate?

High-Salary Play
Carlos Carrasco, New York Mets

Vs. Atlanta Braves
FanDuel Salary: $9,500

To be honest, I don't love Justin Verlander tonight. Slander, I know. The chalk will likely play a lot of Verlander as the high-salary play, but facing a Cleveland Guardians team that strikes out the least in the league -- I'm not about that life.

One guy I do really like is Carlos Carrasco, who's been pretty darn nasty this season. In 111 2/3 innings pitched, the righty has logged a 3.43 FIP, 23.1% strikeout rate, and 30.1% hard-hit rate.

The Atlanta Braves have plenty of offensive prowess, but they also whiff at a 24.7% strikeout rate. For all of those reasons, Cookie is my guy.

Low-Salary Play
Jose Quintana, St. Louis Cardinals

Vs. Chicago Cubs
FanDuel Salary: $7,700

From the top of the slate to the bottom, we see some values on Thursday, and Jose Quintana could be just the elixir for your lineups if you need some high-salary bats.

The Chicago Cubs -- as we noted with hurler Adam Wainwright on Tuesday -- make for a tantalizing option to target. Their .312 wOBA mark is midpack, but their 23.5% strikeout rate and .149 ISO are pretty ugly.

Surprisingly, Quintana sports a 3.23 FIP mark this season. His 20.6% strikeout rate is simply okay, but his 45.0% ground-ball rate is juicy, and his 30.0% hard-hit rate shows he's been pretty hard to hit.

If you need a salary-saving option, peep Quintana.

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.