3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Thursday 8/11/22

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 -- 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?

A.J. Pollock, OF, White Sox ($2,300)

The Chicago White Sox have a sweet matchup against Zack Greinke, and they're a good place to go value hunting.

Greinke is striking out just 13.1% of hitters and owns a career-worse 4.83 SIERA. He's permitted seven earned runs across 9 2/3 frames over his last two starts. Father Time comes for everyone, and it's gotten ahold of Greinke.

A.J. Pollock stands out as a great low-salary bat on Thursday's earlier-than-usual main slate. Pollock has hit leadoff in each of his last three starts, taking the spot of the injured Tim Anderson. Any leadoff hitter with a salary of $2,300 would be appealing, and that's especially true for Pollock in this great matchup -- a spot where Chicago has a 4.53 implied total.

We project Pollock for 11.2 FanDuel points and rate him as the second-best point-per-dollar bat (as of early Thursday). Eloy Jimenez ($2,900) is another enticing point-per-dollar option from the White Sox.

Jake McCarthy, OF, Diamondbacks ($2,200)

Jake McCarthy keeps projecting well, and his salary isn't going up. In fact, it's dropped by $100.

McCarthy has scored at least 9.0 FanDuel points in three straight games, including a 22.5-point outburst two outings ago. He's swiped two bags in the first three games of this series versus the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he hit leadoff last night.

While McCarthy will likely slide back to his usual slot of sixth or seventh for today's game, he needs to be on our radar as he once again will see a righty -- this time JT Brubaker. Brubaker can get whiffs (12.0% swinging-strike rate), but he's in a funk, permitting 10 earned runs over his last two starts (8 1/3 innings).

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a sneaky-good stack and show a 4.50 implied total. McCarthy can be a low-salary piece of Snakes stacks or a one-off salary-saver who helps you get to Coors bats.

Steven Kwan, OF, Guardians ($2,700)

Steven Kwan is a modest-salaried leadoff bat for a team with an implied total of 4.71, the slate's second-best non-Coors clip.

The Cleveland Guardians are squaring off with Garrett Hill, a righty who is having a brutal time in the bigs. Through a small sample of 31 2/3 MLB frames, Hill sports a 5.70 SIERA, 12.3% strikeout rate and 44.8% fly-ball rate. Yikes.

With Coors likely to be popular and the star-laden Houston Astros holding the best non-Coors implied total, Cleveland could go a little overlooked, and this is a sublime matchup for them.

Kwan has hit safely in all but one game since July 13th, posting a .385 wOBA in that span. He will be a go-to value bat for me.