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?

Luis Garcia, P, Astros ($8,700)

Carlos Rodon ($10,800) and Max Scherzer ($11,400) are the standout pitchers on this slate. If you're looking for a more budget-friendly option, Luis Garcia is your man.

Garcia, in his second season, is posting pretty nice numbers, including a 25.5% strikeout rate, 13.3% swinging-strike rate and 3.64 SIERA. Dude is a quality pitcher, and while he doesn't possess the same strikeout upside Rodon and Scherzer do, Garcia has a sweet matchup.

The Houston Astros' righty gets to face the Oakland Athletics, a team that's had one of the league's worst offenses in 2022. Oakland sits next to last in wOBA (.274) with the ninth-highest strikeout rate (23.4%). They've been handed a 3.16 implied total, the slate's third-lowest.

Garcia checks a lot of boxes, and the salary savings he offers off of tonight's big two can be incredibly valuable with some high-octane offenses in smash spots (five with an implied total north of 5.00). Our model projects Garcia as the night's third-best arm, forecasting him to total 34.4 FanDuel points. He's our top point-per-dollar hurler.

Chris Taylor, OF, Dodgers ($2,700)

One of the aforementioned top offenses in a money spot tonight is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are taking on lefty Daniel Lynch.

Lynch has surrendered a .338 wOBA to righties while allowing a 40.4% hard-hit rate and 40.4% fly-ball rate -- yes, identical -- in the split. The top-notch Dodger offense should have a big night, and that includes the right-handed Chris Taylor.

Taylor has put up a 40.9% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage this year. He amassed a .380 wOBA in the split a year ago.

With a 5.37 implied total, the Dodgers offer huge upside, and Taylor is a low-salary way to get exposure to LA. You can say the same for Trayce Thompson ($2,300).

Joc Pederson, OF, Giants ($2,600)

With so many good hitting spots tonight, it's hard to get too pumped about the San Francisco Giants' 4.55 implied total. However, I really like them in this matchup with Bryse Wilson.

Wilson is bad. He's showing a 4.48 SIERA and 15.8% strikeout rate for 2022, and he's pitched to a 5.02 SIERA and 15.9% strikeout rate over his career. Lefties are crushing him this year to the tune of a .438 wOBA and 1.95 jacks per nine.

Joc Pederson always offers pretty solid homer upside versus righties, especially one as meh as Wilson is. He's mashed his way to a .358 wOBA, 41.1% hard-hit rate and 45.7% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage this year. The only downside to Joc is that he might get pulled for a pinch-hitter if he comes up against a lefty later in the game.

I'm not sure I can full-on stack the Giants, but I can get behind a mini-stack of Pederson and Brandon Belt ($2,500).

Belt (+360 to hit a dinger) actually has better homer odds than Pederson (+430) on FanDuel Sportsbook.