3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Tuesday 8/23/22

Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-salary studs. These guys take up by far the biggest chunk of your cap space, but they also offer the highest ceiling. And in the case of pitchers, the high-salary options typically come with the highest floors, too.

For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce, as well, increasing our chances for runs and RBI. For pitchers, we want big strikeout numbers, while the ability to go deep in a game and pick up a win is also valuable.

With your high-salary picks playing such a big role in your lineup, you need to be right on these guys, so let's take a look at a few top-end options you can count on to anchor your lineup today.

Carlos Rodon, SP, San Francisco Giants ($10,800)

There are seven -- seven! -- pitchers salaried above $10,000. That's a lot, Bob.

There are a few of them I'm not super into tonight. Robbie Ray ($10,600) is a baller, but he faces a Washington Nationals team that's the toughest in the league to whiff. Corbin Burnes ($11,400) faces the Los Angeles Dodgers, and no one wants to roster a pitcher versus LA (unless you are maybe looking for leverage in a tournament play). The same concept rings true for Justin Verlander ($11,200), who takes on a very talented Minnesota Twins team.

That lands me on Carlos Rodon, who has perhaps the easiest matchup of the day against the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers rank dead last in the league (.273) in team wOBA and ISO (.106), and they clock in with a whopping 24.3% strikeout rate.

Rodon leads our projections at the pitching spot, and he offers sky-high upside in this matchup.

Charlie Blackmon, OF, Colorado Rockies ($3,700)

With the Colorado Rockies at home against the Texas Rangers, the Rox sport the highest implied team total (5.33 runs) on Tuesday's main slate.

Part of that is taking aim at starter Dane Dunning, who has been pretty mediocre this season. He has logged a 4.87 FIP in 62 2/3 innings pitched against lefty batters, and perhaps more importantly, he has some interesting home-road splits. He's been brilliant at home (3.27 ERA), but his road ERA is north of 5.00. There's no road venue worse for pitchers than Coors Field is.

For all of those reasons, I am targeting Charlie Blackmon tonight, and Blackmon has the potential to put up a huge score.

George Springer, OF, Toronto Blue Jays ($3,900)

If you're looking for a high-upside stack want to avoid Coors Field, can I interest you in some Toronto Blue Jays?

Namely, let's think about table-setter George Springer. The top-of-the-order man has been brilliant this season, posting a 135 wRC+ and .210 ISO. While he's missed some time lately due to injury, he appeared on the bench on Sunday, which might be a hint that he's ready to start today.

Josh Winckowski will need to show some improvement if he is to survive this matchup. He's struck out only 13.5% of batters this year, and he's logged a 6.6% swinging-strike rate on the season. Yikes.

We project Springer for 19.0 FanDuel points -- tops on the main slate -- and he could go nuts in this spot.

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.