FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Tuesday 6/20/23

Tuesday's 11-game slate has a wide selection of quality pitching, giving us several ways to go in tournaments. On the other hand, some unlikely teams headline our top stacks, and the majority of implied team totals are lower than we normally see on a larger slate.

Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process. Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered!

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate.

Pitching Breakdown

Clayton Kershaw ($10,700) leads the slate in strikeout rate (29.3%) and continues to enjoy yet another productive campaign at age 35.

In addition to the punchouts, Kershaw's 2.95 ERA is backed up by a 3.27 SIERA and solid marks in walk rate (6.3%) and ground-ball rate (47.4%). While his pitch count generally gets capped in the high 90s, he's a good bet to go six-to-seven innings in any given start, so that hasn't hurt his upside. He's exceeded 50 FanDuel points 6 times in 14 starts.

Kershaw is facing the Angels, who are an above-average offense versus southpaws, and that's reflected by a slightly higher 4.27 implied team total. But L.A.'s active roster also strikes out 24.3% of the time in the split, increasing the lefty's chances of posting an optimal score tonight.

Despite having great results outside of a handful of starts, Gerrit Cole ($10,600) hasn't been nearly as dominant from a DFS perspective in 2023, as his strikeout rate has dropped to 26.4%, a full six percentage points lower than last year.

That will be less of a concern against the Mariners; Seattle's active roster has a 25.1% strikeout rate versus right-handed pitching. While the Mariners' lineup packs some punch, the wind will be blowing in at Yankee Stadium tonight, and they have a slate-low 3.42 implied team total. Cole has endured a tough schedule for most of the season, and this is arguably his best shot at a ceiling game in a long time.

Nathan Eovaldi ($11,000) is harder to get behind at a slate-high salary, but I'm guessing he won't be very popular, and his matchup versus the White Sox is very appealing. Although Chicago is a neutral matchup for generating Ks, their active roster owns the second-worst wRC+ against righties this season (89).

Eovaldi has enjoyed one of the best campaigns of his career, sporting a 3.48 SIERA, 25.5% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate, and 51.0% ground-ball rate. Between all of that and a workload that often cracks 100 pitches, the veteran right-hander has logged the league's fourth-most innings this season and even has two complete games. Despite the lack of an elite strikeout rate, we shouldn't underestimate Eovaldi's upside.

Beyond those three, Framber Valdez ($10,900), Marcus Stroman ($10,300), and George Kirby ($10,000) are the other pitchers with five-figure salaries, and they all kind of fall into the same bucket as excellent pitchers who are capable of big scores but are less likely to pop for high strikeouts tonight. Valdez is against a Mets team that's notorious for suppressing punchouts, whereas Stroman and Kirby are typically better real-life pitchers with low strikeout rates.

Of that trio, Valdez is the most likely guy to get there through innings volume because of his stellar ground-ball rate (57.7%) and more consistent pitch counts.

In the value range, Ben Lively ($8,000) immediately stands out in a plum spot at home against the Rockies. Lively's track record suggests that he might not even be a league-average arm, but here he is with a 3.83 SIERA, 23.3% strikeout rate, and 5.1% walk rate across 42 innings this year, and that's enough to pique our interest in such an inviting matchup.

Colorado is still missing several key hitters and wasn't a great offense to begin with, and on top of that, they're well-known for struggling away from Coors Field. Their active roster owns a 93 wRC+ and 24.9% strikeout rate against righties, and their road splits are even worse, with a 78 wRC+ and 27.5% strikeout rate.

MacKenzie Gore ($9,100), Dylan Cease ($8,600), and Reid Detmers ($7,200) all have strikeout rates above 26%, but they also have brutal matchups against the Cardinals, Rangers, and Dodgers, respectively. If you're going to take a chance on one, it might be Cease, who's coming off a 10-strikeout game versus an elite Dodgers lineup and has performed well this month.

Hitting Breakdown

Of all teams, it's the Cleveland Guardians checking in with one of the slate's highest implied team total (5.37), which says more about Luis Medina, Ken Waldichuk, and the Athletics than anything else. The left-handed Waldichuk (5.31 SIERA) will open the game, and then Medina is expected to follow as the bulk reliever.

Medina hasn't exactly looked the part of a pitcher who belongs in the big leagues, putting together a 4.63 SIERA, 21.0% strikeout rate, and 10.2% walk rate while allowing 2.29 home runs per 9 innings. The right-hander has done a good job of inducing grounders against lefties (50.0%), but other than that, there really isn't anything to fear across the board.

Jose Ramirez ($4,000) is the obvious first choice, and Josh Naylor ($3,100) has nice power against right-handers, but after that, this is mostly a contact-heavy, low-power lineup. The good news is that everyone else comes in on the cheap, though, as no other batter has a salary above $3,000.

The Cincinnati Reds are the only other team cracking five implied runs (5.66), giving us two so-so offenses who could end up being popular tonight. We don't have a ton to go off of for right-hander Noah Davis, but when he last saw him in late April, he got lit up by the Diamondbacks. Considering he's been short on strikeouts in Triple-A (17.7%) with an ugly 6.32 xFIP, expectations shouldn't be high for him in his return to the Majors.

As far as individual batters are concerned, there's a little more to like on the Reds, but hot prospects Elly De La Cruz ($3,900) and Matt McLain ($4,100) are at uncomfortable salaries, and Jonathan India ($3,600) is getting up there, as well. On the bright side, it's easy to fit in Joey Votto ($2,600), who hit a home run in his first game back, and usual leadoff man TJ Friedl ($2,900) has a favorable salary. Spencer Steer ($3,300) and Jake Fraley ($3,100) can provide some power lower in the order, too.

The Milwaukee Brewers get the pitcher with the lowest strikeout rate (14.7%) on the board in right-hander Ryne Nelson. Nelson's 5.32 SIERA almost perfectly mirrors his ERA, and between his low ground-ball rate (37.6%) and a fair bit of hard contact, he should probably be allowing more home runs than he has thus far, too.

Left-handed batters should be licking their chops against Nelson, as he's only managed a 5.97 xFIP and 11.4% strikeout rate in that split. That makes Rowdy Tellez ($2,700) and Christian Yelich ($3,500) appealing targets, and Jesse Winker ($2,200) could be batting second again tonight. Among the righties, Willy Adames ($2,900) and William Contreras ($2,800) are the top power options.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks are other teams to keep in mind. The Dodgers don't have an incredible matchup versus left-hander Reid Detmers, but they should have a righty-heavy lineup and come in with one of the best implied team totals (4.73). Anthony DeSclafani has a 4.85 xFIP and 12.5% strikeout rate versus lefty sticks, so San Diego's Juan Soto ($3,500) is in an especially great spot. Likewise, Arizona's Corbin Carroll ($4,300) should be able to pad his stats versus Colin Rea, who's coughing up 2.22 home runs per 9 innings to left-handed bats.