3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 9/20/17

Chris Sale, P, Boston Red Sox

Price: $11,600

Chris Sale and Robbie Ray are priced way ahead of the pack on today's main slate, and while both make for very strong plays, it's Sale that gets the edge here.

His matchup isn't quite as good as Ray's, with the Baltimore Orioles' 105 wRC+ against southpaws being a far cry better than the San Diego Padres' 80. However, the teams do rank right next to each other in strikeout rate against lefties, with the Padres having the sixth-highest in the majors and the Orioles boasting the seventh-highest mark.

There's also a big difference in the way the two have pitched this season. Despite a few shaky performances recently, Sale leads all qualifying pitchers with a 2.61 SIERA, compared to Ray's 3.43. They can both make hitters swing and miss, but Sale has the edge in both strikeout rate (35.9% to 33.4%) and swinging-strike rate (14.9% to 14.2%). Ray has also been allowing some concerning contact recently, allowing the 41st-highest average exit velocity among the 182 players that have thrown at least 150 pitches in September.

Sale and the Boston Red Sox are also much bigger favorites (-197 money line), and numberFire's models project him as the day's top-scoring fantasy pitcher.