MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Sunday 10/1/17

The beauty of daily fantasy baseball is that the top targets are different each and every day. Whether it's the right-handed catcher who destroys left-handed pitching or the mid-range hurler facing a depleted lineup, you're not going to find yourself using the same assets time after time.

While this breaks up the monotony, it can make it hard to decide which players are primed to succeed on a given day. We can help bridge that gap.

In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.

If you need help getting started on that trek, here are some of the top options on the board today. We'll be focusing exclusively on the main slate, which begins at 3:05 p.m. EST and includes all 15 games.

Pitchers to Target

High-Priced Pitchers

James Paxton ($8,200 on FanDuel): With a 27.7% strikeout rate and 12.3% swinging-strike rate, Paxton possesses through-the-roof upside each time he toes the slab. Per our models, he's the top arm on today's 15-game main slate as we project him for 35.7 FanDuel points, and the Los Angeles Angels boast an ugly .294 wOBA across the past 14 days. The only reason to be hesitant here is that the Seattle Mariners may opt to play it safe with the oft-injured Paxton and limit his pitches. The big lefty has thrown only 10 1/3 total frames over his last three starts.