3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 6/21/19
Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-priced 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 pitcher, by far the highest floors for production.
For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce well too, 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.
Taking up so much salary, and playing such a big role in your lineup's ceiling, you're not going to want to whiff on these guys, so lets take a look at a few top-end options that you can count on to anchor your lineup today.
Chris Sale, P, Boston Red Sox ($12,000)
If you're playing daily fantasy, you probably don't need this spelled out to you, but Chris Sale's bad start to 2019 has proven to be a complete non-issue, as he's long been back to his old ways, pulling his season averages up to their usual elite levels.
He combined for only seven strikeouts across his first three starts of the year, but in a lesson on variance, he has fanned more than seven in 10 of his last 11 games, with double-digit Ks in nine of those outings. He's struck out at least 10 in four straight games, allowing only six earned runs and three walks combined in that stretch.
Only one qualifying pitcher has a better skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) than Sale's 2.86, and he also comes in second with a 35.7% strikeout rate -- trailing only Gerrit Cole in those stats.
Tonight's matchup should let him continue to feast, with the Boston Red Sox sitting as colossal -340 favorites in a game with a fairly low 8.5-run over/under on Online Sportsbook. The Toronto Blue Jays aren't a real threat against southpaws, either, ranking 23rd in the majors with an 86 wRC+ in the split.
Shin-Soo Choo, OF, Texas Rangers ($3,700)
On the other end of things, the Texas Rangers have a huge 6.21-run implied total as they host the Chicago White Sox and righty Reynaldo Lopez tonight.
Lopez owns the ninth-worst SIERA among 2019's 82 qualifying pitchers, and that 5.10 mark brings his career average to an ugly 4.96 over four seasons.
The 36-year-old Choo has never had much of an issue with right-handed pitching, and last season he turned in a stout .385 wOBA and .208 ISO in 455 plate appearances in the split. In 237 cracks at righties in 2019, he has improved those marks to a .396 wOBA and .256 ISO on a career-best 48.0% hard-hit rate.
J.D. Martinez, OF, Boston Red Sox ($4,400)
Back to that Blue Jays/Red Sox matchup, Toronto will be countering Chris Sale with the decidedly less imposing Trent Thornton.
In Thornton's first major league season, he has managed only a 4.73 SIERA while struggling with an 11.2% walk rate over 15 games. He's also giving up some worrying contact, with a 36.8% hard-hit and 38.6% fly-ball rate.
You can't really afford to give up contact like that to J.D. Martinez, who has opened 2019 with a .249 ISO after posting marks of .387 and .299 in the last two seasons. Since 2017, he ranks second in both ISO (.319) and wOBA (.418) among qualifying hitters.
Same-sided matchups are no concern for him, either, with a .403 wOBA and .301 ISO against right-handed pitching in that time.
Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. 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.
