MLB

FanDuel MLB Sunday Night Baseball Single-Game Helper: 7/21/19

Facing Joe Ross, the Braves' offense is in a money spot tonight. Which bats should you roster for the Sunday night single-game slate?

FanDuel's single-game slates are a great way to make any MLB matchup more exciting, and FanDuel is offering single-game contests for the Sunday Night Baseball clash each week. What better way to wrap up the MLB week than to play a little DFS on Sunday night?

For single-game slates, you have $35,000 to fill out a five-man lineup, and pitchers are not included. There are no positional requirements for hitters, but there are three utility spots, one All-Star slot, and an MVP position. The player you put in the MVP spot has his points multiplied by two while the All-Star position gets his points multiplied by 1.5. The three utility places are scored like normal.

Tonight's game is an NL East battle between the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves. The probable pitchers are Joe Ross and Kevin Gausman. The game has an 11.5-run over/under, and our models project 5.25-4.46 win for the Braves.

Let's get to it.

Ronald Acuña ($9,000) and Freddie Freeman ($8,500)

Our models project the Braves to score 5.25 runs tonight against Joe Ross. Ronald Acuna and Freddie Freeman should be a big part of that. Ross has spent most of this year in Triple-A, where he's posted just an 18.7% strikeout rate. Over his MLB career, left-handed hitters have mauled Ross to the tune of a .373 wOBA. Against righties in 2019, Freeman has a gaudy .408 wOBA with a 52.5% hard-hit rate. Freeman is firmly in play for the MVP spot. Acuña is carrying a .359 wOBA and 44.0% hard-hit rate this season in righty-righty matchups.

Juan Soto ($7,500)

Juan Soto will have the platoon advantage against Gausman and is probably too cheap. Soto has followed up his monster rookie year with a great 2019, recording a .391 wOBA and 17 jacks with a 15.3% walk rate. Against righties, he's carrying a .394 wOBA with a 41.9% hard-hit rate. Pretty good stuff for a guy who is 20 years old. This is Gausman's first start off the injured list, and he was in a bad place before going on the shelf, giving up 17 earned runs across his last 8 1/3 innings.

Adam Eaton ($6,500)

Adam Eaton is a cheap way to get exposure to the top of the Nationals' order as he'll likely be hitting second. He doesn't offer much pop -- just six homers this season -- but he's got a 10.2% walk rate with a respectable .332 wOBA. Eaton also runs a little bit, notching eight steals.

Austin Riley ($6,000)

The single-game format makes Austin Riley a lot easier to stomach. While he's slumped since his fast start and got bumped down to the eight hole last night, Riley has the power to turn this single-game slate on its head. Versus right-handers over his brief career, Riley has put up a 38.2% hard-hit rate and 45.9% fly-ball rate. Of course, he's striking out 35.3% of the time against righties with an ugly 3.2% walk rate in the split, but Riley is more than capable of popping a dinger against a middling pitcher like Ross.

Nick Markakis ($5,500)

Nick Markakis is projected to hit fifth, and that alone puts him on our radar given his modest salary. As we mentioned earlier, Ross has had a really rough time with left-handed hitters over his career, and Markakis has a .362 wOBA, 39.0% hard-hit rate and 11.7% walk rate this year against righties. Markakis makes a ton of sense part of a Braves stack if you're loading up on Atlanta, and his salary helps you pay for the studs you want.