3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 4/4/18

Johnny Cueto, P, San Francisco Giants

Price: $8,500

There's not a lot of top-end pitching on Thursday's main slate, and if you're paying up at the position, you'll want to go all the way to the top with Johnny Cueto.

Cueto looked stellar in his first start of the year, allowing only one hit over seven innings, while he forced a 41.2% soft-hit rate and a 11.3% swinging strike rate. One game is a tiny sample, but those numbers are great.

Last season was a down year for the ace, and that raised some concerns, but in his four seasons prior he had strikeout rates north of 20% all for years, while keeping his skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) south of 3.60 three times. Part of last year's struggles seemed to come from a drop in velocity, posting career-low velocity marks on both his fastball and his sinker. Again, we can't read too much into a one-game sample, but his fastball velocity in his first start of 2018 matched his 2016 mark, while his velocity on both his sinker and slider was well above where it was in 2017.

The Seattle Mariners have struggled with right-handed pitching to start the year, ranking 17th with a 92 wRC+ while striking out at an above-average rate, and they have the main slate's lowest implied total (3.28) tonight.