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MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 8/19/16

Johnny Cueto is the highest-priced pitcher on the slate, but peripheral stats show that he's worth it.

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.

Pitchers to Target

High-Priced Pitchers

Johnny Cueto ($10,200 on FanDuel): If you bop over to our MLB DFS heat chart for pitchers, one thing will stand out above all else: there be a whole lotta green for Johnny Cueto. He has the lowest opponent implied team total, fourth-highest strikeout rate, fourth-lowest walk rate, and the second-best park factor. With the New York Mets scratching Steven Matz, the moneyline should slide more in Cueto's favor as the day goes along, as well. With a 3.53 SIERA and 24.2% strikeout rate since the start of July, there's a reason Cueto's the highest-priced option on the slate.

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