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MLB Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 7/21/17

Friday's slate features three big-time aces, including Chris Sale. Which one should we be rostering in MLB DFS?

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. We've also got our Solo Shot Podcast, which breaks down the MLB daily fantasy slate each day. Here's today's episode.

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

Chris Sale ($11,800 on FanDuel): With three aces (Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, and Alex Wood) all on the same slate, pitching decisions will be tough tonight. But it does seem like Sale should be the go-to guy in cash games for his matchup with the Los Angeles Angels. Sale currently has the third-highest single-season strikeout rate of all time at 36.4%, trailing just some guys named Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson (Scherzer is also fourth on this list). This has helped push Sale along to a 2.49 SIERA with a 4.6% walk rate and 16.3% swinging-strike rate. The only concern here is that the Angels don't strikeout much, holding a rate of 18.5% against lefties. They did go down on strikes 12 times against Clayton Kershaw in late June, though, so they can certainly fall prey when it's an ace on the bump, and Sale may be at the top of that list this year. This is what makes Sale the most desirable arm when you're looking for floor.

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