FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Friday 3/29/19

Considering the plethora of aces taking the mound on Opening Day, outside of maybe the Yankees, it wasn't expected to be the most explosive slate for offense. The Bronx Bombers came through nicely with 7 runs, but were outdone by 12-run outings from both the Cubs and Dodgers, and the Phillies plated 10 of their own. And in the night cap, the Mariners surprised the defending champs by racking up 12 runs against Chris Sale and the Red Sox.

In all, teams combined for 48 home runs -- a new Opening Day record -- including 8 by the Dodgers alone. Obviously, it's only one day, but is this a sign of things to come in 2019? It's no secret home runs have been on the rise the last few years, but after a slight dip in 2018, whispers of a de-juiced ball emerged, suggesting we might not see another season like 2017 again.

Maybe Opening Day will prove to be the outlier, but this will certainly be an interesting trend to follow in the coming weeks.

With many teams getting the day off on Friday, we drop down to eight games for tonight's main slate. In spite of yesterday's fireworks, this theoretically projects to be a low-scoring day, as the highest implied total is a mere 4.72 for the Blue Jays.

Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process. Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered! And don't forget to take a listen to The Solo Shot podcast with Jim Sannes, who breaks down the MLB daily fantasy slate each day.

On that note, let's highlight some of the top options for today's FanDuel main slate.

Pitchers to Target

High-Priced Pitchers

Gerrit Cole ($11,300 on FanDuel): Cole was absolutely sensational in his breakout 2018 performance, and with most of the league's top arms taking the mound yesterday, it's perhaps no surprise that Cole is easily the most expensive arm on the board. But he's well worth that price of admission, as his 2.91 SIERA, 34.5% strikeout rate, and 14.1% swinging-strike rate from 2018 are tops on the slate, and the Rays own tonight's third-lowest implied total (3.26) at pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field. The Rays' current roster combined for a 108 wRC+ against righties last year, which isn't ideal, but that comes with a 24.3% strikeout rate, giving Cole an opportunity to rack up the punchouts. Some intriguing values at pitcher could sway you to look elsewhere, but from a raw points perspective, it will be tough to top Cole on Friday.