MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 5/31/19

The Rockies welcome Edwin Jackson and the Blue Jays to Coors Field tonight. Trevor Story should have no trouble taking advantage of that matchup.

Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-priced studs. These guys take up by far the biggest chunk of your cap space, but they also offer the highest ceiling, and in the case of pitcher, by far the highest floors for production.

For hitters, we're looking for guys with big numbers, strong matchups, and with players around them that are likely to produce well too, increasing our chances for runs and RBI. For pitchers we want big strikeout numbers, while the ability to go deep in a game and pick up a win is also valuable.

Taking up so much salary, and playing such a big role in your lineup's ceiling, you're not going to want to whiff on these guys, so lets take a look at a few top-end options that you can count on to anchor your lineup today.

Trevor Bauer, P, Cleveland Indians ($10,500)

Despite being only the third-most expensive arm on the slate, our models have Bauer as the top-projected fantasy scorer by a big margin.

There's plenty of reason to be concerned about Bauer this year -- his 4.29 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) and 11.3% walk rate are both ugly marks and big departures from what he's shown us in the last couple of seasons. His 27.5% strikeout rate and 11.8% swinging-strike rate are still strong, though, and his strikeout potential can help salvage fantasy outings when he's struggling in other areas, as he's shown with seven games of 40-plus fantasy points on the season.

Tonight's matchup also gives him a nice boost. The Chicago White Sox aren't a super dangerous offense, ranking 18th with a 92 wRC+ against right-handed pitching. They should also feed nicely into Bauer's strikeout total, whiffing 26.6% of the time against righties, which is second-highest in the majors.

Trevor Story, SS, Colorado Rockies ($4,600)

Edwin Jackson is pitching a game at Coors Field in 2019, so you better believe the Colorado Rockies' offense is firmly in play tonight.

The 36-year-old Jackson has pitched at least 15 games in each of the last three seasons, finishing with a 4.98 SIERA last year, 5.03 in 2017 and 5.23 in 2016. He's only thrown 14 innings this year, but he's on pace for a 5.15, while his swinging-strike rate sits at a paltry 8.2% -- his worst since 2008.

He's also been fly-ball prone in that time, with a 41.1% fly-ball rate, and that's trouble in the thin air at Coors. The Rockies are expected to throttle him tonight, boasting a 6.87-run implied total.

Trevor Story tends to be part of those kinds of throttlings from the Rockies, sporting a .370 wOBA and .241 ISO on a 49.4% hard-hit and 43.9% fly-ball rate this season. A same-sided matchup is no issue for Story, especially at home, showing a career .383 wOBA and .288 ISO in that split.

David Dahl, OF, Colorado Rockies ($4,000)

The Rockies' spot is juicy enough that you're really going to want to load up on them if you can afford it tonight. David Dahl lets you do it for a bit cheaper than Story.

His .372 wOBA and .193 ISO on the year are solid marks but nothing special. That keeps him fairly cheap, while he's typically made much better contact against right-handed pitching, jumping from a 32.7% hard-hit rate against southpaws to 35.9% with the platoon advantage.

Edwin Jackson has also been especially bad against left-handed hitters in recent years, with a 5.20 xFIP in that split.

With the Rockies implied for over 1.5 runs more than anyone else on this full 15-game slate, you can feel really good about getting exposure to just about any piece of their offense.



Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.c