3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on 6/6/19
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.
Patrick Corbin, P, Washington Nationals ($10,900)
Stud pitching tonight comes down to a decision between the two top-priced arms, with only one other hurler coming in above $9,000 (Jose Berrios, who isn't particularly appealing here).
Corbin and Trevor Bauer are punching hitters out with similar frequency this year (with a 27.0% strikeout rate and 12.3% swinging-strikes for Corbin and a 26.9% strikeout rate and 12.4% swinging-strikes for Bauer. If we increase our sample-size and go back to include 2018 as well we do see them sitting right next to each other in strikeout rate again (29.7% for Corbin, 29.6% for Bauer) but Corbin does have a reasonable edge in swinging-strike rate (14.7% to 13.0%).
Corbin also has an edge in skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) in that time (3.16 to 3.56) and also in 2019 (3.81 to 4.25).
He also finds himself in a great spot tonight against a San Diego Padres team that ranks bottom-10 in wRC+ against southpaws (89) while striking out at the second-highest clip in the majors (27.3%) in that split.
Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels ($4,800)
You probably don't need me to tell you Mike Trout is a beast from the dish. He's on pace for his third straight season with both a wOBA north of .430 and ISO above .300, so obviously he's got one of the most dangerous bats around. Accordingly, he's consistently one of the most expensive players in fantasy, but on tonight's slate, he's well worth paying up for.
We've got five games on tap tonight, and while there's still no over/under set on the game in Texas, there's a clear gap between the top-projected offenses and the field. The Los Angeles Angels have a 4.98-run implied total (second on the slate) while the next-best mark is only 4.52.
That comes in a matchup against Oakland Athletics righty Mike Fiers, who has struggled to the tune of a 5.20 SIERA -- an ugly mark even by his standards (no better than 4.25 in a season since 2015).
Our models have it as Trout then everyone else among today's hitters, projecting him for 16.9 fantasy points while we have nobody else going for more than 14.6.
Gary Sanchez, C, New York Yankees ($4,500)
The New York Yankees are the team with the higher implied total than the Angels, sitting well ahead with a 5.41-run mark in their matchup with journeyman Edwin Jackson and the Toronto Blue Jays.
You have to go back to 2013 to find a SIERA below 4.25 for the 35-year-old Jackson, and while his past few seasons haven't given us especially big sample sizes (21, 16 and 17 games pitched), he's looked terrible in all three. in 2016 he had a 5.23 SIERA and 11.0% walk rate, in 2017 a 5.03 SIERA and 8.6% walk rate, and in 2018 a 4.98 SIERA and 9.7% walk rate.
His walks are down so far through only four games in 2019 (7.1%) but so are his strikeouts (14.1%), while his SIERA sits at 5.23. He's been throttled for a 46.2% hard-hit rate and 10.8% soft-hit rate, and while the sample is still small, nothing he's shown us in the last three years suggests he's going to be anything but a pitcher to pick on moving forward.
Gary Sanchez doesn't need the platoon advantage to make dangerous contact, with a career 38.8% hard-hit rate and 39.0% fly-ball rate against right-handed pitchers. In 2019 he's raked for a .420 wOBA and massive .413 ISO on a 51.7% hard-hit rate and 57.1% fly-ball rate over 140 plate appearances in the split.
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.
