FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 9/13/20

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. We'll be focusing exclusively on the main slate, which starts at 12:35 p.m. EST.

Pitchers to Target

Max Scherzer ($11,000 on FanDuel) is in his own tier salary-wise as he's $1,500 more than anyone else. The matchup is a tough one, though, as he's facing the Atlanta Braves. The owner of a 31.9% strikeout rate and 15.2% swinging-strike rate, Scherzer can plow through any lineup when he's on. I'll have some of him, but not as much as usual.

The pitchers I think I'll have the most of come from the Texas Rangers-Oakland Athletics game.

Frankie Montas ($6,800) will see the Rangers, whose 3.76 implied total is the second-worst clip on the slate. Montas hasn't been as good as he was during his 2019 breakout, but there is still a lot to like in his profile, especially at this modest salary. Montas gets a boost from this matchup as Texas sits second-worst in wOBA against righties (.281). I rarely like paying down at pitcher, but this slate is shaping up as an exception.

Lance Lynn ($9,000) just keeps turning in good numbers. He's got a 26.5% strikeout rate and 11.1% swinging-strike rate, and he's facing an A's lineup that just lost Matt Chapman for the season. A huge feather in Lynn's cap is that he's gone for at least 100 pitches in every start this season -- which has helped him get to at least six punchouts in every outing. His floor/ceiling combination is really good.

Charlie Morton ($7,500) takes on a Boston Red Sox offense that has a 25.0% strikeout rate versus righties, the sixth-highest mark in the split. Boston's 3.24 implied total is a slate-low clip. While Morton's numbers have taken a step back in 2020, they're still solid overall as he carries a 22.6% strikeout rate and 11.1% swinging-strike rate into this game. The biggest concern is his workload. He hasn't thrown more than 57 pitches in a start since August 4th, a span of three outings. Prior to this recent spell, however, he tossed 93 pitches in a start.

Stacks to Target

Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies

Similar to yesterday, I'm not going to rattle off all the players who you need to have on your radar for this Coors game. The total is sitting at 12.5, so anyone in either starting lineup is worth a look. I will say this, however -- the Los Angeles Angels' offense is much more appealing to me than the Colorado Rockies' bats. The Halos are taking on Ryan Castellani while the Rox face Andrew Heaney. As a result, LA's implied total is 1.3 runs higher.

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees hold the slate's second-best implied total (5.78) as they host lefty John Means. The southpaw had a mere 17.6% strikeout rate against right-handed hitters in 2019 while surrendering a 49.9% fly-ball rate in the split. Even without Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, this New York lineup can maul lefties.

Righties Luke Voit ($3,900) and DJ LeMahieu ($3,900) should be atop the order. LeMahieu put up a gaudy .443 wOBA and 46.0% hard-hit rate in this split a season ago. Aaron Hicks ($3,300), Clint Frazier ($3,300), Gleyber Torres ($2,900) and Gary Sanchez ($2,800) -- all of whom will hit from the right side -- could be in the next four slots in the order depending on what manager Aaron Boone wants to do.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Coors teams and the Yanks will likely be popular. I think the Toronto Blue Jays (4.91 implied total) could sneak under the radar a bit in their date with David Peterson. A lefty, Peterson started off well this season, his rookie campaign, and he's a former first-round pick. But things have gone south since the hot start as he now boasts a 17.8% strikeout rate, 12.6% walk rate and 5.59 SIERA.

The sample is very small, but righties have tagged Peterson for a 39.0% hard-hit rate while striking out just 39.0% of the time.

This Jays lineup has some guys who bash southpaws, and outside of Bo Bichette ($3,500), no one is at a salary above $3,100. Bichette is firmly in play as are fellow righties Randal Grichuk ($3,100), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,100) and Lourdes Gurriel ($2,800). Switch-hitter Jonathan Villar ($2,700) and Danny Jansen ($2,400) are worth a look, too.