5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for Opening Day

With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.

An 0-for-4 dud from a chalky high-priced slugger is a lot more common than a total dud from a top-priced NBA player or even than a stinker from a top quarterback or running back.

That means that it's not uncommon for value plays to end up doing the heavy lifting in carrying your lineup. The fact that they can be the difference between a good and a great lineup isn't much different than other sports, but value plays being able to make up for a whiff on a high-priced play completely is somewhat unique.

Let's get right into it and take a look at the top value options on today's slate.

Jack Flaherty, SP, St. Louis Cardinals ($8,600)

Because it's Opening Day, we've got aces galore taking the mound, so this probably isn't the slate to go too far off the board at pitcher. If we look at combined 2019-2020 numbers, we've got a whopping 11 different pitchers sporting a strikeout rate over 27%.

If we exclude the home run-prone Matt Boyd -- let's try and keep our sanity on the year's first slate -- Jack Flaherty checks in as the lowest-salaried option of that group.

Flaherty struggled in 2020, but the Cardinals experienced a lengthy layoff due to Covid, which may have affected his production over the short season. Even so, he still showed pretty well in his peripherals with a 3.89 SIERA and 28.8% strikeout rate. That isn't far off his career marks, and Flaherty crushed it in 2019, so it isn't outlandish to think he could get off on the right foot.

The opposing Cincinnati Reds rate as a plus matchup for strikeouts, as their active roster owns a 24.0% strikeout rate versus righties since the start of 2019.

Wil Myers, OF, San Diego Padres ($2,900)

The San Diego Padres should be a popular stack against Madison Bumgarner.

The southpaw completely fell off in 2020 with career-worsts in SIERA (5.31) and strikeout rate (15.8%). Was it a small sample fluke or the beginning of the end? Even if he reverts back to his prior form, Bumgarner has steadily declined against righties in recent seasons, and that doesn't bode well against a tough San Diego lineup.

Tommy Pham ($3,000) should be popular, but Wil Myers deserves to be right there with him and brings more power upside. Dating back to 2019, Myers has posted an 11.9% barrel rate, along with a 47.4% hard-hit rate paired with a 41.4% ground-ball rate.

Carlos Santana, 1B, Kansas City Royals ($2,800)

Due to the number of top offenses in tough matchups today and the Red Sox game getting postponed, the unassuming Kansas City Royals emerge as a potential stack against a mediocre Kyle Gibson.

Gibson has struggled in back-to-back seasons, but where he really gets himself into trouble is against left-handed batters. Over that span, he's only managed a 4.52 xFIP, 18.4% strikeout rate, and 8.5% walk rate in the split.

While most of Kansas City's top batters are righties, switch-hitter Carlos Santana is someone who can take advantage of this matchup. Turning 35 years old this month and coming off a modest 2020 campaign, we should probably temper expectations at this stage in his career. However, he was fantastic in 2019, and he still exhibited a lot of his usual traits last year, including elite plate skills (16.9% strikeout rate and 18.4% walk rate) and plenty of fly balls (39.6%).

Andrew Benintendi ($2,700) isn't a top power threat but also deserves a mention as a value lefty who should bat high in the order.

Nate Lowe, 1B, Texas Rangers ($2,500)

On the other side of that game, we can consider another offense that we probably won't be clicking on very often this season.

The Texas Rangers face Brad Keller, who doesn't exactly fit the mold of the other number-one starters of the day, owning a 5.14 SIERA the last two years. While Keller isn't, uh, stellar against either side of the plate, his numbers versus lefty sticks are particularly egregious over that span, with a 17.9% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate.

That low strikeout rate should put us on Joey Gallo ($3,500), but that also means Nate Lowe could do some damage. Lowe may strike out like crazy, but he posted a 15.4% barrel rate in 2020 and a 10.6% clip in 2019.

Even if you're reluctant to stack the Rangers, Lowe and Gallo make for intriguing one-offs to round out a lineup.

Jordan Luplow, OF, Cleveland Indians ($2,200)

Remember when I mentioned Matt Boyd? Well, you could do worse than attack him with the Cleveland Indians.

Temperatures are low in Detroit, which doesn't help things, but it's partially offset by strong winds blowing out to center. While the left-handed Boyd is capable of racking up punchouts, fly balls tend to end up in the outfield seats, so we can hope for more of the latter today.

Jordan Luplow is especially valuable today because he's batting leadoff at just $200 above the minimum salary. He only tallied 92 plate appearances in 2020, so it's hard to read too much into last year's marks, but he showed promise in 2019 with a 39.0% fly-ball rate and 40.0% hard-hit rate, and most of his production came off lefties.