MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 4/30/21

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been off to a white hot start. Is he likely to keep it up tonight?

Just like in other sports, the focal point of your daily fantasy baseball lineups will be your high-salary 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 pitchers, the high-salary options typically come with the highest floors, too.

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.

With your high-salary picks playing such a big role in your lineup, you need to be right on these guys, so let's take a look at a few top-end options you can count on to anchor your lineup today.

Gerrit Cole, SP, New York Yankees ($12,200)

When Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees tabs the slab, it's not often we are going to pivot off of the ace right-hander, and tonight is no different with arguably the best matchup on the slate.

Cole continues to absolutely shove the baseball. While the sample size is small on a young season, the stud has averaged 52.20 FanDuel points per game so far in 2021. That'll play.

And what differentiates Cole from someone like Shane Bieber ($12,000), who has also been fantastic, is that Cole faces a Detroit Tigers team that has struck out at a 27.6% clip against right-handed pitchers this season.

The salary is up there, but we expect a monster night out of Cole to the tune of 44.9 FanDuel points -- that's tops on tonight's slate. Just swallow the chalk and find room for Cole's salary.

Ronald Acuna, OF, Atlanta Braves ($4,300)

In one of the highest over/unders on tonight's main slate, Ronald Acuna and the Atlanta Braves have been scoring runs in bunches lately. That should keep up tonight with a juicy matchup.

First, let's turn to the starter for the Toronto Blue Jays. Veteran southpaw Robbie Ray has been a bit mercurial this season, alternating good and bad starts. What has been clear is that over his 16 innings pitched, Ray is still allowing a pile of base runners, logging a 1.38 WHIP this season, and showcasing career splits that are in the norms where he has struggled against righties.

Despite missing some time with an abdominal strain, the slugging young outfielder has been scintillating with a .776 slugging percentage, including a league-best eight home runs on the season. He should keep up his fine run of form tonight with Atlanta holding a strong 4.83 implied team total. He is the slate's top bat, per our model.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B/3B, Toronto Blue Jays ($4,000)

The precocious young slugging Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays has been hot to start 2021, and while the Baby Jays have yet to travel north of the border (and may not be doing so for quite some time), I think Vladdy is just fine hitting in Dunedin, Florida.

Guerrero checks in just behind Acuna with seven home runs, and he's knocked in 19 runs this season and scored 15 times with that .346 batting average.

Vlad squares up with Drew Smyly, fresh off an injury, and he's really ripped lefties in his career. While it spans only 229 plate appearances, Guerrero has slugged his way to a .202 isolated power (ISO) mark with a 13.5% walk rate. They lead the slate with an implied team total of 5.09 runs, and Guerrero should be front and center.


Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. 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.