MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 6/3/21

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Jun 3rd, 2021
Jesse Winker is putting up silly numbers, and he can thrive versus Adam Wainwright. Who else should you commit a lot of salary to?

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.

Lance Lynn, SP, Chicago White Sox ($11,000)

There are two monster arms on today's main slate, and it's a tough choice between Lance Lynn and Yu Darvish. Despite Darvish facing the struggling New York Mets, I'm betting on Lynn going crazy tonight.

Lynn's matchup is far better. The Detroit Tigers rank second-worst in wOBA and have the highest strikeout rate (28.8%). They're a dream matchup, and they give us the strikeout upside we crave.

Lynn -- who has a 3.73 SIERA and 26.9% strikeout rate -- should feast. Our projections have him generating 37.1 FanDuel points.

Jesse Winker, OF, Cincinnati Reds ($4,000)

Jesse Winker of the Cincinnati Reds has been arguably baseball's best hitter in 2021. And tonight, he could add to his numbers with a very juicy matchup.

After a slow finish to 2020, Winker has come out this season on fire. He sports a 175 wRC+ and has pounded his way to a .280 isolated power (ISO).

While Adam Wainwright, tonight's opposing starting pitcher, has been decent over his 59 2/3 innings (4.21 ERA), he's also given up 1.51 home runs per nine innings.

Winker could have a huge game in this spot.

Christian Yelich, OF, Milwaukee Brewers ($3,900)

This year certainly hasn't gone how Christian Yelich anticipated. Between a slow start and an injury, Yelich has struggled.

But tonight could be the jump start Yelich needs. Jon Duplantier starts for the Arizona Diamondbacks' injury-depleted rotation, and he owns a career 5.24 xFIP as a major leaguer.

With Milwaukee sporting a 5.32 implied team total, the Brewers should be a go-to stacking option, and Yelich can be a core piece of an Milwaukee stack.


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.