3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Tuesday 6/22/21

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.

Zack Wheeler, SP, Philadelphia Phillies ($11,400)

At the top end of the pitching pool, Zack Wheeler and Gerrit Cole ($11,000) stick out as obvious choices on Tuesday's main slate. So how do we parse out those two?

While both have been incredibly brilliant, the matchup seems to lean Wheeler's way. Cole faces a Kansas City Royals offense that ranks as the second-toughest team to strike out (21.8% strikeout rate), while Wheeler faces a Washington Nationals team that strikes out at a significantly higher clip (23.1%). Both teams have nearly identical ISO marks, and over the last 14 days, the Nats have struck out 24.4% of the time.

I side with Wheeler, who owns a 3.01 SIERA and 31.6% strikeout rate in 2021.

Matt Olson, 1B, Oakland Athletics ($4,000)

Taylor Hearn of the Texas Rangers makes the start tonight, but let's use that term "start" loosely. While Hearn has some ugly pitching metrics, he's pitched exclusively in relief this season. It's likely a bullpen game as Jordan Lyles, tonight's scheduled starter, was pushed back a day.

That makes the Oakland Athletics a very spicy play today, and there's no Oakland bat spicier than Matt Olson. He's logged a .615 slugging percentage -- thanks largely to the 20 jacks he has ripped this season -- and he's been unbelievably consistent from a fantasy perspective, logging double-digit FanDuel points in seven straight games.

Expect Olson to torture Hearn, and the Rangers bullpen.

Yordan Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros ($3,800)

There's a lot of different Houston Astros names we could fit in here, but one who sticks out is Yordan Alvarez.

Sporting a slate-best implied team total of 5.41 runs, the Astros are looking to cook Jorge Lopez, who's been absolutely dreadful this year. While Lopez's ground-ball rate of 46.9% is impressive, his 9.3% walk rate and 1.80 home runs per nine is a bit ugly.

With a .520 slugging percentage and facing a struggling hurler, Alvarez looks primed for a big evening.

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.