MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 6/24/21

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.

Walker Buehler, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers ($11,000)

It was a very tough three-game set early this week for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were swept by the San Diego Padres

But things start anew with a series against the Chicago Cubs, and that could be great news for LA. The Cubs have really struggled at the plate recently. Over the last two weeks, they clock in next to last in wOBA (.265) with the highest strikeout rate (29.3%).

Walker Buehler is coming off a dominant outing in which he took a no-no into the eighth and punched out 11 en route to 59 FanDuel points. He has a nice floor/ceiling combination in this matchup.

Per our projections, Buehler is the best option on tonight's slate. Ride with him.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr, OF, Toronto Blue Jays ($4,300)

There goes that man, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Arguably the 1B to Shohei Ohtani's 1A in the race for AL MVP honors, Vladdy is absolutely obliterating the baseball, racking up a .344 average with 23 home runs and nearly 60 runs and RBIs apiece.

Tonight he is up against Dean Kremer, who owns a 4.77 SIERA and mere 8.5% swinging-strike rate. He's allowing a 48.3% fly-ball rate and 2.37 homers per nine.

The Toronto Blue Jays boast an implied team total of 6.04 runs, so they'll be very popular. As usual, Guerrero offers huge upside.

Michael Brantley, OF, Houston Astros ($3,700)

Boring old, crusty vets like Michael Brantley get overlooked sometimes -- but holy cow, this dude has been cookin' with napalm.

In his last 40 at-bats, Brantley has smoked the ball to a tune of a .500 average. While he's logged only four homers this season -- one in the last month -- he's been awesome in every other category. Brantley owns .509 batting average and 1.292 OPS during that time. I guess that'll do.

He is opposed by Jose Urena, who has really struggled this season. Urena has a 5.31 SIERA, 13.9% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate. Lefties have a .381 wOBA against him while striking out only 9.3% of the time.

Like Vladdy, Brantley is going to be popular as the Houston Astros' 5.87 implied total will attract plenty of attention. But Brantley can go off in this spot.



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.