MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Monday 8/9/21

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Aug 9th, 2021
Jose Abreu has been white hot at the dish, and with a great matchup tonight, he's likely to hammer the baseball again. Who else should we be looking to roster?

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.

Joe Musgrove, SP, San Diego Padres ($9,000)

Sometimes it can be hard to parse through the pitching selections available, and with only four games on tonight's main slate, it's actually somewhat impressive that we even have three arms at $9,000 or above.

While I think Freddy Peralta and Lucas Giolito are certainly fine options, the selection that sticks out to me is Joe Musgrove of the San Diego Padres. Even our algorithm agrees -- it has Musgrove slated for over 40 points, easily the highest number on the slate. But why so high?

The Miami Marlins are absolutely putrid at the dish. They've recorded the third-worst team wOBA mark on the season (.296) coupled with an elevated strikeout rate (25.9%). This makes them an easy target.

And there's no shame in Musgrove's game. He sports a career-best 27.9% strikeout rate paired with a 45.5% ground-ball rate. It's easy to see why he's projected for such a massive night.

Eduardo Escobar, 3B/2B, Milwaukee Brewers ($3,700)

The Milwaukee Brewers definitely didn't win any style points for the trade deadline deals that they made. But one dude who has been absolutely ballin' out has been Eduardo Escobar, and his matchup tonight is quite dreamy.

Alec Mills takes the ball for the Chicago Cubs in this NL Central matchup, and his 4.46 SIERA (skill-interactive ERA) is fairly mediocre. Where Mills has really found himself in some trouble is against left-handed batters, putting Escobar in play. He's allowed a .378 wOBA in the split this season.

With a shortened slate, Escobar is definitely worthy of your attention.

Jose Abreu, 1B, Chicago White Sox ($3,600)

With limited options, make no mistake that the Chicago White Sox are certainly going to be a bit chalky tonight.

The South Siders will face opener Beau Burrows of the Minnesota Twins, who will likely be followed by Charlie Barnes. Burrows has logged a 6.84 ERA with a 16.3% walk rate and 2.00 HR/9 across 9.0 innings this season. Barnes hasn't been much better with a 6.27 ERA and 7.7% strikeout rate in two starts. Yikes.

I like Jose Abreu, who should be smack dab in the thick of things with this lineup. Base runners should be on base aplenty, raising his value.


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.