3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Wednesday 4/13/22
With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.
As a result of this, the primary method of selecting hitters is to "stack" certain teams in good spots to produce. Most of the top stacks on a given day come with hefty salaries.
In addition to that, a vast majority of pitchers with the upside to win tournaments are high-salaried. They don't allow many runs and strike opponents out often.
Therefore, crushing your value plays -- whether it be a pitcher unexpectedly piling up strikeouts or a lower-salaried batter racking up points -- is the true secret sauce to taking down a baseball tournament.
Which budget options stand out today?
Eddie Rosario, OF, Atlanta Braves ($2,800)
After last night's shellacking of the Nationals, the Braves are likely to be a popular stack on Wednesday.
They'll face Josiah Gray in this one after getting after lefty Patrick Corbin on Tuesday. Gray is a righty, but he was still a launching pad for dingers (2.42 per 9 innings) in 2021. Gray surrendered one in four innings to start this new season.
Eddie Rosario should resume a middle-of-the-order spot with the platoon advantage today. He's been dreadful to start 2022, and that could make him one of the Braves' targets who is not excruciatingly popular.
He should turn it around soon. Last season, he posted a mammoth .211 isolated power (ISO) against right-handed pitchers.
There are still plenty of value plugs at or below $3,000 in this stack, including Marcell Ozuna, Adam Duvall, and Dansby Swanson.
Frank Schwindel, 1B/OF, Chicago Cubs ($2,600)
Zach Thompson was decent for the Marlins in 2021, but oddsmakers aren't buying it.
The Cubs have a 4.43 implied team total as the visitors at PNC Park as Thompson toes the slab for the Pirates. Thompson's 4.58 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) was solid a year ago, but he hasn't had an ERA lower than 5.00 since 2018 in the minors. At the very least, this should be a more forgiving matchup than most on Wednesday.
Chicago will be a value stack on just about any slate, but in plus matchups against right-handers, I love turning to Frank Schwindel. Schwindel was electric against same-sided hurlers a year ago, posting a .228 ISO in the split. As this game moves to the Buccos' bullpen, that ISO was even better against lefties (.352).
Schwindel leads a cast of value Cubbies into this battle. Rafael Ortega, Seiya Suzuki, and Ian Happ are all below the $3,000 salary mark
Bobby Dalbec, 1B, Boston Red Sox ($2,400)
With patience, MLB weather guru Kevin Roth believes Detroit and Boston should conclude their series today.
That would be excellent with Eduardo Rodriguez set to face his former club in this one. Rodriguez took a massive payday from the Tigers to switch over, and they definitely were hoping for more than the four innings and three earned runs he ceded in his team debut.
Historically, Rodriguez has been serviceable against righties, giving up just 1.04 home runs per nine innings in his career. However, Bobby Dalbec is not a normal righty.
Dalbec crushed lefties for a .273 ISO and .366 weighted on-base average in 2021. As a result, he's operated from the fifth spot in the batting order against them.
If you want to buy into Rodriguez's small poor sample with Detroit, the Red Sox have plenty of value sticks to do so. Dalbec, Enrique Hernandez, and Christian Arroyo can complement the studs who disintegrate southpaw pitchers on a nightly basis.
