FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Friday 6/3/22

We have some great pitchers to choose from on Friday, and even on a Coors Field night, they'll be difficult to pass up. Coors is once again a highlight for potential stacks, but we've got some noteworthy alternatives, as well.

Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process. Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered!

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate.

Pitchers

Gerrit Cole ($10,800): We've got some elite pitchers taking the mound tonight, but it's Cole who has what may very well be the best possible matchup in baseball.

He draws a sorry Tigers team with an active roster that has a 77 wRC+ and 24.5% strikeout rate versus righties. Unsurprisingly, they have a slate-low 2.73 implied total on the road against the likes of Cole.

The Yankees' ace is recording stellar numbers like always, putting up a 2.83 SIERA, 30.8% strikeout rate, and 6.4% walk rate over 10 starts. Following a bit of a sluggish April, Cole ramped things up in May, rocking a 33.6% strikeout rate that falls right in line with his punchouts over the past two seasons.

The cherry on top is an unrestricted workload that was absent earlier this year. Over his last five starts, Cole has logged 114, 97, 97, 110, and 105 pitches.

Shane McClanahan ($11,200): McClanahan has arguably been the best pitcher in baseball to this point, leading the league in strikeout rate (36.3%), CSW rate (34.9%), strikeout-minus-walk rate (30.9%), xFIP (1.83), and SIERA (2.07). He also has the sixth-highest ground-ball rate (52.7%).

It really doesn't get much better than this, and the only thing preventing McClanahan from greater heights in DFS is a pitch count that rarely gets out of the low 90s. He's hit 100 pitches just once in 10 starts.

Of course, because the southpaw has been so dominant, that hasn't stopped him from having a high ceiling, and he's rattled off FanDuel scores of 58, 49, 55, and 46 points over his last four.

Although the White Sox have disappointed at the plate this season, their projected to have a lineup entirely made up of right-handed bats, and their active roster has actually been solid versus lefties, posting a 105 wRC+ and 22.1% strikeout rate.

That makes this more of a neutral matchup for McClanahan, but it isn't enough to make us overly concerned. Chicago has a 3.01 implied total, and we shouldn't be shocked by another strong performance from the ace left-hander.

At roughly the same salary range as Cole and McClanahan, Corbin Burnes also deserves a quick shout. The reigning 2021 NL Cy Young winner is having another brilliant campaign and brings a 2.53 SIERA and 31.8% strikeout rate to the table against the Padres (2.93 implied total).

Nathan Eovaldi ($8,800): If you're looking for some value, Eovaldi's mid-range salary should pique our interest against the Athletics. Oakland has a woeful 82 wRC+ versus right-handed pitching this season, and their 3.38 implied total is among the slate's lowest.

Eovaldi has been a rock for the Red Sox, recording a 3.14 SIERA, 25.1% strikeout rate, and 3.8% walk rate in 10 outings. He's coming off perhaps his two best starts all season, too, racking up 11 strikeouts against the Mariners and then notching his first ever complete game in a dominant win over the Orioles.

Due to the gap in strikeout rates, Eovaldi will have his work cut out for him to keep pace with the likes of Cole, McClanahan, and Burnes, but we shouldn't rule out another top-notch showing against a weak opponent.

Stacks

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves piled up 13 runs at Coors Field last night, and we could see a similar output again on Friday. Atlanta has the slate's highest implied total (6.16) against right-hander Chad Kuhl.

Kuhl has actually performed pretty well this year, but a 4.51 SIERA, 18.8% strikeout rate, and 8.9% walk rate is nothing special. He's also getting lucky in the home run department, allowing just five round-trippers despite a 38.6% ground-ball rate, and his low 8.8% homer-to-fly-ball rate is unlikely to last.

This looks like a particularly great spot to roster Matt Olson ($4,000) against a pitcher with a 4.86 xFIP versus lefty sticks this season, and switch-hitter Ozzie Albies ($3,700) will also benefit. This lineup is deep enough to consider number-nine hitter Michael Harris II ($2,500) as a punt lefty if he starts again, too.

Otherwise, much like yesterday, all Braves batters should be in the mix, and as Travis d'Arnaud ($3,200) showed last night, you don't necessarily need to stick with the superstars, either.

Toronto Blue Jays

Minnesota's Chi Chi Gonzalez is making his first 2022 start, and he's been a gift for stacks throughout his career.

While some credit goes to Coors Field for his high ERA in past seasons with the Rockies, his underlying metrics have always left a lot to be desired, and that was firmly on display in 2021 with a 5.29 SIERA, 12.5% strikeout rate, and 39.5% ground-ball rate. The right-hander performed poorly against both sides of the plate last season, but he was actually worse in same-sided matchups, posting a 5.24 xFIP.

After being roughly a league-average offense for the first couple of months, the Toronto Blue Jays' bats could be finally hitting their stride. The Blue Jays are winners of eight straight, and their offense has been the driving force, producing a league-high 168 wRC+ over the last week.

The core of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,600), George Springer ($3,700), Bo Bichette ($3,400), and Teoscar Hernandez ($2,900) remain the top options, and there are loads of value across the rest of the lineup. Danny Jansen ($3,100) is crushing it over a limited sample this year, cracking seven dingers in 50 plate appearances off a massive 26.3% barrel rate.

Philadelphia Phillies

The Braves ought to be the chalk, but the Blue Jays and Yankees should garner their fair share of attention, too. New York faces Elvin Rodriguez, who's struggled in his first three MLB appearances and has only managed a 20.8% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate.

But let's touch on the Philadelphia Phillies as a fourth option that may not get quite as much love as those previous three.

The Phillies face 22-year-old Chase Silseth, who will be making just his fourth start. Silseth has actually gotten pretty good results, but two of his starts have come against a subpar Oakland offense, and his 4.66 SIERA, 16.4% strikeout rate, and 9.8% walk rate aren't moving the needle much. In his last start against the Blue Jays, the young righty was unable to get a single strikeout over 4 2/3 innings.

It's too early to say how Silseth's splits will turn out, but he isn't getting grounders versus lefties, and both home runs he's given up have come from that side, so Bryce Harper ($3,900) and Kyle Schwarber ($3,400) could have an advantage tonight. But overall, we're looking at those two and righties Rhys Hoskins ($3,300) and Nick Castellanos ($3,300) as the clear power options, followed by J.T. Realmuto ($2,800) and perhaps Alec Bohm ($2,900) to help round things out.