MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Monday 6/6/22

Matt Kupferle  —  @MKupferle Jun 6th, 2022
Christian Walker has regained his power stroke, and he's got a delightful matchup tonight. Which other options should we consider?

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, as well, 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.

Cristian Javier, SP, Houston Astros ($9,000)

When you are a bit bereft of excellent starting pitching options, sometimes you have to go out a bit on a limb. Cristian Javier doesn't exactly check all of the boxes we normally seek, but he does check a lot of them this time.

Javier will attack a Seattle Mariners group that is pretty middle-of-the-pack across the board. They rank 15th in team wOBA (.314) and are roughly average in terms of team ISO (.149) and team strikeout rate (22.1%).

Javier, meanwhile, has been absolutely brilliant for the Houston Astros this season. Spanning 41 innings, Javier has logged a 31.5% strikeout rate while giving up only 0.66 HR/9 allowed.

With some fairly average options on board, we project Javier for 29.5 FanDuel points on the day, making him a very solid option.

Christian Walker, 1B, Arizona Diamondbacks ($3,200)

The Arizona Diamondbacks could be buzzin' tonight, and if that's the case, Christian Walker will likely be in the thick of things.

The big slugging first baseman had a rough go of it in 2021, logging just 10 home runs and .134 ISO over 445 plate appearances. This season, while the batting average has been a bit low (.203), he's found his power stroke again, smacking pitchers for 14 long balls already while paired with a .471 slugging percentage.

That bodes well for the Snakes but bad for Hunter Greene. He's given up a .636 slugging percentage to same-sided bats, and that number are amplified by 3.91 HR/9.

Get Walker into your lineups.

George Springer, OF, Toronto Blue Jays ($4,000)

Sticking with the theme of picking on struggling hurlers who are having problems with the long ball, let's focus on young southpaw Daniel Lynch of the Kansas City Royals.

Lynch has really been popped by righties. This year, he's allowed a .475 slugging percentage to right-handed hitters, including a 45.5% fly-ball rate and 35.0% hard-hit rate.

Table-setter George Springer has absolutely torched lefty pitching this season. Let's peep some of these numbers -- a .345 batting average, 1.115 OPS, .310 ISO and 41.7% hard-hit rate. Oh baby.

All of this leads me to recommending a heavy dose of Springer tonight.


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.