3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 6/8/22
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.
Shane Bieber, SP, Cleveland Indians ($9,900)
While the velocity may be down for Shane Bieber, he's been a highly effective arm who we cannot sleep on tonight in DFS.
Bieber has been pretty brilliant this season over 60 1/3 innings, recording a 25.1% strikeout rate, 13.8% swinging-strike rate and 6.5% walk rate. Even though his 3.12 ERA is pretty scintillating, FIP points out that he could be even better (2.79 FIP). Hitters have recorded only a 27.4% hard-hit rate against the veteran right-hander this year.
And the matchup today? While Marcus Semien has risen as of late, as a whole, the Texas Rangers' offense has been moribund. They sport a dreadful .300 wOBA and .154 ISO.
No surprises here -- Bieber is our top-projected arm on tonight's main slate (40.3 FanDuel points), making him a great play.
Austin Riley, 3B, Atlanta Braves ($3,800)
Playing a robust game of Sophie's Choice, trying to pick your favorite Atlanta Braves right-handed hitter is a tough task on tonight's slate. Let's go with the slugging Austin Riley as our choice tonight.
Making his major league debut, Jared Koenig toes the slab for the Oakland Athletics. There's not much to glean on here -- Koenig sports a 29.5% strikeout rate in Triple-A this season, but his numbers also include a 4.22 FIP and 37.4% fly-ball rate.
Riley has absolutely torched southpaws this season -- hitting .323 in this split with a .467 wOBA and 1.106 OPS.
The Braves have a slate-leading 5.66 implied total, and Riley can be a core play on this slate.
Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees ($3,600)
The fall from grace for veteran pitcher Chris Archer is a sad one to watch.
From the naked eye, his 3.89 ERA over 39 1/3 innings pitched doesn't look too bad. But a deeper dive shows there are reasons to target hitters against him. He owns a 9.9% walk rate, 43.8% fly-ball rate, 34.7% hard-hit rate, and 12.4% barrel rate. That all leads to a 5.59 FIP on the season.
The New York Yankees -- Archer's opposition -- are a great stacking option and come in with a 5.04 implied total.
If you're stacking the Yanks, Aaron Judge is practically a must. The Yankees' slugger has 22 homers through 53 games played, and his .447 wOBA is somehow selling him short compared to his .465 expected wOBA.
We project Judge for 15.7 FanDuel points and rank him as the night's third-best bat.
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.
