3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Monday 6/13/22
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.
Alek Manoah SP, Toronto Blue Jays ($10,800)
It is starting to feel a little bit like bullying, but picking on the Baltimore Orioles feels like a pretty positive exercise for DFS purposes.
The O's, sadly, have a pretty rancid offense. They rank 24th in the league in team wOBA, and they pair that with delightfully poor marks of a .145 isolated power (ISO) and a 23.7% strikeout rate. It's not great, Bob.
And, it's not like Alek Manoah of the Toronto Blue Jays is some throwaway arm; he's legit. This season, the young right-hander has posted a 1.81 ERA and 3.05 FIP over 66 2/3 innings pitched, and he's allowed an incredible 20.5% hard-hit rate this season. He's as elite as elite gets.
When we marry all of these metrics together, Manoah rests among the league's best pitchers on tonight's main slate (37.3 FanDuel points), making him a great play.
Matt Olson, 1B, Atlanta Braves ($3,500)
With the surging Atlanta Braves doing their absolute best to make up ground in the NL East race, Matt Olson and company could be ready to make some noise tonight against young starter Josiah Gray.
While Gray has been significantly better recently, there is one major wart in his arsenal, and it's his ability to get left-handed batters out. He's allowed a whopping .600 slugging percentage this season to lefties, including a staggering 3.03 HR/9. That's right -- for every three innings he pitches, that's roughly one bomb he's allowed. Yikes.
While Olson has been more than stout against same-sided arms (118 wRC+), he's really hammered righties for a mark of 138 wRC+. He's added a .265 ISO and .889 OPS in the split.
He makes a ton of sense to target in this matchup.
Jose Altuve, 2B, Houston Astros ($3,800)
The diminutive slugging second baseman Jose Altuve continues to stay hot at the dish, and with southpaw Taylor Hearn on the mound, he could add to some gaudy 2022 season-long numbers.
Altuve has absolutely bombed lefties this season. He's logged a 163 wRC+ against them this year, including a .927 OPS and an absurd .382 ISO mark. His 45.9% hard-hit rate and 44.4% fly-ball rate in the split is definitely something we want to target.
Hearn's splits get kind of ugly and lopsided against righties. He's logged a 38.0% fly-ball and 36.9% hard-hit rate this season against righties, including a .371 wOBA. While he's allowed only 1.14 HR/9 to righties this year, he's also posted a miniscule 5.9% K-BB ratio.
I'm trying to find nearly every way possible to get the Astros slugger into my lineups 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.
