MLB

3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Friday 6/17/22

Austan Kas  —  @AustanKas Jun 17th, 2022
Yonathan Daza is a low-salary way to get a piece of the Rockies tonight at Coors Field. Which other value plays can come through for you?

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 hurlers.

Therefore, crushing your value plays -- whether it be a pitcher unexpectedly piling up strikeouts or a low-salaried batter racking up points -- can be the secret sauce to taking down a tournament.

Which budget options stand out today on FanDuel?

Jon Gray, P, Rangers ($8,600)

There are some good high-salary arms on this slate -- including Frankie Montas ($10,200), Carlos Rodon ($10,700) and Tarik Skubal ($9,900) -- but when you factor in salary and matchup, Jon Gray is one of the top pitching options on Friday.

Gray is facing the Detroit Tigers. Detroit ranks dead last in wOBA this season (.264) and holds the fifth-highest strikeout rate (24.2%). Their wOBA and strikeout rate are both somehow worse over the last 30 days, sitting at .252 and 25.4%, respectively.

Gray has pitched pretty well in his first season with the Texas Rangers, boasting a 3.82 SIERA, 26.0% strikeout rate and 11.4% swinging-strike rate. Gray's bugaboo this year is a 10.0% walk rate, but the matchup should help as Detroit owns an MLB-low 6.4% walk rate.

We project Gray for 29.2 FanDuel points, and if you're trying to get the high-salary Coors bats in your lineup, his salary is super handy.

Yonathan Daza, OF, Rockies ($2,800)

Speaking of Coors, Yonathan Daza is a great way to get a piece of the action while saving some coin.

Daza hit fifth the last time the Colorado Rockies took on a southpaw, and he's mashed in the split this season, recording a .440 wOBA in 51 plate appearances against lefties. At home versus lefties in 2021, Daza put up a .340 wOBA.

The lefty Daza will see tonight is MacKenzie Gore, an electric youngster. While Gore looks the part of a future (and present) stud, Coors is Coors, and the Rox have a 5.85 implied total, the second-highest of the slate. Daza is an economical way to get in on the fun.

Gary Sanchez, C, Twins ($2,600)

The Minnesota Twins are one of the best non-Coors stacks on this slate, and Gary Sanchez can smash in a matchup with Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner is really struggling, pitching to a 4.77 SIERA and 16.4% strikeout rate this season. He's permitting 1.54 dingers per nine innings overall, and righties have tagged him for a 38.8% hard-hit rate and 43.0% fly-ball rate while popping 1.59 homers per nine.

Sanchez has a .351 expected wOBA this season, and he posted a .353 wOBA and 50.6% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage last season.

Max Kepler ($2,500), Jorge Polanco ($3,300) and Gio Urshela ($2,300) are other appealing Minny bats who won't break the bank, helping you get to a high-salary ace or Carlos Correa ($4,000) and Byron Buxton ($4,200), the latter of whom is our number-one hitter of the night.