3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 7/13/22
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.
Tony Gonsolin, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers ($10,200)
He may not be the highest-salaried option, but the guy I am riding with at the top end of the slate: Tony Gonsolin of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Let's parse through some of the more expensive options at the top -- Shane McClanahan ($11,500) almost always makes for a great play, but he faces a smoking hot Boston Red Sox team that is hard to battle. Likewise, Zack Wheeler ($10,600) faces a tough Toronto Blue Jays squad that is in the hitting-friendly environment of the Rogers Centre.
Taking those options away, I really like the Cat-Man. He faces a bumbling St. Louis Cardinals offense that clocks in the bottom seven in team wOBA, isolated power (ISO), and strikeout rate over the last two weeks.
Projected for 25.9 FanDuel points but averaging 35.0 fantasy points per game, Gonsolin could be primed for a monster night.
Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees ($4,200)
We are gonna back to the well of stacking against the Cincinnati Reds in hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium, and Aaron Judge is basically Godzilla in this split.
To steal the words out of Mark Jackson's mouth -- with all due respect, this is a very bad matchup for southpaw Mike Minor. For his career in home at-bats against lefties, Judge has pounded them to the tune of a 168 wRC+, a .997 OPS, and a .285 ISO.
In over 1,000 career innings against righties, Minor has allowed 1.36 HR/9 to these batters, including a 43.3% fly-ball rate.
All of this leads me to roster the Yankees' star early and often.
Jake Cronenworth, 2B, San Diego Padres ($3,700)
Like any good magician, Chad Kuhl has done a good job of keeping a low ERA (4.02) while using some excellent smoke-and-mirror tactics.
In 87 1/3 innings pitched, Kuhl has struck out only 16.9% of batters while logging a 40.9% fly-ball rate. It's a bit confusing -- pitching in hitter-friendly suburban Denver -- how he owns only 1.08 HR/9 allowed. His 4.85 SIERA portends that trouble could come a-knockin' -- and soon.
Kuhl has allowed a .487 slugging percentage to lefties in his career, and that's where Jake Cronenworth comes into play. The table-setter for the San Diego Padres should be a robust option to consider, especially given his 121 wRC+ in his career with the platoon advantage.
Get some exposure to San Diego's 5.82 implied team total with Cronenworth and reap the benefits.
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.
