3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Thursday 7/28/22
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?
Austin Slater, OF, Giants ($2,400)
On a slate with Shohei Ohtani (11,100) and Zack Wheeler ($10,700) in good matchups and the high-salary stacks of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays in smash spots, we desperately need a couple of value sticks.
Let's dig in.
The San Francisco Giants are facing a lefty, and that means Austin Slater will probably be in the leadoff slot. In the split this season, Slater has posted a .382 wOBA.
San Fran is taking on Justin Steele. Against righties in 2022, Steele owns a mere 18.7% strikeout rate.
Slater is a quality one-off source of salary relief, and we project him for 13.0 FanDuel points, rating him as the night's top point-per-dollar bat.
Max Muncy, 2B/3B, Dodgers ($2,400)
A year ago, it would've been laughable to imagine that we could get Max Muncy at a $2,400 salary at Coors against Jose Urena.
But that's how bad it's been for Muncy this year.
However, despite Muncy's .282 wOBA, there are reasons for optimism. For starters, we know he's capable of much more. He had a .379 wOBA last year with 36 taters. He's been unlucky, getting hammered by a .185 BABIP, the lowest clip among all qualified hitters. He's also still putting the ball into the air a lot, boasting a 51.5% fly-ball rate.
In short, Muncy will likely pick it up at some point, and we should be thrilled to get him at this salary in a Coors game.
With the Dodgers holding a hard-to-believe 6.96-run implied total, Muncy will surely be extremely chalky on this smaller slate. But he's a tough fade if you're trying to stack LA while plugging in one of Ohtani or Wheeler.
We project Muncy for 11.9 FanDuel points.
Jarren Duran, OF, Red Sox ($2,500)
It's pretty safe to assume the Dodgers and Blue Jays (5.60 implied total against Tyler Alexander) are going to be the go-to stacks tonight. Among the rest of the offenses, the Boston Red Sox stand out versus Triston McKenzie, and they should slip through the cracks.
McKenzie allows a lot of juicy contact, permitting a 37.2% hard-hit rate and 50.5% fly-ball rate in 2022. That's led to 1.35 jacks per nine, and homers have always been a bugaboo for him as he's given up 1.49 per nine for his career.
Jarren Duran can be a low-salary piece to Boston stacks or a fun one-off. He'll likely hit leadoff against the right-handed McKenzie, and he's got a .340 wOBA at home against righties this season.
