3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Wednesday 8/3/22
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?
Jared Walsh, 1B, Angels ($2,600)
Jared Walsh is taking on James Kaprielian, a low-strikeout righty. That puts Walsh in about as good of a spot as he could possibly be in.
Walsh is struggling overall this season. He strikes out too much, and he's awful against lefties. That doesn't matter much today against Kaprielian, who has a 15.7% strikeout rate for the season. Against left-handers, Kaprielian's strikeout rate is only 14.5%, and he's surrendering 1.52 jacks per nine.
For his career, Walsh owns a .361 wOBA with the platoon advantage. We project him for 0.29 homers, which is tied for the most on the slate. He's a smashing value play who can help you jam in Shohei Ohtani ($11,300) at pitcher.
We have Walsh scoring 12.1 FanDuel points and rate him as the second-best point-per-dollar hitter.
Paul DeJong, SS, Cardinals ($2,200)
Paul DeJong might be back -- like, for real back.
The man formerly known as Paul DeDong hit 30 taters back in 2019 before falling off a cliff in 2020 and 2021. He appears to have refound his stroke.
DeJong popped 17 homers in 230 plate appearances this year in Triple-A, and he's hit a tank in two of three games since getting recalled, moving up to fifth in the order last night.
He'll face left-hander Justin Steele -- who is punching out just 19.4% of right-handers -- on Wednesday, and DeJong is a low-salary way to get a piece of the St. Louis Cardinals' 4.47 implied total, the night's third-highest mark.
Trent Grisham, OF, Padres ($2,500)
The San Diego Padres could debut their new toys tonight, and they've been handed a slate-leading 5.32 implied total for their date with Chad Kuhl.
Even if Josh Bell and Juan Soto sit today, the Padres are an offense that has to be on the stacking radar in this matchup. Kuhl has posted a 5.03 SIERA and 16.6% strikeout rate in 2022. Lefties are mauling him for a .365 wOBA, 38.7% hard-hit rate and 39.5% fly-ball rate.
Trent Grisham is left-handed, and he's one of the few -- maybe the only -- remaining low-salary sticks in the Padres' lineup. Admittedly, there aren't many positives in Grisham's 2022 profile, but he has a 42.1% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage and has donged in three straight.
This is mostly about finding a low-salary bat on the Padres so you can stack the night's top offense and still get to Ohtani.
