3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 8/4/22

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.

Kyle Schwarber, OF, Philadelphia Phillies ($3,500)

With a tiny main slate, there are some unique options we need to parse through, and I really want to have a lot of Kyle Schwarber tonight against Paolo Espino of the Washington Nationals.

Espino has allowed a .403 slugging percentage to lefties and 1.42 HR/9 so far this season. The batted-ball profile is pretty ugly, as well, as hitters have smacked him for a 39.0% hard-hit rate and 48.5% fly-ball rate.

All of that points to Schwarber having a field day. He owns a .364 wOBA and 54.1% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage. We project him for a slate-leading 16.0 FanDuel points.

Yordan Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros ($4,400)

One of the best hitters in baseball faces one of the most hittable arms in the league. We gotta fire up Yordan Alvarez, right?

Hell yes, we do.

Alvarez faces Zach Plesac, who has continued his pitch-to-contact approach. He's fanned only 17.7% of hitters this season and is permitting an ugly 38.0% fly-ball rate. Plesac's 25.0% CSW rate isn't good, either.

And Alvarez? He needs no introduction, but let's do one anyway. He's careening towards a career year with 30 long balls, a .655 slugging percentage, and a .352 isolated power (ISO).

If you can fit in the $4,400 salary, you should.

Adolis Garcia, OF, Texas Rangers ($3,500)

One player our model loves is Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers, and let's dive into what's going on.

Johnny Cueto of the Chicago White Sox has been pummeled by righties this season. He's allowed a 37.6% fly-ball rate and punched out batters at only a 19.2% rate. Righties are slugging at a clip of .418 so far this year.

While Garcia has just a .194 batting average against lefties, he's got far better marks against righties. He's logged a 120 wRC+ in the split with a .220 isolated power (ISO) and 39.2% fly-ball rate.

He's a top-10 bat tonight, per our projections.

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.