MLB

FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 8/6/22

Even at his second highest salary this season, Mliwaukee's Aaron Ashby is an intriguing pitching option to consider when examining his slate-high 3.93 value rating. Which other players are important decision points on Saturday?

Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process.

Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered!

Pitchers

Carlos Rodon ($10,600)

Saturday's most expensive pitcher is an elite option for today's eight-game slate versus an Oakland Athletics' unit with a .299 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and five expected hitters with K-rates ranging from 20.1% to 27.3%.

In his first year pitching in the National League and with the Giants, Rodon has finally broken through with his best overall season, recording a 3.06 expected Fielding Independent Pitching rating, an eye-popping 31.9% strikeout percentage, and a 14.2% swinging strike rate.

At his second lowest salary point since June 28th, San Francisco's left-hander currently ranks first overall with a 36.5 FanDuel point projection and 6.75 expected strikeouts.

Aaron Ashby ($8,400)

In a matchup against a Cincinnati Reds' lineup with a 30.8% K-rate and a 68.0% contact rate, Milwaukee's left-hander rates third among Saturday's 18 pitchers with 5.98 projected strikeouts.

Overall in his largest sample size as a starting pitcher, Ashby offers a similar skillset as Rodon when examining his 3.01 xFIP, 27.1% strikeout rate, and 13.5% swinging strike percentage in his last 11 starts.

Even at his second highest salary this season, the 24-year old offers the most potential value on Saturday with a 3.93 rating and a 33.0 fantasy expectation.

Nathan Eovaldi ($8,300)

Since his return on July 15th, Eovaldi has slowly worked his way back into form, recording a 4.29 xFIP and a 4.37 Skill Interactive Earned Run Average (SIERA) in his last four starts including a promising six strikeout, 47 FanDuel point performance in his most recent outing.

Considering his bargain salary (third lowest point this season) and ideal matchup versus a Kansas City Royals' team with a .309 weighted on-base average and 25.3% K-rate, Boston's veteran is another viable option in all formats when studying his overall projection including his 5.19 strikeout prediction in 5.42 expected innings.

Stacks

Boston Red Sox

Daniel Lynch will make his 17th start this season against a Boston lineup with today's top team total at 5.3 expected runs.

Despite producing a career-best 22.9% strikeout rate, Kansas City's southpaw still remains vulnerable with his inconsistent command (9.4% walk rate) and struggles versus right-handed bats (.347 wOBA, 4.69 xFIP in 129.1 innings).

With these main weaknesses in mind, Tommy Pham (7.1% barrel rate), Xander Bogaerts (.322 expected wOBA, .257 expected average), J.D. Martinez (13.2% barrel rate, .486 expected slugging), and Christian Arroyo (8.4% barrel percentage, .453 expected slugging) present an ideal Boston stack while Rafael Devers (13.1% barrel rate, .377 expected wOBA) contains the most pop despite batting from the left side.

Toronto Blue Jays

After a 14-run output in their first two contests against Minnesota, the Blue Jays will have another opportunity to exceed their 4.8 projected run total versus Dylan Bundy.

While Minnesota's veteran is due for some positive regression (4.35 xFIP, 5.04 Earned Run Average), Bundy's strikeout production has slowly declined to a career-low 17.9% while his opposing barrel rate remains at a concerning 8.6% mark .

Considering his overall pitching profile, the heart of Toronto's batting order including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (11.3% barrel rate, .496 expected slugging), Alejandro Kirk (8% barrel rate, .472 expected slugging), Teoscar Hernandez (13.5% barrel percentage, .496 expected slugging), Bo Bichette (9.3% barrel rate .426 expected slugging), and Matt Chapman (14.7% barrel rate, .468 expected slugging all rate well enough for stacking.

San Francisco Giants

In a matchup against Adam Oller, San Francisco's offense has an appealing opportunity to reach their 4.8 run total against a below-average right-hander with a troubling 11.5% walk rate and a 5.99 xFIP.

San Francicso correlations should mainly involve left-handed bats to attack Oller's outstanding weakness (career 6.14 xFIP) including Joc Pederson (16.7% barrel rate, .535 expected slugging), Brandon Belt (14.7% barrel rate, .446 expected slugging), Brandon Crawford (7.3% barrel rate) and Mike Yastrzemski (10.1% barrel percentage).