3 MLB FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 8/12/22

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.

Carlos Rodon, SP, San Francisco Giants ($10,800)

We only get this lucky every so often -- when the top-projected pitcher isn't the highest-salaried one. But on Friday, that's exactly what we are locked and loaded with.

It seemed like a bit of a peculiar choice that the Chicago White Sox didn't re-sign ace Carlos Rodon this offseason, even with a qualifying offer, and, boy, do they likely regret that decision. Spanning 131 2/3 innings pitched this year, the southpaw has racked up a 31.2% strikeout rate and 13.9% swinging-strike rate. The swing-and-miss stuff gives him immense upside in DFS.

And we get the benefit of Rodon facing a poor Pittsburgh Pirates offense, one that ranks third-worst in team wOBA with a 25.5% strikeout rate.

We project Rodon to lead the slate with 41.7 FanDuel points, and I'll be hard-pressed not to roster him.

Juan Soto, OF, San Diego Padres ($4,000)

With a 5.69 ERA for Cory Abbott, it's easy to see why you should want to target members of the San Diego Padres tonight. But it gets better for San Diego -- Abbott's FIP is even worse at 8.89. Woof.

What's the deal? Well, in his small MLB sample, he gives up a ton of fly-balls (64.9% rate), he's walking 13.6% of batters, and he's got a strikeout rate under 20%. His minor league numbers aren't very good, either.

It's an extremely small sample size, but Abbott has been absolutely pounded by lefties. So far in 36 total batters faced, he's allowed a whopping .700 slugging percentage and 4.70 HR/9.

With Juan Soto returning back to his Washington Nationals roots, he could explode in this dreamy matchup. We project him to score 18.0 FanDuel points.

Luis Robert, OF, Chicago White Sox ($3,700)

Starter-turned-reliever Daniel Norris has had quite the major league baseball journey. Originally a starter as a member of the Detroit Tigers, he turned into a reliever and then was part of the Chicago Cubs organization before heading back to the Motor City.

He will make a start tonight, and his metrics from 2022 -- mostly out of the 'pen -- are all over the place. He generates plenty of strikeouts (32.6% rate), but he also walks way too many batters (15.7%) and has allowed identical 36.8% hard-hit and fly-ball rates.

For Norris' career, he's had a heckuva time getting right-handed batters out -- whether as a starter or a reliever. He's allowed 1.28 HR/9 and a .455 slugging percentage in the split, and opposite handed-hitters have accumulated a 37.7% hard-hit rate against him.

All of this adds up to Luis Robert potentially going nuts tonight. A righty, Robert offers a nice power-speed combo, and this is a great spot for him with the Chicago White Sox boasting a 4.93 implied total.

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.