3 MLB FanDuel Value Plays to Target on Thursday 9/8/22

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?

Kyle Garlick, OF, Twins ($2,100)

Kyle Garlick should be in a meaty spot in the lineup -- possibly leadoff -- tonight against lefty Nestor Cortes.

Any $2,100 leadoff hitter has to be on our radar, and Garlick has crushed it in this split two years running. He pummeled southpaws for a .363 wOBA and 39.0% fly-ball rate last year, and he's got a .388 wOBA and 44.4% fly-ball rate in the split in 2022.

Cortes is a good pitcher, but on a three-game slate with no implied totals above 4.00 runs (as of early Thursday), we're going to have to use some hitters against solid pitchers. Righties are definitely the way to attack Cortes as he's permitted a 48.4% fly-ball rate in the split.

We project Garlick for 11.3 FanDuel points and rate him as the night's best point-per-dollar bat.

Andrew Vaughn, OF, White Sox ($2,600)

If one offense blows up tonight, my money is on it being the Chicago White Sox.

The Pale Hose pace the slate with a 3.95 implied total, and they're up against lefty JP Sears. On top of that, they're salaried modestly nearly across the board, so they fit well next to ace Dylan Cease, who projects as the top arm tonight.

Sears' 2.37 ERA is mostly a mirage. He's got a meager 16.1% strikeout rate and has allowed a 40.3% fly-ball rate. Righties are striking out just 15.3% of the time against him while recording a 42.6% fly-ball rate.

Vaughn is projected to hit second, and he's put up a .351 wOBA with the platoon advantage this season. We forecast him to total 11.6 FanDuel points on Thursday.

Vaughn, Luis Robert ($2,700), Eloy Jimenez ($2,600), Yoan Moncada ($2,200), Elvis Andrus ($2,200), Romy Gonzalez ($2,000) and Yasmani Grandal ($2,100) are low-salary bats you can mix and match alongside Jose Abreu ($3,300) in Chicago stacks.

Giancarlo Stanton, OF, Yankees ($2,700)

Giancarlo Stanton isn't someone who shows up in many value articles as his salary is usually way too high for this piece. He was salaried at $3,500 earlier this month, but he's dropped all the way into the value range.

Of course, his salary has fallen that much in such a short time because he's struggled. Stanton has mustered just one hit across his last three games. He owns an ugly .132 wOBA over 53 plate appearances in an injury-shortened second half.

And it's not like he has a great matchup, either; he faces righty Sonny Gray.

But Stanton is a bet-on-talent play who we know is capable of big-time damage. The New York Yankees' 3.72 implied total is the slate's second-highest, and Stanton should continue to hold down a juicy spot in the lineup.