FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Tuesday 7/4/23
Happy Fourth!
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!
Let's check out the top options on today's main slate, which starts at 4:10 p.m. EST.
Pitching Breakdown
It's Shohei Ohtani ($10,800) day.
Ohtani is on the bump, and despite a tough matchup at the San Diego Padres, he's the slate's top arm -- by far -- as our model projects him for 37.3 FanDuel points, 5.3 clear of the field. The Padres haven't been as good offensively as most thought they'd be as they rank 16th in wOBA (.317). Ohtani, meanwhile, is just unreal, pitching to a 3.43 SIERA and 33.2% strikeout rate. He's the slate's premier arm, and San Diego has the third-lowest implied total (3.84).
Chris Bassitt ($9,600) checks a lot of boxes at a lower salary. He's taking on the Chicago White Sox, a team that sits just 25th in wOBA (.302). Bassitt is sporting a 22.1% strikeout rate and 9.5% swinging-strike rate. He hasn't been great this season, but the matchup helps. Chicago's 4.35 implied total is a number we can feel good about, and we project Bassitt for 31.1 FanDuel points.
JP Sears ($8,200) and Tarik Skubal ($7,600) are on the value radar, and they're facing each other. Skubal is making his first start off the IL and will surely be on a tight leash, so I'd rather turn to Sears. One of the few bright spots on the A's this season, Sears is carrying a meh 4.32 SIERA. But he also has a 23.9% strikeout rate and 11.5% swinging-strike rate, so there's upside against a Detroit offense that has been among the MLB's worst (28th in wOBA).
Hitting Breakdown
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the clear-cut top stacking option. They're holding a 5.49 implied total against Luis Ortiz. The slate's next-best implied total is 4.69. Ortiz, a righty, has a meager 13.7% strikeout rate, and he should be in a world of hurt today against the Dodgers.
Anyone in LA's lineup is worth a look. While Mookie Betts ($4,500) and Freddie Freeman ($4,500) are obviously top-tier picks -- our model ranks Betts as the slate's number-one overall bat -- I'm focusing on Max Muncy ($3,400) and David Peralta ($2,400) as core pieces to my Dodgers stacks. Both come at easy-to-like salaries and mash against righties, with Muncy producing a .363 wOBA, 43.7% hard-hit rate and 50.5% fly-ball rate in the split.
After LA, things are pretty open, but it's not a great slate for offense as just two teams -- Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays -- have an implied total above 4.50.
The Braves have been baseball's best offense, and despite a difficult matchup versus Shane Bieber, Atlanta is showing a 4.67 implied total. Atlanta is more than capable of breaking the slate. They've mashed their way to a .358 wOBA this season, the top mark in the bigs, and just like the Dodgers' lineup, anyone who starts for the Braves needs to be on our radar.
Ronald Acuna Jr. ($4,800) and Matt Olson ($4,400) are the top picks from Atlanta. Acuna has 21 dingers and 40 steals. He's an absolutely elite dual-threat who will garner a lot of attention even though he's at a lofty salary. Olson has 28 homers and a .389 wOBA. Our model has him as the slate's number-two stick. Eddie Rosario ($3,100), Michael Harris II ($3,000) and Ozzie Albies ($3,800) will also have the platoon advantage versus Bieber.
The Jays and Tigers -- yes, Tigers -- are other stacking options. The Jays are facing Lucas Giolito, so it's far from an easy matchup, but oddsmakers have given them a 4.54 implied total. And while Sears is a viable value pitcher, Detroit is actually decent against southpaws. I'm very interested in turning to them for value -- specifically Matt Vierling ($2,700), Javier Baez ($2,600), Andy Ibanez ($2,500) and Eric Haase ($2,400).
