MLB
FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Saturday 7/15/23
Minnesota's Pablo Lopez is rated as Saturday's top starter in a matchup against an Oakland offense with a 24.6% K-rate. Which other players also stand out 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!

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate.

Team Opp SP Opp O/U Moneyline Implied Total
DET George Kirby SEA 7.5 180 3.15
CHW Spencer Strider ATL 9 240 3.47
OAK Pablo Lopez MIN 8.5 188 3.5
PIT Alex Cobb SF 8.5 124 3.95
LAA Framber Valdez HOU 8.5 118 4
MIA Kyle Gibson BAL 8.5 102 4.15
BAL Braxton Garrett MIA 8.5 -120 4.35
SEA Michael Lorenzen DET 7.5 -215 4.35
HOU Reid Detmers LAA 8.5 -138 4.5
LAD Kodai Senga NYM 9 -108 4.5
NYM Tony Gonsolin LAD 9 -108 4.5
SF Johan Oviedo PIT 8.5 -146 4.55
MIL Andrew Abbott CIN 9.5 100 4.66
CIN Freddy Peralta MIL 9.5 -118 4.84
STL Jake Irvin WSH 9 -190 5
WSH Steven Matz STL 9 160 5
MIN Hogan Harris OAK 8.5 -225 5
COL Clarke Schmidt NYY 11.5 132 5.25
ATL Lance Lynn CHW 9 -295 5.53
NYY Connor Seabold COL 11.5 -156 6.25

Pitchers

Spencer Strider ($11,600)

After his fourth straight outing over 51 FanDuel points, Strider's salary has increased 5.4% to his highest second point this season against a Chicago White Sox's offense with a .312 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and a 23.4% K-rate in their last 2856 plate appearances.

Through 104.2 innings this season, Atlanta's strikeout machine has almost replicated his impressive rookie season in his second year, accounting for a 2.83 xFIP, an impressive 38.9% K-rate, and a 19.4% swinging strike percentage.

In a favorable matchup versus seven White Sox's batters with K-rates between 20.1% and 32.3%, the 24-year old ace is ranked first among Saturday's 20 pitchers with 7.56 expected strikeouts and second overall with a 38.7 FanDuel point projection.

Pablo Lopez ($10,900)

Despite scoring a season-high 73 FanDuel points in his last appearance, Lopez's salary has only moved up 0.9% versus an Oakland Athletics lineup ranked 26th with a 24.6% K-rate and last among offenses in wOBA with a .289 mark.

In his last seven starts, the Twins' All-Star has been in excellent form through 45.1 innings, recording a stellar 3.08 xFIP, a 14.4% swinging strike percentage, and nine or more strikeouts in 57% of his appearances.

With today's top projection including 39.9 FanDuel points and 6.51 strikeouts in 6.4 innings, the 27-year old has an easy path to obtain his lofty expectations against six hitters with K-rates ranging from 24.9% to 33.5%.

George Kirby ($10,300)

In a great spot versus a Detroit Tigers team with a weak .278 wOBA and a 25.1% K-rate, Seattle's second-year starter ranks third at his position with a 35.9 FanDuel point projection and 5.82 strikeouts.

When analyzing Kirby's top matchup and recent form in his last five starts including a 3.50 xFIP and a 22.2% K-rate, the Mariners' right-hander should be considered a high-ceiling play even at his highest salary since June 13th.

Stacks

New York Yankees

Despite scoring just two runs in Coors Field on Friday night, the Yankees are ranked as today's top offense with a 6.25 expected run total against one of the league's worst starters in Connor Seabold.

Ideal New York stacks should feature their top left-handed bats to attack Seabold's pitiful 6.21 career xFIP in this split including Anthony Rizzo (.331 expected wOBA, 7.6% barrel rate) and Billy McKinney (332 expected wOBA, 13.6% barrel rate) while Giancarlo Stanton (15.3% barrel rate, .337 expected wOBA), Gleyber Torres (.351 expected wOBA, 7.3% barrel rate), and Harrison Bader (8.3% barrel rate) still rate well enough with their pop from the right side.

St. Louis Cardinals

In a matchup versus Washington's Jake Irvin, the Cardinals contain an undervalued 5.0 run total against a right-hander with troublesome command (10.8% walk rate) and expected metrics over one run higher (5.67) than his 4.60 current Earned Run Average.

With left-handed bats inflicting the most damage towards Irvin's profile (.339 wOBA, 5.43 xFIP), Brendan Donovan (.356 expected wOBA, .282 expected average), Lars Nootbaar (.348 expected wOBA, 8.4% barrel rate), Nolan Gorman (.340 expected wOBA, 13.5% barrel rate), and Dylan Carlson (.335 expected wOBA, 7.9% barrel rate) should be considered as intriguing value options under $2,900.

Colorado Rockies

With today's third highest run total at 5.25, Colorado offense could a sneaky potential stack against New York's Clarke Schmidt in baseball's most promising offensive environment.

To best attack Schmidt's weakness against the opposing side of the plate (.378 wOBA, 4.74 xFIP) and his heavy ground-ball percentage (43.4%), top targets among Colorado's batting order should group together their top left-hand bats or fly-ball power hitters including Ryan McMahon (.344 expected wOBA, 12.7% barrel rate), Nolan Jones (.355 expected wOBA, 11.7% barrel rate), C.J. Cron (.342 expected wOBA, 14.6% barrel rate), and Kris Bryant (.341 expected wOBA, 26.1% fly-ball percentage).

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