Adam Zibuda What is up everyone, happy Wednesday! Check out the FanDuel MLB 8/6 breakdown below.
As usual, I will be going over 3 pitchers and 3 teams that we should be looking to stack in our FanDuel lineups. There is one early game with the battle of Chicago taking place, and then we have a huge 14 game slate to round out the work week. Luckily the quiet weather trend continues as we once again do not have any PPD concerns to worry about. With that said, let’s get into the picks!
The Aces
A. We have had a string of aces draw tricky matchups lately and that continues on Friday with Corbin Burnes ($11,000) throwing against the San Francisco Giants. As we know by now, Burnes is one of the best pitchers in baseball so I typically side with the pitcher here and not the solid team that he is facing. While this is not exactly a slam dunk spot, a 2.49 SIERA, 36% strikeout rate, and only a 4.7% walk rate will do just fine against this Giants squad. This is a strong game for pitching on both sides so the win equity will not be as high as we are typically used to, but the strikeout upside will be.
B. As I mentioned above, Logan Webb ($7,600) will be throwing against Burnes and the Brewers and surprisingly owns the second lowest SIERA of any pitcher throwing tonight. With a 3.54 SIERA, Webb has been able to not only induce ground balls at a high rate but also greatly limit the hard contact allowed to opposing batters. While his strikeout stuff will not jump off the page at you, the run limitation that he provides at this price point is extremely tempting on FanDuel tonight. If you want to swerve off of the chalky SP1 in GPPs while also saving some salary to spend on your bats then Webb is the key to that lock.
C. After Burnes it is really sort of a “take your pick” type of situation at pitcher on FanDuel, as there are a large handful of mediocre arms and no other clear-cut aces. Chris Bassitt ($9,800) is more of a matchup play for me at SP3 as opposed to a situation where I am targeting him due to his elite pitching skills. Bassitt is serviceable with a 3.81 SIERA, 24.9% strikeout rate, and 5.9% walk rate on the season. His matchup against the Texas Rangers however, is more than serviceable as they strikeout at an extremely high clip against right-handed pitching. While I am more inclined to either pay up for Burnes or drop down to Webb, Bassitt will likely carry the lowest ownership of the three arms.
The Bases
A. With a lack of aces on a slate comes a plethora of great hitting spots, headlined by the Cleveland Indians who will kick off the slate by facing off against Matt Manning and the Detroit Tigers bullpen. Manning has struggled to a 5.55 SIERA (Dominos, anyone?), 11.6% strikeout rate, and 7.6% walk rate. That type of strikeout rate will just not cut it at the major league level these days, and the Indians draw arguably the easiest matchup of any team on the entire slate. I will look to get as much exposure to the power bats in this lineup as possible tonight.
B. Another team that draws a matchup against a gas can pitcher is the Oakland Athletics, who will be taking swings against Mike Foltynewicz. However you want to pronounce his last name, this guy stinks. He sports a SIERA approaching five, a 16.3% strikeout rate, and a 5.9% walk rate. While he does limit the free passes, he is a fly ball hitter that struggles to keep the ball on the ground. He owns one of the lowest ground ball rates on the entire slate and when these A’s bats put the ball in the air, homeruns tend to follow. Once again, targeting the power bats at the top of this lineup on FanDuel will most likely be a profitable strategy tonight.
C. To round things out for the week, the final team that I will be looking to target hitters from on FanDuel is the New York Yankees. The Yankees will be taking swings against Marco Gonzales, and we witnessed what happens last night when their new acquisition Joey Gallo starts making solid contact with the baseball. Gonzales 4.92 SIERA, 19% strikeout rate, and 8.2% walk rate are not going to cut it against this absolutely stacked lineup. The only way to keep this offense off the board is by striking them out, and Marco just does not do that very well. Target the Yankees as much as possible if you can afford them tonight.
That is it for me today! Please also check out our projection model by clicking here. If you have any questions, I will be in our expert chat in Discord leading up to lock, so feel free to shoot me a DM or @ me in chat!
