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.
Frankie Montas, SP, Baltimore Orioles ($9,900)
We've been trying to sort through the plethora of starting pitching options as the DFS season gets into full swing, but there's an arm that stands out wildly above the rest today, and that's Frankie Montas.
Montas and Clayton Kershaw ($11,000) sit atop the group in salary, but I'm pivoting to Montas. While he's been a bit up-and-down this season, the right-hander gets the benefit of a home start in his home digs, which are clearly pitching friendly.
That's not enough to roster him, but his matchup is. He faces a Baltimore Orioles squad that is pretty gross on offense with a .280 wOBA, .091 isolated power (ISO), and whopping 29.0% strikeout rate.
It all adds up to Montas being a top-ranked arm in our mix today.
Bryce Harper, OF, Philadelphia Phillies ($4,200)
Okay, I get that this play may be a touch chalky, but I can't ignore Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies today.
Some folks may want to get a bit cute and fade the Phillies, who are off to a bit of a surprising start. From a hitting perspective, they've logged only a .166 ISO mark, which is a bit deeper in the pack than many would expect to find them.
Against Chad Kuhl in Coors, that number is bound to go up. The Phillies sport one of the best implied team totals on the day, and the reason is that Kuhl's career marks against lefties are atrocious. He's allowed a staggering .486 slugging percentage and 1.52 home runs per nine (HR/9) against left-handed bats.
Spend up for Harper, who laps the field in our hitter projections.
Ryan McMahon, 2B/3B, Colorado Rockies ($3,900)
When a game features an over/under total of a whopping 11.0 runs, it makes you take notice. And while we highlighted the Phillies above, the Colorado Rockies ain't a set of slouches, either.
Ryan McMahon and team will face Aaron Nola. While the Phillies righty has had great strikeout numbers, the long ball has really hurt him. Since the start of the 2021 season, Nola has allowed 1.51 HR/9 to opposing-handed hitters, including a 35.6% hard-hit rate.
Enter McMahon, who owns a career .878 OPS in Denver against right-handed pitching. I think there's a pile of runs tonight, and McMahon could be at the centerpiece of the offensive explosion.
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.