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 can be the secret sauce to taking down a tournament. That could be a low-salaried pitcher piling up strikeouts or a low-salaried hitter swatting a long ball.
Which budget options stand out today on FanDuel?
Gary Sanchez, C, Twins ($2,500)
After yesterday's surprising pitcher's duel at Target Field, the Twins are positioned with another lofty implied team total (5.31) today against the Rockies.
Colorado is sending German Marquez to the hill, and it's just not the former All-Star's best season. Most of Marquez's peripherals indicate his 6.16 ERA is unlucky, but he's ultimately coughing up 1.73 home runs per nine innings with a 45.8% hard-hit rate allowed.
That's terrifying against Minnesota, who leads the league as a team in wRC+ against right-handed pitching since May 15th (126).
Outside of Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa, the rest of the Twins' lineup remains platoon-heavy and lower-salaried in DFS. Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff, and Gio Urshela could all work in the middle of this order as well, but Gary Sanchez is a great pick against the fastball-heavy Marquez.
With just a .481 OPS against lefties this year, Sanchez has extreme opposite splits. He's lambasted righties for a .772 mark, and he's also posted a .236 isolated power (ISO) against them.
The Rockies' mediocre bullpen (4.40 xFIP since May 15th) won't be much of a reprieve against this vaunted lineup, either.
Kole Calhoun, OF, Rangers ($2,300)
The Rangers have turned around a slow start against right-handed pitching.
Since May 15th, their 107 wRC+ against righties is actually the 13th-best mark in baseball. Their elevated strikeout rate (24.9%) during this time is a bit concerning -- but definitely less so facing Paolo Espino.
The Nationals' righty has just a 19.3% strikeout rate this season. He's also allowed a 42.9% flyball rate, so a lot of balls are in play and in the air. After Espino departs, he'll give way to a bullpen with the fifth-worst xFIP in baseball since May 15th (4.45).
Texas doesn't have as many value bats as earlier this season with Marcus Semien and Corey Seager turning the corner, but Kole Calhoun still is hitting cleanup.
Calhoun is just $2,300, but it's puzzling as to why. He's got at least a 94 wRC+ and a .170 ISO against both lefties and righties, and he's in line for low-quality ones this evening.
Holding a 4.99 implied team total, expect the Rangers to carry some popularity today.
Hunter Dozier, 1B/OF, Royals ($2,300)
The Royals and Athletics square off this weekend in a mildly-anticipated rematch of last weekend's series in Oakland.
With temperatures close to 90 degrees in Kansas City, we might see some more offense in this version. All things considered, the hometown Royals are a pretty sporty value stack on Friday.
They'll draw A's lefty, Cole Irvin. Irvin's 3.14 ERA is masking a much more realistic 4.38 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), and his 16.5% strikeout rate is pedestrian. For a sinkerballer, it's a bit concerning he's allowing a 38.9% flyball rate, too.
Once Irvin departs, he'll be met with Oakland's bullpen, which -- you guessed it -- has also struggled. It has got the second-highest xFIP in MLB since May 15th (4.67).
K.C. has a few decent bats against lefties, and Hunter Dozier is the gem of them all. He's posted a .806 OPS against them this season, but feel free to add any of Andrew Benintendi, Carlos Santana, or Michael Taylor to this stack if you're needing to pinch pennies for an ace.