FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Monday 9/4/23

Our daily fantasy 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 numberFire's great tools into your research process, including daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, and batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups.

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate, which starts at 2:10 p.m. ET.

Pitching Breakdown

It's just a seven-game main slate today, but we have four quality pitching options in Cole Ragans ($9,000), Merrill Kelly ($10,300), Justin Steele ($10,600) and Jose Berrios ($10,100).

For me, Kelly is the SP1.

The matchup is definitely there as he's at home against the Colorado Rockies. Colorado is dead last in road wOBA (.284), and their 3.36 implied total is a number we can feel good about. For the year, Kelly has a 25.5% strikeout rate and 4.09 SIERA. He has the stuff to take advantage of the soft matchup.

Factoring in salary, Ragans has an SP1 case, but a big knock on him today is that it's basically perfect hitting weather in Kansas City.

Ragans' emergence has been wild, and he's finally experienced a much-deserved salary bump. Despite that, you can argue he's still under-salaried. He's pitching like an elite-level ace right now, recording a 2.93 SIERA, 33.9% strikeout rate and 15.0% swinging-strike rate across 41 2/3 frames with the Kansas City Royals. On top of that, he gets a sweet matchup with the Chicago White Sox, a team whose active roster owns the ninth-highest K rate (23.9%) against lefties with the fifth-worst wOBA (.306) in the split.

Berrios gets the Oakland Athletics, so he has to be on our radar. The A's are showing a slate-worst 3.64 implied total, and their active roster is next to last in wOBA (.297) versus right-handers with the seventh-highest K rate (24.1%) in the split. Berrios can be frustrating, but if he's on, he's capable of a slate-breaking outing.

Steele is taking on the San Francisco Giants, and this is another game with great hitting weather. Outside of that, Steele checks a lot of boxes. The Giants carry the fourth-highest strikeout rate (25.3%) against southpaws, and Steele is flat out dealing in the second half, posting a 3.00 xFIP and 26.2% K rate since the break.

Hitting Breakdown

The slate's top implied total belongs to the Arizona Diamondbacks as they boast a 5.26 clip against Peter Lambert. A righty, Lambert has just a 19.6% strikeout rate. Lefties are hammering him to the tune of a .378 wOBA and 44.8% hard-hit rate while righties have put up a 44.9% hard-hit rate and 50.4% fly-ball rate. We have a lot of flexibility with Arizona stacks.

Corbin Carroll ($4,000) and Ketel Marte ($3,400) will likely be in the top two spots in Arizona's lineup. Carroll has been outstanding with the platoon advantage, registering a .393 wOBA and 40.7% fly-ball rate in the split. Marte has a 39.0% hard-hit rate and .351 wOBA against righties. Christian Walker ($3,600) is a good option if he's able to get back in the lineup while Alek Thomas ($2,200) and Jace Peterson ($2,300) are viable salary-savers.

The Royals' 5.05 implied total is the slate's second-highest. The nice hitting weather in KC is a factor, but this is also a smash spot versus Jesse Scholtens. A rookie righty, Scholtens is having a rough year and has struggled to a 4.96 SIERA and 15.9% strikeout rate. Across a sample of 70 1/3 MLB frames, he's showing reverse-splits, permitting a .376 wOBA and 13.4% K rate to righties.

Bobby Witt Jr. ($4,200) is the standout bat for the Royals. He's totaled 28 jacks with 39 swipes this season and is red-hot in the second half, recording a .397 wOBA with 14 homers over 200 second-half plate appearances. KC has no one else above $3,000, so they're a handy team to stack. Other that Witt, Maikel Garcia ($2,600), Salvador Perez ($2,500) and MJ Melendez ($2,700) interest me the most.

The Toronto Blue Jays (4.82 implied total), Houston Astros (4.75) and Texas Rangers (4.75) are all plenty stackable, too.

Of those three, I side with the Rangers, who are taking on J.P. France, a pitcher with a 4.74 SIERA and 17.6% strikeout rate for the campaign. Corey Seager ($4,500), Adolis Garcia ($3,700) and Marcus Semien ($3,600) are Texas' big three. Nathaniel Lowe ($3,300), Jonah Heim ($2,900) and Robbie Grossman ($2,500) offer some cap relief.

Looking to build some MLB DFS lineups? Check out FanDuel’s daily fantasy baseball lobby to see all the offerings for today’s slates.

Sign up for FanDuel Sportsbook and FanDuel Daily Fantasy today!

The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.