FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Sunday 9/24/23

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.

Pitchers

Freddy Peralta ($10,800)

At his third highest salary this season, Milwaukee's right-hander will have his second opportunity this season to pitch against a Miami Marlins' lineup with a .313 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and a 24.1% K-rate.

Through his largest sample size as a MLB starter, Peralta has accounted for his second best season during his six year career, accounting for a strong 3.43 expected Fielding Independent Pitching rating (xFIP), a 14.4% swinging strike percentage, and seven or more strikeouts in 51% of his 27 starts this season.

In a juicy matchup versus six Miami batters with K-rates between 22.8% and 29.4%, Peralta has an easy path towards repeating his dominant performance in their last meeting (53.0 FanDuel points in 6.1 innings) and achieving Sunday's second highest prediction at 36.2 expected FanDuel points.

Joe Ryan ($10,200)

Even at his highest salary during September, Minnesota's third year starter has a great spot versus a watered down Los Angeles Angels' team with an attackable .310 wOBA and a 22.1% K-rate including six projected batters with strikeout percentages over 22.9 %.

While his matchup clearly outshines his recent form (4.54 xFIP in last 28.2 innings), Ryan has still produced a 12.4% swinging strike rate and seven strikeouts in three of his last six starts.

Hunter Brown ($9,500)

Houston's 24-year old is another viable option to consider with a 3.49 xFIP and an above average 27.0% K-rate standing at his median salary point this month.

Although Brown has struggled in his most recent eight starts when examining his 4.07 xFIP and 9.0% walk rate through 40.1 innings, the Astros' rookie still ranks first overall with a 36.6 FanDuel point projection and second in strikeouts with a 6.43 mark against a Kansas City Royals' offense with five hitters with K-rates ranging from 22.5% to 32.8%.

Stacks

Cincinnati Reds

In a great spot versus Quinn Priester, the Reds are Sunday's top projected offense with a 5.88 expected run total against a rookie right-hander with horrid splits versus the opposing side of the plate (.469 wOBA / 6.29 xFIP) and a troubling 5.15 xFIP as a starter.

With his main weaknesses in mind, optimal Cincinnati stacks can attack Priester's profile by grouping their top lefty hitters including Jake Fraley (.330 expected wOBA, .263 expected average), Joey Votto (11.1% barrel rate), Elly De La Cruz (7.5% barrel rate), and Will Benson (11.2% barrel rate).

Houston Astros

Despite last night's disappointing two run performance, the Astros are expected to bounce back in a big way with Sunday's second highest expected run total (5.51) versus Steven Cruz.

While Cruz's MLB sample size is limited to 8.2 innings, his skill based metrics consistently display wild control (13.9% walk rate in AAA / 14.6% in AA) and and a glaring inability to get outs versus left-handed hitters (7.55 xFIP) which are two major weaknesses versus a potent Houston lineup featuring Yordan Alvarez (.434 expected wOBA, 17.6% barrel rate), Kyle Tucker (.389 expected wOBA, 10.6% barrel rate), Alex Bregman (.349 expected wOBA, .263 expected average), Jose Altuve (.338 expected wOBA, 8.6% barrel rate), and Chas McCormick (.353 expected wOBA, 11.4% barrel rate).

Atlanta Braves

After scoring 33 runs in their last four games, Atlanta's elite offense will have another chance to tee off against Washington's rookie Jackson Rutledge and his below average expected metrics pitching this season (6.21 xFIP in MLB / 6.35 xFIP in AAA) due to his lack of command (13.3% walk rate in 50.2 AAA innings) and inability to keep the ball in the yard (2.70 home runs per nine innings).

Ideal Atlanta combinations should group together their top power bats from the left side to attack Rutledge's ugly 7.57 xFIP in this split with a main focus on Matt Olson (.396 expected wOBA, 16.7% barrel rate), Michael Harris II (.357 expected wOBA, 10.2% barrel rate), Ozzie Albies (.342 expected wOBA, 8.7% barrel rate), and Eddie Rosario (.324 expected wOBA, 9.8% barrel rate).

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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.