FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks and Helper: Tuesday 7/2/24

Our daily fantasy helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and give you a starting point when you're building lineups.

Be sure to incorporate our MLB DFS projections -- which are powered by numberFire -- into your research process. numberFire also has the latest starting lineups and weather as well as heat maps to help you find the best matchups.

Let's check out the top options on today's main slate.

Note: All MLB odds come from FanDuel Sportsbook. All stats come from FanGraphs and Baseball Savant unless noted otherwise.

MLB DFS Picks

Pitchers to Target

Grayson Rodriguez, Orioles ($10,200)

It's a really good pitching slate today, one where there are several high-end arms you can make a case for. There are eight pitchers salaried at $9,000 or higher, including Tarik Skubal ($11,000), Dylan Cease ($10,200) and Luis Gil ($9,500).

My favorite high-salary arm today -- by a good bit -- is Grayson Rodriguez ($10,200).

Rodriguez is on the road against the Seattle Mariners, and it's about as good of a matchup as there is. Seattle sits 23rd in wOBA versus right-handers (.297) while sporting the highest strikeout rate in the split (28.4%). The Mariners' 3.72 implied total is the slate's fourth-lowest.

The owner of a 3.61 SIERA and 25.7% strikeout rate, Rodriguez has posted at least 32 FanDuel points in eight of his last nine starts. The date with Seattle gives him huge upside and a high floor. He checks all the boxes tonight.

Jose Soriano, Angels ($8,200)

On one hand, it's a scary night to roll the dice on a value pitcher because there are bound to be some big pitching scores with so many top-level arms on the slate.

On the other hand, it's a Coors slate, and the high-salary offenses of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers carry lofty implied totals, so it's a good night to try to make it work with a value hurler.

Decisions.

Jose Soriano ($8,200) intrigues me in a friendly matchup with the Oakland Athletics. The A's 27th in wOBA against righties (.290), and Soriano has solid numbers this season, pitching to a 3.97 SIERA, 20.3% K rate and 10.2% swinging-strike rate.

One word of warning: this is Soriano's first start off the injured list, so he may not be full go from a workload perspective.

Mitch Spence, Athletics ($7,100)

If you like the idea of using a low-salary pitcher but can't talk yourself into Soriano, how about Mitch Spence ($7,100) at an even lower salary on the other side of that game?

Spence has quietly been good for Oakland, generating a 3.79 SIERA, 20.0% strikeout rate and 10.9% swinging-strike rate across his first 68 1/3 MLB frames.

The Los Angeles Angels are a good enough matchup. Versus righties, the Halos are showing the 12th-highest strikeout rate (23.4%) and 18th-highest wOBA (.303). Spence just permitted six earned runs over 5 1/3 innings against the Angels last time out, but he also fanned six in that outing.

Stacks to Target

Colorado Rockies and Milwaukee Brewers

The night's top two implied totals -- and the only two implied totals above 5.00 -- belong to the two Coors teams, the Colorado Rockies (5.61) and Milwaukee Brewers (5.89).

The Brew Crew will see Ryan Feltner. The fourth-year right-hander has decent numbers overall this season (4.05 SIERA), but in his career, he's given up a .364 wOBA at Coors.

Milwaukee is throwing Dallas Keuchel. In 102 1/3 MLB innings since the start of 2022, Keuchel has registered a lowly 14.9% strikeout rate with a 4.97 SIERA and 1.41 homers per nine.

I'm not going to list all of the viable bats from each side, but it's pretty much everyone. You'll want pieces of Coors today.

Atlanta Braves

Due to injuries, the Atlanta Braves aren't as fun to stack as they were earlier this season. But they still have some high-upside hitters and may fly under the radar today against Hayden Birdsong.

Birdsong is a rookie right-hander with only one MLB start under his belt. In addition to that, he logged all of nine innings above Double-A before getting the call. He's got a tall task in front of him today in Atlanta against a Braves squad that is -120 to go over 4.5 runs.

Jarred Kelenic ($3,000), Ozzie Albies ($3,500), Matt Olson ($3,200), Austin Riley ($3,600) and Marcell Ozuna ($4,100) are the main bats I'll be building my Atlanta stacks around. Kelenic will likely hit leadoff while Olson is easy to like at his salary in a matchup with a meh righty. Ozuna has the game's shortest odds to hit a home run (+300).

Others to Consider

New York Yankees (4.91 implied total) -- At home versus Graham Ashcraft. Ashcraft has a lowly 16.8% K rate for his career but usually does a decent job keeping the ball on the ground.
Los Angeles Dodgers (4.86) -- L.A. is stackable most every night. Taking on Ryne Nelson (4.68 SIERA and 15.0% strikeout rate). Nelson blanked the Dodgers over five innings earlier this year. That's unlikely to happen again.

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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.