TJ's Top Tournament Takes for MLB DFS on FanDuel - September 27th
TJ Zwarych is one of the top up-and-coming Daily Fantasy Sports players in the world, and recently qualified for FanDuel’s World Fantasy Baseball Championship Live Final in Chicago. Not only is he a long-time RotoGrinders member with multiple 6-figure DFS wins, but he is also the Editor-In-Chief of TV & Film media outlet the Agents of Fandom and host of their podcast. A few times per week, TJ will give his top tournament takes for FanDuel to help you take down tournaments.
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September 27th
My original plan this week was to run articles each day of the week until NFL fired up. Starting with the first article on Monday, however, with yesterday’s gross slate I decided to hold off until today. Thankfully, with limited pitching options and clear chalky offenses, I still managed to cash. Tonight, we have a much more interesting 12-game slate, with plenty of different options to choose from.
Top Tournament Pitchers on FanDuel
We have Robbie Ray chalk night once again, and while he projects as the top option on the slate with his 27.8% strikeout rate, there are plenty of options to pivot away with. Carlos Carrasco is coming in as the second most rostered pitcher tonight, and while I had a lot of interest in him entering the day, it feels pretty easy tonight to play a low-rostered option. Outside of these two and maybe Patrick Sandoval, we won’t have to worry about rostership whatsoever at the pitching position.
Lance Lynn 10.1K – While the Twins have some pesky hitters in the lineup who won’t strike out like Luis Arraez, we’re also filled with a back half of the lineup that is under-manned and strikeout heavy. Minnesota’s lineup features 5 right-handed batters, which Lynn has struck out 31% of on the season. While he will probably give up a few runs, Lynn has one of the highest ceilings on the slate and is coming in significantly less rostered than his peers at similar price tags.
Logan Webb 9.6K – Although Logan Webb doesn’t boast a particularly impressive strikeout rate at 20.3%, the Rockies don’t feature a particularly frightful lineup outside of Coors Field either. Against left-handed pitching and especially at home, I love stacking the Rockies. However, Colorado’s 25% strikeout rate against right-handed pitching in the late-night hammer is one of my favorite targets of the night. Colorado has the worst road record in baseball, and Webb should have an easy enough time picking up the quality start and the win.
Kyle Muller 6K – Risk, meet my friend reward. People may be frightened away by Muller’s limited inning count in his MLB career to date, however, the 5 innings he pitched in his last start were with a whopping 100 pitches. He should be good to go from a pitch count standpoint, and while the risk is high with a young pitcher, so too is the potential upside. Outside of Meneses (who I love as a one-off), there’s not much danger in the Nats lineup, and he allows us to pay up for all of the best bats on the slate.
Top Tournament Stacks on FanDuel
While we typically would search for the sneakiest of stacks for tournaments, if we’re differentiating at pitcher it may not be all that necessary. A handful of teams will feature players rostered in the double digits tonight, and as long as we find a couple of ways to make our lineups unique, I’m not overly worried about any one team I like being too heavily played.
Atlanta Braves – Without a doubt, Atlanta comes in as the top stack tonight. They’ll probably come in a little more heavily rostered than they should, however as long as we differentiate our secondary stacks or our pitchers, they aren’t hitting a level I’m too concerned with. Paolo Espino has been one of the luckier pitchers in baseball this year, and he’s simply getting hit way too hard for the blow-up not to be coming. The Braves boast one of the most powerful lineups in baseball and the batters from both sides of the plate stand out among the top hitters on the slate.
St Louis Cardinals – Adrian Houser has always been pretty competent against right-handed pitching while struggling pretty aggressively against lefties. While the Cards don’t have any incredible standout left-handed bats, they do have quite a few solid ones they can throw in the lineup, led by Lars Nootbar. Houser’s strongest skills against righties are his groundball abilities, however, players like Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt have no issues hitting the ball in the air. The Cardinals’ strong plate skills and Houser’s 43% hard-hit rate should combine for a worthwhile stack in tournaments.
Houston Astros – Another team the masses will be flocking to tonight is the Astros, but how can you not? Zach Davies is a reverse splits pitcher, who can’t strikeout lefties and tries to rely on keeping the ball on the ground against that side of the plate. As Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker are both extreme fly ball hitters and the rest of the Astros lineup is right-handed, this team should have no problem putting up one of the highest scores on the slate. The combination of contact and power throughout the lineup makes this team my top stack of the night, with Altuve, Bregman, Tucker and Alvarez being the standouts, and Trey Mancini being my favorite sneaky option.