This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
Sunday's FanDuel slate is quite a large one, featuring 13 contests. Only the canceled Yankees-Mets game and the evening Phillies-Braves game are excluded. No game looks particularly threatened by rain as of writing, so we should be set for a very busy set of games that offer plenty of avenues to differentiate your team in larger contests.
Pitchers
Carlos Carrasco, CLE vs. DET ($9,300): Carrasco faces the friendliest matchup among the day's top-tier pitchers, as the Tigers have scored one or fewer runs in three of their last four contests. The veteran righty has seen his walk rate jump from 4.7 percent last season to 12.3 this year, but just about everything else in his stat line looks quite promising. Carrasco is also striking out a career-high 30.7 percent of opposing hitters, helping him to a 3.71 ERA despite control issues.
Corbin Burnes, MIL at PIT ($7,300): Heading into Saturday's games, the Pirates were hitting .219/.275/.336 as a team - good for a league-worst 68 wRC+. Far lesser pitchers than Burnes would be quite interesting against them given their performance thus far. His statline isn't perfect this season, as he's walked 16.1 percent of opposing batters. But Burnes has made up for that by striking out 33.3 percent, helping him to a 3.00 ERA and a 3.32 FIP. He's made three of his five appearances thus far out of the bullpen, though there shouldn't be many concerns about his ability to pitch deep into the game in this one as he threw 83 pitches during his previous outing.
Mike Minor, TEX at SEA ($6,900): Minor hasn't been very good this season, struggling to a 6.94 ERA through his first five starts. But a date with the Mariners could be exactly what he needs to get back on track, as they rank 26th in the league with an 85 wRC+ through Friday's games. To be fair to Minor, that ERA isn't necessarily the fairest reflection of how he's pitched, as a 54.4 percent strand rate is undoubtedly part of the issue while his .324 BABIP is also slightly high. And his 23.6 percent strikeout rate and 8.5 percent walk rate are both within a percentage point of his marks from last season.
Tarik Skubal, DET at CLE ($5,500): Skubal's big-league debut couldn't have gone much worse, as he allowed four runs on seven hits in two innings while striking out just a single batter Tuesday against the White Sox. Still, if you're looking to select a cheap flyer for your pitcher slot, he looks to offer the most upside. A matchup against a Cleveland lineup that produced a league-third-worst 77 wRC+ through Friday's games certainly helps. The main reason to be interested in the young lefty is his absurd 48.2 percent strikeout rate in nine Double-A starts last season, the highest level he'd pitched at prior to Tuesday. While Skubal wasn't able to have anywhere near the same success against major-league hitters, it was just one start and you can't usually find anywhere near that sort of strikeout upside for this sort of salary.
Top Targets
Juan Soto, WAS vs. MIA ($4,700): Soto has played just 14 games this season after missing the early part of the year due to a positive COVID-19 test. While that's of course an even smaller sample than most of the already small samples recorded by the rest of the league, it's hard to overstate how dominant he's been thus far by hitting .392/.483/.882 with seven homers. Soto is reaching new heights with his already excellent control of the zone, walking eight times to go with just seven strikeouts. He'll get the easiest matchup among the slate's top bats by facing young Marlins' righty Humberto Mejia and should be very much worth paying up for.
Franmil Reyes, CLE vs. DET ($3,300): While Tarik Skubal was mentioned above as a potential cheap option with strikeout upside, he also has quite a lot of downside and that means Cleveland's top hitters should be very much on the table. Reyes could be the best of the bunch, given how he's been swinging the bat lately. He struggled to a .438 OPS through his first 12 games of the year, but has been on fire since hitting .440 with five homers in his last 14.
Bargain Bats
Danny Santana, TEX at SEA ($2,700): Santana struggled early in the season, grabbing just one hit over his first 17 at-bats, though that was likely due to the forearm strain that eventually caused him to miss nearly three weeks. He's since gone on to grab a hit in six of his seven games since returning to the lineup, including homering for the first time Friday. While Santana's strong 2019 campaign of .283 with 28 homers and 21 steals remains an outlier, he doesn't have to repeat those numbers to justify his salary. He should have a fairly easy matchup Sunday against Justin Dunn, who has struggled with a 7.80 ERA and a 9:11 K:BB in his first four starts.
Jonathan Villar, MIA at WAS ($2,800): Villar doesn't need to do much with the bat to be a valuable fantasy asset, as he stole his league-leading seventh base of the season Saturday. His bat has been perfectly adequate, as he carries a .279/.330/.395 slash line and an exactly average 100 wRC+. Villar's slugging percentage is down noticeably from his .453 mark last season, though that's not unexpected given his move from Baltimore to Miami. He could show more pop Sunday against Anibal Sanchez, who has allowed 2.5 HR/9 this season en route to an 8.50 ERA.
Stacks to Consider
Blue Jays vs. Josh Fleming: Teoscar Hernandez ($3,200), Randal Grichuk ($2,900), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($2,800)
The Rays tend to know what they're doing when it comes to pitchers, but there's still little reason to be intimidated by Fleming ahead of his big-league debut. He threw 148.2 innings in the upper minors last season, just 21 of which came at the Triple-A level. Across Double-A and Triple-A, his low 4.4 percent walk rate helped him to a 3.57 ERA but his 17.7 percent strikeout rate was rather unimpressive and casts doubt on his ability to put away big-league hitters. The stack listed here features what should be the first three righties in the order against the young lefty.
Red Sox vs. Wade LeBlanc: J.D. Martinez ($3,600), Xander Bogaerts ($3,600), Kevin Pillar ($2,700)
Expectations couldn't have been particularly high for the 36-year-old lefty heading into this season coming off a year in which he posted a 5.71 ERA, but it's safe to say he's been a disappointment. It's hard to put a positive spin on a 7.89 ERA, and the veteran southpaw's supporting stats hardly paint a much more optimistic picture. LeBlanc's 36.4 percent groundball rate is quite low, though his 13.1 percent strikeout rate is considerably worse. Red Sox hitters should have little trouble with him in hitter-friendly Camden Yards. The three hitters listed here should be Boston's top three righties in this one.
