This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
Wednesday provides a full day of baseball, but the evening is a little lighter. There are eight games starting at 6:35 p.m. EDT or later. That is where the DFS focus is, and so that is where my lineup recommendations are focused as well. Let's attack the midweek on a high note.
Pitching
Patrick Sandoval, LAA vs. OAK ($9,200): Sandoval has followed up his breakthrough 2022 campaign, in which he had a 2.91 ERA, with a 3.38 ERA through four starts this season. He actually had an 1.23 ERA through three starts, but he got roughed up versus the Yankees in the Bronx. Well, pitching at home against the Athletics offers a nice chance to rebound. Oakland finished 29th in runs scored last year, and it should be down in the bottom five again in 2023.
Drew Smyly, CHC vs. SD ($8,800): Smyly has really taken to Wrigley Field since joining the Cubs. He had a 2.42 ERA at home in 2022, and to start this season his home ERA is a nigh-pristine 0.72. The Padres will surely pick up the pace offensively, but right now they are just trying to keep the team OBP above .300. It may be a good time to catch San Diego, and Smyly is a hot pitcher at the moment.
Top Targets
You are making your first MLB start. Facing you? None other than Mike Trout ($4,200). That will likely be the situation for Luis Medina on Wednesday. The 23-year-old has made exactly three appearances above the Double-A level. Now he faces a guy with an 1.031 OPS versus righties and an 1.134 OPS at home since 2021. Good luck, Luis. I'm betting on Trout.
You have to be quite the hitter to be batting .280 with a .370 OBP and not be up to your usual level. That's the case with Freddie Freeman ($3,500), who has a career .298/.386/.508 slash line. Roansy Contreras hasn't allowed a home run yet, but he still has a 4.57 ERA. A big part of that? Lefties have hit .371 against him thus far.
Bargain Bats
Right now, Teoscar Hernandez ($2,900) is bringing the power. While he's only batted .244 with his new team in Seattle, he's slugged .478 with six home runs. Taijuan Walker is also with a new team, and he has a 3.80 ERA with a 4.63 FIP. I wanted a righty, even though Walker is right-handed, because since 2021 lefties have only hit .211 against Walker, which righties have hit .245.
Mark Canha ($2,800) has an acumen for getting on base. Over the last five seasons he has a .373 OBP, and he's chipped in two homers and two stolen bases this year. MacKenzie Gore doesn't allow a lot of home runs, but he's walked 5.04 batters per nine innings in his career, and last season righties hit .263 against the young southpaw. Canha, a righty, seems like he can take advantage of a pitcher who lets a lot of guys get on base.
Stacks to Consider
Giants vs. Cardinals (Steven Matz): Thairo Estrada ($3,600), J.D. Davis ($3,000), Wilmer Flores ($2,800)
Matz has a career 4.36 ERA, but since joining the Cardinals last year he's posted an ERA of 5.66. He's been batted around in general, which is not surprising after he let righties hit .268 against him in 2022. This year, though, the southpaw hurler has allowed a .347 average to right-handed batters. Thus, I am stacking three righties from the Giants.
In his first full MLB season last year, Estrada had 14 homers and 21 stolen bases. This year he's been ever better, having slashed .310/.362/.494 with four home runs and six swiped bags. Davis, like Matz a former Met, is enjoying his first full campaign with the Giants. He's slashed .292/.342/.528 with five homers. While he hasn't shown this much power since before the pandemic, he did have 22 homers in 2019. Flores, yet another former Met, should draw into the lineup with a lefty on the mound, and he's coming off a season where he set personal highs with 19 homers and 28 doubles. Additionally, since 2021 he has a .791 OPS in San Francisco.
Cubs vs. Padres (Michael Wacha): Patrick Wisdom ($4,300), Nico Hoerner ($3,700), Ian Happ ($3,300)
Granted, Wacha has a 4.35 FIP compared to his 7.08 ERA. However, this is shaping up to be his sixth season in a row with a FIP over 4.00, and over the last five seasons he went from a guy who never allowed home runs to a guy who allows them at a pretty heavy clip. Righties have hit .280 against Wacha since 2021, so I have two right-handed hitters in this stack.
Wisdom is all about swinging for the fences. He has at least 25 homers in each of his last two seasons and already has nine this year. Righties hit Wacha, and Wacha allows homers, so if you do the math, it bodes well for Wisdom. Hoerner, a career .285 hitter, has posted a .347 average in 2023. He also has nine steals after swiping 20 last season, making him one of the faces of the uptick in stolen bases. I was going to end with Cody Bellinger to get a lefty in the mix just in case, but he's on paternity leave so congrats. Instead, I'll go with the switch-hitting Happ. Since 2021 he has an .804 OPS versus righties, plus an .821 OPS at home.
