4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 8/4/17
Chris Young, OF, Boston Red Sox
FanDuel Price: $2,400
Chris Young has been a lefty masher throughout his career, but let's face it -- he hasn't been very good against them this year. Across 78 plate appearances against southpaws, he has just a 27.6% hard-hit rate and .299 wOBA. Still, it's a small sample size, and Young has a career .363 career wOBA versus lefties, so it's fair to expect some positive regression.
The trouble is, opposing pitcher Carlos Rodon isn't some schlep. Yes, we saw the Boston Red Sox put up nine runs last night. Yes, they have a 5.47 implied team total. And yes, Rodon has a 5.23 ERA and 1.65 WHIP. I get it.
But across six starts in 2017, Rodon has a 4.45 SIERA, 28.4% strikeout rate, and 29.6% hard-hit rate. He's also faced a murderers' row of opponents, including the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies (at Coors), and the Dodgers. The 14.2% walk rate is ugly, but overall, this isn't exactly the same thing as Miguel Gonzalez. In 28 starts last year, Rodon had a respectable 3.91 SIERA and 23.5% strikeout rate.
Young might turn it around at some point, but this doesn't look like the best spot to test out that theory, particularly with him batting seventh tonight.
