5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 8/13/18
Yandy Diaz, 3B, Cleveland Indians
Price: $2,000
The Cleveland Indians called up Yandy Diaz on Sunday, and he is expected to get a few starts as the designated hitter with Edwin Encarnacion (hand) landing on the disabled list.
Cleveland's offense is one to target tonight as they boast a top-three implied total against Cincinnati Reds righty Homer Bailey. Bailey's 4.99 SIERA immediately creates some appeal for Diaz as a minimum-salary way to get exposure to the group.
Even separated from that situation, Diaz offers some interesting fantasy upside on his own. He struggled to the tune of a .306 wOBA in a limited 49-game sample in the Majors last year, but his 32.8% hard-hit rate and 16.4% soft-hit rate did show some promise. Thanks to some especially good contact to kick off 2018, his career average hard-hit rate is up to 36.4% with a 14.3% soft-hit rate.
He has also been a proven producer at the minor league level over his three Triple-A seasons, posting a .365 wOBA in 2018, a .414 wOBA in 2017 and a .386 wOBA in 2016. His strong contact is an indicator that we could see that translation start to carry over to big league production soon, and tonight's matchup is a great spot for that to happen.
Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
