DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Wednesday 8/29/18
Every day is unique for daily fantasy baseball, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Although we can’t simply plug and play our favorite studs day in and day out, each slate presents us with a chance for a new gem to vault us up the leaderboards.
Through the use of numberFire’s tools, we can better identify the players primed to succeed each day, making the process of filling out a lineup just that much easier. In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.
Which names stand out for today on the DraftKings main slate? Let’s check it out, starting with the pitchers.
Pitchers to Target
High-Priced Pitcher
Freddy Peralta ($9,700 on DraftKings): Freddy Peralta doesn't have the sexiest numbers across the board, but he easily leads the slate with a 30.4 percent strikeout rate -- more than four percentage points higher than the next-best pitcher. Additionally, he also has a very solid 1.13 WHIP and 17.1 percent line-drive rate. However, it is his 4.30 xFIP that isn't great ,and his 41.3 percent hard-hit rate and 50.0 percent fly-ball rate are ugly. He's got a modest matchup against the Cincinnati Reds, but his strikeout ability gives him a solid ceiling.
Zack Godley ($8,600): The pitching on this slate is full of pitchers with flaws, so we have to pick the best of what is there. Zack Godley has a solid 24.0 percent strkeout rate and 3.82 xFIP, but his 1.45 WHIP, 37.7 percent hard-hit rate and 22.5 percent line-drive rate leave a lot to be desired. His matchup against the San Francisco Giants is solid given that they strike out at a 23.7 percent clip. Additionally, the Giants have an 88 wRC+, which is 25th, and a .298 team weighted on-base average (wOBA), which is 27th. Godley is safe enough in this matchup.
Low-Priced Pitchers
Mike Minor ($7,500): Earlier in the season, I would target Mike Minor with hitters because his numbers were quite poor. While some of them still aren't great, he's definitely pitching a bit better. He has a lowly 19.8 percent strikeout rate but a very solid 1.12 WHIP. He has tallied at least 24 DraftKings points in 3 of his last 4 games, and that includes solid games against both the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics -- two of the better teams against left-handed pitching. The Los Angeles Dodgers are solid against lefties, and their 22.1 percent strikeout rate isn't worth targeting specifically, but it should be enough for Minor to get out without too big of a blemish.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
David Peralta ($4,800): David Peralta crushes right-handed pitching. Of those hitters with at least 50 plate appearances against righties, Peralta has the seventh-best wOBA (.409) and brings with it a solid .264 isolated power (ISO). He's got a matchup against the Giants' Dereck Rodriguez, who definitely has some ugly numbers in his statline. While his 1.00 WHIP is elite and his 4.07 xFIP is solid, he has an abysmal 41.7 percent hard-hit rate and a slate-worst 24.9 percent line-drive rate. And that spells trouble against Peralta.
Miguel Andujar ($4,800): Here is a player that has been absolutely dominant over his last 10 games. Miguel Andujar has been crushing the ball, with a .341 AVG and a .953 OPS. Additionally, he has 3 home runs and 14 RBI over that stretch. He does more damage against right-handed pitching, as indicated by a .370 wOBA and .229 ISO. Taking on Reynaldo Lopez is a great matchup, as Lopez has a 1.38 WHIP, 5.50 xFIP and an abysmal 46.2 percent fly-ball rate to go with his 193 foot average batted-ball distance.
Travis Shaw ($4,500): He has been struggling lately, but this is a great game for Travis Shaw to bounce back. Not only is he facing a right-handed pitcher -- a split in which he has an elite .372 wOBA and .285 ISO -- but that pitcher is the Reds' Matt Harvey. Harvey has certainly been solid for stretches this season, but some underlying numbers are still pretty bad. He has a 4.41 xFIP and his 38.7 percent hard-hit rate combined with a 37.2 percent fly-ball have led to a slate-worst 14.2 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate.
Value Hitters
Miguel Sano ($4,200): Miguel Sano has always been a "home run or bust" kind of hitter, and that has continued again this season, though overall he has definitely struggled. He does have some success against right-handed pitching, with a modest .315 wOBA and .220 ISO. Those numbers don't really stand out, but he has a great matchup against the Cleveland Indians' Adam Plutko. In 53 innings this season, Plutko has a horrific 5.39 xFIP with a 54.3 percent fly-ball rate, 89.1 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and a 204 foot average batted-ball distance, all of which have contributed to his 13.6 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate.
Matt Kemp ($4,200): I also recommended Minor, but on the inverse, there are reasons to target him with the Los Angeles Dodgers, too. He struggles to generate strikeouts, and his 4.52 xFIP is among the worst on the slate. He also has a 38.7 percent hard-hit rate, 44.4 percent fly-ball rate and 194 foot average batted-ball distance, which have all contributed to a less-than-stellar 11.7 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. Matt Kemp has some solid numbers against lefties, with a .364 wOBA and .250 ISO, so his power could definitely be showcased tonight.
Corey Dickerson ($3,700): Dickerson doesn't quite have the power he used to, but his average has been great. He's hitting for a .295 AVG with just 11 home runs, but he has still continued his success against righties. He has a solid .343 wOBA and a modest .193 ISO, and will have a matchup this evening against the St. Louis Cardinals' Miles Mikolas. Mikolas doesn't really have much success with strikeouts, getting them at just a 17.1 percent clip, and instead relies on his 50.5 percent groundball rate. However, with a 22.1 percent line-drive rate he could get into trouble quick.
Ryan Sheppard is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ryan Sheppard also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username donkshow_. 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.
