3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 7/24/19
Baseball is heating up, and there are plenty of DFS contests to choose from on FanDuel's main slate. While we have plenty of pieces geared towards guys you should target in your DFS contests, it's also important to avoid sub-optimal options who are overpriced and/or in tough spots.
Let's check out three players to consider fading on FanDuel's main slate for July 24.
J.A. Happ, New York Yankees (SP)
at Minnesota Twins
FanDuel Price: $7,500
On a smaller main slate like we see tonight, parsing through the pitching options can become a bit of a chore. Tonight, we have two mega aces in Shane Bieber and Noah Syndergaard, both of whom are priced above $10,000, and then kind of a difficult group to pick through.
Rostering a pitcher like J.A. Happ, who turned in a strong outing last week, could seem to be a bit of an interesting play, especially as the New York Yankees are pegged as slight favorites tonight.
Don't fall into the trap, especially if yesterday's game was any indicator. The veteran southpaw has yet to turn in a quality start in his last six outings, and he has only cracked seven innings pitched one time since May.
Even if we like Happ to win the game, and grab those six FanDuel points for us, his 20.0% strikeout rate is fourth-lowest among main slate starters.
It may get ugly after the top two arms, but don't turn to Happ tonight.
Yoan Moncada, Chicago White Sox (3B)
vs. Miami Marlins
FanDuel Price: $3,800
Sometimes it seems so obvious for switch-hitters like Yoan Moncada, but it may be time for him to give up batting left-handed.
On the season, the slugger has been solid, but he's been far better as a righty (.955 OPS) versus as a lefty (.726). And tonight, against Zac Gallen of the Miami Marlins, Moncada should be batting from the left side.
While it's been a brief major league career, Gallen has absolutely dominated left-handed batters in his career, posting a 30.9% strikeout rate and .270 wOBA.
Moncada has been solid after the break, but this may be a tough spot tonight.
Justin Smoak, Toronto Blue Jays (1B)
vs. Cleveland Indians
FanDuel Price: $2,900
Following a pretty rough first-half of the season, where a juicy batted-ball profile didn't sync up much with actual production, Justin Smoak has found a bit of a hot streak lately. He's now homered in back-to-back games, including the game-winning base hit last night, and he has homered in three of his last seven contests.
But Smoak's run of hot play could hit the skids tonight against the most expensive arm on tonight's DFS slate, Shane Bieber. Part of the huge number of power arms the Cleveland Indians run out to the hill, Bieber has limited lefties to a .214 batting average against and a 32.0% strikeout rate this season.
While the switch-hitting Smoak has been better from this side of the dish, the strong numbers Bieber has put up in this slate support his 4.01 implied allowed run total, which is the second-lowest mark among starters. Peep some of the other options available at the C/1B slot.
Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. 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.
