MLB

5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 8/22/19

Jt Kohout  —  @@_JamesKohout_ Aug 22nd, 2019
A red-hot Tim Anderson faces a struggling Ariel Jurado tonight, making him one of the best values of tonight's slate.

With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.

An 0-for-4 dud from a chalky high-priced slugger is a lot more common than a total dud from a top-priced NBA player or even than a stinker from a top quarterback or running back.

That means that it's not uncommon for value plays to end up doing the heavy lifting in carrying your lineup. The fact that they can be the difference between a good and a great lineup isn't much different than other sports, but value plays being able to make up for a whiff on a high-priced play completely is somewhat unique.

Let's get right into it and take a look at the top value options on today's slate.

Tim Anderson, SS, Chicago White Sox ($3,100)

This one is mostly about the matchup, but Tim Anderson has also been far better against right-handed pitching than left-handed pitching. Anderson has a .882 OPS with 28 extra base hits in 286 plate appearances against righties on the season. He's also been hitting very well lately. Over his last 86 plate appearances, Anderson is hitting .410 with a 1.021 OPS

Tonight, Anderson faces Texas Rangers pitcher Ariel Jurado. After a luck-based start to the season, Jurado's numbers have come crashing down in his past two starts. In those two starts, he's given up 10 earned runs and 3 home runs in 5 ⅔ innings, while also allowing 18 hits and 3 walks.

Anderson will get to benefit from tonight’s matchup, as Jurado is just a bad starting pitcher who won’t be able to take advantage of Anderson’s biggest weakness -- strikeouts -- with just 72 strikeouts in 98 ⅔ innings this season.

Nick Solak, 2B, Texas Rangers ($2,400)

Probably my favorite bargain-bin play of the night, Nick Solak was recently called up from the minors, and in his first 11 plate appearances has a 1.235 OPS and a home run. But him being my favorite value has more to do with his great minor-league numbers against left-handed pitching.

In 175 plate appearances in the minors against lefties, Solak slashed .312/.376/.506 with 16 extra base hits, and in the majors he’s 3-for-5 so far with two doubles against left-handed pitching.

Solak will be in the middle of the order in a great matchup against Chicago White Sox starter Ross Detwiler. In 41 ⅓ innings this season, Detwiler has a 6.10 ERA, 7.32 FIP and a 27:12 Strikeout to walk ratio (K:BB). Right-handed hitters are currently slashing .341/.399/.635 with 10 home runs in 138 plate appearances against Detwiler, too.

Solak should be able to take advantage of Detwiler’s struggles tonight.

Miles Mikolas, SP, St. Louis Cardinals ($6,800)

Similar to Cole Hamels earlier this week, Miles Mikolas is a good starting pitcher being overly priced down due to recent struggles despite being in a great matchup.

Mikolas hasn’t been good in either of his past two starts, but prior to those, Mikolas had been on a nine-start stretch in which he had a 2.67 ERA with a 40:7 K:BB ratio.

Tonight, Mikolas faces the Colorado Rockies. Away from Coors Field, the Rockies are the second-best matchup in all of baseball. The Rockies rank 29th in team-wide road wRC+ and wOBA, in front of just the Marlins, and they represent a big opportunity for Mikolas to get back track tonight.

Howie Kendrick, 1B, Washington Nationals ($2,700)

This is one where you’ll have to check to make sure Howie Kendrick is playing tonight because Dave Martinez can get random with his lineups, but Kendrick has been starting most nights against lefties recently.

This season against left-handed pitching, Kendrick has been very good. His .333/.375/.533 slash line in 96 plate appearances shows that, as does his 47.3% hard-contact rate. If he’s in the lineup against Pittsburgh Pirates starter Steven Brault, Kendrick’s a tremendous value tonight at just $2,700 dollars.

Hanser Alberto, 2B, Baltimore Orioles ($3,000)

It’s gone very under the radar, but Hanser Alberto against left-handed pitching has been one of the more dominant platoon splits in all of baseball. In 176 plate appearances against left-handed pitching, Alberto is slashing .404/.420/.544 with four of his nine home runs this season.

Alberto has also been red hot lately. Over his last 105 plate appearances, Alberto has a .982 OPS and just an 8.6% strikeout rate. He makes a ton of contact, and against lefties, it’s been consistently good contact, as shown by his low 16.1% soft-hit rate.

Tonight, Alberto will face off against Ryan Yarbrough. Yarbrough has been great lately, but with Alberto hitting leadoff as he does against left-handed pitching, I like the value with his numbers against left-handed pitching.

James Kohout is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, James Kohout also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username jt2115. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.