5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitting Studs for 4/18/16
In daily fantasy baseball, it’s important to select the correct top-priced hitters.
In any given game, an elite batter can go 0-for-4 and crush your lineup's upside. On the other hand, high-priced batters can return massive upside if they cash in on their matchup and potential.
Luckily for us, some top-priced bats have excellent matchups today.
Let’s take a look at the best high-priced batters for today’s main slate.
Carlos Gonzalez, OF, Colorado Rockies
FanDuel Price: $4,700
It may feel weird to roster Carlos Gonzalez away from Coors Field, but the matchup is too good to avoid tonight.
In previous versions of this columns, we’ve mentioned Gonzalez’s superhuman numbers versus right-handed pitching. In case you’ve forgotten, he owned a .332 ISO and .415 wOBA last season in 440 plate appearances.
Yes, most of that damage was done in Colorado, but he was still a fantastic option at sea level. On the road versus righties last season, those numbers dropped to an elite-for-mortals .247 ISO and .348 wOBA.
We can roster Gonzalez at an ownership discount tonight because he’s not playing at home, and when you add in his opponent Dan Straily’s .214 ISO versus lefties in 2015, we have the making of a top-tier tournament option.
Michael Conforto, OF, New York Mets
FanDuel Price: $2,700
The Mets have finally understood the greatness of Michael Conforto’s bat, as he’s finally hit in the top third of the lineup over the last couple of games.
Conforto has mashed right-handed pitching thus far in his short Major League career, with a .256 ISO in 179 plate appearances last season. For reference, that ISO versus righties is higher than those of his teammates Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson, and Neil Walker.
Conforto’s opponent tonight is Jerad Eickhoff. Eickhoff allowed a .161 ISO to left-handed batters in AA in 2014, and he couldn’t contain them at all in a small sample last season -- they posted a .235 ISO versus him in the Majors.
While impressive so far this season, he still hasn’t mastered left-handed hitters. He’s surrendered a .311 wOBA to them, compared to just .171 for right-handed batters.
Eickhoff had a monstrous 60-point outing on FanDuel in his last start, and at still just $7,100, he will be a popular selection in GPPs tonight. When you have low-owned hitters explode versus a chalk pitcher, you rocket up GPP leaderboards.
Similar to how stacking the Mets versus ace pitcher Corey Kluber was profitable on Sunday, the splits suggest it is a prudent move to stack them again tonight with Conforto being the best option.
Miguel Sano, OF, Minnesota Twins
FanDuel Price: $2,900
What? How is Miguel Sano a Stud of the Day? He has zero home runs this season and has struck out 40.5 percent of the time!
But if there were ever a remedy for a power draught, it would come tonight in the form of a home matchup versus Chase Anderson.
Last season, Anderson only struck out right-handed batters 15.5 percent of the time while allowing a .171 ISO.
After last year’s impressive reverse splits for Sano, we should expect the power to rebound versus right-handed pitching soon:
| Pitcher Hand | PA | ISO | wOBA | HR | Fly Ball % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left-Handed Pitching | 91 | .235 | .379 | 4 | 31.9 |
| Right-Handed Pitching | 244 | .273 | .397 | 14 | 46.1 |
Let’s plant an early flag for the Twitter #HRoftheDay with Miguel Sano.
Chris Carter, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers
FanDuel Price: $2,900
From the start of 2014 to the end of last season, Chris Carter averaged a home run every 16.9 plate appearances. Carter is right on pace in the home run department in the early going this season, as he’s hit a home run every 14.7 plate appearances.
That’s what Carter does. He hits home runs, and his batting profile backs that up -- he, amazingly, hit a fly ball on 51 percent or more of his at-bats versus both righties and lefties last season.
However versus righties, his ISO made a slight jump to .237, and he pulled the ball slightly more at 41 percent.
Meanwhile, his opponent tonight, Phil Hughes, couldn’t keep the ball in the park to any batters last season. He allowed 29 homers, 15 of which came from the right side of the plate.
Righties tallied a fly ball rate of 44.5 percent off of Hughes, which bodes well for Carter and his 2015 home run-to-fly ball rate of 21.1 percent versus right-handed pitching.
Todd Frazier, 3B, Chicago White Sox
FanDuel Price: $3,700
Todd Frazier hasn’t started 2016 so hot. He currently owns his worst average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walk rate, strikeout rate, ISO and wOBA in three seasons.
Alas, the dangers of working with small samples. Frazier also owns a miserable .178 BABIP, meaning he’s been rather unlucky on his balls in play thus far.
Furthermore, he’s only had two plate appearances versus left-handed pitching this season. Versus southpaws last season, he posted a massive .346 ISO, which was actually higher than renowned lefty-killer Josh Donaldson.
Hector Santiago comes to town tonight with his 26 home runs allowed versus righties in 2015. Likely contributing to that high home run total was the 55.8 fly ball percentage and 35.2 hard hit rate off right-handed bats against Santiago.
Expect Frazier’s three year-low numbers to look a little better when you check tomorrow morning.
