5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Studs for 4/29/16
In daily fantasy baseball, pitchers are the cornerstone of your lineups. It’s important to spend wisely at the position; if your pitchers fail, your lineup is doomed.
In any slate, it’s also important to select the correct top-priced hitters. Luckily for us, some top bats have excellent matchups today.
Let’s take a look at the FanDuel studs for today’s main slate:
Pitchers
Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians
$11,000 on FanDuel
Kluber is tonight’s top pitching option as he gets an excellent matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies.
While the Phillies just swept the Nationals, they only scored 10 runs in three games.
Versus right-handed pitching in particular, the Phillies have been inept this season:
| Stat | Rate | MLB Rank |
|---|---|---|
| wOBA | 0.297 | 23 |
| ISO | 0.133 | 24 |
| Hard Hit % | 27 | 26 |
| Walk % | 6.7 | 27 |
The only hard-hitting left-handed batter in Philadelphia’s lineup is Ryan Howard, which is good news for Corey Kluber and his batter splits.
In 2015, Kluber’s effectiveness dipped considerably versus lefties:
| Batter | ISO | wOBA | K rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| L | 0.163 | 0.322 | 25.8 |
| R | 0.123 | 0.238 | 29.8 |
Facing just one powerful left-handed bat as a -175 Vegas favorite with a low game total of 7.5, Kluber offers both safety and upside.
Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
$10,600 on FanDuel
Felix Hernandez will welcome the Kansas City Royals to Seattle tonight for what doesn’t initially appear to be a great matchup on paper. The Royals don’t strike out often, with a 18.6 K-rate as a team versus right-handed pitching.
However, King Felix has been masterful this season. He’s induced an elite 61.3 groundball rate and a career-low hard hit rate of just 21.5 percent.
Hernandez faced a similar opponent on April 10th when he squared off against the Athletics. The A’s strike out just 19.4 percent of the time versus righties this season, yet Hernandez fanned 10 in that outing.
You could also note that the game versus Oakland was Hernandez’ sole start at home this season. Last year, he performed much better at home, as his ISO allowed dropped 29 points to .132 and his wOBA allowed dropped 67 points to .271.
Tonight, Felix is a -162 Vegas favorite and the Royals have the lowest team total on the board. Pitching at home, Hernandez is the next best option after Kluber.
Hitters
Corey Dickerson, OF, Tampa Bay Rays
$3,000 on FanDuel
Dickerson is performing better than even his biggest supporters projected this season.
Versus right-handed pitching so far, he’s smashed five home runs, an impressive 56.4 fly-ball rate, and a 41 percent hard-hit rate.
Many doubters believed his .280 ISO and .398 wOBA handedness splits last year were solely the results of playing half of his games at Coors Field. That’s not the case -- Dickerson can mash anywhere.
Tonight he’ll face Aaron Sanchez, who allowed a .209 ISO and .380 wOBA to lefties last year and has been no better this season. He’s given up three home runs to them this season in just 64 plate appearances, and while he’s only walked right-handed hitters at a 2.7 percent clip, that number jumps all the way to 10.9 percent for lefties.
Still just $3,000 on FanDuel, take advantage of Dickerson’s matchup and cheap salary tonight.
Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels
$4,900 on FanDuel
Mike Trout is good, yes. But he’s, like, really good versus right-handed pitchers.
His ISO is 146 points higher compared to when facing a lefty this season and, unsurprisingly, four of his five home runs have come off of right-handed pitching.
He has a 45.7 percent fly ball rate, which is coincidentally the same as his hard hit rate, both of which are more than double his rates when facing southpaws.
His opponent tonight, Colby Lewis, has already managed to allow six home runs in just 23 innings this season. Part of the reason for the home run total is that opposing right-handed batters hit fly balls at their own will off of Lewis with a massive 61.3 percent fly-ball rate.
Josh Donaldson, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays
$4,600 on FanDuel
If you’ve been reading this column since the beginning of the season, you’ll remember the number one golden rule of MLB DFS: play Josh Donaldson versus lefties no matter what.
In 2015, Donaldson posted a .333 ISO and .428 wOBA versus southpaws. Donaldson wasted no time continuing this split this season, already hitting two home runs in just 19 plate appearances versus lefties, In those 19 at-bats, he’s enjoyed an elite 53.3 percent hard-hit rate.
His opponent tonight, Drew Smyly, gave up a .202 ISO to righties last season, but has excelled versus them in 2016. He’s allowed just one home run and a sub-.100 ISO to right-handed batters.
Don’t let this scare you -- those same righties only have a .200 BABIP, meaning Smyly should soon start allowing hits at a greater rate.
It could be Randy Johnson on the mound tonight and it wouldn’t matter. Donaldson versus a lefty. Do it.
