MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 6/27/16

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Jun 27th, 2016
Khris Davis has been flashing upside lately, but you don't want him on your roster today. Who else should you avoid?

As is the case in most daily fantasy sports, finding information on players you might want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid.

While you can get away with a zero from a hitter in daily fantasy, you certainly don't want to target guys whose matchups aren't enticing.

Here are three hitters you may want to lessen your exposure to or even fade altogether on Monday.

Khris Davis, OF, Oakland Athletics

FanDuel Price: $3,600

Khristopher Davis has been a solid daily fantasy asset since coming back from missing a few games with a calf injury. He had a 1-for-5 day on Sunday, but before that, he posted a three-game stretch where he averaged nearly 20 FanDuel points per game. However, that three-game stretch might convince players to roster him again here on Monday night, even though he has a tougher-than-average matchup against Jeff Samardzija and the Giants.

Samardzija has been very good against right-handed hitters this season. He has a .271 wOBA against them over 220 total batters faced this season. On top of that, in four career at-bats against Samardzija, Davis is 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

Davis has a wOBA of .319 against righties this season over 202 at-bats, and his Isolated Power drops more than 100 points to .228 against right-handers this season. Plus, he owns a 27.3 strikeout rate against right-handers. With Samardzija on the hill and after a nice weekend, Davis enters landmine territory here on Monday.

Brandon Phillips, 2B, Cincinnati Reds

FanDuel Price: $2,200

Brandon Phillips has not been great this season. He owns a .285 wOBA, which is on pace for his worst mark since joining the Reds 10 years ago. Tonight, things won't not get any easier against Jake Arrieta and the Cubs.

Arrieta has been virtually unhittable against righties this season. Right-handers own a wOBA of only .205 and a 27.5 percent strikeout rate against him. Considering Arrieta has a hard hit rate of only 19.6 percent against righties, even Phillips’ cheap price is not enough to roster him confidently.

Phillips owns a .282 wOBA against right-handers this season. His slugging percentage drops more than 100 points against right-handers across 200 at-bats this year, and while Phillips hasn’t been bad against Arrieta over his career (4-for-14), he is hard to trust tonight even if you are trying a tournament stack against Arrieta.

Ryan Zimmerman, 1B, Washington Nationals

FanDuel Price: $3,000

With the shorter slate tonight, you have to be a little risk averse, and with rain in the forecast in the Washington D.C. area tonight, the Mets and Nationals game has a little more risk to it than others. Plus, the Mets are putting Noah Syndergaard on the hill for tonight’s game, which makes right-handers from Washington dangerous. That includes Ryan Zimmerman.

Zimmerman has a .295 wOBA over 189 at-bats against right-handers this season. His strikeout rate against them is 25 percent, and while he has a 13.4 walk rate against lefties, it drops to 5.4 against righties. His ISO is also .164 against right-handers this season.

Syndergaard, on the other hand, has a wOBA against righties of just .220 this season across 196 batters faced. His strikeout rate is over 29 percent against righties. He has actually been even better against lefties this season in some areas, but his hard hit rate against righties is just 25.6 percent, 4 points lower than against lefties. This makes it hard to trust Zimmerman and other Nationals righties tonight.