MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 6/7/19

Dansby Swanson has been on fire recently, but he's got a tall test tonight in Miami. What other avoids should be on our radar screen?

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 June 7.

Michael Pineda, Minnesota Twins (SP)

at Detroit Tigers
FanDuel Price: $7,500

After dealing with a knee injury recently, Michael Pineda of the Minnesota Twins is expected to be activated today for a start against the lowly Detroit Tigers, who clock in third-worst in team wOBA (.285), and strike out second-most (26.3%).

While starting a pitcher directly off of the Injured list is always a bit precarious, it's Pineda's run of form prior to the knee issue that's a bit perturbing. A 41.5% hard-hit rate and 45.1% fly-ball rate portends a pretty ugly batted-ball profile.

An 11.7% swinging-strike rate is nothing to sniff at, but Pineda's 63.4% first-pitch strike rate is causing him major issues. Baseball can be a simple game -- work ahead in the count generally is to your favor. Pineda's numbers bear that out as well -- when even or ahead in the count this season, Pineda sports a .288 wOBA, and when behind, a whopping .499 wOBA.

Tread carefully if you're looking to roster a low-priced pitching option.

Tommy Pham, Tampa Bay Rays (OF)

at Boston Red Sox
FanDuel Price: $3,900

Despite battling a leg injury lately, Tommy Pham has been running real nice -- in his last 10 games, the Tampa Bay Rays outfielder owns a crisp 1.160 OPS, and that tantalizing Green Monster awaits tonight against Rick Porcello, who's been up-and-down in 2019.

A deeper dive shows that Porcello has been throwing the ball pretty well lately, making Pham tough to roster. After five rough turns to begin 2019, Porcello has actually been brilliant -- he sports a 3.39 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in his last seven starts, including a respectable 36 strikeouts in 45 innings.

Pham also becomes a challenging play today when looking at Porcello's same-sided bat splits in 2019. June means we have breached small-sample size territory, and covering 159 plate appearances, Porcello has limited righties to a .319 wOBA, 22.0% strikeout rate, and 33.0% hard-hit rate.

Pham is a dynamic offensive player, but he's best left on the bench tonight.

Dansby Swanson, Atlanta Braves (SS)

at Miami Marlins
FanDuel Price: $3,900

If we can characterize Pham's recent run of play as strong to quite strong, Dansby Swanson has been just downright silly as of late.

Swanson wore an 0-fer in the series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday, but he ripped off four consecutive 20-plus FanDuel point efforts in a row prior to that game, including three long balls. Swanson's 13 dingers put him one away from tying a career high.

The bad news for Swanson is that the hot streak may not keep up tonight. He heads to Marlins Park for an NL East tilt, which ranks last in park factor and second-worst in home run factor over the last three seasons.

And while Jose Urena, Swanson's opponent, isn't Cy Young, he has performed well against righty batters -- for his career, he has held them to only a .304 wOBA and 29.0% fly-ball rate.

The Atlanta Braves short stop may finally be displaying some of that offensive prowess we had hoped from the #1 overall pick in the 2015 draft, but it's not a smart bet he goes off for a big score this evening.



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.