MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 8/5/19

While we have plenty of pieces geared towards guys you should target in your DFS contests, it's also important to narrow down your short list of plays and avoid the suboptimal ones who are overpriced and/or in tough spots.

Let's check out three guys to consider fading on tonight's FanDuel main slate.

Mike Minor, SP, Texas Rangers

FanDuel Price: $9,300

After a splendid start to the year, things have been unraveling for Mike Minor. He just allowed hitters to clobber him for a .382 wOBA, 41.0% hard-hit rate and 43.6% fly-ball rate over 27 1/3 frames in July, and while his 25.0% strikeout rate for the month is good, his 9.7% walk rate is his worst single-month walk rate of the season.

The Cleveland Indians are heading in the opposite direction. After being a team we picked on with pitchers for much of the first half, Cleveland's bats have gotten hot, and they've been on the stacking radar fairly frequently of late. Over the last 14 days, the Indians carry a .337 wOBA with a tiny 18.4% strikeout rate, the latter of which is the lowest in baseball in that span.

Cleveland boasts a 5.26 implied total today, and there's really no reason to risk it with Minor at his salary. Our models have him as the second-worst point-per-dollar play among all of tonight's starters (Dario Agrazal is the worst).

Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays

FanDuel Price: $3,400

Bo Bichette had himself a heck of a debut week last week, racking up a .493 wOBA with two jacks across his first 35 MLB plate appearances. With great production in his minor-league profile, Bichette looks like a future star, and he's probably still under-priced as FanDuel adjusts to his promotion and rapid success.

But you don't want any part of him tonight against Charlie Morton.

Neither lefties nor righties are finding much joy this season versus Morton, but right-handed hitters have had a truly miserable time, struggling to a .234 wOBA, 28.0% strikeout rate and 52.3% ground-ball rate. Yikes.

The Toronto Blue Jays have a slate-low 3.11 implied total, and Bichette is best left for another night.

Joey Votto, 1B, Cincinnati Reds

FanDuel Price: $3,300

The Cincinnati Reds are on the stacking radar today as they hold a 5.50 implied total for their home date with Patrick Sandoval, who is expected to make his debut in a bulk role behind an opener.

While the left-handed Sandoval has a 4.99 xFIP in 60 1/3 Triple-A innings this year, he does have a pretty nice 14.2% swinging-strike rate. Punchouts are something he's been able to generate at nearly every level, as well, including a dazzling 38.6% strikeout rate this year in a small sample of 20 frames in Double-A.

Joey Votto has been pretty bad this season overall, and he's been really poor in lefty-lefty clashes, posting a woeful .316 wOBA and 25.2% strikeout rate in the split. So while Votto may be tempting as a way to get modestly priced access to the Reds -- one of the slate's more appealing offenses -- it's probably best to load up on the rest of Cincy's big hitters, namely Eugenio Suarez and Nick Senzel.