MLB

5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 4/12/16

Jason Schandl  —  @JasonSchandl Apr 12th, 2016
Gerardo Parra offers huge upside hitting at Coors Field. What other fantasy options can give you big time value tonight?

Building daily fantasy baseball lineups can be intimidating. On any given slate, you have a massive number of options in front of you and a ton of factors to consider.

We're here to help take some of that burden off and break down some hitters who you can slot into your lineup for nice and cheap, while still being well-positioned to provide your lineup with solid fantasy production.

Let's take a look at where we can find value on today's slate.

Dustin Pedroia, 2B, Boston Red Sox

FanDuel Price: $2,900

The Boston Red Sox have the third-highest implied total of the night against Mike Wright and the Baltimore Orioles. Wright only has 44.2 Major League innings under his belt but has really struggled through them. He has a 5.28 SIERA, a 1.81 home runs per nine, and has allowed a huge .361 wOBA to right-handed hitters.

Dustin Pedroia bounced back last year after he struggled through the 2014 season. He has a career .347 wOBA and .141 ISO against right-handed pitchers, with only a 9.6 percent strikeout rate. Today's matchup is a really good one for him, and hitting at the top of the order for one of the more well-positioned offenses on the slate makes him especially appealing.

Daniel Murphy, 2B, Washington Nationals

FanDuel Price: $3,400

A slightly pricier option at second, Daniel Murphy, is in a similarly favorable spot tonight.

Murphy has a career .339 wOBA and .149 ISO against righties and is coming off of arguably the best season of his career from the dish. To top it off, he has had a very hot start to this season. Jhoulys Chacin, who has a .337 wOBA and 14.5 percent strikeout rate against lefties, doesn't really threaten to slow Murphy down here either.

Jon Jay, OF, San Diego Padres

FanDuel Price: $3,100

Jon Jay will be hitting leadoff tonight against a pretty mediocre pitcher in Charlie Morton. Morton has a career 4.11 SIERA and has been awful against lefties, allowing a .376 wOBA.

Jay isn't a dominant hitter by any stretch, but he has hit righties reasonably well through his career, with a .331 wOBA and a .104 ISO. This is more about targeting just about any left-handed hitter against Morton than it is a vote of confidence in Jon Jay, but he's in a good spot today and has a pretty appealing price tag.

Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, New York Yankees

FanDuel Price: $3,400

The sample size is still small, but Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez has really struggled against lefties through his career, allowing a .344 wOBA and 1.63 home runs per nine as well as sporting a 14.2 percent strikeout rate.

2015 was statistically the worst year of Jacoby Ellsbury's career, but his overall career numbers (a .326 wOBA and .180 ISO against righties) are strong enough to keep some confidence in him, especially against Sanchez.

Gerardo Parra, OF, Colorado Rockies

FanDuel Price: $3,400

It's hard to get exposure to games at Coors Field without stomaching some big price tags, but Gerardo Parra is by far the best way to get exposure to Coors tonight while staying budget-conscious.

San Francisco's Jeff Samardzija isn't a pitcher I'd usually be keen to target on today's slate, but playing in the most unforgiving park in the league quickly changes that. And while his numbers are solid, he does perform notably worse against left-handed hitters, allowing a .330 wOBA and a 39.1 percent fly ball rate, which is especially concerning playing in Colorado.

Parra does -- by far -- his best work against right-handed pitchers, producing a career .330 wOBA and .143 ISO. The Rockies have an implied total of 5.2 tonight, and Parra offers the kind of huge upside you don't often see for so cheap.