MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 6/17/16

Jason Kipnis has had another strong season, but could be in trouble tonight.

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 Friday.

Matt Adams, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals

FanDuel Price: $3,300

The Cardinals kick off a weekend series with the Rangers on Friday night, and they're met with a very tough pitching matchup against Cole Hamels. The Ranger’s ace has been pitching very good as of late, and one Cardinal who could have some extra trouble with Hamels tonight is Matt Adams.

Adams could also ride the pine while the team starts Brandon Moss, but if Adams starts at first base, it might be wise to lay off him here on Friday. Adams has been solid against lefty pitching this season, posting a wOBA of .373 through 30 at-bats, but that's a very small sample size and not even close to his career numbers -- Adams is a career .218 hitter against lefties, and his strikeout rate is 29.5 percent. He also owns a career hard hit rate of 23.6 percent against lefties, so don’t expect too much from him tonight is he is in the lineup.

Hamels is limiting lefties to a wOBA of .245 this season through 70 total batters faced. He owns a 22.9 strikeout rate against lefties this season, and what’s even more impressive is lefties own a BABIP of just .192 against him this season.

Brian Dozier, 2B, Minnesota Twins

FanDuel Price: $3,400

Brian Dozier had his hitting streak snapped on Wednesday, but he's still posting solid numbers for the Twins at second base. However, tonight he and the Twins face off against Masahiro Tanaka and the Yankees, and the Twins’ second baseman might have a tough time matching up to the Yankees’ hurler.

Tanaka has once again been great against hitters from both sides of the plate in 2016, but against righties, he poses some unique problems. Righties own a wOBA of .288 against him through 198 total batters faced, and on the road against righties, that drops to .216. Righties have a BABIP of .264 against Tanaka this season, and for his career, Tanaka has a 23.6 strikeout rate against right-handed batters.

In 187 at-bats this season, Dozier has a wOBA of just .281 against righties compared to .419 against lefties. His isolated power drops to .128 when he faces righty pitching compared to .214 against lefties, and his hard-hit rate against them this season is just 25.3 percent. Dozier has faced Tanaka seven times and he has yet to record an extra base hit off him during his career.

Jason Kipnis, 2B, Cleveland Indians

FanDuel Price: $3,300

Jason Kipnis is another second baseman with a tougher than average matchup here on Friday as the Indians face off against Jose Quintana and the White Sox. Quintana has been devastating against lefties this season, and Kipnis looks like he could enter landmine status against the White Sox’ southpaw.

Quintana has a wOBA against lefties of just .197 through 75 total batters faced this season. While that number is likely unsustainable for the whole season, he posted a .287 wOBA against lefties last season through 193 batters, so either way, Indians’ lefties are going to have a tough time tonight. Quintana owns a 24 strikeout rate and 1.59 FIP against lefties in 2016, and they have a fly-ball rate of just 18.2 percent against him.

Kipnis owns a wOBA of .270 against lefties this season in 70 at-bats, and for his career, his wOBA is .293. Kipnis’ strikeout rate is 28.6 percent against lefties this season, while his fly-ball rate is 16.7 percent. And his hard-hit rate is only 25.5 percent against lefties in 2016. Look for Quintana to get the better of Kipnis on Friday night.