MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 7/25/16

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp Jul 25th, 2016
Yoenis Cespedes faces off against Carlos Martinez on Monday. Who else has a tough matchup worthy of avoiding 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 Monday.

Yoenis Cespedes, OF, New York Mets

FanDuel Price: $3,600

Yoenis Cespedes owned the Marlins over the weekend, going 4-for-10 with 4 RBI. However, the Mets start a big series with the Cardinals tonight, and with some rain possible in the forecast, it makes targeting players from this game a bit more risky. Cespedes also has a really tough matchup against one of the tougher righty pitchers in Carlos Martinez, which makes him a player you might want to steer clear of.

Right-handers own a .202 wOBA against Martinez across 210 batters faced this season. Righties are slugging just .185 against the Cards’ righty, and Martinez has yet to give up a homer to a right-handed hitter this season. Combine that with his 25.2 percent strikeout rate and 20.7 percent hard hit rate against righties, and you have a very tough matchup for Cespedes.

While the Mets’ slugger has been very good this season, his strikeout rate climbs to 25 percent against righties, while his wOBA drops from .479 against lefties to .367. His isolated power drops over 60 points to .254 against righties, and while that’s still very good, the rest of the factors in this matchup suggest laying off of him at such a high price tag.

Brian McCann, C, New York Yankees

FanDuel Price: $3,300

Brian McCann has been slumping most of the season, but his post-All Star Break slump has been even worse. McCann is 3-for-27 since being back from break, he only has 2 RBI in that stretch, and he has yet to record an extra-base hit since coming into the ceremonial second half. Now he has to face off against a resurgent Dallas Keuchel tonight, which will make it even harder to break out.

McCann is only posting a .319 wOBA over 57 at-bats against lefties this season and owns a career .330 wOBA against southpaws. With a 23.4 percent strikeout rate against them this season, don’t expect too much from the Yankees’ catcher if he is in the lineup Monday night.

Keuchel is limiting lefties to a wOBA of .276, a 25.9 percent hard hit rate, and a 21.2 percent fly ball rate, so with McCann slumping overall, don’t roster him at catcher tonight.

Stephen Piscotty, OF, St. Louis Cardinals

FanDuel Price: $3,000

Stephen Piscotty is having an outstanding first full year with the Cardinals, but tonight he and the Redbirds are running up against Noah Syndergaard.

Piscotty owns a .332 wOBA against righties, compared to .464 against lefties this season. His isolated power plummets to .157 against righties compared to .304 against lefties, and his strikeout rate is 18.7 percent this season against pitchers of the same handedness.

Syndergaard, on the other hand, has been dominant against righties, holding them to a .242 wOBA. Syndergaard has a 29.2 percent strikeout rate and just a 24.5 percent hard hit rate against righties this season as well, so don't target many righties even if you are rolling out a tournament stack against him.