4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/7/17

Evan Longoria, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays

FanDuel Price: $3,200

The aforementioned Liriano is taking on Evan Longoria and the Rays today, and although he has strikeout upside (23% strikeout rate in 2016), he's an extremely volatile pitcher who is prone to blowups when he's not on. Much of this was due to Liriano's troubling 11.6% walk rate and 34.8% hard-hit rate last year.

On the surface that means we can use Longoria, but there are a few things working against him. For one thing, despite Liriano's struggles, he continued to keep the ball on the ground against righties last year, inducing grounders 48.4% of the time. Also, while he's always been prone to walks, the high hard-hit rate was out of character. His career hard-hit rate against righties is a much more palatable 28.9%.

Longoria has hit lefties well in his career, but his walk rate against them dropped to just 6.5% last season, by far the lowest of his career. This doesn't seem to be a fluke as his overall walk rate has dropped every year since 2011. Although walks are never exciting in fantasy, they're still worth points. Longoria may not be equipped to take advantage of Liriano's wildness, and could be susceptible to strikeouts. In 2016, Longoria struck out 20.9% of the time versus lefties.

Last season also marked a career-low 94 wRC+ against southpaws for Longoria. Given his strong track record against lefties, it's probably just noise, but is worth monitoring in case it becomes a trend.

Lastly, with the dearth of pitching options today, you may find yourself needing Liriano's services, taking the Rays bats off the board.

Given the nature of the slate, there are too many factors working against Longoria to make him a strong play.