3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/11/17

Cole Hamels, SP, Texas Rangers

FanDuel Price: $9,500

Cole Hamels is the most expensive pitcher on the board. A very consistent pitcher over the years, last season Hamels put up a solid 23.6% strikeout rate, but saw rises in walk rate (9.1%) and SIERA (3.99). At age 33, it's fair to wonder if he's entering his decline phase. On a slate with no obvious aces, though, he should be under consideration, right?

The trouble is he's facing the Los Angeles Angels. It's not that the Angels are a particularly scary offense against lefties -- they had a 101 wRC+ last year -- but they struck out a league-low 16.3% of the time. Even with the addition of noted strikeout machine Danny Espinosa, the rest of the lineup remains mostly the same, so they should continue being a tough team to strike out.

This severely limits Hamels' upside, which isn't what you want to hear when paying top dollar. He's still a solid pitcher and unlikely to put up a dud in run-suppressing Angel Stadium, but that's not enough when you're going to need every dollar for your bats. Jeff Samardzija ($8,600) and Jameson Taillon ($8,000) are better ways to go.