4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/28/17

Addison Russell, SS, Chicago Cubs

FanDuel Price: $3,000

The Chicago Cubs have a pretty good 4.30 implied team total against Drew Pomeranz this evening. Despite his appealing price, Addison Russell doesn't quite make the cut.

First off, Pomeranz isn't an ideal pitcher to attack. Historically, he's struggled with walks (9.8% career rate), but that hasn't been the case (7.6%) this season. Furthermore, he's racked up the punchouts in recent seasons, and is all the way up to a 30.3% strikeout rate in 2017. An 8.1% swinging-strike rate likely means the strikeouts should tail off a bit, but do you really want to mess with him anyway?

Russell has been good, but not great, this year. He's improved his strikeout rate (16.7%), but the hard-hit rate hasn't been anything special (26.1%), and his pop is fairly modest (.167 isolated power). He also bats fifth, which is less advantageous compared to higher spots in the order. There isn't much to get excited about here.

If you need a value play at shortstop, you're better off going with Aledmys Diaz ($3,000) or Tim Anderson ($2,900), who both have better matchups and hit higher in the order.