MLB

4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 5/12/17

Johnny Cueto benefits from pitching at home in AT&T Park tonight, but there are higher upside options on the slate. Who else should you avoid?

Is it time to start aggressively using pitchers against the Pittsburgh Pirates in DFS?

Last night, Zack Greinke put together a one-hit masterpiece against them, good for an eye-popping 64 FanDuel points.

Prior to that, Los Angeles Dodgers pitching took them to town with big performances from Alex Wood (54 points), Julio Urias (took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning), and Kenta Maeda (44 points). Including Greinke, that's a solid bunch of pitchers, but none are necessarily your typical go-to DFS hurlers.

On the season, the anemic Pirates offense has an 80 wRC+, tied for 26th in the league. Over the last seven days, though, that number plummets to a 36 wRC+ and a 29.1% strikeout rate.

It all makes for an interesting case to use Patrick Corbin ($7,600) in tournaments today. He has just an 18.9% strikeout rate, but an 11.5% swinging-strike rate looks promising. If he, too, performs well, it might be a good idea to keep a close eye on pitchers facing these Pirates moving forward.

In cash, Lance McCullers ($8,800) gets a tough matchup with the New York Yankees, but has been lights out with a 2.92 SIERA and 28.9% strikeout rate, and looks awfully appealing. You can also consider Rick Porcello ($9,500) against the Tampa Bay Rays and their 25.9% strikeout rate against righties, or Clayton Kershaw ($9,800) at his reduced price in Coors Field.

On the hitting side, there's no shortage of good spots. Some guys to attack include Tyler Chatwood in Coors, Andrew Cashner (6.23 SIERA), Tyler Glasnow (5.01 SIERA), Matt Garza (42.6% hard-hit rate), and Jordan Zimmermann (45.6% hard-hit rate).

Now, let's end the week strong! Here are four guys to keep out of your lineups tonight.