3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 8/15/17

Alex Wood, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers

FanDuel Price: $9,600

It's tough to figure out what to do with Alex Wood. He's been a DFS darling for much of the year, but has also shown reduced effectiveness lately due to declining velocity. He apparently fixed a mechanical issue prior to his last start, which resulted in a promising 14.8% swinging-strike rate and improved velocity. Still, it only amounted to a 16.0% strikeout rate, falling right in line with his recent performances.

But even if we say the velocity is back, it doesn't fix the other underlying issue, which is that Wood continues to stay on a tight pitch count. He's thrown under 90 pitches in two straight starts, along with four of his last six. Between his recent velocity concerns and a strong bullpen, the Los Angeles Dodgers appear content to let Wood hit the showers early as often as they can.

All this being said, Wood has a pristine matchup against the Chicago White Sox, who have by far the lowest implied team total on the board at 3.02. Considering Wood is unlikely to throw a clunker, you might happily take the floor in cash games.

But when you can pivot to Danny Salazar -- who has a 37.1% strikeout rate over his last four starts -- at $100 cheaper, why not shoot for the much higher upside?