3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on Opening Day

Cole Hamels, SP, Texas Rangers

FanDuel Price: $6,800

If you're looking for a cheap pitching option, you may gravitate towards Cole Hamels and the brand-name equity that he offers. But even though he has the luxury of starting at home, Hamels should come nowhere near your DFS lineups.

In his age-33 season, he was able to pitch to a mediocre 4.20 ERA last year. However, all the underlying metrics indicate that his skills are in decline. He allowed a 36.0% hard-hit rate, the highest of his career, and generated a swinging strike on just 9.7% of his pitches, the lowest mark of his career.

So in summary -- he isn't missing bats, and he is allowing a ton of hard contact. Not great, Bob.

It also doesn't help that he will be facing a Houston Astros lineup that struck out at the lowest rate in baseball last year and led the majors in runs scored. Also, Hamels is a lefty and Houston's four best hitters (Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, and Alex Bregman) all bat from the right-hand side of the plate.

While Cole's changeup has traditionally helped him remain relatively immune to handedness splits, that was not the case last year as he allowed a .324 wOBA to righties compared to just .215 against lefties.

Our projections have Hamels pegged for 21.8 FanDuel points, making him the day's lowest-ranked starting pitcher.