MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/30/18

Akash Bhatia  —  @AkashBhatia24 Apr 30th, 2018
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Jacob Faria, SP, Tampa Bay Rays

FanDuel Price: $5,900

Jacob Faria had an excellent rookie season in 2017 with the Tampa Bay Rays, posting a 3.43 ERA in nearly 90 innings of work. Faria looked to be a young controllable asset the Rays could build around, and while that may still be the case, he has taken a significant step backwards so far in 2018.

Faria's walk rate has been elevated to 14.1%, and his fly-ball rate of 48.4% and hard-hit rate of 46.9% are also significantly worse than they were in 2017. Faria's swinging-strike rate is also down to 9.2% from 12.0% last year. It's no wonder Faria has struggled to the tune of a 6.33 ERA on the season.

Moreover, the Detroit Tigers, despite a middling wRC+ and wOBA against right-handed pitching, are not the type of matchup in which we should expect Faria to revert back to 2017 form. The Tigers strike out at the third-lowest rate in baseball against right-handed pitching, and they combine that with a top-10 mark in hard-hit rate. That's a dangerous pairing that robs Faria of both his floor and ceiling for DFS purposes.

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