3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 5/18/18

Brandon Belt, 1B, San Francisco Giants

FanDuel Price: $4,300

This price tag for Brandon Belt would seem to be an error, but it's more than likely just an over-correction after a strong stretch of performances. It's really tough to justify Belt being priced above $4,000 at home and against a left-handed pitcher.

On his podcast, our very own Jim Sannes likes to say that no left-handed batter can hit home runs in AT&T Park, except for Barry Bonds. And he's dead right, as AT&T Park is one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks in the league. And according to ESPN, AT&T suppresses home runs for left-handed batters by a factor of .571, 30th in the league. For reference, the next-worst is Fenway and it only does so by a factor of .732.

This can best be explained by looking at Belt himself. He has a career 15.0% home run per fly-ball rate on the road, with that number falling to 8.9% at home.

This also doesn't take into account the fact that Belt is facing a southpaw. In his career, Belt's wOBA falls from .362 to .344 when facing a left-hander compared to a right-handed pitcher. And while Kyle Freeland certainly isn't an ace, a 4.14 SIERA for a pitcher who pitches half his games in Coors is certainly respectable.

There are simply too many factors working against Belt for him to be worth rostering at this price.

Akash Bhatia is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Akash Bhatia also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username tenswimrun1. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.