5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 3/28/19

Corey Dickerson, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates

Price: $2,800

2018 saw a drastic shift in the way Corey Dickerson produced from the dish.

After posting a strikeout rate north of 23% and an ISO of at least .200 in each of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons, he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates and dropped both of those numbers -- to a 15.0% strikeout rate and .175 ISO. His .341 wOBA stayed right in line with what he posted in 2017, and he actually saw a drop in soft-hit rate (to 17.8%) and an increase in hard-hit rate (to 34.1%).

One thing that did remain consistent is that he looked plenty dangerous against right-handed pitching, turning in a 37.4% fly-ball rate, 16.4% soft-hit rate and 37.3% hard-hit rate. That translated to a .348 wOBA and .194 ISO -- still not showing the kind of power we'd seen from him in years past but plenty productive anyway. That also came with a lower home run-to-fly-ball ratio (9.8%) than we saw him post against righties in either of his last two years in Tampa, despite the strong contact numbers. So some of that drop in ISO can be attributed to variance, making his solid wOBA even more impressive.

He kicks off 2019 with a matchup against a righty, going up against the Cincinnati Reds and Luis Castillo. Castillo was dangerous last year, putting up a 3.85 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) over 31 games, though he had some struggles against left-handed bats, getting tagged for a .373 wOBA over a 351-batter sample.