DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Wednesday 5/9/18
Every day is unique for daily fantasy baseball, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Although we can’t simply plug and play our favorite studs day in and day out, each slate presents us with a chance for a new gem to vault us up the leaderboards.
Through the use of numberFire’s tools, we can better identify the players primed to succeed each day, making the process of filling out a lineup just that much easier. In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.
Which names stand out for today on the DraftKings main slate? Let’s check it out, starting with the pitchers.
Pitchers to Target
High-Priced Pitcher
Patrick Corbin ($13,300 on DraftKings): Coming into this season, it would have felt insane paying this much for Patrick Corbin. For his first game, he was priced at $7,000 and he has become more and more expensive with each start. Tonight, he's going to be taking on a Los Angeles Dodgers team for the third time already this season, after crushing them for 12 strikeouts and 43.3 DraftKings points in their first meeting. In his most recent start against them, he only struck out 5 on his way to only 18.5 DraftKings points. Did they figure him out or did he just have a bad game? Corbin's strikeout rate is up to 34.7 percent this season, despite his career average being just 21.1 percent. He could regress closer to that, but the matchup against a banged up Dodgers team is still good.
Gio Gonzalez ($11,400): One thing to really like about Gio Gonzalez is not only did he have a solid, but not spectacular, strikeout rate (22.7 percent) in 2017, but he also had a slate-low average exit velocity at 85 miles-per-hour. He has a great matchup tonight against the San Diego Padres, who strike out 27.1 percent of the time, most in the Majors. They are also rocking a team weighted on-base average (wOBA) of .292, which is the third-worst in all of baseball. The Padres are ready to be exploited by a pitcher like Gio.
Low-Priced Pitchers
Nick Pivetta ($6,900): Nick Pivetta was shelled in his last game and survived just one inning of work. In 2017, his rookie season, Pivetta had a solid 24 percent strikeout rate, but struggled with a 35.5 percent hard-hit rate. He's certainly a pitcher that comes with some risk because of the hard-hit rate, but with his strikeout stuff -- as long as he is missing bats -- he could put up a solid score at a very cheap price. He does have a pretty good matchup against a San Francisco Giants team that strikes out 24.7 percent of the time (the seventh-most in the Majors) and have a team wOBA of .307, 23rd in the Majors.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
Ozzie Albies ($5,200): The Atlanta Braves have been awesome this season and now that Ronald Acuna is on the team, they are even better. Ozzie Albies has been a big part of the Braves' success as the second-year player has a .284 AVG with 10 home runs, 24 RBI, 33 runs scored and 4 stolen bases (including 3 in his last 10 games). In limited action in 2017, Albies smashed lefties with a .396 wOBA and a .192 isolated power (ISO). Those numbers are way better in the early part of 2018 with a .577 wOBA and a .486 ISO. He doesn't have much to worry about against Ryan Yarbrough tonight, a pitcher that has given up a 52.1 percent fly-ball rate this season. If he continues to surrender those fly-balls -- even with his 25.4 percent hard-hit rate -- he's going to get into trouble.
Giancarlo Stanton ($4,900): It seems like it's chasing points writing up Giancarlo Stanton the day after he smashed two home runs, but he's got an interesting matchup tonight. He's facing Rick Porcello, a pitcher who has looked great this season but struggled in 2017. Last year, he had a slate-worst 28.3 percent hard-hit rate, along with an 87.9 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and a 186-foot average batted-ball distance, both of which are second-worst on the slate. Stanton has struggled in the batting average department, but he's still got nine home runs, so if Porcello's off his game look for Stanton to take advantage. Though it could be smart to avoid him in cash.
Paul Goldschmidt ($4,300): This is one of the cheapest prices we have ever seen Paul Goldschmidt at. He has some crazy home-road splits this year, and that's more than likely just noise, but it is interesting to look at. At home, he has just 9 hits in 60 at-bats, but he also has 18 walks. However, in 64 at-bats on the road, he has 19 hits to just 5 walks with all 4 of his home runs coming on the road. He has a tough matchup tonight against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood, but Goldy has historically smashed left-handed pitching with a .431 wOBA and a .269 ISO in his career.
Value Hitters
Ryon Healy ($3,800): You want to talk about a player on fire? Ryon Healy, over his last 10, has a solid .359 AVG, but his 5 home runs and 1.170 OPS are fantastic. He had a lot of success against left-handed pitching in 2017, putting up a .369 wOBA and a .212 ISO. Tonight, he'll take on Toronto Blue Jays southpaw Jaime Garcia who has given up a .312 wOBA and .395 slugging percentage against right-handed hitters in his career. Nothing terrible, but nothing to be scared of either.
Jonathan Schoop ($3,500): Jonathan Schoop returned from the DL last game after missing almost a month of time. Tonight, he's taking on left-handed pitcher Eric Skoglund, a pitcher that only has 38.2 innings pitched against right-handed hitters, but in those innings he's been terrible. He's given up a .395 wOBA and a .540 slugging percentage, which bodes well for Schoop. Last season, Schoop had a .397 wOBA with a .293 ISO and although it's just his second game back from injury, he's in a premium spot.
Lucas Duda ($3,400): The Kansas City Royals are taking on the Baltimore Orioles tonight, and the O's will have Andrew Cashner on the mound. He has struggled against left-handed swingers in his career, giving up a .336 wOBA and a .436 slugging percentage. Lucas Duda, on the other hand, has hit right-handed pitchers very well in his career with a .360 wOBA and a .232 ISO. Cashner has struggled this season with a 4.89 ERA and has given up 9 home runs in just 38.2 innings pitched.
Ryan Sheppard is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ryan Sheppard also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username donkshow_. 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.
