DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Tuesday 5/29/18
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 Pitchers
Kenta Maeda ($10,800 on DraftKings): Kenta Maeda and the Los Angeles Dodgers have a great matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies. Maeda has been superb this season, putting up a 30.8 percent strikeout rate, second-best on the slate, and 2.94 xFIP, which is top-three on the slate. He has also had a lot of success limiting home runs, giving up just four across 50.2 innings pitched. The Phillies have struck out 25.3 percent of the time as a team, the fourth-most in the Majors and have a 3.05 implied total, the lowest on the slate.
Blake Snell ($10,600): Outside of two stinkers, Blake Snell has been really good this year, including two dominant outings against the high-octane Boston Red Sox. The stuff he's shown against elite hitting teams such as Boston doesn't give us much reason to be concerned about the Oakland Athletics tonight. Snell has a 27.1 percent strikeout rate and a 1.02 WHIP, both of which are top five on the slate. Oakland sits roughly league average in most offensive categories, so while the matchup is pretty neutral, Snell has the strikeout upside to make for an attractive option in GPPs.
Low-Priced Pitcher
Luis Castillo ($8,000): It was a terrible start to the season for Luis Castillo, who allowed at least three runs in each of his first six starts. However, in his five starts in May, he has allowed no more than two runs in each game, picking up at least five strikeouts in four of those five games. He has also gotten out of hand with his walks in only one game, but one area of concern is that he's given up 11 home runs in just 57.1 innings. He has a great matchup tonight, though, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who strike out the second-most in the Majors with a 25.9 strikeout rate and struggle to generate runs with a 79 wRC+, the second-worst in all of baseball.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
Charlie Blackmon ($5,500): Gotta love a Coors Field game in which the Colorado Rockies take on a struggling pitcher in Jeff Samardzija. The Shark has put up some horrific numbers this season, including a 15.6 percent strikeout rate, 1.64 WHIP and 6.07 xFIP -- the latter two of which are dead last on the slate. He's pitched only 34.2 innings and things are bound to turn around a bit, but Coors Field probably isn't the place where that turnaround starts. Charlie Blackmon has historically smashed right-handed pitchers. In 2017, he was at his best, putting up a .420 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and .292 isolated power (ISO) in the split. He's not stealing bases like he used to -- just four this season -- and his overall numbers have taken a bit of a step back early this season, but a Coors matchup with a skidding pitcher could help him get going.
J.D. Martinez ($5,200): J.D. Martinez has been a big success in the early part of his massive free-agent contract with the Red Sox. He's posted a .320 average, 17 home runs, 44 runs and an elite 1.029 OPS. Tonight he's got a matchup against right-hander Marco Estrada. Martinez has smashed righties this season with a .454 wOBA and .392 ISO. Estrada, on the other hand, has struggled immensely, giving up a horrific 54.2 percent fly-ball rate, 213-foot average batted-ball distance, which has led to an abysmal 1.44 WHIP and 5.39 xFIP.
Travis Shaw ($4,700): Travis Shaw has had a great year in the power department even though his batting average could use some work. He has 13 home runs and 36 RBIs while hitting for a .260 average. He has done a lot of his damage against right-handed pitching, putting up a .421 wOBA and .355 ISO in the split. He's got a nice matchup tonight against Michael Wacha, who has been hit hard this campaign, giving up a 41.4 percent hard-hit rate and 30.8 line-drive rate.
Value Hitters
Miguel Sano ($3,900): Yes, Miguel Sano has been hurt and has struggled since coming back. However, he has way too much power to be priced under $4,000 on DraftKings. Additionally, he has a fantastic matchup tonight against Danny Duffy who is a left-handed pitcher -- a split that Sano crushed last season. He racked up an elite .408 wOBA and .307 ISO against southpaws in 2017. Duffy has been hit hard with a 40.2 percent hard-hit rate, 89.8 mile per hour average exit velocity and a 207-foot average batted-ball distance.
Brandon Nimmo ($3,800): Brandon Nimmo has been on a bit of a power surge as of late, picking up three home runs in his last seven games, notching eight hits overall in that span. Against right-handed pitchers in 2018, he has a massive .451 wOBA and .333 ISO in 99 plate appearances. He's going to take on Anibal Sanchez, who is coming off the disabled list tonight and was terrible last season, struggling to a 1.59 WHIP, 37.4 percent hard-hit rate and a 24.7 percent line-drive rate. The Mets aren't the best at producing runs. but in a matchup like this, there is plenty to like.
Travis Jankowski ($3,600): If only Travis Jankowski could pick up some RBIs, because he contributes in many other facets of the game. He's got a very nice .326 average and has 8 stolen bases in just 26 games. However, he leads off for a team that has a horrendous bottom of the order, so the RBI opportunities are few and far between. He does have a decent matchup against Dan Straily, so there is some hope after all. Straily is among the worst on the slate in many categories, including his 90.8 mile per hour average exit velocity, 205-foot average batted-ball distance, 49.3 hard-hit rate and 5.53 xFIP. This is a juicy spot for Jankowski and isn't a big price tag for a leadoff hitter.
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.
