MLB

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Wednesday 8/1/18

On a weak pitching slate, paying up for hitters like Javy Baez is a great way to spend your extra money. Which other players should you consider on DraftKings?

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

Rich Hill ($9,600 on DraftKings): This is a particularly weak pitching slate, with Rich Hill being the highest-priced arm and not many hidden gems. Hill has a respectable 26.2 percent strikeout rate, the second-highest on the slate. A 1.30 WHIP isn't the greatest, but his 3.88 xFIP is definitely solid. He's taking on the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that doesn't strikeout much versus left-handed pitching but does struggle to generate offense in the split. They have an 83 wRC+ off lefties, which is 27th in the Majors, and a 22nd-ranked .299 team weighted on-base average (wOBA).

Anibal Sanchez ($8,000): Anibal Sanchez is the surprising slate-leader with a 1.09 WHIP. He also has a half-decent 23.4 percent strikeout rate along with a 28.4 percent hard-hit rate and 18.2 percent line-drive rate. Again, numbers that aren't great on the surface, but when compared to the rest of the options, they are pretty good. He's taking on a Miami Marlins team with an 88 wRC+ against right-handed pitching, which ranks 24th in the Majors and a 26th-ranked .300 team wOBA. One more thing to note here is to check the weather before locking in any pieces from this game.

Low-Priced Pitchers

Luke Weaver ($7,000): Weaver is nice and cheap and has a decent matchup against the Colorado Rockies. Colorado strikes out at a 24.0 percent clip on the road, which is the eighth-worst in the Majors. Additionally, they struggle to generate offense away from Coors, with their .301 team wOBA sitting at 22nd and their wRC+ of 85 putting them 25th. Weaver is a -133 favourite which is the third-best on the slate after the above two pitchers. He doesn't have sexy numbers, but hopefully he can eat some innings and pick up a cheap win.

Hitters to Target

High-Priced Hitters

Javier Baez ($5,200): Javier Baez is having himself quite a season. He's put up a .300 average with 22 home runs, 82 RBIs and a .904 OPS. Over his last 10 games, he's been on a bigger tear, hitting for a .353 average while smacking 3 home runs, knocking in 8 runs and putting up a 1.029 OPS. His numbers against right-handed pitching have been great with a .374 wOBA and an elite .276 isolated power (ISO). He'll get to face Pittsburgh Pirates' Nick Kingham, who has an ugly 39.2 percent fly-ball rate and 18.3 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. Baez is in a great spot tonight.

Ronald Acuna ($4,800): Speaking of hitters on a heater, Ronald Acuna has been crushing the ball over his last 10 games. In that span, he's got an elite .333 batting average with 4 home runs (which is 36 percent of his season total), 9 runs, 3 steals and an eye-opening 1.140 OPS. He's taking on Pablo Lopez, who, in just 28.2 innings this season, has given up 5 home runs and 17 earned runs.

Gregory Polanco ($4,600): You rarely want to target a lefty-lefty matchup, but Gregory Polanco has been very good in this spot in 2018, putting up a solid .343 wOBA and .229 ISO. He's been on a tear, as well, posting eerily similar numbers to Acuna over his last 10 games, with 3 home runs, 8 RBIs and 3 stolen bases while putting up a .375 average and 1.144 OPS. Taking on Cole Hamels, who will make his debut for the Chicago Cubs, is a great spot to continue this hot streak as Hamels has given up a slate-worst 44.9 percent hard-hit rate.

Value Hitters

Yoan Moncada ($4,100): Now we get to a hitter who is on the opposite of a hot streak as Yoan Moncada has struggled recently. However, on the season, he has a solid .332 wOBA and .202 ISO against right-handed pitching and the matchup this evening is a good one. Moncada is taking on Jake Junis, who has some ugly numbers. He's got a 4.51 xFIP while giving up a 41.5 percent hard-hit rate and 40.4 percent fly-ball rate with Statcast numbers of an 89.1 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and 193-foot average batted-ball distance. Target the Chicago White Sox tonight.

Jake Bauers ($3,900): Jake Bauers has been solid this year, especially against right-handed pitching. In that split, he's got a .352 wOBA and .248 ISO, which puts him in a great spot against Nick Tropeano. Tropeano has given up a 42.0 percent hard-hit rate and 42.0 percent fly-ball rate with slate-worst Statcast numbers of an 89.5 mile-per-hour average exit velocity and 193-foot average batted-ball distance.

Kole Calhoun ($3,900): Since about the end of June, Kole Calhoun has been batting leadoff for the Los Angeles Angels against right-handed pitching and has done quite well for himself. Over his last 10 games, Calhoun has a .350 average while recording 4 home runs, 14 RBIs and an elite 1.210 OPS. He's taking on the Tampa Bay Rays, who will be going with Tyler Glasnow to start, but he is expected to last only a couple innings as he transitions from the bullpen to a full-time starter with the Rays.



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.