MLB

DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 4/18/19

Paying up for hitters at Coors Field is the best option tonight. Who are some players that can help you afford those expensive bats?

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

Chris Paddack ($9,100 on DraftKings): Oof, not only do we have a small five-game slate, the pitching options are a nightmare. Let's see where we can go tonight, but we're going to be scraping the bottom, which means that paying up for hitting might be the best way to go. Anyway, Chris Paddack of the San Diego Padres is not only the most expensive pitcher on the slate, he is also probably the best outright option. He's got a home matchup against the Cincinnati Reds, and Paddack has been relatively solid this season. While he hasn't gone more than 5.1 innings pitched nor has he been able to reach 90 pitches, there is still optimism in this matchup. He has an elite 30.2 percent strikeout rate, though has struggled with his 11.3 percent walk rate, and his ability to get swings and misses gives him good upside on this slate.

Low-Priced Pitcher

Ryan Yarbrough ($7,400): Hunter Wood is going to be the opening pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, with Ryan Yarbrough expected to come in and be the bulk guy. Be sure to check closer to game time in case it is announced that a different pitcher will relieve Wood. Either way, whoever is pitching in the bulk role for Tampa today is a solid option. Yarbrough has a modest 20.4 percent strikeout rate, but with Andrew Cashner pitching for the Baltimore Orioles, there is a good chance that the Rays' long reliever picks up the win. With the poor pitching options along with this being a Coors slate, trying to spend as little on pitching without getting blown up is a decent strategy. Targeting the Orioles is a good way to go.

Hitters to Target

High-Priced Hitters

Charlie Blackmon ($5,100): As mentioned above, we have a Coors slate. Charlie Blackmon and the Colorado Rockies will host the Philadelphia Phillies tonight with two mediocre pitchers on the mound. Blackmon will take on Phillies right-hander Zach Eflin. In 2018, Blackmon hit righties to the tune of a .376 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and .235 isolated power (ISO). While he and most of the Rockies have struggled this season, that is mostly due to having just five of their 18 games at their home park.

Dan Vogelbach ($4,700): Dan Vogelbach has dominated the last two springs, but this year, he has continued that dominance into the regular season. Vogelbach is tearing a strip off the baseball right now. Over his last 10 games, he has five home runs and 10 RBIs with a 1.252 OPS. In 2019, he has destroyed right-handed pitching with an absurd .505 wOBA and equally dominant .500 ISO. These numbers are surely going to come down as he regresses to the mean, but for now, it's worth riding out this dominance.

Value Hitters

Yandy Diaz ($4,100): The Tampa Bay Rays have been one of the biggest surprises to start the 2019 season. While there were some out there who didn't think they'd be as bad as the general public believed, there is no way anybody expected them to be 14-4 through their first 18 games. Yandy Diaz has been a fantastic contributor to the Rays' hot start, and while he is just 2-for-16 over his last five games, his overall season numbers are solid, especially against right-handed pitching. His .396 wOBA and .289 ISO against righties are what make him an intriguing option against Cashner. In 2018, Cashner allowed a modest 32.5 percent hard-hit rate, but his 36.2 percent fly-ball rate and 88.7 mile-per-hour average exit velocity resulted in a 13.6 home-run-to-fly-ball rate.

Scott Kingery ($4,000): There is no reason to believe the Phillies will be taking Scott Kingery out of the lineup anytime soon, considering that over his last 10 games he has an insane .522 average and 1.533 OPS with homers runs in back-to-back games. Tonight he gets a nice matchup against Kyle Freeland in the best offensive park in baseball, Coors Field. Freeland was solid in 2018, but he still gave up a 34.5 percent fly-ball rate. And although his hard-hit rate was a modest 31.6 percent, he could still get into trouble against a top-notch lineup like the Phillies'.



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.