3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 5/6/19
Baseball is here, and there are plenty of DFS contests to choose from on FanDuel's main slate. While we have plenty of pieces geared towards guys you should target in your DFS contests, it's also important to avoid sub-optimal options who are overpriced and/or in tough spots.
Let's check out three players to consider fading on FanDuel's main slate for May 6.
Blake Snell, Tampa Bay Rays
vs Arizona Diamondbacks
FanDuel Price: $9,900
Something seems off with Blake Snell since his return from the Injured List, and with a variety of excellent high-priced options tonight, he makes for an irtriguing fade.
While it's obviously an extremely small sample size, over 6 1/3 innings pitched since coming back, Snell has dipped to a 15.2% strikeout and walk rate. By anyone's standards, including Snell's, that's fairly pedestrian, especially with both starts coming against the lowly Kansas City Royals.
He also seems to working back up into form from a workload perspective. Without the ability to go deeper right now, Snell may have trouble qualifying for a quality start or win, limiting his upside.
Snell is capable of flipping the switch and plowing through the Arizona Diamondbacks, but with so many good pitchers at our disposal today, it's hard to justify the risk, especially in cash.
Eddie Rosario, Minnesota Twins
at Toronto Blue Jays
FanDuel Price: $3,900
While he may have bopped a ton of home runs so far, Eddie Rosario is lagging behind in most other categories, making him tough to roster.
Rosario has showcased plenty of pop -- .314 isolated power (ISO) with 11 home runs this season -- but there's plenty of warts, including a .223 batting average, zero steals, and a mediocre walk rate, leading to a .335 wOBA.
He also draws a tough matchup today versus Marcus Stroman, who has dominated lefties this year (.279 wOBA in 2019) and was similarly strong in the split in 2018 (.325 wOBA).
Rosario has zero extra-base hits in his last eight contests, so while you could say he's due to break out, tonight may not be the night.
Ronald Acuna, Atlanta Braves
at Los Angeles Dodgers
FanDuel Price: $3,900
A quick peek at Walker Buehler's early-season numbers may make you look twice -- a 5.22 ERA and only a 20.0% strikeout rate (down from 27.9% a season ago). While he's been roughly early on, does he make for a sneaky target from a hitting perspective?
It could certainly be true, but for right-handed batters, that's not really the case. He has dominated same-sided bats for a .291 wOBA and 26.9% strikeout rate in 2019, and he did the same a year ago, limiting them to a .241 wOBA and 27.0% strikeout rate.
Ronald Acuna has been one of the league's elite bats this year (.379 wOBA) as part of one of the game's best offenses (.340 wOBA, sixth-best), but check to make sure Acuna is even in the lineup -- he missed yesterday's contest due to a back issue, so he may not be at full strength. Even without the health issue, his matchup tonight against Buehler, despite some poor traditional metrics, makes Acuna one to keep out of lineups.
Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. 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.
