3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 4/18/16

As is the case in most daily fantasy sports, finding information on players you might want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid.

While you can get away with a zero from a hitter in daily fantasy, you certainly don't want to target guys whose matchups aren't enticing.

Here are three hitters you may want to lessen your exposure to or even fade altogether on Monday.

Giancarlo Stanton, OF, Miami Marlins

FanDuel Price: $4,700

Giancarlo Stanton is off to s a slow start. He is hitting just .205, and his strikeout rate is still very high at 31.9 percent. On a shorter slate like Monday’s, it is imperative to avoid high-priced landmines, and Stanton might be the biggest of the bunch tonight. He is going up against the Nationals and Tanner Roark at home in pitcher-friendly Marlins Park. The only way he is going to hit value, it seems, is if he gets ahold of one that leaves the park.

Stanton has a hard hit rate of just 16.7 percent this season when facing off against right-handed pitching, and throughout his career, he has struggled with strikeouts against righties, with a strikeout rate of 29.6 percent. Roark has pitched well to start the season, and throughout his career, his hard hit rate against right-handed hitters is just 21.8 percent.

Roark’s fly ball rate is also very good against righties during his career at only 27.7 percent. With Stanton struggling against righties to start the season with a wOBA of just .262 in 37 at-bats, don’t make the mistake of spending up on Stanton tonight.

Kole Calhoun, OF, Los Angeles Angels

FanDuel Price: $3,200

Kole Calhoun is off to a nice start for an Angels lineup that needs all the offense they can get. However, of all the Angels tonight, Calhoun faces the toughest matchup against the White Sox's lefty sensation Carlos Rodon. Rodon dominates left-handed hitting. In his career, lefties have a wOBA of just .236 against him, and his strikeout rate against lefties is 25.7 percent.

Calhoun, on the other hand, has a career wOBA of .315 against lefties, and last year, that dropped to .293. So far this season, even though the sample size is still very small, he has been pretty good against left-handed pitching. His wOBA is .438 against lefties, but his strikeout rate is also 22.2 percent in 16 at-bats against left-handed pitchers this season.

With Rodon’s hard hit rate of only 18.2 percent against left-handed hitting throughout his career, Calhoun’s prospects of getting ahold of one and paying off his salary tonight are somewhat slim.

Jayson Werth, OF, Washington Nationals

FanDuel Price: $3,000

The Marlins and Nationals hook up tonight in an NL East divisional battle, and the Marlins are starting their young phenom Jose Fernandez. While Fernandez has struggled some to start the season -- if you favor the 5.06 ERA rather than the 1.99 xFIP and 2.10 SIERA -- of all the Nationals, Jayson Werth probably has the worst matchup against Fernandez. So far this season, Werth has just 6 hits in 31 at-bats against righties, and he has struck out 8 times, which adds up to a strike out rate of 22.2 percent.

Last season, Werth had a down year, but it was especially rough against right-handers. His wOBA was just .293 against righties, and his ISO dropped to .126 against righties, compared to .282 against left-handed pitching. Werth’s fly ball rate against righties last season also dropped to 40.8 percent, compared to 54.4 percent against lefties.

Despite his ERA struggles in 2016, Fernandez has still dominated right-handed hitters. Righties own a wOBA of just .237 against him this season and an insane strike out rate of 53.9 percent. This, of course, has been a theme throughout Fernandez’s young career. Righties own a wOBA of just .206 against him over the last three seasons, and their hard hit rate is 27.3 percent. Don’t expect too much from Werth tonight in a tough matchup.