3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 4/26/16

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 Tuesday.

Michael Saunders, OF, Toronto Blue Jays

FanDuel Price: $3,200

There are a host of tough lefty-lefty matchups on the slate for Tuesday night due to all the top tier left-handed pitchers, and Michael Saunders has one of the tougher matchups as he faces off against Chris Sale. In his last full season in 2014, Saunders had a strikeout rate of 26 percent against lefties, and for his career, that number is 28.1 percent. He has a career wOBA of just .285 against lefties, and his on-base percentage is .282 during his career 582 at-bats against left-handed pitchers.

Sale, conversely, has dominated everyone so far to start the season, but during his career, he has been especially devastating to lefties. Sale owns a wOBA against lefties of just .236 and an insane strikeout rate of 30.6 percent. Considering Saunders high strikeout rate, that’s a recipe for disaster.

Another big factor is Sale’s love of the Rogers Centre. In three career starts there, the Jays are hitting just .169 off him.

Christian Yelich, OF, Miami Marlins

FanDuel Price: $3,400

Speaking of tough lefty matchups for Tuesday, Christian Yelich faces off against Clayton Kershaw tonight. I could probably just stop there for most of you, but for those who haven’t followed Kershaw as closely this season, lefties have a lot of trouble with him to say the least. So far this season against the 30 lefties Kershaw has faced, those hitters have a wOBA of .111 against him and a strikeout rate of 33.3 percent.

That strikeout rate is even lower than his career average against lefties of 37.3 percent, and Kershaw’s career xFIP against lefties is an insane 2.07 for his career. While most of the Marlins should probably be avoided tonight with Kershaw on the mound, Yelich sticks out because of how well he has started the season, which could influence some to ignore his tougher than average matchup.

Yelich is hitting .371 to start the season, and his wOBA is an incredible .446. He is riding a six-game hitting streak coming into tonight, and he has scored a run in four of his last five games. However, even though he has hit very well in the six at-bats he has against left-handed pitchers so far this season, his career numbers suggest tonight may be the night that starts to change. Yelich has a career wOBA of .319 against left-handed pitchers, and his strikeout rate goes up to 23.0 percent during his career against them. Don’t expect much from him tonight against one of the game’s best southpaws.

Yasmany Tomas, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks

FanDuel Price: $3,500

The Diamondbacks' young outfielder, Yasmany Tomas, has been hitting very well over the last two games. He is 4-for-11 in his last two games with two doubles, two RBI and five runs scored. He has scored 51 FanDuel points in his last two games, and that is one of the main reasons he is faced with landmine status tonight against Carlos Martinez.

Martinez has been almost un-hittable against right-handed batters so far this season. Opposing righties have a wOBA of just .088, and his strikeout rate against righties is up to 36.7 percent against the 30 right-handed batters he has faced in 2016. While these numbers are a bit inflated due to the small sample size, for his career, Martinez holds righties to a wOBA of just .270, and his strikeout rate against them is 28.1 percent.

Tomas, on the other hand, has struggled some against right-handed pitching during his career. So far this season, he is hitting just .234 against righties, with a wOBA of .315. For his career, his power drops significantly against righties, as his ISO dips from .221 against lefties to .117 against righties. His career wOBA is just .297 against righties, and his strikeout rate is 26.7 percent. Against a hard-throwing, strikeout pitcher in Martinez, Tomas' recent games might come back to bite those rostering him tonight.