3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 4/28/16

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 Thursday.

Giancarlo Stanton, OF, Miami Marlins

FanDuel Price: $4,700

Giancarlo Stanton is on a nice streak right now as a fantasy baseball hitter. In his last four games, he is averaging 24.3 FanDuel points per game, and in one of those games, he turned his night around with a huge home run off of Clayton Kershaw.

However, Stanton has struggled -- by his standards -- against righties this season. Stanton owns a wOBA of .351 against righties and an average of just .242. His strikeout rate against righties in 62 at-bats is 30.1 percent, and so far this season, his hard hit rate drops from 50 percent against lefties, to 24.4 percent against right-handed pitching.

Kenta Maeda, on the other hand, has had a great start to 2016, especially against right-handed hitting. Righties have a wOBA of just .187 off him so far, and while the sample size is small, Maeda has a strikeout rate of 26 percent against righties and a hard hit rate of only 20 percent. Stanton has the ability to beat almost any pitcher, but for one he has never faced, tonight may be the night where his recent hot streak ends.

Yasiel Puig, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers

FanDuel Price: $3,300

In the same game, Yasiel Puig doesn’t have the best matchup either against the Marlins’ ace, Jose Fernandez. After a rough start to the season, Fernandez is starting to settle down some. In his last start, he had a rough first inning, but in the one before that, he pitched six strong innings with nine strikeouts. Things will come along for the righty as he returns from major surgery, which is bad news for Puig.

Fernandez has a strikeout rate of 48.2 percent this season against righties in 54 total at-bats against him in 2016, and righties have a hard hit rate of just 17.4 percent against. On top of that, Fernandez’s fly ball rate against right-handers is just 26.1 percent, and while Puig has performed much better against righties than lefties so far this season, he has also seen some of his numbers dip against them.

Puig’s strikeout rate, for instance, is 22.6 percent against righties this season, which is slightly higher than his career rate against right-handers. His fly ball rate is also much lower against righties this season at 33.3 percent, compared to 50 percent against lefties. While his BABIP against right-handers is solid at .366, his ISO actually drops a few points to .161 against right-handers this season, all of which are close to his career averages.

Puig has also struggled some against power pitchers. He hits just .245 against power pitchers in his career, and his strikeout rate against power arms is nearly 35 percent. Considering he is only 1-for-7 against Fernandez in his career on top of all of this, don’t expect too much from him tonight.

Chris Carter, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers

FanDuel Price: $3,400

The Cubs and Brewers got rained out on Wednesday, so that pushed back Jake Arrieta's chance at making history if he throws another no-hitter. The Brewers are all pretty questionable heading into this matchup, but one of the bigger landmines in their lineup due to his big start to the year is Chris Carter.

Carter is a career .220 hitter but owns an average of .297 so far this season. He's gone yard five times and has a wOBA of .425, which ranks 16th in the league.

Arrieta has been unbelievably dominant lately, so don't look at Carter's recent game log -- 7 hits in his last 14 at-bats -- and roster him in such a tough spot.

Right-handed hitters have a wOBA of just .137 off Arrieta so far this season, and his strikeout rate against them is 27.9 percent. Compounding this is that Carter has struggled with righties this year with a 33.9 percent strikeout rate. His hard hit rate drops from 54.6 against lefties to 31.4 percent against righties this season.

Don't chase the box score with Carter today.