MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 5/13/16

Jordan Sharp  —  @TehSharp May 13th, 2016
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.

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 Friday.

Brian McCann, C, New York Yankees

FanDuel Price: $3,100

The Yankees had a home run derby last night against the Royals, but now they welcome in Chris Sale and the White Sox to town to start a weekend series. While there are several Yankees who could be labeled landmines, none are more dangerous to your rosters than Brian McCann.

McCann has been striking out a lot to start the season, but against lefties, it’s even worse. His total strikeout rate this season is 25.9 percent, but against lefties, that rate goes up to 31.3 percent. His wOBA against lefties is also just .300, and his hard hit rate against them goes down to 22.2 percent in 2016.

Enter Sale, who is virtually unhittable against lefties. This may lead to the Yankees not even putting McCann in the lineup today, but if they do, he is a landmine waiting to happen. Sale owns a wOBA against lefties of just .183 this season, and his strikeout rate against lefties is 26.5 percent. Furthermore, lefties own a hard hit rate of just 13 percent in 2016 against Sale, and Sale’s fly ball rate against lefties is only 27.3 percent, compared to 42.3 percent against righties. Do not roster any Yankees left-handers tonight, especially McCann.

Yasmany Tomas, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks

FanDuel Price: $3,700

For the first time this season, a player is making a consecutive appearance. Yasmany Tomas went 0-for-4 yesterday with a run scored against Johnny Cueto, and now the Diamondbacks' slugger has another tough matchup against Jeff Samardzija.

Samardzija has been getting better with every passing start it seems, and he has been equally tough on hitters from both sides of the plate. However, against righties, he is posting a wOBA against of .280 so far this season, and righties own an average of just .222 through 107 total batters faced.

Tomas, on the other hand, has a wOBA of .263 against righties after last night, and when he hits at home, it gets even worse. At home against right-handers, Tomas has a wOBA of just .253, and a strikeout rate of 23.9 percent. Even though Samardzija isn’t as tough of a matchup as Cueto was last night, do not expect big things from Tomas given his splits.

Kevin Kiermaier, OF, Tampa Bay Rays

FanDuel Price: $2,900

The Rays have a lot of platoon players whom they put in and out of their lineup based on the handedness of the pitcher they are facing, but Kevin Kiermaier tends to stay in there against lefties. However, that does not mean he is a solid DFS target this evening against Rich Hill and the Oakland A’s.

Hill has been very good against left-handed hitters this season. Lefties have a wOBA of only .269 against him this season, and out of the 35 total lefties he has faced, he has given up only two extra-base hits and no home runs. Even though Hill’s strikeout rate against righties is better than against lefties this season, his hard hit rate against lefties this season is only 25 percent.

Kiermaier is hitting just .225 against lefties for his career, with a wOBA of only .260, and a strikeout rate of 22.9 percent. His ISO drops to .104 against lefties compared to .195 against righties in his big league career, and his hard hit rate is just 23.1 percent. Even though he is slowly improving on those numbers this season, he is still hitting only .167 against lefties this season through 24 at-bats.