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

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.

Troy Tulowitzki, SS, Toronto Blue Jays

FanDuel Price: $3,200

Troy Tulowitzki has woken up at the plate over his last three games, averaging 24 FanDuel points per game. To the naked eye, it looks like he is finally breaking out of his huge slump. However, a look closer can reveal that it may be a good night to jump off Tulowitzki, who is looking like one of the bigger landmines on the slate tonight.

Tulowitzki has hit safely in 8 of his last 20 at-bats, but a closer look at those games shows that six of those hits came off of right-handers, and none of his extra-base hits came off of left-handed pitchers. Tulowitzki has struggled against lefties a lot more than righties this season. His wOBA through 33 at-bats against lefties this season is .166.

Enter Drew Smyly. He has been tough on lefties this season, but right-handed hitters have had even more trouble with him. Righties own a wOBA of .248 against Smyly this season through 121 total batters, and while his strikeout rate is higher against lefties, it’s still 28.1 percent. There are some reasons to believe in Tulo tonight, but fading him in cash games makes sense.

Miguel Sano, OF, Minnesota Twins

FanDuel Price: $3,400

Miguel Sano was also pretty red-hot over the weekend, and even though he ended Sunday 0-for-3, he is still averaging nearly 15 FanDuel points per game over his last four games. However, the Twins are running up against Jordan Zimmermann in tonight’s matchup with the Tigers, and Sano may continue his hitless streak he started yesterday.

So far this season, Sano has a wOBA of .307 against righties and an average of just .226. His strikeout rate against right-handed pitching this season is a sky-high 35.1 percent, and his hard hit rate goes from 63.6 percent against lefties to 37.1 percent when hitting against right-handers.

Zimmermann has been lights out against hitters from both sides of the plate, but right-handers this season have had even more trouble. They have a wOBA of just .265 against him, a strikeout rate of 17.8 percent, and a hard hit rate of just 17.1 percent. For his career, righties have a strikeout rate of more than 20 percent against Zimmermann, and with how much Sano is striking out against righties this season, it may be wise to jump off the Sano train while you still can.

Brad Miller, SS, Tampa Bay Rays

FanDuel Price: $2,900

Another shortstop from the Rays and Jays game who you may want to stay away from is Brad Miller. Even though Miller has been platooned at times against left-handers this season, you'll probably want to avoid him tonight.

Miller is going up against J.A. Happ, who has been really tough on lefties this season. Lefties own a wOBA against Happ of .275 on the year through 44 total batters faced, and he has yet to give up an extra-base hit to a left-hander this season. Even though his strikeout rate is actually lower against lefties than against righties for this season, Happ has a career strikeout rate of 21.5 percent against lefties and a hard hit rate of 27.3 percent.

Miller, on the other hand, has struggled at the plate overall this season, but he has had some big tournament-winning days at the plate this month. He has three home runs in his last nine games. However, all three of those home runs came off right-handed pitchers. This season Miller’s wOBA against lefties is .231, and his ISO is just .167. He also has a strikeout rate of 32 percent against lefties this season, so if he is in the Rays starting lineup today, it might be best to avoid him.