4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/14/17

Carlos Correa and George Springer, Houston Astros

Correa's FanDuel Price: $3,700

Springer's FanDuel Price: $4,100

Kendall Graveman has had a strong start to the season, including a no-hit bid that he took into the seventh inning against the Rangers. Surprisingly, he's racking up the strikeouts, already notching 12 across 13 innings, good for a 25% strikeout rate.

What's curious is how he's doing it, though. Graveman is throwing his sinker at an absurdly high rate, even surpassing 92% in that Rangers game. The increase in usage dates back to last summer, but it never quite reached this extreme.

A change in pitch usage can sometimes lead to improved performance, such as Matt Shoemaker when he increased his splitter usage last season, but it was nowhere close to this extent. You could say Graveman is practically turning into a one-pitch pitcher.

It's one thing to be Mariano Rivera and do that for one or two innings, but facing an entire lineup multiple times?

It's tough to say how long this can last, or whether this strategy will continue, but until teams adjust, we should approach using hitters against him with some trepidation.

Even if the strikeouts regress, Graveman's sinker-heavy approach has naturally led to a high ground-ball rate (54.5%), which is close to what he did last season (52.1%).

Against right-handers in 2016, Carlos Correa (51.5%) and George Springer (49.0%) had high ground-ball rates, making them particularly unappealing targets versus Graveman. Furthermore, their high price points are not ideal on a slate where you will likely be trying to fit in the pricey Kershaw or Syndergaard in cash lineups.