FanDuel Price: $3,400
Hanley Ramirez had a big day yesterday as he bopped a home run off Masahiro Tanaka. However, his matchup against New York Yankees pitcher Sonny Gray should have you weary of using Ramirez in DFS tonight.
Gray's 3.60 ERA is almost identical to last year's mark (3.55), but his peripherals indicate that he has been even tougher on opposing hitters early on this season. He has maintained a swinging-strike rate of 13.7% in 2018, which would be the highest mark of his career. And, while Gray has always been strong at preventing hard contact in the air, he has taken that to a new level. Through two starts, Gray has allowed just a 14.3% fly-ball rate and 24.1% hard-hit rate thus far.
Ramirez has also experienced some good fortune, maintaining a batting average on balls in play (BABIP) of .394, without a distinct change in his batted-ball profile. In a tough matchup and with regression knocking at the door, Ramirez is an avoid on Thursday.
Akash Bhatia is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Akash Bhatia also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username tenswimrun1. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.