3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/24/18

Robbie Ray, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks

FanDuel Price: $9,300

We know Robbie Ray is filthy. He has struck out over 30% of the batters he has faced over the past two seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks. There's a reason he's projected as our second-best pitcher of the night. However, there are some red flags with him early this season, and the matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies isn't quite as inviting as it may appear.

Let's start with the matchup against the Phillies first. The Phillies rank 5th in wRC+ and 6th in wOBA against left-handed pitching to this point. They actually have a higher walk rate than strikeout rate against them, which is the type of plate discipline to avoid targeting.

Ray's two bugaboos have been his propensity to allow a lot of hits and hard contact. In his breakout 2017, he walked 10.7% of the batters he faced and surrendered a 40.3% fly-ball rate along with a 40.0% hard-hit rate. And while his strikeouts are up this year (although it may be a red herring as his swinging-strike rate is actually down), his walks and hard contact against is even worse in 2018.

This year, Ray has walked 14.4% of the batters he has faced and surrendered a 43.8% fly-ball rate coupled with a 50.0% hard-hit rate. Ray gets plenty of strikeouts, but he's skating on thin ice in most other categories. His floor is too low to pay up for outside of large-field tournaments.