Daily Fantasy Baseball: Positive Batted-Ball Regression Candidates for Week 19
Yonder Alonso, 1B, Cleveland Indians
We were all perhaps too eager to pencil in Yonder Alonso as a flash in the pan after he followed up his late-career breakout in 2017 (.266/.365./.501) with an underwhelming first half to 2018 (.247/.318/.435 through June). But the Cleveland Indians' slugger has hit the runway hard over the last month in terms of power, with a .244 isolated slugging (ISO) on the back of 6 long balls in that span, yet his FanDuel salary remains in the low $3,000s thanks to a .244 batting average and .311 on-base percentage.
Alonso carries a strong 25.0% line drive rate and a depressed .226 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) in the last 30 days, meaning he might be headed for a more complete offensive profile should a few more balls bounce in his favor.
Alonso looks like a top value play in Week 19, particularly against soft righties like Jake Odorizzi, James Shields, and Dylan Covey. The 31-year-old has popped a .205 ISO against righties over the last two calendar years, so he could even make for an interesting contrarian play against tougher right handers like Kyle Gibson and Jose Berrios.
