Price: $2,200
Another guy bit by the BABIP bug, Chris Taylor has a .231 wOBA on a .216 BABIP over 63 plate appearances this year. Last year he had a .345 BABIP, and his career-average (over 1500 plate appearances) sits at .341. We can expect a serious increase for him moving forward.
Admittedly, he's making much worse contact this year, with a brutal 23.7% hard-hit rate. Again, this year is still a small sample size for him though, and last year he posted a 38.4% hard-hit rate in 536 plate appearances. Regression is coming.
His struggles leave him priced only $200 above the minimum though, so we can be thankful for the variance.
His matchup is a tough one, as Chicago Cubs southpaw Cole Hamels is on pace for his second straight season with a sub-4.00 SIERA, but Taylor made some especially impressive contact against lefties last year, with a 39.9% hard-hit rate, 8.0% soft-hit rate and 43.1% fly-ball rate, and this salary is low enough to keep him in play even in the difficult spot. Our models project him as the top point-per-dollar value on tonight's slate.