4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 5/20/16
Carlos Santana, 1B, Cleveland Indians
FanDuel Price: $2,900
If you want to use Carlos Santana, you'll likely have to bite the bullet on heavy ownership after his double-dong performance last night. If you're cool with it, he's got a great matchup on his hands against the Boston Red Sox and Clay Buchholz.
The wheels have fallen off for Buchholz this year as basically nothing is going his way. He has a 5.04 SIERA with a 16.1% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate. The dip in strikeouts is clearly a concern, but that walk rate is more than double the number he had last year. All of this has come with a drop in his ground-ball rate to 37.8% from 48.3% last year. If there's an area where Buchholz could have declined, he has likely done it, and it has taken a blow torch to his numbers.
This isn't points-chasing with Santana as he has truly been hitting righties well the whole season. His hard-hit rate is 40.2%, and his strikeout rate is lower than his walk rate. Fenway Park isn't a great spot for dingers, but Santana does have a 56.1% fly-ball rate, as well. Again, the ownership will be high, potentially making Mike Napoli the superior play, but there's plenty of reason to believe Santana's due for another big night.