DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 6/7/18
Every day is unique for daily fantasy baseball, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Although we can’t simply plug and play our favorite studs day in and day out, each slate presents us with a chance for a new gem to vault us up the leaderboards.
Through the use of numberFire’s tools, we can better identify the players primed to succeed each day, making the process of filling out a lineup just that much easier. In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.
Which names stand out for today on the DraftKings main slate? Let’s check it out, starting with the pitchers.
Pitchers to Target
High-Priced Pitcher
Gerrit Cole ($14,000 on DraftKings): Pitching tonight is Gerrit Cole and then the rest. He is priced $5,900 more than the second-highest priced pitcher, his opposition, Cole Hamels. Cole has been incredible this season and easily leads the slate with a 38.2 percent strikeout rate, 0.83 WHIP and 2.61 xFIP. Additionally, the Texas Rangers have the third-highest strikeout rate at 25.6 percent. Cole is in a great spot, albeit at an expensive price tag, but you naturally have to pair him with somebody cheap due to the other options.
Low-Priced Pitcher
Jaime Garcia ($6,600): Given the other options, Jaime Garcia doesn't feel like the worst possible thing ever. However, the matchup is one of the best he can get as he's taking on the Baltimore Orioles. They have struck out at a 24.6 percent rate, which is the sixth-highest, and their team weighted on-base average (wOBA) of .293 and wRC+ of 82 are both the second-worst in all of baseball. Garcia has just a 20.5 percent strikeout rate, but that is actually the fourth-best clip out of the 10 pitchers on this slate. So, as mentioned above, the options are ugly outside of Cole, and at Garcia's price, you're just looking for a somewhat clean game in which he can pick up the win.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
George Springer ($4,800): George Springer has crushed lefties in the past, putting up an elite .413 wOBA and .248 isolate power (ISO) in 2017. Those numbers are even better this season with a .425 wOBA and .306 ISO, and he's going to take on Cole Hamels, who has been surprisingly solid this year -- at leas on the surface. But Hamels has been giving up a lot of hard-contact with a 44.3 percent hard-hit rate and 88.8 mile-per-hour average exit velocity. Additionally, when the ball has been hit in the air off Hamels, it's often not coming back as he owns a 20.8 percent home-run-per-fly-ball rate.
Matt Olson ($4,600): In 2017, Matt Olson was absolutely dominant against right-handed pitching. He put up a .439 wOBA and insane .434 ISO in the split, numbers that were matched by few. He's also starting to heat up as over his last 10 games, he's hit for a .308 average, 1.013 OPS, 4 home runs, 11 RBIs and 8 runs. Taking on Jason Hammel is a great matchup as Hammel has given up a 44.1 percent hard-hit rate with a 190-foot average batted-ball distance. Furthermore, Hammel's 1.43 WHIP and 4.90 xFIP are both bottom-three on the slate.
Value Hitters
Mitch Haniger ($4,000): The Seattle Mariners will take on the Tampa Bay Rays, who will have Ryne Stanek on the mound as their "opener." Stanek has just 32.1 innings in the Majors, so the sample size is small, but he has struggled against the 88 right-handed hitters he's faced, giving up a .433 wOBA and 8 home runs. That is something that Mitch Haniger can feast on. So far in 2018, Haniger has dropped his wOBA of .350 versus righties with a 40.4 percent hard-hit rate and 43.0 percent fly-ball rate.
Jorge Soler ($3,800): The Oakland Athletics will be using Paul Blackburn tonight against the Kansas City Royals, and he has just 58.2 career innings pitched. In that sample, he has struggled to strike out anybody as indicated by his 9.2 percent strikeout rate. Additionally, he has a lowly 4.76 xFIP and 1.26 WHIP. Jorge Soler has had a resurgent season and is hitting for a solid .337 wOBA and .168 ISO against right-handed pitchers. The numbers aren't elite by any means, but given the matchup, he certainly has the opportunity to have a big game.
Ryan Sheppard is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ryan Sheppard also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username donkshow_. 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.
