3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for Monday 8/16/21
With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.
An 0-for-4 dud from a chalky high-salaried slugger is a lot more common than a total dud from a top-salaried NBA player or even than a stinker from a top quarterback or running back.
That means that it's not uncommon for value plays to end up doing the heavy lifting in carrying your lineup. The fact that they can be the difference between a good and a great lineup isn't much different than other sports, but value plays being able to make up for a whiff on a high-salaried play completely is somewhat unique.
Let's get right into it and take a look at the top value options on today's 10-game main slate.
Cal Quantrill, SP, Cleveland Indians
FanDuel Salary: $8,500
Tonight's slate features both Gerrit Cole ($11,400) and Kevin Gausman ($10,300), so you'll certainly be able to roster an elite arm if you choose to go down that route. However, with the San Diego Padres in Coors Field tonight, you might want to conserve some salary for those mouth-watering stacks, and while the masses might be on Touki Toussaint ($7,900), Cal Quantrill's form makes him an intriguing play.
Over his last six starts (spanning 36 innings), Quantrill has accrued a 1.25 ERA, 3.04 FIP, 0.97 WHIP, and 23.2% strikeout rate. He's also allowed just one ball to leave the park during that stretch. As a result, the right-hander has eclipsed 30 FanDuel points in five of those six outings, including 40 and 61 in two of his last three.
The Cleveland Indians will be taking on the Minnesota Twins tonight, so it's not the easiest of opponents for Quantrill, but the Twins have been below-average in OPS, wOBA, wRC+, and strikeout rate in the month of August, per FanGraphs.
Quantrill is a player who can both differentiate your lineup and return excellent value tonight.
Connor Joe, OF, Colorado Rockies
FanDuel Salary: $2,900
As I mentioned above, there's a game in Coors tonight, which means we should get exposure in any way we can, and Connor Joe should be a top priority here.
The Rockies will get to face Padres rookie Ryan Weathers, who has struggled through his first 74 1/3 innings in the bigs thus far. The southpaw has amassed a 4.72 ERA, and his 5.38 xERA and 4.81 SIERA aren't exactly encouraging. He's also surrendering 1.7 homers per nine frames.
Right-handed hitters have raked against Weathers in 2021, to the tune of a .847 OPS, .360 wOBA, and 2.05 round-trippers per nine. Yikes.
Meanwhile, Connor Joe has been on absolute fire lately. Over his last 20 games (75 plate appearances), he's amassed a .319 average, .983 OPS, 9 extra-base hits (6 homers), and 18 RBI. In just 19 plate appearances in Coors during that stretch, Joe has swatted 4 dongs while driving in 10. That'll play.
Wilson Ramos, C, Cleveland Indians
FanDuel Salary: $2,200
Twins right-hander Griffin Jax has a 5.45 ERA and 5.33 xFIP this campaign, and a lot of it is due to the damage that same-sided hitters have done against him.
So far in 2021, righties have pelted Jax to the tune of a .927 OPS, .379 wOBA, and 3.18 HR/9. Sheeeesh.
Wilson Ramos is one right-hander who could benefit from this matchup tonight. In 109 trips to the plate against righties this season, Ramos has smacked seven homers and posted a .248 ISO. The veteran backstop has gone yard twice in four games as a member of the Indians.
