Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategy, April 20, 2017: DraftKings Value Plays
This evening’s seven-game slate features just seven contests with just a pair of hurlers priced over the $10,000 mark on DraftKings (Noah Syndergaard and Stephen Strasburg). You may not be as pressed to find extremely low priced players to fit in your lineup like Clayton Kershaw nights, but here are a few “value” plays for Thursday so you can try to squeeze in some of the higher priced pitchers or bats into your lineups.
Jarrod Dyson | OF | Mariners | $3,100
Jarrod Dyson figures to be leading off for the Mariners against the Athletics’ right-hander Cesar Valdez on the road in Oakland. Dyson, with the platoon advantage, owns a career .306 wOBA, 90 wRC+ and a four percent spike in hard hit rate (19.9% Hard%). He will get a negative park shift and the game total sits at just 7.5 at the time of this writing, but Valdez — who hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2010 — allowed a .417 wOBA to left-handed hitters during his last stint in the league. Dyson is always a major threat to swipe bags when he gets on the base paths, so he could have a nice scoring night for your lineup while saving your a few bucks.
Adam Rosales | 2B/3B | Athletics | $2,400
We’ll stick to the same venue but switch dugouts to land on Adam Rosales as the next value play for Thursday. Rosales projects to bat second for the Athletics against southpaw James Paxton and can be slotted in at either second or third base. For his career, Rosales owns a .316 wOBA and a .151 ISO against left-handed hurlers. For the BvPers out there, Rosales is 3-for-9 with a homerun lifetime against Paxton.
Eric Thames | 1B | Brewers | $3,800
Not exactly a secret here.
Thames is off to a scorching start in his return to MLB, slashing .408/.500/.959 with seven homers, 18 runs scored and 12 rib-eyes in 58 plate appearances. Small samples are what they are, but it’s hard to ignore the hot start even when facing one of the best young pitchers in baseball, Carlos Martinez. Although Thames’ price reflects a tough matchup, lefties have pestered Martinez a bit over his career to the tune of a .329 wOBA, on a 31.4% Hard%, leaving him with a 4.25 FIP. The Cardinals are a slight favorite (-118) at the time of this writing, but the game features an expected run total of eight with the Brewers’ implied run total account for 3.9. Should be a lower owned option at 1B tonight with a good chance for a homer.