Fantasy Baseball

Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategy, April 24, 2019: DraftKings Value Plays

Today’s 7-game slate features just one hurler priced at/over the $10,000 mark on DraftKings (Justin Verlander – $10,500 – vs. the Twins) but there are four additional arms above $9,000 (Cole Hamels – $9,800 at home against the Dodgers, Walker Buehler – $9,400 at the Cubs, Vincent Velasquez – $9,200 at the Mets and Eduardo Rodriguez – $9,000 at home against the Tigers). Values aren’t this easiest to find on the mound for this slate, so we’ll need to find value elsewhere in their lineups to squeeze in each of the ideal arms/bats into our lineups. With that said, here are a trio of bats that present value on Wednesday that will provide you with some roster flexibility.

As always, these players are projected to be in today’s starting lineups but please pay attention to team lineups once they are released.

A.J. Pollock | Dodgers | OF | $3,600

Going back to the well with A.J. Pollock tonight on the road in Chicago. He’ll face southpaw Cole Hamels and the Cubs with a run total currently at 8 and a Dodgers team total at 4.13. Jose Quintana kept the Dodgers bats somewhat quiet last night allowing just two earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out seven. Pollock gets the platoon advantage against LHP Cole Hamels who allows RHB a .300 wOBA, a 3.67 FIP and has allowed 241 of his 296 career homers to right-handers. Kike Hernandez ($3,900) and Justin Turner ($3,400) and David Freese ($3,200) also make sense from a value standpoint in the same contest.

Stevie Wilkerson | Orioles | OF | $2,100

Switch-hitting Stevie Wilkerson gets the start tonight for the Orioles hitting sixth in front of Joey Rickard with Chris Davis taking a seat. Wilkerson showed some speed and power in a small sample at Triple-A this season but has yet to produce in the first division in the handful of opportunities he’s been given. At $2,100 he’s basically an OF punt that will allow you to get access to the highest game total on tonight’s slate (10 runs) as well as access to the more expensive pitching and bats should you choose.

Jonathan Lucroy | Angels | C | $3,400

Lucroy seems to be slipping back into the old form bat that we knew. In 74 plate appearances so far this season, Lucroy is slashing .282/.311/.352 with a 4.1% BB% and just a 9.5% K%. Only one home run is somewhat disappointing, but he’ll get a nice match-up with southpaw C.C. Sabathia with the platoon advantage. For his career, Lucroy owns a .339 wOBA and a .170 ISO against left-handed hurlers. He’s the 12th most expensive catcher on the slate and should be a low-owned option for tournaments.

Admittedly the aim was to identify values at a couple different positions. Without the writeups, here are a couple more values I like for tonight’s slate: Chris Taylor (Dodgers, OF/SS, $2,900 vs. Cole Hamels), Jeimer Candelario (Tigers, 3B, $3,200 vs. Eduardo Rodriguez) and Sean Rodriguez (Phillies, 1B/2B, $2,900 vs. Jason Vargas).

In addition to those noted above, here are a few players that I like to leave the yard tonight:

Dwight Smith, Jr. (BAL vs. Ervin Santana), Brett Gardner (NYY vs. Felix Pena), Michael Conforto (NYM vs. Vince Velasquez), Jose Abreu (CWS vs. BAL) Josh Reddick (HOU vs. Kohl Stewart) and Mike Trout (LAA vs. C.C. Sabathia).

Stacks: White Sox/Orioles, Dodgers in tournament, Mets LHB vs. Vincent Velasquez and Astros/Red Sox as chalky cash plays.

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