5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 4/25/19

Jay Bruce, OF, Seattle Mariners

Price: $3,000

The Seattle Mariners are, as of Thursday morning, the only team with an implied total within even one run of the Red Sox.

Their matchup is a bit of an unknown, as the Texas Rangers will be giving Taylor Hearn his first major league start, but the spot is promising for the M's. Hearn has only ever made four Triple-A starts, with an ugly 4.85 xFIP in that sample. The biggest recent sample we get are his 19 Double-A starts as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization last year, and he didn't impress much with a 3.87 xFIP.

A lefty-versus-lefty matchup isn't ideal for Jay Bruce, but he projects as the only player in the Mariners' lineup tonight with a price of $3,000 or lower, so he's well worth a look.

He's tagged left-handed pitchers for a hard-hit rate of at least 32.0% and a fly-ball rate of at least 40.0% in each of the last three years, so even though his production isn't consistent in same-sided matchups, the upside is still there. With four of the projected top five bats in Seattle's lineup being righties, Bruce could also get a few cracks at some right-handed relievers tonight.

He's bounced back from last year's awful .296 wOBA with a .359 in 2019 so far, and that's in line with the .350 we saw from him in 2017. His price tag does reflect this solid production, and he's not an especially cheap value option, but we can't be too picky on a slate like this. The upside in hitting in one of the two offenses with an implied total above even 4.50 makes him worth paying up for.

Also note that Bruce has been sidelined by a quad injury, so double-check the news before you plug him into your lineup.