3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 5/17/19
Baseball is heating up, and there are plenty of DFS contests to choose from on FanDuel's main slate. While we have plenty of pieces geared towards guys you should target in your DFS contests, it's also important to avoid sub-optimal options who are overpriced and/or in tough spots.
Let's check out three players to consider fading on FanDuel's main slate for May 17.
Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds (1B)
vs Los Angeles Dodgers
FanDuel Price: $3,200
Is this the beginning of the end for superstar Joey Votto? He's a cheap option at only $3,200, and that might seem like it makes him attractive in a game with an over/under of 9.5 runs.
We can hope it's just a slow start for the slugger, and the batted-ball profile isn't overly horrific. His hard-hit rate remains solid at 38.9%, and he's upped his fly-ball rate at 44.4% fly-ball rate.
What is a bit perturbing is that Votto's over isolated power (ISO) is now down to .141, slightly above last year's mark of .135. His strikeout rate has also jumped up to 23.6%, and his opposition, Rich Hill, is a tall task. A year ago, Hill limited same-sided lefties to a .296 wOBA and 29.8% strikeout rate.
Hill seems to still be working himself into form, but Votto could have his hands full this evening.
Hunter Pence, Texas Rangers (OF)
vs St. Louis Cardinals
FanDuel Price: $3,900
The resurgence of Hunter Pence has been a fun one to watch, and his batting prowess has been a big reason the Texas Rangers their offense ranks third in team wOBA (.342) on the year.
To keep up his hot play, Pence and the rest of the Rangers will need to battle a pitcher who really limits right-handed bats well in Miles Mikolas. Last year, Mikolas earned an All-Star appearance based on this excellence, limiting same-sided bats to a .223 wOBA, .264 slugging percentage, and only a 26.2% fly-ball rate.
2019 has been more of the same for Mikolas -- he has held right-handed bats to a .261 wOBA and 27.1% fly-ball rate.
Pence and his buddies currently sport the second-highest implied team total at 5.61 runs, but Mikolas will look to keep those hitters in check.
Tommy La Stella, Los Angeles Angels (3B)
vs Kansas City Royals
FanDuel Price: $3,400
At this point, you can't really plan to stop Tommy La Stella , you can only hope to contain him, right?
After popping a combined 10 home runs in his last five major league seasons combined (2014-2018), La Stella now owns 11 jacks with a .999 OPS on his resume in just 2019. Who woulda thunk?
The home run train may hit the skids tonight for the new slugger. While Brad Keller hasn't exactly been a shutdown arm, he has shown a propensity in his career to limit damage to lefty bats. Spanning 383 total batters, lefties have only hit Keller for a .318 wOBA and 24.2% fly-ball rate.
The Angels have the fourth-highest implied team total at 5.18 runs, so their ownership will likely be high -- but rostering La Stella may not be wise.
Matt Kupferle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matt Kupferle also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username MKupferle. 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.
