MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 6/21/19

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 June 21.

James Paxton, New York Yankees (SP)

vs Houston Astros
FanDuel Price: $9,200

It's a week of big-time showdowns in the American League, as the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros square off tonight.

As James Paxton tabs the slab, he runs up against a very adept offense. Against left-handed pitching, the 'Stros have had no equal, leading the league in wOBA (.367), walk rate (11.3%), and fourth in fly-ball rate (38.4%).

Since coming off of the Injured List, Paxton also hasn't been on top of his game. Over 17 1/3 innings pitched spanning four starts, he's recorded an ugly 5.69 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, and a single quality start.

Paxton does have swing-and-miss stuff, keeping him on the GPP radar (especially since he won't see much ownership), but on a night with so many good arms going in great matchups, you don't need to take on the risk with Paxton.

Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians (SS)

vs Detroit Tigers
FanDuel Price: $4,000

Despite one of the lowest over/unders on the day (7.5 runs), their status as heavy favorites (moneyline -174) leaves the Cleveland Indians in a prime run spot for run scoring with a solid 4.60 implied total.

The betting lines are a bit of a head scratcher as they face Matt Boyd, who's been brilliant so far in 2019 with a juicy 3.26 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) and career-best 30.7% strikeout rate.

Boyd has been absolutely filthy against right-handed batters, limiting them to a 2.98 wOBA and 30.8% strikeout rate on the year.

With a slight breeze blowing in, Lindor is tough to stomach in this spot.

Freddie Freeman, Atlanta Braves (1B)

at Washington Nationals
FanDuel Price: $4,400

Freddie Freeman has been absolutely ballin' this month. Let's put his dominance into perspective. Since June 1, the Atlanta Braves' first baseman ranks fourth in wOBA (.471) and owns a 1.180 OPS with eight home runs.

OK -- so why fade him?

Because Stephen Strasburg, Freeman's opponent, has been absolutely dirty against lefties this year. Spanning 161 total batters faced, the righty hurler has limited left-handed bats to a paltry .252 wOBA, .331 slugging percentage, 30.4% strikeout rate, and 30.2% hard-hit rate.

Freeman has been a man on a mission lately, but he could get derailed a bit tonight.



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.