DraftKings Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Thursday 7/4/19
Every day is unique for daily fantasy baseball, which is both a blessing and a challenge. Although we can’t simply plug and play our favorite studs day in and day out, each slate presents us with a chance for a new gem to vault us up the leaderboards.
Through the use of numberFire’s tools, we can better identify the players primed to succeed each day, making the process of filling out a lineup just that much easier. In addition to our custom optimal lineups, you can check out our batting and pitching heat maps, which show the pieces in the best spot to succeed on that slate. Put on the finishing touches with our games and lineups page to see who's hitting where and what the weather looks like, and you'll have yourself a snazzy looking team to put up some big point totals.
Which names stand out for today on the DraftKings main slate? Let’s check it out, starting with the pitchers.
Pitchers to Target
High-Priced Pitcher
Hyun-jin Ryu ($11,100 on DraftKings): It's Independence Day for 29 of the 30 MLB teams, so there are games on throughout the day. Tonight is just a four-game "main" slate so the options will be limited. Hyun-jin Ryu has been ridiculously efficient this season as proven by his 1.83 ERA. Now, that is a bit misleading but he still has a 3.45 SIERA which easily leads the slate. His 23.9 percent strikeout rate is not the greatest, but he's taking on a San Diego Padres team that has the fourth-highest strikeout rate in the Majors at a 25.9 percent clip.
Value Pitcher
Marcus Stroman ($7,600): This is not an easy matchup as Marcus Stroman takes on the Boston Red Sox. However, on June 23rd, he put up a fantastic 25.9 DraftKings points against Boston, so he does have recent success. Now, there is a chance he misses this start as he is dealing with a pectoral injury, however if he is good to go, I am intrigued. He has an elite 57.5 percent groundball rate as he relies on grounders to produce many of his outs since his 18.6 percent strikeout rate is considerably low.
Hitters to Target
High-Priced Hitters
Joey Gallo ($5,700): Joey Gallo is sporting a .276 batting average this season which is incredible when you consider his career batting average is .214. He has just crushed right-handed pitching this season, which is pretty normal for him as a left-handed hitter. He has put up a .418 wOBA and a .366 ISO against righties as he continues to struggle with his strikeout rate which is 35.8 percent. However, a nice boost is his walk rate which is up to 18.7 percent compared to a career 14.3 percent.
Rafael Devers ($5,300): Of course we already talked about Stroman and that his high groundball tendencies make him an intriguing option on a very short slate, considering his success against the Red Sox just recently. However, there are also reasons to target him with hitters if you avoid him as one of your two pitchers. Stroman has an ugly 4.48 SIERA compared to his 3.18 ERA which makes him look a bit better than he has been. Rafael Devers is the type of hitter that can crushed righties with his .403 wOBA and .244 ISO this season.
Value Hitters
Hunter Renfroe ($3,900): Another batter facing a pitcher I wrote up may not seem ideal, but again, it's a short slate and the cheap options tonight are not the greatest. The concern with Ryu is that he's giving up a ridiculous 24.0 percent line-drive rate and when you combine that with a 38.4 percent hard-hit rate, he could get himself in to a lot of trouble against a Padres team that has a .213 ISO (4th) and .329 wOBA (10th) against left-handed pitchers. Hunter Renfroe especially has crushed southpaws with an absurd .510 wOBA And .571 ISO. Simply eye-opening numbers.
Brian McCann ($3,400): Zach Eflin sits dead last on the slate with a 4.64 SIERA and while that number in general isn't horrific, it is still worth noting that it's the worst of the options we are looking to pick on. In addition to a slate-worst SIERA, he has given up a 37.4 percent hard-hit rate and 39.0 percent fly-ball rate which has led to a 13.0 percent home-run-to-fly-ball rate. Brian McCann is a pretty cheap catcher and has a great lineup around him that will allow him to put his .353 wOBA And .214 ISO to good use tonight.
Ryan Sheppard is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ryan Sheppard also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username donkshow_. 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.
