5 Daily Fantasy Baseball Value Plays for 9/16/19

With production being highly variable on a night-to-night basis, daily fantasy baseball plays a bit differently than other sports.

An 0-for-4 dud from a chalky high-priced slugger is a lot more common than a total dud from a top-priced NBA player or even than a stinker from a top quarterback or running back.

That means that it's not uncommon for value plays to end up doing the heavy lifting in carrying your lineup. The fact that they can be the difference between a good and a great lineup isn't much different than other sports, but value plays being able to make up for a whiff on a high-priced play completely is somewhat unique.

Let's get right into it and take a look at the top value options on today's slate.

Eddie Rosario, OF, Minnesota Twins ($3,000)

After a three home-run weekend, it looks like Eddie Rosario is breaking out of the slump that has his price at a season-low, and he is a great value for tonight’s slate.

Rosario will be in the middle of the Minnesota Twins lineup, as he’s been all season. The Twins lineup will face Chicago White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez tonight. Lopez has struggled all season long, as shown by his 5.35 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, and 31 home runs allowed in 166 ⅔ innings. Lopez has also mightily struggled against the Twins in his two starts against them this season, allowing five home runs and a 10.24 ERA in 9 ⅔ innings.

Ian Desmond, OF, Colorado Rockies ($3,300)

Against left-handed pitching, Ian Desmond has been a legitimately different hitter than he has been against righties. In 181 plate appearances, Desmond has a .938 OPS with 11 home runs, with an 8.3% walk rate and a 19.3% strikeout rate, compared to against righties where Desmond has a .667 OPS with six home runs, a 6.9% walk rate, and a 28.6% strikeout rate.

His home and road splits are equally drastic, as at Coors Field his OPS sits at .890, whereas away from Coors he has a .652 OPS.

Based on all of that, there’s only one scenario where I’m comfortable using Desmond, and that’s against lefties at Coors field. Tonight, Desmond faces New York Mets left-handed pitcher Steven Matz. Given how good Desmond has been both at home and against lefties, I feel great about him as a value tonight.

Ramon Laureano, OF, ($2,900) Mark Canha, OF, ($3,100) Seth Brown, 1B, ($3,100) Oakland Athletics

With a short seven-game slate tonight, there’s not a ton of stack potential, however, the Oakland Athletics lineup has three value bats that will be returning value tonight.

Starting with Ramon Laureano, Laureano had started to cement himself as a breakout before missing a month due to an injury. Since returning, he’s looked like the same breakout. It’s only been 23 plate appearances, but Laureano has hit .316 with a .970 OPS and a 2:3 walk to strikeout ratio. His price will balloon back up once he proves he’s healthy, and he should continue to do so tonight.

Mark Canha has dominated right-handed pitching all season long, hitting for a .287/.409/.536 slash line in 318 plate appearances with 17 home runs. Canha has also established himself as the clean-up hitter against right-handed pitching, making him an obvious play as part of this stack.

Finally, Seth Brown has established himself as a middle of the order bat against right-handed pitching since his call-up. In 45 plate appearances against right-handed pitching, Brown has a 1.189 OPS with nine extra-base hits. Brown also makes great contact at the plate, as shown by his 41.0% hard-hit rate and 33.3% line-drive rate.

Tonight, the Athletics lineup faces Kansas City Royals starter Glenn Sparkman. Sparkman has been consistently awful all season long. In 122 ⅔ innings, Sparkman has a 5.94 ERA/6.01 FIP, 1.48 WHIP, and 28 home runs allowed. His 5.3 strikeouts per nine innings is laughably low, and opposing hitters hit the ball extremely hard off of him, registering in the 95th percentile in exit velocity of batted balls hit off of Sparkman. The Athletics should dominate Sparkman tonight, and those three middle of the order bats are tremendous values.

James Kohout is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, James Kohout also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username jt2115. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.