3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Players to Avoid on 4/27/18

Brian Dozier, 2B, Minnesota Twins

FanDuel Price: $4,100

Brian Dozier has a gotten off to an interesting start to the season. It's still early, but it looks as if he is sacrificing power for contact. He has cut his swinging-strike rate (which hovered between 9.0% and 9.2% the past three years) to 6.1% in the early going. That is good as a stand alone improvement, but his hard-hit rate -- which was above 34.0% the past two years -- is down to 29.7% so far in 2018. And it follows that his isolated power (ISO) is just .184, which if it holds would be his lowest mark since 2014.

Dozier also has to square off with Luis Castillo on Friday, who has been tough on right-handed batters. In his young career, he has held them to a .285 wOBA, as he strikes them out at a 27.2% clip. He has also held right-handed hitters to a tidy 22.2% fly-ball rate and 26.5% hard-hit rate.

In his career, Dozier has gone from an elite 139 wRC+ batter against southpaws to a so-so 101 wRC+ hitter against righties. He strikes out slightly more against right-handed pitching (19.7% compared to 18.2% against southpaws), and his hard-hit rate also suffers. Dozier has a career 32.5% hard-hit rate against left-handed pitching compared to a 28.8% hard-hit rate against right-handed pitchers as well. So, with what appears to be a change in Dozier's approach, Castillo's success against righties is something to stay clear of in this spot.

Akash Bhatia is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Akash Bhatia also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username tenswimrun1. 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.