3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Hitters to Avoid on 9/19/16
As is the case in most daily fantasy sports, finding information on players you might want to roster is a lot easier than finding players to avoid.
While you can get away with a zero from a hitter in daily fantasy, you certainly don't want to target guys whose matchups aren't enticing.
Here are three hitters you may want to lessen your exposure to or even fade altogether on Monday.
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers
FanDuel Price: $3,400
The Los Angeles Dodgers are trying their best to hang on to the National League West lead, and starting on Monday, they have a huge series against their divisional rivals, the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco recently split a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals, so if they are going to need a good showing in this series if they want to win the division or even make the playoffs.
Madison Bumgarner is taking the hill against Clayton Kershaw tonight, so while that spells bad news for most of the hitters in this game, Adrian Gonzalez seems especially dangerous tonight.
Gonzalez has not hit lefties well this season. In 163 plate appearances, he has just a .271 wOBA against them, while his isolated power plummets down to just .073. Considering he has only two extra-base hits and no homers in 53 career appearances against Bumgarner, don’t roster the Dodgers’ first baseman tonight.
Bumgarner has limited lefties to a .247 wOBA and a 32 percent strikeout rate this season. They own just a 26.3 percent hard-hit rate, making Gonzalez a big landmine this evening.
Adonis Garcia, 3B, Atlanta Braves
FanDuel Price: $2,700
Adonis Garcia had a nice weekend posting a 5-for-8 line with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. However, tonight he and the Atlanta Braves are going up against Noah Syndergaard. The Braves are trending up but still rank 25th against righties as a team with just a .307 wOBA.
Syndergaard has looked unhittable over his last five starts, and righties have seen the worst of it. The New York Mets’ righty has limited other right-handers to a .256 wOBA with a 30.0 strikeout rate this season across 390 hitters faced. Righties also have just a 25.3 percent hard-hit rate and 25.8 percent fly ball rate against Syndergaard, leading to a lack of long balls.
Garcia, on the other hand, has a career .302 wOBA against right-handers. He has yet to face Syndergaard in his career, but with a .286 wOBA on the road against righties and only a 3.5 percent walk rate against them this season, lay off the Braves’ third baseman.
Matt Wieters, C, Baltimore Orioles
FanDuel Price: $2,800
Matt Wieters got the day off on Sunday, which in theory should mean that he is back in the lineup for the Baltimore Orioles here on Monday. However, it might be best to avoid Wieters in a matchup against Rick Porcello.
Left-handed hitters have just a .259 wOBA against the Boston Red Sox’ righty, while posting a 21.6 percent strikeout rate.
While Wieters has been better from the left side of the plate this season, his overall splits have not been great against any pitcher. When batting left-handed against righties this season, Wieters has a .317 wOBA. Porcello has also gotten the better of Wieters in most of their career meetings, making the Orioles’ catcher a landmine on Monday.
