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Reminder: Always double check the lineup card before rosters lock to make sure that a player you've chosen to roster is playing that day, and check the weather to make sure your players won't get rained out of their game.
The theme of this article is a quick hit of some players who appear to me to be undervalued based on their pricing. You can use these players as salary relief options to fit higher priced players elsewhere in your lineup. Here are 5 hitters and 1 pitcher:
Carlos Carrasco vs Tampa Bay Rays, $8,800
Carrasco's ERA still hasn't dropped closer to his elite 2.67 FIP (I've been waiting for that to happen for a while now), but it seems unlikely that a pitcher with his swing and miss stuff who limits walks/home runs and generates a lot of ground balls will continue to run an ERA over 4, even with a poor defense behind him. Carrasco's K% is over 27%, well above average, and his swinging strike% is 12%, 14th best among starters. He faces a Rays lineup that has the 7th highest K% vs RHP at 21.1% and a mediocre 95 wRC+ vs RHP. Carrasco will be a good bet to rack up a high strikeout total.
Adrian Gonzalez ($3,100), Yasmani Grandal ($3,000), and Andre Ethier ($2,900) vs Chris Heston
Heston is coming off a recent no hitter of the Mets where he featured an impressive two seam fastball/sinker that had a lot of movement and gave the Mets lineup fits. But he has extreme platoon splits (4.92 FIP vs LHB, 2.25 FIP vs RHB), and he's going to run into a buzzsaw Dodger lineup that is best in baseball vs RHP. Adrian Gonzalez ($3,100), Yasmani Grandal ($3,000), Joc Pederson ($3,700) and Andre Ethier ($2,900) all have wRC+'s over 150 and ISO's over .230 vs RHP this year. Gonzalez, Ethier and Grandal in particular provide strong value.
Matt Carpenter ($3,400), Kolten Wong ($2,900) vs Phillippe Aumont
Carpenter has had elite results vs RHP this year with a 167 wRC+ and .213 ISO. Wong isn't too far off, with a 135 wRC+ and .192 ISO vs RHP. They get a park upgrade in Philly, and they face a triple A call up who has a FIP over 4 this year.
Follow me on Twitter at @TimFinn521, I usually tweet out more good options as lineups are released.