DFS Data: 8/20/2018

I’ve got a really cool thing for you guys. A list of players I like on FanDuel. A pretty efficient format, eh? I’ll wrap it up at the end with a few pitching names, but I’m mainly focusing on hitters in this space.

It’s a 10-game slate and it kicks off at 7:05pm ET.

HITTING

Khris Davis ($3,500) vs. Bartolo Colon

“Khrush” is the play of the day against Bartolo Colon. This year, 20 of Colon’s 26 home runs are to righties. Put differently, Colon is allowing 2.47 HR/9 to right-handers. Colon allows a 43.4% hard contact rate and 48.6% pull rate to hitters of Davis’ handedness. As for “Khrush,” 28 of his 36 home runs are against right-handed pitchers. Davis destroys right-handed pitching. A .325 ISO, .386 wOBA, 46.5% hard, 50.2% fly ball rate...I don’t know that it gets much better. Also, when I was looking up Suarez (more on him in a tick) I saw that Matt Olson leads the MLB in hard contact against right-handed pitching, with a 50.2% rate. You’re welcome.

Eddie Rosario ($3,600) vs. Lucas Giolito

Rosario has 144 hits, good for seventh in the MLB. Holy Nick Markakis at No. 2 behind Freddie Freeman, by the way (go Braves!). Anyway, Rosario is a lefty bat with 18 of his 22 home runs against right-handed pitching. He’s slashing .308/.351/.497 against RHP, so he has a great floor. He also has a .233 ISO and .374 wOBA against RHP, so he clearly offers upside. He makes hard contact (39.3%), hit fly balls (44.6%), and hits line drives (23.2%) against RHP. Meanwhile, Giolito has more walks (40) than strikeouts (37) against left-handed hitters. He’s allowing a .274/.385/.476 slash, as well as a .374 wOBA. A 12.3% strikeout rate, 13.3% walk rate, and 34.2% hard contact rate against lefty bats are ridiculously encouraging as well. Rosario is the best play for Minnesota, but Giolito is bad enough that you can roll out all the lefty bats with Joe Mauer, Max Kepler, and Jorge Polanco.

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Homer Bailey

Homer Bailey is really bad. Use all your Brewers. That is all.

Eugenio Suarez ($3,400) @ Chase Anderson

Chase Anderson is a reverse splits pitcher...15 of his 24 home runs allowed are to right-handed hitters. He allows a 2.15 HR/9 to righty bats, aided by his 38.4% hard contact rate, 47.2% fly ball rate, and 22.8% line drive rate to that handedness. Suarez happens to rank fifth in the entire MLB for hard contact against right-handed pitching, at 48.0%. He also has a 24.7% line drive rate. He only makes soft contact 9.3% of the time against RHP...he’s an awesome one-off play if you aren’t stacking Reds against Anderson.

Houston Astros @ Felix Hernandez

Felix Hernandez makes a spot-start out of necessity after just being demoted to the bullpen. I don’t hate paying up for Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, and George Springer. We aren’t paying up for Boston bats against Kluber, right? Gotta spend money somewhere. This is a great spot against the pitcher formerly known as “King Felix.”

PITCHING

It’s a pretty ugly slate for pitching, honestly. I think I like Zack Wheeler, Derek Holland, and Marco Estrada. Yes, I’m fading the aces in tough matchups, but if I had to choose one it would be Gerrit Cole ($10,600). I agree with him being priced higher than Corey Kluber ($10,400) today. Odds are I’ll build with a lot of Wheeler and Holland and work in the aforementioned hitters. The Milwaukee stack feels obligatory, so I’ll have to go there some. As of now I think I’ll be really heavy on the big three for Houston. Felix is still a name and the last time I went against him the ownership wasn’t as high as I thought it should be.

I think Marco Estrada has to be considered as well—his matchup can’t get much better, especially with Mark Trumbo likely headed to the DL and Adam Jones still out of the lineup. It feels icky, but it doesn’t cost much ($7,100) and will allow you to pay up for whoever you like today.

Good luck out there today. Who are you guys playing?