This is not a typical Friday for MLB with just nine games in total and only six on the main slate. Probably just an aberration, so don’t get used to the shorter-than-usual slate, but it does alter some things regarding the value dig we do each day. It seems like the prices on FanDuel are all a bit off. There are only six hitters priced at $4,000 or above, one at $3,900, two at $3,800 and two at $3,700. Things seem to be a bit more normal on Draft Kings, but we’ll see how it plays out overall.
Here’s a look at the value plays for Friday’s six-game main slate.
Both Sites:
Andrew Heaney , SP LAA ($7,000 FD/$7,300 DK) – Knowing what we expect to see out of the Blue Jays this season, the match-up doesn’t seem too appealing, but when you dig deep to find that Toronto is posting a dismal .272 wOBA against southpaws this season, there’s hope for a relative bargain here in Heaney. He’s got a fantastic curve which he can drop in as his out-pitch and the Baby Jays are mashing plenty into the dirt, as evidenced by the team’s 46.2-percent ground ball rate against lefties. Don’t expect big strikeout numbers as Toronto is making plenty of contact, but Heaney should be able to provide you with at least a quality start here.
David Dahl , OF TEX ($2,700 FD/$3,200 DK) – He’s been a little up-and-down here in the early part of the season, but posting three multi-hit games is encouraging, even if he only has one RBI right now. The lefty-swinging Dahl will take on every fantasy owner’s darling in Joe Musgrove and should be worth a look as he owns a .359 wOBA against righties with a .224 ISO for his career.
Josh Naylor , OF CLE ($2,500 on both sites) – He’s really only a GPP player as you’re really just waiting for him to take some pitcher deep. It’s encouraging that he’s hit safely in four of five games, so he’s not dishing out zeroes, but no home runs or RBI aren’t what we want either. Fortunately, he’s facing Julio Teheran who is allowing lefties to post a .339 wOBA against him in his career and he’s had issues with the long ball here in the latter part of his career.
Draft Kings:
Tucker Barnhart , C CIN ($2,600) – It’s nice to not have to worry about catchers on FanDuel, but DK still requires one for the lineups and Barnhart is off to a hot start this season and DK continues to keep him priced down. He’s 5-for-12 (.417) with a double and five RBI over his last three games and Diamondbacks starter Taylor Widener is already having trouble containing the left-handed bats. It’s not a punt price, but it’s pretty darn good in comparison to top-level catchers.
FanDuel:
Lourdes Gurriel Jr., OF TOR ($2,300) – Gurriel has hit safely in five of six games this season, though he has no extra-base hits and only one RBI to show for it. That’s fine. This is one of those players where you keep going back to the well and happily accept the discount. He’ll turn it around soon enough and from there it will take a few games before FD wises up and realizes how criminally underpriced he’s been. For a near min-price right now, keep doing it.
Akil Baddoo, OF DET ($2,500) – I’m just going to keep putting him into the Value Vault until either FD raises his price tag to the level at which he’s playing or when he stops hitting altogether. But for now, you’re missing the Baddoo Boat and that’s no good.
Player News
Cal Raleigh went 2-for-5 with two solo home runs in a 5-3 win over the Reds on Wednesday.
Raleigh’s second homer of the night was the 100th of his career and it was the fourth time he’s homered from both sides of the plate in the same game. It’s always amazing to remember that on top of how incredible he is behind the plate and how productive he is as a hitter, he is also a switch-hitter. The notorious ‘Big Dumper’ has come out of the gate hot this season too. These homers tied him with Aaron Judge for second most in the league at seven and his two stolen bases have been a welcome surprise. He’s one of the best catchers in baseball.
Andrés Muñoz pitched a clean inning to earn the save over the Reds on Wednesday.
Muñoz has been electric to start the season. This save was his seventh, which trails only Robert Suarez for most in the league, and he’s yet to allow an earned run. His stuff remains top notch and there are few closers that are more trustworthy at this moment than Muñoz is.
Bryce Miller allowed three hits and no runs with two walks and eight strikeouts across five innings in a win over the Reds on Wednesday.
This was Miller’s best start of the season by far. It was a bit of a throwback start for him, throwing 50% fastballs – more than twice as often as any other pitch – and continuously challenging the Reds’ hapless lineup in the strike zone. His command still wasn’t crisp though and he’ll have to find some more consistency with both his splitter and knuckle-curve before he’s back to the elite level he was pitching at down the stretch last season. Also, he was pulled with just 78 pitches despite largely cruising. He talked about some residual soreness after his last start, so maybe that’s why he was pulled early. He’ll have a tough test next time out against the Red Sox in Fenway Park.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand went 1-for-4 with a double, two RBI, and run scored Wednesday against the Mariners.
The Mariners had stretched out a five-run lead and seemed to be cruising before the Reds and Encarnacion-Strand made it interesting in the seventh inning with a little rally. That was a big hit for Encarnacion-Strand too as he was trapped in an 0-for-14 skid in what’s been a disastrous season so far. He’s only a part-time player at the moment, starting just three of the Reds’ last five games and shouldn’t be on any fantasy radars unless his playing time picks up again.
Nick Martinez allowed seven hits and three earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts across 4 2/3 innings in a loss to the Mariners on Wednesday.
This game got off to an inauspicious start when Julio Rodríguez reached on an error by Elly De La Cruz on the first pitch of the game, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Martinez soon thereafter, and later came around to score. Still, Martinez was nowhere close to sharp in this one. He left far too many pitches over the middle of the plate and the Mariners made him pay with plenty of hard contact. They had 11 hard-hit balls in total and Martinez didn’t have a single one-two-three innings. He’s scheduled to face the Marlins in his next start coupled with a game in Coors Field in what looks to be an unfortunate pairing for a two-start week.
Brandon Pfaadt allowed five hits and one run with two walks and six strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings in a 6-2 win over the Marlins on Wednesday.
It was nice to see the strikeouts finally come for Pfaadt after he’s had a great start to the season in terms of run prevention without missing many bats. Pfaadt can sometimes struggle to generate whiffs as predominantly a sinker-sweeper right-handed pitcher because the other team will often stack their lineup with left-handed batters and mostly neutralize those two offerings. The Marlins did just that in this game as seven of their nine hitters were lefties, but Pfaadt was able to cut through them with his changeup. While the pitch has been inconsistent in the past, Pfaadt has made a meaningful effort to incorporate more changeups in his game to have a better plan of attack against lefties and it worked here. He commanded it well low and out of the zone as it forced five whiffs and tons more ugly swings that produced weak contact. He’s scheduled to face the Rays in his next start.