Daily Batter Breakdown: Friday, April 4th

by Jon Schiller (Varncass) Last Updated 2014-04-04 19:25:19

Welcome to the Daily Batter Breakdown. Each day, with at least 8 games on the night slate, I’ll breakdown some of the best top tier hitters to target based on matchup. The biggest split taken into account will be left/right, but each player card will also show park factors, player salaries and then a description of why I’ll be targeting him. Be sure to check out the FAQ for more information on specific stats.

Good luck to everyone in the Big Score today on Draftstreet as someone is going to be walking away a happy camper. At the point of writing this it does not appear that it will fill, so there should be some overlay for you that like to chase that kind of thing. These picks are focused on the night games today, but I will try to get some up for Saturday’s early games as well as there is a very split schedule on both of these days.

		Jason Castro
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.286	0.864	4.17%	0.371
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.143	0.393	0.00%	0.199
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Richards – RIGHT			0.281	0.747	8.33%	0.337
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
1.074	1.035	$3,300	$5,823	$7,050	$3,900	$70,500	$5,800	$7,700

Jason Castro

Castro gets to face Garrett Richards today who really struggled against left handed batters last year allowing 15 of his homers to hitters from the left side. Castro raked against right handed pitching last year hitting most of his homers and a .852 OPS. This game should be fairly high scoring and the Astros team looks like they are ready to compete, even though they may still lose 100+ games this year. The one concern is that Castro is a bit dinged up right now and has played a few consecutive games so there is a risk of him sitting. Make sure you watch out for this when the lineups come out.

		Casey McGehee
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.400	1.2	0.00%	0.522
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Stults – LEFT			0.301	0.776	4.98%	0.341
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
1.030	0.930	$2,800	$5,264	$5,000	$3,300	$35,000	$4,700	$7,300

Casey McGehee

What a return to MLB for McGehee who has really batted the ball around for the Marlins since the beginning of the season. He is still extremely cheap and no sense in fading him if he is going to continue to stay hot; the only thing he hasn’t done yet is homer. Marlins Park isn’t the greatest, but I am not a fan of Eric Stults who isn’t getting any younger and his velocity isn’t getting any faster. Stults was effective last year but this could be a different story as he consistently gives up almost an .800 OPS against right handed batters and doesn’t strike anyone out so McGehee should be safe from going negative on a site like Draftstreet. If you don’t want to spend on a 1st baseman, you could do a lot worse.

		Robinson Cano
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.329	0.969	5.39%	0.410
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.455	1.145	0.00%	0.486
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Straily – RIGHT			0.244	0.707	10.68%	0.316
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
0.889	0.931	$4,300	$7,842	$11,050	$5,100	$88,800	$7,400	$11,100

Robinson Cano

Cano has had some average matchups at the beginning of the year, all while being fairly cheap on certain sites. He is at the top of the 2b ranks today but there really isn’t much to choose from at 2nd base in the late slate of games. Straily is one of the better higher strikeout guys in the late slate of games but Cano is arguably the best hitter in all of them. Cano hits right handers really well but has even been productive against lefties to start the year so it’s time to get him in a good matchup.

		Evan Longoria
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.301	0.950	5.78%	0.398
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.364	0.916	0.00%	0.416
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Saunders – LEFT			0.337	0.944	8.14%	0.415
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
0.931	0.967	$4,200	$8,961	$11,250	$4,700	$80,300	$7,400	$10,500

Evan Longoria

Is anyone surprised that Joe Saunders has a job still? The guy was completely awful against right handed batters last year surrendering a .337 average and a .957 OPS with 22 homers. That was playing in Safeco field which is nothing like Globe Life Park. Longoria makes your top play at 3rd today and your top play on the board as he absolutely mashes left handed pitching and gets one of the worst today. Don’t try to get cute to fade him, there is hardly ever a floor for hitters in baseball but if there is, this is an instance where it would be.

		Brad Miller
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.262	0.767	3.88%	0.333
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.333	1.133	13.33%	0.513
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Straily – RIGHT			0.244	0.707	10.68%	0.316
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
0.889	0.931	$3,300	$7,779	$8,400	$4,400	$80,500	$6,400	$9,000

Brad Miller

Miller’s price has risen, but he has also carried over his torrid hitting from Spring Training into the regular season. His price has risen to levels where you may not want to use him but he’s still more than affordable on FanDuel. The matchup against Straily isn’t great, and he is coming off of a 0/5 day but I would still like to stack him and Cano up if possible as I think the Mariners will be underused tonight and could make a really solid GPP stack. There really isn’t much in the way of SS in the night games as well.

		Michael Brantley
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.288	0.757	2.36%	0.331
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.364	0.962	0.00%	0.429
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Pelfrey – RIGHT			0.270	0.755	8.33%	0.336
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
0.933	0.992	$3,000	$6,199	$8,450	$3,700	$72,200	$6,200	$8,900

Michael Brantley

Brantley has to be one of the most underpriced, underutilized players right now in DFS baseball. He is really seeing the ball well as evidenced by his ridiculous Spring and continuing that right into the regular season. He isn’t hitting many homers right now but he’s hitting the gaps, driving in runs, and getting doubles. He has homer power against right handers, and Pelfrey was not very good for the beginning or the end of last season. Pelfrey consistently allows hitters to hit about .290 with almost an .800 OPS which is not good at all, and although he limits homers very well, I’m not sure we have to worry about Brantley striking out too much here.

		Jacoby Ellsbury
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.328	0.863	1.91%	0.373
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.000	0.222	0.00%	0.152
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		McGowan – RIGHT			0.191	0.687	11.32%	0.304
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
1.118	1.045	$4,300	$9,112	$11,900	$5,100	$89,000	$8,300	$10,100

Jacoby Ellsbury

Ellsbury’s price has came down a little with his early struggles but he still has the most upside of anyone, right? The guy can steal multiple bags and hit multiple home runs in the same game so if he has the matchup it’s hard to ignore him. McGowan is 32 and although he is a great story, coming back from multiple surgeries to pitch in the majors again, he has always struggled against left handed batters and the Yankees have a ton of them. Rogers Centre was a real fun place to hit and pick players from last year and I’m going to be targeting players there and against McGowan until he can prove that he can get left handed batters out with any regularity.

		Dexter Fowler
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.237	0.741	3.44%	0.331
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.500	1.875	12.50%	0.83
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Richards – RIGHT			0.281	0.747	8.33%	0.337
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
1.074	1.035	$3,100	$5,165	$10,150	$4,100	$82,400	$5,300	$8,300

Dexter Fowler

Fowler has been on an absolute heater to start the season against the Yankees hitting at a 1.583 OPS. He is extremely talented, and while that number is obviously not sustainable, his price hasn’t risen hardly at all on most of the sites. Fowler is leading off for an Astros team whose offense has looked halfway decent against the Yankees and now gets Garrett Richards who I noted above has had some struggles with left handed batters keeping them in the park. Fowler does his best power work from the left side of the plate and again gets to play in sandbox of Minute Maid Park.

		Giancarlo Stanton
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.278	1.006	8.33%	0.426
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.333	1.051	8.33%	0.469
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Stults – LEFT			0.301	0.776	4.98%	0.341
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
1.030	0.930	$4,600	$6,874	$11,950	$5,100	$89,900	$8,900	$11,000

Giancarlo Stanton

The theme of this article is guys to pair up in the late games for potential stacks, so here we go with Giancarlo Stanton. He’s priced at the top of the outfield lists, but I still think that it’s a little bit too low especially on DS. Stanton is always a threat to go deep and like I noted above, I’m really not buying Eric Stults having another solid season on the mound. The Marlins are fairly hot right now and they can load up this lineup with right handed batters and make it extremely difficult for Stults to get outs.

		Wil Myers
		Daily Breakdown			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Left/Right Splits			0.293	0.821	3.03%	0.353
		Last 7 Days Splits			0.308	0.769	0.00%	0.344
		Opp SP vs. LR			Avg	OPS	HR%	wOBA
		Saunders – LEFT			0.337	0.944	8.14%	0.415
PARK-1	PARK-LR	FD	DS	DD	DK	FF	SS	FTD
0.931	0.967	$3,800	$7,252	$9,850	$4,700	$82,200	$6,700	$9,400

Wil Myers

I mentioned above how bad Saunders is against right handed batters, so we should all be targeting Rays righties today. Myers hasn’t exactly crushed left handers but Saunders should provide a crash course today in that study as I really think he’s going to have a hard time keeping the ball in play at that park. Myers was scratched from last start with flu-like symptoms so keep an eye out here but unless he’s still vomiting in the clubhouse I think that Maddon will find a way to get him into the lineup.