The Baseball Diaries: Thursday, April 30th
Welcome to the Baseball Diaries. This is a morning after review of my main team(s) on a designated site. I’ll go over the process that went into selecting the players, good or bad, in hopes you will find something in here that ultimately helps your team selection.
If you’re not trying to learn, then just kick back and read for the revelry. Sometimes the tilt is real…and highly entertaining for the observer.
FanDuel Team for April 29th
Player Analysis
Felix Hernandez – This was my one cash game team on FanDuel last night, so I wanted a good pitcher. Felix was the best on the board before first pitch. He was the highest K rate guy going and facing a terrible offense. He was a big favorite by Vegas and flat out the biggest stud pitching. Obviously this didn’t work out. You never want to pay that kind of money for 12.66 points.
Mike Zunino – This was strictly a punt play. There are no stats I can point to that would justify taking him. I was looking to save money at catcher and Zunino was in the lineup against a below average pitcher in a small park. Zunino does have a little pop in his bat, so it was a shot in the dark.
Paul Goldschmidt – Goldie is a legit fantasy superstar. He gets points in so many different ways. I did the early show yesterday with Hoop2410 and we mentioned his base-stealing prowess. Then he goes out and gets a steal, showing off that diversity. Not too many guys can make three singles look this good on the fantasy scoreboard.
Rickie Weeks – Typically, Weeks is terrible. However if you get him in the perfect matchup, he is playable. In this case, he has always mashed lefties. He has a .347 wOBA over the past couple of seasons vs LHP. Wandy Rodriguez is equally bad against right-handed hitters, so Weeks was just a solid play for minimum salary.
Juan Uribe – So this is an odd play, I get it. On the slate last night I could only pull out three names that I felt were worthy of being rostered at third base. Uribe was one, and the other two were Matt Carpenter and Yasmany Tomas. Carpenter was too rich for my blood, so it came down to the other two guys. I had enough money left to afford either and I went with Uribe because I wanted more exposure to hitters against Ryan Vogeldong. The Dodgers smashed him so hard that Uribe only got one AB against the gas can.
Jhonny Peralta – Similar to third base, there were limited SS options on the small slate in my eyes. Tulo was far too much for me to pay, so I was left with Chris Owings, Jimmy Rollins and Jhonny, or J-honey as I like to call him. All three had solid matchups, but in the end I just felt like Peralta was the better hitter of the three guys and had more home run potential that the others. In hindsight, I sure wish I would have had more exposure to the Dodgers bats and had gone Rollins here.
Nelson Cruz – I like to try and glance at the board before I start building a lineup to see if there is anyone who jumps out as a must play. Cruz was that guy last night for me. He is a power hitter who mashes lefties and was in a small park, and he happened to be facing a terrible lefty who struggles against right-handed power.
David Peralta – This OF spot may have been tougher to pick if Peralta wasn’t near minimum salary on FanDuel. They’re just giving you a guy who has a .360+ weighted on base average against right-handers and plays in a small park. Throw in the opposition was a mediocre pitcher (Jordan Lyles) that is below average vs. left-handed hitters and you almost had to play Peralta in cash games.
Peter Bourjos – When contemplating rostering Bourjos in this spot last night, all I could think was “shhh, just close your eyes. It will all be over soon”. Bourjos is not the most efficient player out there. He comes with a huge risk of zero points, but he was cheap and leading off. Oh, and it stood out to me that going into the game Bourjos had 14 ABs against Harang and a .467 average and .867 slugging %. BvP for the win(paul-goldschmidt-300×200)