Today's Hitter Breakdown: April 26th
Big Friday night tonight in MLB as all 30 teams are in action, and all playing at night. There are some big qualifiers and some nice tournaments around the industry so lets get to some hitters that have good matchups that can help you win those.
I apologize for not getting an article up last night, although it may have been a blessing as the guys who I had pegged for good nights all stumbled except for Wells and Goldschmidt. I’m going to be watching the weather closely as I probably will want to pick on Jonathan Sanchez, however looks like there may be some bad storms near Busch Stadium at that time.
Today’s Hitters to Target
| PLAYER | OPS-L7 | BABIP | wOBA | PARK | Opp-SP (L/R) | SP ERA-L7 | vs L/R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robinson Cano | 1.039 | 0.344 | 0.419 | 1.09 | Johnson – R | 6.86 | 0.38 |
| Melky Cabrera | 0.635 | 0.286 | 0.28 | 1.09 | Nova – R | 6.14 | 0.279 |
| Joey Votto | 0.905 | 0.385 | 0.405 | 1.02 | Zimmermann – R | 2.67 | 0.32 |
| Allen Craig | 0.728 | 0.311 | 0.275 | 0.99 | Sanchez – L | 11.12 | 0.389 |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | 0.76 | 0.264 | 0.327 | 0.91 | Beckett – R | 4.68 | 0.267 |
| Pedro Alvarez | 1.429 | 0.191 | 0.264 | 1.02 | Lynn – R | 3.68 | 0.184 |
| Ryan Howard | 0.929 | 0.333 | 0.3 | 0.97 | Gee – R | 5.95 | 0.321 |
| Alejandro De Aza | 0.794 | 0.269 | 0.306 | 1.07 | Hernandez – R | 4.74 | 0.2 |
| Nelson Cruz | 1.222 | 0.328 | 0.384 | 1.02 | Diamond – L | 4.35 | 0.409 |
| Shin-Soo Choo | 1.387 | 0.483 | 0.493 | 1.02 | Zimmermann – R | 2.67 | 0.455 |
UPDATE – The curse of the profile picture strikes again. Aaron Laffey is now starting for the Blue Jays, which really hurts Cano’s value. I’m now looking at Vernon Wells for value on the Yankees.
- Melky Cabrera gets a solid matchup here against Nova and is 5 for 8 with 2 home runs off of Nova in his career. Cabrera also gets to abuse the short porch in right field, and although he hasn’t been crushing it he has a nice matchup here.
- Joey Votto isn’t crushing the home runs on such a regular basis this year but he is walking at an absurd rate. He gets a nice matchup here with Zimmermann who he has a 1.511 OPS against in his 11 plate appearances. He will rarely get you a 0.
- Allen Craig hasn’t been the best first baseman out there, but the good thing is he gets to face Jonathan Sanchez tonight who can right any wrong. I imagine there will be a bunch of Cardinals stacks, and Craig should be at the forefront of the scoring.
- Yuniesky Betancourt is a nice option at 1st or 3rd or whatever his eligibility is at this point. He has the power to hit it out of the park and has had some nice at bats against Beckett in his career going 7 for 16 with only one strikeout.
- Pedro Alvarez is one of the streakiest hitters I have ever seen. Alvarez started the season whiffing at everything and now is connecting. Thanks to his terrible start, he is still cheap everywhere, so get him while he firing on all cylinders.
- Ryan Howard has faced Dillon Gee 9 times, and has hit 3 home runs. Howard is hitting right handers really well right now and he is part of the plethora of good options at first base today.
- All 4 of Alejandro De Aza’s home runs have came against right handers this year. He gets Roberto Hernandez who is bound to implode at any moment, and will be hitting in US Cellular field. I think the White Sox could put up some runs today and he should be leading off.
- Nelson Cruz is really seeing the ball well these last few days and faces Scott Diamond today. He has killed lefties this year and I expect some bumps in the road in Diamond’s first start back against the high powered Rangers.
- Shin-Soo Choo has a crazy BABIP right now of .483 which is highly unsustainable in the long term. The thing I know, however, is that he is lighting up left handers and is at the beginning of an offense that can explode. He looks like a solid option today even for his price as he has been producing each and every game.
Today’s Hitters to Avoid
| PLAYER | OPS-L7 | BABIP | wOBA | PARK | Opp-SP (L/R) | SP ERA-L7 | vs L/R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Fielder | 0.935 | 0.367 | 0.441 | 1.03 | Maholm – L | 1.03 | 0.455 |
| Asdrubal Cabrera | 0.742 | 0.186 | 0.231 | 1.03 | Santana – R | 2.48 | 0.118 |
| Nick Swisher | 0.977 | 0.319 | 0.372 | 0.91 | Santana – R | 2.48 | 0.278 |
| Raul Ibanez | 0 | 0.162 | 0.216 | 0.92 | Wilson – L | 4.13 | 0.1 |
| Andrew McCutchen | 0.483 | 0.25 | 0.309 | 0.99 | Lynn – R | 3.68 | 0.259 |
| Will Venable | 0.585 | 0.3 | 0.325 | 0.89 | Lincecum – R | 3.97 | 0.261 |
| Michael Cuddyer | 0.929 | 0.352 | 0.439 | 1.04 | McCarthy – R | 7.06 | 0.328 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 0.703 | 0.167 | 0.31 | 0.94 | LeBlanc – L | 6.27 | 0.261 |
| Brandon Phillips | 0.396 | 0.286 | 0.343 | 0.97 | Zimmermann – R | 2.67 | 0.254 |
| Brett Lawrie | 0.45 | 0.19 | 0.168 | 1.01 | Nova – R | 6.14 | 0.091 |
- Prince Fielder has one of the only real meaningful BVPs of the day. He is 7 for 51 with 15 strikeouts against Maholm. The lefty on lefty matchup isn’t a good thing for the Prince, so I’ll spend my salary dollar somewhere else.
- Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting .118 on the season against right handers, and Santana has been effective so far. He is also reported as day to day with a quadriceps injury so who knows if he will play. Just ignore him altogether as he is cold as ice.
- Santana must love what the Indians have done this year. They have brought in all of the batters around the league who cannot hit him. Not only Cabrera, but Aviles, Kipnis, Giambi and Nick Swisher all have bad BVPs. Nick Swisher in fact, has 38 at bats with 16 strikeouts.
- Picking Raul Ibanez today is fantasy suicide. He doesn’t have a hit in forever, he is against Wilson who has owned him in his career to a tune of 3 for 21 with 7 KO and is hitting in Safeco field.
- Earth to Andrew McCutchen! Your career averages are calling! Obviously he hasn’t heard, because he is hitless in his last 14 at-bats and has posted a sub-.500 OPS in his last 7 games not to mention a 3 for 14 mark against Lynn. He is still a really high salary most places, so I’m just gonna avoid until he wakes up.
- Not that you were thinking about using Will Venable today, but just in case you were, his matchup is pretty bad. He hasn’t been successful against Lincecum in his career striking out 13 times in 39 at bats and posting a .652 OPS. He is not hitting well either with a .585 OPS in his last 7.
- Michael Cuddyer hasn’t been that bad recently, but he does play in Coors Field. Today he’s in Chase Field which is a pretty decent hitters park but no Coors. He holds a 3 for 20 mark against McCarthy and could be in for a long day as he is also day-to-day with hamstring injuries.
- I expect Anthony Rizzo to rebound from his poor start he has had this season, as his BABIP is way low and he is still producing with low but average wOBA. The balls in play will start to fall and he will be a good value option then, however I still don’t want to take him against a left hander, especially when he is struggling as all of his power comes against right handers.
- I am pretty sure than Brandon Phillips has forgotten what to do with the bat. The Reds struggles in the last few days have a lot to do with how bad Phillips has been recently. The fact that he is sandwiched between Votto and Choo against Zimmermann makes him less of a bad play, but I still don’t want to mess with this unless I’m stacking on DraftKings.
- Brett Lawrie has been terrible since coming back from injury. Someone needs to shake the cobwebs out because he couldn’t hit off the tee right now. Nova isn’t that great, but Lawrie is hitting .091 against right handers at the start of his season.