Gregor Blanco Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The Giants have a 142 team wRC+ over the last week, highest on the board, while Zach Eflin has a 12.2 K% in 133 major league innings. Left-handed batters have a .387 wOBA (.385 xwOBA) against him since last season, making this an ideal spot for Brandon Belt (145 wRC+, .422 xwOBA, .273 ISO vs RHP over the last calendar year). Gregor Blanco (94 wRC+, .121 ISO) and Brandon Crawford (86 wRC+, .142 ISO) have been below average bats against righties, though both are cheap and the latter has a 218 wRC+ over the last week. Buster Posey (113 wRC+, .118 ISO) and Andrew McCutchen (120 wRC+, .167 ISO) could see an uptick in power here too. Both exceed a 230 wRC+ over the last week. Eflin has been league average against same-handed batters (.332 wOBA, .322 xwOBA) with just a 29.2 Hard% since last season.

This sets up a very appealing matchup for Arizona as their projected lineup boasts a combined .209 ISO and .346 wOBA against RHP this year. Blair started 15 games in 2016 and finished with a 5.49 SIERA and 14.2% K%. Against RHB (165 TBF), he posted a .337 wOBA, .231 ISO, and 18.2% K% and his numbers were worse against LHB (159 TBF): .432 wOBA, .284 ISO, and 10.1% K%. This makes Jake Lamb (.300 ISO, .414 wOBA vs. RHP this season) a top choice on the afternoon slate. Fellow lefties Gregor Blanco (.168 ISO, .361 wOBA) and Daniel Descalso (.189 ISO, .363 wOBA) are also appealing in a stack. Of course, RHB A.J. Pollock (.203 ISO, .392 wOBA), Paul Goldschmidt (.283 ISO, .434 wOBA), and J.D. Martinez (.256 ISO, .355 wOBA) are in excellent spots as well. As one might expect, Arizona has the highest projected run total on the early slate (5.87).

Several lineups offer top of the lineup salary savors tonight. Eric Sogard (202 wRC+, .152 ISO vs RHP) is hitting over his head right now, but leads off at SS for $3.3K or less for an offense projected for 4.7 runs tonight against Matt Cain (LHBs .366 wOBA since last season) in Milwaukee. Alex Avila ($3.4K or less) bats second against Jesse Chavez. Chase D'arnaud is another SS eligible bat. He has a tougher matchup against Robbie Ray, but the contact that is made against him is often hard hit and D'arnaud costs just $100 above the minimum on FanDuel ($2.9K on DK). On the other side of that matchup, Gregor Blanco ($3.2K or less) leads off for the home team against Dinelson Lamet. Lastly, Jon Jay ($2.1K on FanDuel) leads off from the Cubs against lefty Jeff Locke tonight.

If players are looking for cheap bats tonight, and you may be with some expensive pitching out there, there's not a lot of good news because the least expensive, competent bats with decent lineup spots appear in the top projected offenses tonight. Consider that players stacking Diamondbacks against Jered Weaver are likely already going to have some Gregor Blanco ($3K DK, $2.4K FD) and David Peralta ($3.7K DK, $2.7K FD). Tyler Collins ($3.2K DK, $2.6 FD) and Alex Avila ($3.2K DK, $3K FD) are projected to be among the most popular bats of the night and have the weather to worry about too. Perhaps some RH Dodger bats may provide some salary relief when that lineup comes out, but daily fantasy players appear to have their work cut out for them in terms of staying within the salary cap.

Giants SP Madison Bumgarner is the only SP on today's slate with a projected run total of less than three runs making him the clear top option, especially in cash games, today. Bumgarner has been outstanding all season with a 3.29 SIERA and a K rate approaching 30% (it's 28.3%). He's excellent at home and gets a plus matchup against a Reds team that is bottom 10 in the league in wOBA and top 10 in terms of how often they K against LHP. He has the highest floor and ceiling of any SP today although there is merit to fading him in GPP's due to how highly owned he will likely be. The Giants offense could be a sneaky option today going against Dan Straily who gives up a lot of hard, fly-ball, contact. The middle of the lineup (Posey, Crawford, and Belt) are your top options but don't be afraid to target Gregor Blanco (leading off) or Angel Pagan (batting second) as secondary/stack options. Denard Span is sitting out today for the Giants.