Nick Franklin Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections
Ryan Braun (lower back tightness) scratched from Brewers lineup, Nick Franklin will start in LF
Braun has officially been scratched from the Milwaukee Brewers initial confirmed lineup due to tightness in his lower back. He will be replaced in the lineup by Nick Franklin, who will start in left field and bat sixth. Despite drawing the sixth spot in the order, Franklin isn't a particularly intriguing option, along with the other Brewers bats, given the subpar hitting matchup against Kyle Hendricks.
Wind blowing out at U.S. Cellular makes Rays power bats intriguing options tonight
Miguel Gonzalez will be dealing with substantial wind blowing out of a hitter’s park and facing a team with a good number of home run hitters. Gonzalez has had very good fortune with a 5.5% HR/FB rate to right-handed batters this season, but historically, reverse splits power (1.35 HR/9 vs RHB) has been an issue for him. He allows fly balls to left-handed batters as well, and has also seen a bit of good fortune on HR/FB there as well (9.1%). Evan Longoria (132 wRC+, .363 wOBA, .263 ISO vs RHP), Logan Forsythe (.180 ISO vs RHP), Nick Franklin (138 wRC+, .373 wOBA, .213 ISO vs RHP), Brad Miller (121 wRC+, .348 wOBA, .269 ISO vs RHP) and Corey Dickerson (.264 ISO vs RHP) are the top plays, with Longoria and Dickerson being notably under-priced on FanDuel.
The Rays look to prolong Dylan Bundy's road struggles (4.54 ERA) today at "The Trop"
The future looks bright for Orioles starter Dylan Bundy, but he's proven to be very inconsistent thus far at the big league level. He's fresh off 5.2 scoreless innings of work in his last start and owns a solid 3.47 ERA and 22.1 strikeout percentage through 90.2 innings this season. With that said, his 4.65 xFIP suggests that some trouble could be on the horizon for the 23-year old, and this Tampa team has slowly started to heat up at the plate as they own a .331 team wOBA over the last 30 days. Evan Longoria routinely garners the most fantasy attention, but it's actually Nick Franklin that leads the team with a .369 wOBA against right-handed pitching. Following closely behind him are the aforementioned Mr. Longoria, Logan Forsythe and Brad Miller. All four are fine options on this four game slate.
Logan Forsythe and Matt Duffy both out today against Ubaldo Jimenez
Ubaldo Jimenez has pitched better lately, but will still enter today's game owning an ugly 6.46 ERA on the season. Kevin Cash will look to take advantage of the fact that Ubaldo's been hammered for a .423 wOBA as he's loaded up with left-handers today. With Logan Forsythe out of action today, Nick Franklin gets a rare crack at the leadoff spot and, with a team best .391 wOBA against right-handed pitching, he becomes a terrific value play at second base. Meanwhile, Logan Morrison slides up a spot in the order today and has had success off of Ubaldo in their brief history (4 for 6 with a pair of doubles).
Logan Forsythe scratched, Nick Franklin will now lead off and play 2nd base
Franklin now becomes one of the more intriguing value targets of the day as the Rays leadoff man. He's been very boom or bust for the most part this year but has continually hit towards the bottom of the lineup, so his run producing opportunities should rise as a result of this news. Franklin owns a .359 wOBA and .200 ISO against RHP this season, albeit in a relatively limited sample size.
RHBs have a .393 wOBA, but 65 GB% and 26.1 Hard% vs Luis Perdomo
Batters from either side have a wOBA above .370, though LHBs have a hard hit rate (39.4%) more than 13 points higher, while RHBs have been kept on the ground 65% of the time they've hit the ball fair against Luis Perdomo this season. He's actually exhibited some quality traits since moving into the rotation, including a 62.4 GB% against all batters and a 9.7 SwStr% that hasn't translated into a lot of strikeouts unfortunately, and has decreased to 7.5% over the last month. He has occasionally covered a low cost and has rarely faced such strikeout prone offenses as he does tonight (24.0 K%). This might be a pitcher players can consider on two pitcher sites in order to afford some of those highly rated Washington RHBs tonight. This doesn't preclude the use of Tampa Bay bats for players considering Perdomo too high risk tonight as he has struggled and three of the top four in the order tonight have all hit RHP very well this season with Longoria and Miller both above a 125 wRC+ and .250 IS) this season and Forsythe adding a 118 wRC+ with a .180 ISO. All have a wRC+ at 170 of above over the last week. Nick Franklin (133 wRC+, .206 ISO) has been the only other above average bat vs RHP this season, though Corey Dickerson (95 wRC+, .251 ISO) continues to show significant power.
Oswaldo Arcia (illness) scratched Wednesday
Arcia came down with an illness and will miss today's game after originally being in the lineup. Nick Franklin will take his place playing LF with Brandon Guyer moving over to RF.