Trevor Plouffe Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections
Lefty Masher (Meh)
Due to his positional eligibility + price tag, Plouffe is more of a target on FanDuel than DraftKings. On FD, Plouffe is the min price ($2,000) and he owns C-OF eligibility whereas on DK he is $3,600 and owns OF eligibility. For his career, Plouffe has been known as a "lefty masher" when in reality he's just been slightly above average versus LHP (115 wRC+, .181 ISO) - to be fair, those numbers are significantly better than his numbers against RHP (86 wRC+, .162 ISO).
Even on FD where he's min priced I'm really only interested in Plouffe if he draws a top five lineup spot in the order. If not, it's best to look elsewhere on a slate where hitting value isn't super important if you decide to throw Robbie Ray as your SP1.
Lucas Duda scratched Wednesday; Trevor Plouffe to play 1B and bat 6th, Brad Miller up to the #2 spot
Plouffe will now play first base and bat sixth, while Brad Miller will slot up to the #2 spot from his original spot in the order. Duda's absence is related to a left thumb contusion, but there is no word on how long it will keep him sidelined. It doesn't appear likely to force a DL stint at this point.
Steve Souza scratched again on Wednesday
Souza has been scratched for the second consecutive day. The Rays lineup has shifted quite a bit as a result of the scratch, as Corey Dickerson will now lead off with Peter Bourjos shifting down towards the bottom of the lineup from the #1 spot. Trevor Plouffe will bump up to the second spot in the order, making him a stronger punt play, although we're not interested in targeting the Rays against Dallas Keuchel, who does a tremendous job of limiting hard contact.
Texas at Oakland game has highest run total of the four afternoon games
Avoid the pitchers and target the hitters should be the motto of this game as two extremely low strikeout pitchers in Martin Perez and Jesse Hahn take the mound today in Oakland. Despite it being a pitcher-friendly park the game has the highest run total (still a modest 8 1/2 runs) of the four games. Neither pitcher is an option but we can target bats from both lineups. Hahn allows a .403 wOBA to LH batters putting Nomar Mazara and Rougned Odor firmly in play as top options. Carlos Gomez, Shin-Soo Choo, and Mike Napoli are viable secondary options. Martin Perez struggles against RH bats and the A's have loaded up their lineup with six righties at the top of the order. Khris Davis, Ryon Healy, and Trevor Plouffe are elite bats to target with Rajai Davis and Josh Phegley secondary options.
The A's lineup features four RHB that have posted a .225 ISO or greater in 2016/17
Jason Vargas is coming off a great opening start in which he held the Houston Astros to just one earned run in six innings of work while striking out six. Tonight, he'll take on an Oakland Athletics squad that is loaded with right-handed bats in the top half of the order. Vargas hasn't pitched more than 43 innings in the Majors since 2014, so it's difficult to really dive into his splits and advanced stats from last season. However, throughout his career, he has typically been a low strikeout pitcher and that was backed up by a 16.0% strikeout rate to left-handed batters and a 16.3% strikeout rate to right-handed batters in 2014. The most pronounced split for Vargas is his 43.1% flyball rate to right-handed hitters compared to just 24.8% versus lefties. So, clearly, it is relatively easy to avoid the Athletics lefties considering Vargas' tendencies of holding them in check historically and the uninspiring lefties buried at the bottom of the Oakland lineup. A full Athletics stack may not be the optimal route to take in tournaments, but there are several right-handed bats that have the power to take Vargas deep, including Ryon Healy (142 wRC+, .374 wOBA, .263 ISO vs LHP in 2016/17), Khris Davis (137 wRC+, .369 wOBA, .279 ISO vs LHP in 2016/17), Marcus Semien (117 wRC+, .340 wOBA, .244 ISO vs LHP in 2016/17), making them an intriguing under the radar mini stack in tournaments.
Trevor Plouffe (illness) scratched from A's lineup tonight; Mark Canha will start
Plouffe has officially been scratched from the Oakland Athletics initial confirmed lineup due to an illness. He will be replaced in the lineup by Mark Canha, who will start at DH and bat eighth. This change will also push Ryon Healy from the DH spot to his normal 3B position. Canha isn't a particularly intriguing option, especially batting in the eighth hole, along with the other Athletics bats, given the subpar hitting matchup against Yu Darvish, who is shaping up to be one of the top pitching options on Saturday's slate.
Jose Quintana is inducing just a 37.0% GB% against RHB compared to 54.1% versus LHB
This game surprisingly has the highest run total of the night even with two respectable pitchers going. The Twins can be a dangerous offense against left-handed pitching. Although, Minnesota ranks just 13th in team wOBA against lefties, they do rank 5th in team ISO and have plenty of power bats. Brian Dozier (175 wRC+, .432 wOBA, .370 ISO vs LHP) and Miguel Sano (128 wRC+, .364 wOBA, .232 ISO vs LHP) are obviously always a threat to take a pitcher deep. Jose Quintana does allow a lot of hard contact (33.0%), but he has managed the lowest ground ball rate of his career thus far at 40.9% this season. His 3.95 SIERA is well above his low 2.77 ERA, and regression is likely coming when his .282 BABIP corrects a bit. This is a terrific spot to get a low-owned stack in tournaments and fade a pitcher that is likely to be fairly high owned simply because he’s the second best pitcher on the slate. Dozier and Sano are great cash game options, while Jorge Polanco (.171 ISO vs LHP) and Trevor Plouffe (.206 ISO vs LHP) are the best candidates to round out a Twins stack in tournaments.
Twins lineup is still minus Sano, but LHBs have a .386 wOBA vs Foltynewicz since last sesaon
Mike Foltynewicz has only finished six innings once in his last five starts as his walk rate has nearly doubled to 9.2% in six starts since the break. While his HRs have been evenly distributed this season, LHBs have thumped him for a .386 wOBA since last season. Though this lineup looks a lot less potent without Miguel Sano in the middle, there are a couple of interesting bats here at low prices. In fact, only Trevor Plouffe has a wRC+ below 100 vs RHP this season, while Dozier, Rosario, Kepler and Vargas add an ISO above .200. While Kepler (142 wRC+, .297 ISO vs RHP this season) is the top bat, Jorge Polanco (105 wRC+ vs RHP this season) may be the bargain for around $3K on either site out of the two spot. While the Minnesota bats don't project among the strongest tonight, they may have enough value to fill a hole in your lineup with some salary relief.
Trevor Plouffe scratched from the lineup Sunday
Analysis coming soon.
Joe Mauer batting leadoff, Brian Dozier back in the lineup tonight against Gausman
After getting rained out last night, it’s Kevin Gausman turn to square off against the Twins. He’s pitched pretty well this year (3.73 SIERA – 3.87 xFIP), but doesn’t offer much strikeout upside (20K%). The Twins have been a much better team at home over the past two seasons (.323 wOBA), which makes Gausman a slightly less appealing option tonight. Consider him a low end SP2 this evening. The Twins own a Vegas projected run total of just under 4, and their lineup features a few players to consider. Joe Mauer (.384 wOBA – 152 wRC+ vs RHP this year) is batting leadoff tonight while Miguel Sano is pushed down to the 5 spot. Byung-ho Park is also an excellent GPP option tonight, given his success against RHP this year (.389 wOBA - .329 ISO – 155 wRC+ vs RHP). Trevor Plouffe is another player to consider, as he owns a .333 ISO and .530 wOBA vs RHP at home this season through a small sample size of 19 AB’s.