Aaron Blair Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Aaron Blair can be added to the long list of pitchers worth targeting today, seeing that he holds a bloated 6.02 SIERA over the last 14 days and will face a team playing for a playoff birth. Blairs 9 % k-rate over the last two weeks is about par for the season for Blair, especially in at-bats against LHBs. His 15% k-rate against RHBs is not much better, putting all of the Tigers in play today. If we targeted only Tigers hitters who have a wRC+ total north of 270 in the last week, we could still play Ian Kinsler, Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Upton, who will be batting 1st, 3rd, and 5th, respectively. The Tigers have much more to lose than the Braves and Blair is a well below-average starting pitcher.

Aaron Blair has a 1.2 K-BB% in 54.2 major league innings. He struck out more batters in the AAA, but didn’t walk many fewer. LHBs have a .439 wOBA and 32.3 Hard%, while RHBs have not hit the ball as hard, but still have a .357 wOBA against a pitcher who has had issues finding the plate in the majors. This is a pitcher players can look to attack tonight with several Mets bats tonight. The resurgent Curtis Granderson (133 wRC+, .233 ISO vs RHP since 2015) and Asdrubal Cabrera (109 wRC+, .189 ISO vs RHP since 2015). Cespedes (139 wRC+, .259 ISO vs RHP since 2015) could be considered among them as well, but has struggled recently (53 wRC+ last seven days) and left yesterday's game with "dizzyness and nausea". This could be a great spot for players looking to save cost though, with T.J. Rivera (177 wRC+, .231 ISO vs RHP) below $3K and Michael Conforto (125 wRC+, .237 ISO vs RHP career) less than $3.5K on either site, including the minimum on FanDuel.

Aaron Blair has a -0.6 K-BB% with a .402 wOBA allowed to LHBs, though he hasn't allowed a lot of hard contact to either side of the plate (26.0 Hard% overall). His 12.6 BB% is atrocious though. Joey Votto (156 wRC+, .235 ISO vs RHP since 2015) might reach value on walks alone. Jay Bruce (131 wRC+, .313 ISO vs RHP this season) should bat with runners on base. Adam Duvall has handled RHP well (130 wRC+, .341 ISO since 2015) and Blair has allowed righties a .362 wOBA as well. If you're looking for a punt Catcher, Tucker Barnhart has a 342 wRC+ and 42.9 Hard% over the last week.

A -4.8 K-BB% is one of the worst marks you're ever going to see. Most pitchers don't make it much past 20 innings with that kind of ratio. The issue is that other than many walks and few Ks, he's still held RHBs to a .260 wOBA, making it tough to discern value in a negative scoring environment at high prices. The exception might be Jung-Ho Kong (134 wRC+, .189 ISO vs RHP), who has been on fire since returning to the lineup (257 wRC+, 55.6 Hard% last seven days). Blair has allowed a .374 wOBA to LHBs, but Polanco (115 wRC+, .146 ISO vs RHP since 2015) appears just an average high cost bat and Jaso (123 wRC+, .168 ISO vs RHP) is a cold bat (36 wRC+, 0 Hard% last seven days), who depends on a good eye and the bats behind him to drive him in.

Aaron Blair has just a 3.31 ERA through three major league starts, but has walked (nine) nearly twice as many as he's struck out (five), which, unfortunately, wipes him off the board in one of the better matchups tonight. The Phillies have just a 69 wRC+ vs RHP, so there aren't going to be too many bats we're interested in in a negative run environment, but Andres Blanco's (128 wRC+, .220 ISO vs RHP since 2015) insertion into the two spot at $2.5K or less makes things interesting. Although Maikel Franco (113 wRC+, .194 ISO vs RHP) and Herrera (118 wRC+ vs RHP) cost more on Fanduel, Ryan Howard (107 wRC+, .244 ISO vs RHP since 2015) is near the bare minimum there, while all three are affordably in the $3.5K range on DraftKings. A Phillies top four stack should be low owned and could help you to afford Kershaw.

Aaron Blair has been a prospect of some note, included in one of the robberies of Arizona by Atlanta over the last year, but has started his major league career with a 90 mph fastball and -2.4 K-BB% through an unimpressive two starts. His K% dropped below 20 last year at both double and triple A in the Arizona system as well. Atlanta is not a great hitter's park, but strong middle of the order bats Goldschmidt (152 wRC+, .244 ISO vs RHP since last season) and Peralta (142 wRC+, .222 ISO vs RHP) are still in play. Both remain strong hitters (120+ wRC+) on the road. Peralta is always a great value against RHP for less than $3.5K.

There's only one afternoon game taking place today and that sees the Braves traveling to Chicago to face the Cubs who are large -300 favorites with Jon Lester taking the mound. Lester is a top SP option in the all day slate as two of the other top priced SP's have tough matchups (Felix Hernandez against the Royals and Stephen Strasburg against the Cardinals). The Braves are anemic offensively and you'll want to avoid rostering any one in their starting lineup with perhaps the exception of Adonis Garcia who enters with a career .370 wOBA against LHP, is cheap, and batting clean up. Rookie Aaron Blair takes the mound for his second ML start - he had an average outing his first time out coming off of three very good AAA starts to open the year. He's flashed a strikeout per inning upside in the minors but facing the Cubs is not someone we want to target. Kris Bryant gets the day off for the Cubs but anyone in the top four of the Cubs order (Dexter Fowler-Jason Heyward-Ben Zobrist-Anthony Rizzo) with Rizzo and his career .370 wOBA/.228 ISO against RHP being the top option.