Adam Lind Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Edwin Jackson has allowed 20 HRs in 12 starts, 18 over his last nine. While LHBs have hit him well (.345 wOBA, six HRs), RHBs have destroyed him for a .415 wOBA and 14 HRs. Unfortunately, Josh Bell (115 wRC+, .216 ISO vs RHP) is the only batter in the opposing lineup with an ISO above .170 against RHP this year, the Pirates' home park punishes RH power. Andrew McCutchen (106 wRC+, .166 ISO vs RHP) can certainly be employed tonight. He's not the only pitcher who has been torched by RHBs on the mound tonight. RHBs have a .351 wOBA, 16 HRs, 40.8 GB%, and 36.9 Hard% against Sean Manaea and has to deal with the Texas heat tonight. Elvis Andrus has a 122 wRC+, .214 ISO vs LHP, but the most potent lefty-masher in the lineup may be Robinson Chirinos (192 wRC+, .296 ISO). Ivan Nova has allowed 24 HRs over his last 108 innings pitched, 13 of them to LHBs, who have a .396 wOBA, 40.3 GB% and 36.3 Hard% against him. Daniel Murphy (140 wRC+, .237 ISO vs RHP) and Adam Lind (131 wRC+, .236 ISO vs RHP) are in the lineup against him. Lance Lynn has allowed LHBs a .348 wOBA with 16 HRs. He's allowed 26 total HRs, but just nine at home. He faces an almost entirely LH Cubs lineup tonight. Danny Duffy may be a usable pitcher tonight, but can be exploited by RH power. RHBs have 37 HRs against him since the start of last season. Ian Kinsler (.261 ISO), Nick Castellanos (.308 ISO) and James McCann (.267 ISO) have all shown power against LHP this year.

On a dare, someone must have suggested to Dusty Baker that they could beat the Mets without the use of a single major league regular in the lineup. Only Willmer Difo, Howie Kendrick and Adam Lind, all in the top half of the lineup, have seen semi-regular at bats among a confirmed lineup with a .248 wOBA and .090 ISO vs RHP this year with a 19.7 K-BB%. The question is, does this add Robert Gsellman to the plethora of usable arms tonight. He is coming off seven shutout innings with three hits against the Braves, but struck out just three in that start. Despite a hard hit rate below 20% in three straight starts now, his velocity has been dropping and he's struck out a total of 11 batters over this span. While the matchup does make him look a lot better, this still doesn't seem ideal for players looking to maximize upside with their fantasy dollars.

Good pitching is going to be hard to come by on Thursday night. Brad Peacock (31.3 K%) is the only pitcher above a 25% strikeout rate and has eight or more strikeouts in four of his last five, but has only completed six innings once. He has cut his walk rate to 6.4% since the break, which is a great sign, while his 27.9% 95+ mph EV is lowest on the board for the season with a 2.5 Hard-Soft%. One of the top spots on the board against a cold Angels’ offense (20.1 K-BB%, 25 Hard% last seven days) in a pitcher’s park. Masahiro Tanaka has the second highest strikeout rate on the board (24.6%) with the obvious HR issues (30 in 27 starts). Unfortunately, he’s struck out four or fewer in three of his last five starts and is coming off a seven run outing, but that was in Texas and he may have the top matchup on the board hosting an ice cold Baltimore offense, who have a 17.3 K-BB% on the road and 23.8 K-BB% with a 9.3 HR/FB over the last week. It drops off from there, but Tanner Roark has a 29.0 K-BB% over his last four starts and while a 10.2 SwStr% doesn’t come close to supporting a 32% strikeout rate, it’s still a significant upgrade on a difficult board. He has just a 3.1 H-S% over that span as well, even though he’s managed to allow four HRs. Atlanta does not strike out much and has just a 4.5 K-BB% over the last week, but also just a 26.2 Hard% over that span. Jose Berrios struck out just one Royal in seven innings last time out and can’t entirely support the 34 strikeouts over the four preceding starts with his 10.7 SwStr%. Prior to that, he hadn’t struck out more than six since June. He has managed contact well. His 85.3 mph aEV, 4.6% Barrels/BBE and 28.7% 95+ mph EV are all second best on the board. The Blue Jays (89 wRC+ on the road, 90 wRC+ vs RHP) are far from the worst matchup on the board at this point. Mike Foltynewicz struggles so much against LHBs (.375 wOBA), that he wasn't originally a pitcher of interest until the Washington lineup was confirmed just a little while ago. This rag tag collection has a combined .307 wOBA and .160 ISO vs RHP this year according to PlateIQ with a 25.2 K%. Adam Lind (119 wRC+, .209 ISO vs RHP) is the lone LHB of concern in this lineup. Foltynewicz has a 15.0 K-BB% and 23.1 Hard% vs RHBs.

The Nationals have two of their right-handed starters back in the lineup (Jayson Werth and Trea Turner) this week, but this may not be the ideal spot to utilize them. RHBs have a .314 wOBA against Zach Davies this year, but a 54.5 GB% and 26 Hard%. Turner's game is more speed than power predicated, so he can still be useful here, but at a high cost, players are going to need him to steal a couple of bases tonight. Davies has just a 4.3% Barrels/BBE, which has helped him keep his HR rate down in a tough park in Milwaukee. Over his last eight starts, batters have just a 22.8 Hard% against him, including -3.2% for RHBs. A 15.1 K% on the season makes it hard to even consider using him. LHBs have it a bit easier (.329 wOBA, 31.1 Hard%, 41.3 GB% this season). They have just a .247 wOBA, 21.7 K% and one HR over this eight start stretch, but with a 33.8 GB% and 29.7 Hard%. On a small slate, both Daniel Murphy (134 wRC+, .234 ISO, 35.1 Hard%, 40.8 FB% vs RHP) and Adam Lind (127 wRC+, .222 ISO, 40.8 Hard%, 37.3 FB% vs RHP) may still have some value. The latter has a 250 wRC+ and 53.9 Hard% over the last week.

There are several spots tonight, not near the top of the board in terms of expected team runs, where pitchers have allowed a high hard hit rate with a wOBA above .350, where players can take advantage of affordable bats if they are willing to accept a negative run environment. It's rare that San Francisco draws any interest from an offensive perspective in a daily fantasy setting, but their 4.72 run projection from Vegas, although smack in the middle of tonight's board, is actually fairly high for them. The reason being that Zach Eflin has been terrible in his short career against LHBs. He's struck out just 10.5% of them with a .385 wOBA and 37 Hard%. The most appealing part is probably that the San Francisco bats are very affordable too. However, among those projected to start tonight, only Denard Span (110 wRC+, .180 ISO) and Jarrett Parker (93 wRC+, .161 ISO) have been even average against RHP this season. In another difficult west coast setting, LHBs have a .370 wOBA and 37.3 Hard% against Luis Perdomo with 53% of their contact on the ground (much lower than RHBs). Daniel Murphy (138 wRC+, .247 ISO vs RHP) projects best there, but Adam Lind (120 wRC+, .213 ISO vs RHP) could serve as a cheap OF bat. Nick Williams (141 wRC+, .242 ISO vs LHP) could have value against Matt Moore (LHBs .365 wOBA, 33.1 Hard% since last season). RH Mets like Yoenis Cespedes (107 wRC+, .279 ISO vs LHP), but more affordably, Asdrubal Cabrera (118 wRC+, .086 ISO vs LHP), Wilmer Flores (110 wRC+, .264 ISO vs LHP), Amed Rosario (144 wRC+, 40 Hard% last seven days), Travis D'arnaud (141 wRC+, .242 ISO vs LHP) and Juan Lagares (102 wRC+, .167 ISO vs LHP) could all provide value against Justin Nicolino (RHBs .355 wOBA, 34.8 Hard% since last season). The Mets are the only one of these teams projected above five runs (5.06) and they have just the seventh highest implied run total on the board.

The Nationals have a team 132 wRC+ since the All-Star break, including three of the five batters above a 300 wRC+ over that span. Adam Lind (321 wRC+, 36.4 Hard%, two HRs) is likely to find a seat on the bench back in an NL park, but Bryce Harper (350 wRC+, 58.8 Hard%) and Anthony Rendon (346 wRC+, 50 Hard%), both with four HRs each, will likely attempt to extend their hot streaks in Arizona. The problem at hand is Zack Godley with his 16.2 SwStr% over the last month and 57 GB% on the season. Godley has allowed a 19.5 Hard-Soft% at home this season and had his first multiple HR outing of the year last time out in Atlanta. Joining them in the 300 wRC+ club since the break is 2017 break out Chris Taylor (303 wRC+, 47.4 Hard%, one HR). He's expected to see Aaron Blair if the Jaime Garcia trade goes through, but his situation could improve with the platoon advantage, although one would wonder why the Braves would risk a pitcher they are currently attempting to trade today. Just below them is Charlie Blackmon (287 wRC+, 40 Hard%, three HRs). Trevor Williams has shown improvement recently and LHBs have just a 26.8 Hard% against him since last season, but a 6.7 K-BB% has led to a .357 wOBA. The Rockies currently have the top implied run line on the slate (6.39).

On an eight game slate with some interesting lineups, Washington bats appear as if they may be most popular, especially Bryce Harper and Trea Turner (projected to be somewhere around 20% on either site) as they can be combined with some lower cost bats in tonight's lineup like Adam Lind and Wilmer Difo, also projected to be in more than 10% of lineups. The other side of that matchup might be where players find some contrarian options. Joe Ross has struggled with batters from both sides of the plate this year. Jonathan Schoop moves up to bat second tonight with only 5% projected ownership on either site, while Seth Smith, Mark Trumbo and Trey Mancini are not expected to be much more popular. Lance McCullers is projected to be the most popular pitcher on the slate and he might be difficult to get away from because despite struggling in his last start, 17 of 22 batters either struck out or hit a ground ball. Other high priced pitchers have had recent struggles (Lester, Pineda). David Price is not in a great spot against the Yankees tonight, but has looked good in two starts and projects to be the lowest owned of the four. Premium subscribers can see potential ownership rates, which update until first pitch, on the Projected Ownership page.

The two offensive stars to actually grace the Washington lineup in the rescheduled affair against the Orioles (Bryce Harper and Trea Turner) are the RotoGrinders Player Projections' top overall bats along with George Springer and Jose Altuve against Jason Hammel. While all four cost at least $5.4K on DraftKings, it may be more feasible to accumulate a few of those bats in a FanDuel lineup with each projected for at least 3.0 Pt/$/K. Several low cost Washington bats (Adam Lind, Wilmer Difo, and Stephen Drew) aid the cause with FD projections above 3.7 Pt/$/K, while a $2.1K Adam Engel projects for 2.77 Pt/$/K on DraftKings against Jake Odorizzi. Brian McCann, Evan Longoria and Aaron Altherr are all $3.6K or less on DraftKings as well with a projection above 2.3 Pt/$/K.

Alec Asher has allowed six runs in 18.2 innings with 14 strikeouts, two walks and three HRs in starts not against the Houston Astros, but has had just a 7.4 SwStr% in each of his last two starts. A tough start in Washington (122 wRC+ at home, 112 wRC+ vs RHP) becomes a bit more interesting with Werth, Murphy, Zimmerman and Rendon out of the lineup as Asher costs just $4.7K on DraftKings. Using the new PlateIQ tool, we can see that this particular Washington lineup has just a 19.6 K% vs RHP this year with a .297 wOBA and .177 ISO. This is opposed to a 19.2 K%, .345 wOBA and 198 ISO vs RHP as an entire team this year. The real gain here is in wOBA with the small sample sizes of Wilmer Difo (.229), Drew (.148) and Goodwin (.264) bringing the current lineup's total to below .300 against RHP. Asher doesn't have to do much for less than $5K, but now this matchup offers some low cost solutions to higher priced pitchers on either side with either Asher or someone like Adam Lind (107 wRC+, .215 ISO vs RHP since 2016) as well as Drew (116 wRC+, .250 ISO vs RHP since 2016).