Billy Butler Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

J.A. Happ has seen his strikeout rate drop over the last month (18.4%), though he did fan eight Mariners in his last start. He continues to strand runners at a high rate (80%), causing his 3.28 ERA to run nearly a run below his league average estimators right around four. He’s in a nice spot at home against a low power offense (10.0 HR/FB on the road and vs LHP), but the Yankees don’t strike out a lot (18.7% vs LHP). While he should be fine, the cost seems a bit excessive, especially on DraftKings ($10.1K) for a pitcher with marginal peripherals. For the Yankees, Gary Sanchez (122 wRC+, .362 ISO vs LHP career) remains a monster and the top catcher at a high price. As far as potential punt plays go, there may be a couple here. Billy Butler (106 wRC+ vs LHP this season) has a 164 wRC+ over the last week for $2.7K or less out of the cleanup spot, while Mark Teixeira (104 wRC+, .155 ISO vs LHP) looks to finish his career strong (152 wRC+ last seven days) at $2.8K or less.

Francisco Liriano may not be back to All-Star form, but has pitched much better since being traded to Toronto from Pittsburgh, which is a bit of a surprise. Despite seven HRs in 37 innings, he has a 14.6 K-BB% with a 52.3 GB%. While also still higher than average, his hard hit rate has dropped a bit to 33.7% as well. He faces the Yankees, who have just an 18.5 K% vs LHP, but little power (10.3 HR/FB on the road, 10.2 HR/FB vs LHP). Liriano is one of the more interesting options in his price range (around $7.5K) tonight. He only really has to be concerned about one big bat. Gary Sanchez (117 wRC+, .381 ISO vs LHP this season) continues to torch the league (305 wRC+, 50 Hard% last seven days). Billy Butler (107 wRC+, .138 ISO vs LHP this season) has been hot since joining the team as well (252 wRC+) and costs just $3.2K or less on either site.

RHBs have a .342 wOBA against Tommy Milone since last season. Oakland has eight of those and Valencia, Davis, Semien, and Smolinski all have an ISO above .300 vs LHP this season. All except Davis have a wRC+ above 160 too. The unfortunate part is that Semien is batting 7th instead of 2nd tonight, though he's still just $2.8K on FanDuel and playable at the SS position on either site and Smolinski costs $4.6K on DraftKings with a risk of being PH for. Billy Butler (141 wRC+ vs LHP this season) costs just $2.9K on DraftKings. While it's hard to call any RHB here unplayable, justifying $4.7K for Coco Crisp may be a bit extreme and we do have worry about weather. Kevin's early report had some concerns.

Should we pick on Martin Perez this evening? He tends to fare a bit better at home but he'll pitch in a very favorable park for hurlers, and the spacious setting will allow him even more leeway than usual. Perez does a very good job of keeping the ball on the ground (GB% over 50.0), but he still allows plenty of hard contact to RH bats (34.6%) and his GB% has actually gone down some from last season. His FIP and xFIP are right around 5.00 against RH bats so it's very possible that the A's continue their hot hitting from last night. If that occurs, it's likely that Danny Valencia (.542 wOBA, .419 ISO, 51.4 hard%) will be a big reason why. Khris Davis is coming off of a monster performance and remains in the clean-up spot behind Valencia, making him a fine GPP target, especially if you pair him up with a combination of Valencia, Burns, Lowrie, Butler or Phegley. All of the RH bats are squarely in play tonight.

Chase Anderson has been pitching a bit better lately (2.97 ERA, 3.74 SIERA, 21.7 K%, 10.7 SwStr% over the last 30 days) and faces an Oakland lineup basically without the entire middle of their order with Reddick, Valencia, and Davis out. This lineup gives Anderson some credibility as a lower priced pitcher, but he is still $7.1K on DraftKings and probably not the guy you want to go with on one pitcher sites tonight. Realize he's a fly ball pitcher (0.97 GB/FB) with a lot of hard contact (19.8 Hard-Soft%) in a dangerous park. Anderson actually has a reverse platoon (.349 wOBA, 33.1 Hard% vs RHBs), which makes the Oakland absences hurt even more, but LHBs still have hit him at an average pace since last season (.310 wOBA). A few LH bats might provide some salary relief here if paying up for pitching. Stephen Vogt (122 wRC+, .191 ISO vs RHP since 2015) costs less than $4K behind the plate. Jed Lowrie (118 wRC+ vs RHP this year) bats 3rd and is middle infield eligible for less than $3.5K. Yonder Alonso (106 wRC+, .105 wRC+ vs RHP since 2015) is not likely on any radars, but might be worth a look for $3.2K or less as he has a 274 wRC+ and 38.5 Hard% over the last week and may be able to provide significant salary relief at a First Base position that may not be as strong as usual tonight. Billy Butler has a 256 wRC+ with a 50 Hard% over the last week, but is a ground ball machine with a 17 wRC+ vs RHP this year and is a bit more expensive.

Carlos Rodon has a ton of talent and dominated LHBs last season, so it might make sense that he'd be in a good spot against a weak offense in a great park. However, he struggled to throw strikes and get RHBs out (.350 wOBA), which is what the A's will stack the lineup with against him. Additionally, he's priced fairly high on both major sites. A sneaky way to go might be the Oakland bats, who face a 3rd straight lefty after putting up a 116 wRC+ against one good and one great one already. Khris Davis moves up to the two spot and has a career .254 ISO vs LHP. Valencia and Butler have also traditionally hit LHP well, while Marcus Semien bats 9th, but had a 144 wRC+ vs LHP last year. Carlos Rodon is a great talent, but currently a flawed pitcher who needs to prove his change-up can consistently get RHBs out.

A cool stat from Baseball Savant is exit velocity in PvB mode. Billy Butler has struck out in 12 of 36 plate appearances against Jose Quintana, but has a 100 mph exit velocity, though only five singles and no extra-base hits when he does make contact. Quintana will be facing the same lineup Sale did last night with Reddick batting 3rd again, but otherwise entirely right-handed in what still looks to be a decent spot. He's shown an ability to keep the ball in the park (8.5 HR/FB career) and gets a big park upgrade tonight. He may be more of a higher floor cash game pitcher than a GPP play with limited upside. The A's do have some bats in the middle of the order that handle left-handed pitching better than average, though no real mashers worth pointing out in a tough park against an above average pitcher.