Cameron Maybin Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The Yankees get a matchup vs. Brian Johnson tonight in Yankee Stadium in the 2nd game of their doubleheader and currently have a healthy 5.94 implied total. Johnson was just activated from the IL to start this game and likely won’t see a heavy pitch count. In 113 1/3 innings between the rotation and bullpen over the past 2 years, Johnson has pitched to a 4.45 ERA, 4.87 xFIP and 11.1% K-BB with a .344 wOBA allowed. Aaron Judge (.405 xwOBA vs. this year), DJ LeMahieu (.367), Cameron Maybin (.362), Gio Urshela (.361), Edwin Encarnacion (.353), Gleyber Torres (.346) and Aaron Hicks (.297) are all great options in the projected lineup tonight. Austin Romine is another option if he’s in the lineup; he’s been the Yankees hottest hitter over the past 2 weeks with a .453 xwOBA. Gio Urshela (.442) and Gleyber Torres (.411) have also seen the ball well recently. Aaron Hicks (.288) has continued to struggle but his 121 wRC+ since 2017 suggests he will likely turn it around soon. All Yankees hitters will be $4.6k or less on Draftkings in this matchup; some great values include Judge ($4k), Torres and Urshela ($3.9k) and Romine ($3.3k).

After trading for Edwin Encarnacion and getting Stanton back from IL for tonight’s game, the Yanks suddenly have a dangerous lineup again. They’ll face an opener (Ryne Stanek) and then project to face Ryan Yarbrough in long relief. Yarbrough has been nothing special this year as he has a 5.59 ERA / 4.51 xFIP / 4.46 SIERA with a 12.8% K-BB. Yarbrough does a good job limiting walks with just a 4.6% BB rate, but has arguably been around the zone a little too much given the .339 xwOBA allowed so far. Yarbrough has been much more vulnerable versus right-handed bats in his career (.334 xwOBA allowed vs. RHB, .287 xwOBA vs. LHB) and will face 8 right-handed bats in the Yankees lineup tonight. Luke Voit (154 wRC+ since 2018 vs. LHP), Giancarlo Stanton (169 wRC+), DJ LeMahieu (129 wRC+), Gary Sanchez (125 wRC+), Gleyber Torres (121 wRC+), Edwin Encarnacion (118 wRC+), and Aaron Hicks (107 wRC+) are all great options tonight. Cameron Maybin (80 wRC+ vs. LHP since 2018) is also a good option given that he’s been the Yankees hottest hitter with a .439 xwOBA over the past 14 days. The Yankees have a healthy 5.18 implied total in the Bronx vs. the Rays Tuesday night.

Outside of a two-start anomaly in early August against the Detroit Tigers and New York Mets, allowing two earned runs or less in each Start, Martin Perez has mostly been unable to keep up his magic act that has continuously frustrated daily fantasy players for the last couple of years. If unaware of this madness, Perez typically has had the uncanny ability to work himself out of jams and limit the overall damage to somewhat respectable totals in most of his outings. However, he has shown cracks in this aforementioned armor lately, allowing six or more earned runs in three of his last five performances. So much of what makes Perez "successful" is his solid pitching profile to left-handed batters, evidenced by a 22.4% strikeout rate, 55.8% groundball rate, and 25.3% hard hit rate, all of which are above-average numbers. These skills are something he will have a nearly impossible time relying on Thursday night as the Los Angeles Angels have just one lefty in their lineup this evening. His previously mentioned skillset takes a drastic downturn against right-handed batters, posting just a 12.3% strikeout rate in 108.1 innings pitched this season while surrendering hard contact 36.8% of the time, leading to a lofty .368 wOBA and 1.41 HR/9 allowed to righties. This all sets up perfectly well for this Angels lineup, as a few of their right-handed bats possess discernible skills against southpaws, with Mike Trout (168 wRC+, .415 wOBA, .203 ISO) decisively leading the way. On top of Trout, virtually any righty cracking the Los Angeles lineup is more than playable on this slate with C.J. Cron (134 wRC+, .366 wOBA, .333 ISO vs LHP) and Andrelton Simmons (101 wRC+, .318 wOBA vs LHP) being the other definitive players to target, while Albert Pujols and Cameron Maybin make for viable options to round out an Angels stack in large-field tournaments despite their overall struggles with left-handed pitching thus far this season.

Despite a poor offensive showing this year (82 wRC+ at home, 76 wRC+ vs RHP, 43 wRC+ last seven days), the Rockies have an implied run line (6.68) more than a run above any other offense at home tonight against the rookie Luis Castillo, who has shown an ability to miss bats through two starts (30.4 K%, 13.5 SwStr%), but has also walked 8 of 46 batters. In all, six of 16 offenses are above five implied runs tonight. If looking to pay up for those Coors hitters though (maybe a nearly $6K Joey Votto on DraftKings), the Angels (4.83) may provide some cheaper complimentary bats against Adalberto Mejia (RHBs .338 wOBA, 34.8 Hard%). Most Angels cost around the $3K mark on FanDuel, while only a couple (Cameron Maybin, Andrelton Simmons) are a bit more costly on DraftKings. Yunel Escobar doesn't have much power, but has a 139 wRC+ against LHP since last season. Maybin (108 wRC+ vs LHP since last season) may be able to use his speed against a pitcher with control issues. Martin Maldonado (138 wRC+, .172 ISO vs LHP this season) may even be the catcher of choice on a small slate. Despite a 12 wRC+ over the last week, he has a 57.1 Hard%.

Tampa Bay still has a sizeable lead with the top implied run line tonight (5.79), but according to early ownership projections, hitter ownership will be well spread out without a single bat currently expected to be in more than 20% of lineups on a full slate, though there are several Rays in the 15% range, more than any other team. Top Contrarian Rating on either site goes to Cameron Maybin facing a lefty (Ariel Miranda) with minimal expected ownership (1%). Jacob deGrom and Alex Wood are expected to be more popular than Lance McCullers tonight, but maybe that shouldn't be against a Yankee lineup missing several key bats. Jacob Faria is also currently expected to be in fewer than 15% of lineups on either site. Ownership projections are updated throughout the day and are available for all players to premium subscribers on the Projected Ownership page.

Four batters on tonight's slate have a wRC+ above 300 over the last week (10 PA min.), all with a hard hit rate of at least 50% as well. Scooter Gennett (343 wRC+, 56.3 Hard%, four HRs) is still riding the wave of one monster game. He has just one double and a 96 wRC+ in 12 PAs since, but with a 44.4 Hard%. Luis Perdomo, tonight's opponent, has had issues with LHBs (.368 wOBA, 38.6 Hard%, 52.5 GB% since last season). Aaron Judge (314 wRC+, 66.7 Hard%, three HRs)...is he ever not red hot? He does not have Yankee Stadium tonight and transitions to the west coast to face the Angels and Alex Meyer, who has allowed just three HRs this season in seven starts. RHBs have just a .303 wOBA against him since last year. His Achilles is the base on balls (15.3% this year). Mark Reynolds (308 wRC+, 50 Hard%, three HRs) continues to hit well on the road and has the power to get it out of any park, but Pittsburgh suppresses RH power more than almost any other park and it's Jameson Taillon has held RHBs to a .309 wOBA since last season. Cameron Maybin (304 wRC+, 57.1 Hard%, no HRs) missed a few games and barely meets the cutoff, but has made up for lost time by swiping six bases in two games since returning. In this instance, we may be looking at Mashiro Tanaka and Gary Sanchez's marginal ability to hold runners above anything else, although there's a rumor that Tanaka appears to prefer Austin Romine. Be sure to watch for confirmed lineups tonight.

Michael Conforto's 335 wRC+ (66.7 Hard%, 4 HRs) is highest on the slate over the last week (10 PA min.) with a backup Catcher (Kurt Suzuki 302 wRC+) being the only other player above 300 over the last week. Conforto is in an interesting spot at home against Jarred Cosart. LHBs have a 62.4 GB% and -0.8 Hard-Soft% in his career, but just a 3.2 K-BB% and Conforto has a 202 sOPS+ against ground ball pitchers this year (Baseball-Reference) in 30 PAs with four extra-base hits. Another batter of interest in that game may be Ryan Schimpf (244 wRC+, 62.5 Hard%, 2 HRs last seven days). He homered last night and faces Robert Gsellman, who has allowed a 35.4 Hard% to LHBs since entering the league. Whoever the Braves employ behind the plate tonight will enter the game hot. Tyler Flowers has a 242 wRC+ and 50 Hard% over the last week. The Braves are projected for a surprisingly high 4.95 runs facing Trevor Williams (RHBs .370 wOBA). A pair of Angels comprise two of the other hottest hitters on the slate in Mike Trout (251 wRC+, 72.7 Hard%, 3 HRs) and Cameron Maybin (240 wRC+, 40 Hard%, 2 HRs). One of those names might be a surprise. They face the competent Erasmo Ramirez (3.00 ERA, 3.37 SIERA, 20.5 K%), but then likely a lot of a mediocre Tampa Bay bullpen in the latter half of the game.

The Indians are running out of starting pitchers and are bringing Zach McAllister out of the bullpen for tonight’s start against the Tigers. He hasn’t pitched more than two innings in any game this season, so we should assume a short outing, followed by a parade of relievers. The Indians are still fighting for home field in the playoffs, so they would certainly prefer to win this game, but their focus has to be saving whatever pitching they can for the playoffs, so I don’t expect that we’ll see all of the best bullpen arms in this situation. It’s unfortunately not very helpful to break down the individual matchups with no idea who they’ll be facing or for how long, so our best targets are the top hitters for Detroit, Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez, Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler, followed by Cameron Maybin and Justin Upton.