Chase Utley Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

With the addition of Manny Machado (137 wRC+, .241 ISO vs RHP last calendar year), tonight's Dodger lineup has a wRC+ above 110 and ISO above .190 through the first seven batters and Chase Utley (89 wRC+, .115 ISO), well, he has narrative. Zach Eflin has been good, but not great (24 K%, 3.66 SIERA) and the Dodgers have a run line of just 4.38, but this is a potent lineup with a park upgrade tonight.

Vince Velasquez may be the top pitcher on a four game board tonight, but he's far from a lock and the Dodger lineup (4.19 implied runs) has a lot of talent. All eight hitters are above a 100 wRC+ against RHP over the last calendar year and only Justin Turner (.159) and Chase Utley (.170) are below a .200 ISO. Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger and Yasiel Puig all exceed a 130 wRC+ and .260 ISO.

Every single batter in the Dodger lineup has a 107 or better wRC+ and only Chase Utley (.166) and Justin Turner (.167) are below a .200 ISO against RHP over the last calendar year. Vegas adjusted the Dodger run line up half a run from 3.89 to 4.37 with the pitcher change, but even that is just fourth best on an eight team board. Elieser Hernandez costs the minimum on DraftKings. The Rule 5 pick was given just a 40 Future Value grade and has basically jumped from A ball to the majors this year, throwing three innings over two relief outings over the last week for his first major league action. If players are looking for just the possibility of positive points paired with Verlander or Sale, the Dodgers have a team 68 wRC+ over the last seven days and might not know who he is either. The Miami bullpen is likely to get some work in here. They have a 5.43 ERA, but the largest positive gap in baseball from a 4.30 FIP that's still a bottom six mark in the league. Important to note as well, Cody Bellinger (136 wRC+, .289 ISO vs RHP last calendar year) is the only batter priced above $4K on either site.

Matt Harvey makes his debut for the Reds in Cincinnati. As a result, the Dodgers (5.03) have the only implied run line above 4.5 runs among the four west coast games. While Harvey has been competent against RHBs since last season (.330 xwOBA, 51.9 GB%), LHBs have mauled him (.426 wOBA, .423 xwOBA, 32.3 GB%). This may be the reason Chase Utley (116 wRC+, .177 ISO vs RHP last calendar year) finds himself atop the lineup tonight as a great value play for $3K or less on either site. Four of the first five in the order are left-handed tonight, along with the rejuvenated Matt Kemp (104 wRC+, .190). In fact, Utley has the lowest ISO vs RHP over the last calendar year in tonight's lineup with only Max Muncy (69) is below Kemp's 104 wRC+. Additionally, only Cody Bellinger (133 wRC+, .275 ISO) is above $4K on either site. The Dodgers are a strong and affordable stack against one of the worst pitchers on the board this season.

Bryan Mitchell has walked 14 and struck out three in three starts for the Padres. While he's done a decent job of keeping the ball on the ground, batters from either side have both a wOBA and xwOBA above .350 against him in 46.1 innings since last season. These are the kind of numbers that make you look twice to make sure the Padres are actually still starting him. Strangely, the Dodgers are only projected for 4.34 runs by Vegas. The lineup is not yet confirmed, but each of the first seven batters in the projected lineup have a 105 wRC+ or higher against RHP since 2017 with only Chase Utley (.167) and Corey Seager (.163) below a .200 ISO vs RHP since last season. With lots of walks and quite a few ground balls, a stacking approach might be superior to individual selections here.

Zack Greinke began effectively before running into trouble in the Wild Card game against the Rockies and faces a much more difficult offense in Arizona for this one. While Greinke had a 26.8 K% (12.4 SwStr%) with a 3.20 ERA and 3.48 SIERA (3.00 DRA), his K-BB decreased from 23.6% in the first half of the season to 18% in the second half, while he had a hard hit rate above one-third of batted balls to batters from either side and during either half of the season. Showing almost no split, he still held batters from either side to a wOBA just above .280 with a K-BB a bit above 20%. It's a difficult run environment to trust Greinke in at a middle of the board price against an offense with the third highest implied run total today (4.57). This specific Dodger lineup has a .361 wOBA and .211 ISO vs RHP with a 20.0 K% against RHP this year, the major surprise being Austin Barnes (147 wRC+, .138 ISO vs RHP) batting sixth instead of Yasmai Grandal, who has two career HRs against Greinke. Corey Seager (120 wRC+, .176 ISO vs RHP) and Curtis Granderson (114 wRC+, .255 ISO vs RHP) both have two career HRs against Greinke as well. Chase Utley (97 wRC+, .165 ISO vs RHP), Justin Turner (125 wRC+, .156 ISO vs RHP) and Cody Bellinger (140 wRC+, .323 ISO vs RHP) each have one. On top of the success of many other batters in this lineup against Greinke, Yasiel Puig had a 136 wRC+ and .266 ISO against RHP as well. It's going to be difficult for Greinke to find many soft spots here. The roof will be open at Chase Field tonight, which may give hitters a slight additional advantage. According to Swish Analytics Umpire Factors, available on RotoGrinders, tonight's home plate umpire, Gerry Davis has 311 games called in the database with a 19.3 K% and 8.4 BB%, a slight lean towards hitters (0.98 K-Boost, 1.05 BB-Boost).

Players are looking for affordable bats to help pay up for pitching and Russell Martin has been mentioned a few times as a value play tonight near the top of the order for an offense with one the highest projected run lines tonight. Chase Utley provides another low cost path if he's atop the Dodger lineup tonight (not yet confirmed). With a lack of strong options at SS, that's a position players might consider punting entirely, though in order to afford Kershaw, players are still likely to need at least one really cheap outfielder. That's an ideal spot for Hunter Renfroe tonight. He's batting clean up against Jaime Garcia has no wOBA split this year (.310 for either side), but has allowed eight of his 10 HRs to RHBs, against whom he has just a 5.3 K-BB%. Renfroe has career 165 wRC+ and .304 ISO vs LHP. He costs less than $3K on either site. Low cost Yankee bats are an excellent option as well if you have confidence in the weather in Chicago.

Asher Wojciechowski has seen some mixed results in his first three starts at in the Majors this season and is coming off a start against the Los Angeles Dodgers in which he allowed four earned runs in five innings pitched and struck out just one batter. This is not a recipe for success for Wojciechowski, and he'll draw the unenviable task of facing that same Dodgers lineup this afternoon, except this time at home in the bombers' paradise known as Great American Ballpark. In just 18 career innings, Wojciechowski has done a decent job limiting home runs against left-handed batters (1.00 HR/9), despite an insanely low 18.8% groundball rate. As we can see by looking at his 5.6% HR/FB rate, a lot of this success is due to a small sample size and overall variance, and even with a below-average 29.2% hard hit rate, it should be expected to see those home run totals begin to drastically regress. Just further adding to the appeal of the Dodgers lefties today is the low 11.9% strikeout rate and high 10.7% walk rate Wojciechowski brings to the table, meaning there should be plenty of baserunners and plenty of contact in the air, increasing the likelihood of the Dodgers putting up some crooked numbers via the long ball. We can't completely write off the Dodgers righties like Chris Taylor (130 wRC+, .366 wOBA, .201 ISO vs RHP) and Yasiel Puig (115 wRC+, .343 wOBA, .220 ISO vs RHP), as Wojciechowski still struggles with groundballs (30.6% GB%) and hard contact (34.6% HH%) against right-handed batters, but our primary Dodgers exposure should come in the way of Cody Bellinger (130 wRC+, .366 wOBA, .338 ISO vs RHP) and Cory Seager (125 wRC+, .359 wOBA, .173 ISO vs RHP), while Yasmani Grandal (.182 ISO vs RHP), Chase Utley (.180 ISO vs RHP), and Joc Pederson (.177 ISO vs RHP) should be categorized more as secondary options from the left side of the plate that are better utilized as part of a stack than as individual one-offs in large-field tournaments.

Players paying up for pitching are likely hunting for cheap bats, which makes Dixon Machado potentially the most popular player tonight, but there are several other spots where players can save tonight. Tyler Flowers is likely to be a popular Catcher, but John Hicks has shown well against fly ball pitchers in a small sample size and costs the same as Cameron Rupp ($2.7K DK, $2.2K FD), which is $500-$900 cheaper than Flowers tonight. At First Base, Adrian Gonzalez hasn't hit this year, but both he and Matt Adams are well under $3K on FanDuel. Chase Utley is one of the hottest hitters in the league (282 wRC+ over the last week) and is a reasonable pivot from Machado for just a few hundred more. Players can consider Nick Castellanos or Luis Valbuena (vs Kyle Gibson) at right around $3K on DK and a few hundred less on FanDuel. Allen Cordoba (vs German Marquez) remains a very cheap SS atop the San Diego lineup. Kole Calhoun should be getting a lot of love in the Outfield where DraftKings has him priced just $2.6K ($100 more on FanDuel). The last thing to mention for those seeking salary relief is that the entire Milwaukee lineup costs less than $2K on FanDuel tonight. Kershaw has been a bit HR prone on occasion this year. For Strasburg enthusiasts, one Milwaukee OF bat like Keon Broxton leading off or Domingo Santana have a shot to pay dividends if they do anything and allow for more expensive choices elsewhere.

Clayton Kershaw is projected to be the most popular pitcher tonight, but with Stephen Strasburg in a great spot (Oakland 37.7 K% over the last week), he's not the over-whelming chalk tonight. In fact, four pitchers are projected for at least 20% ownership on DraftKings with three above 10% on FanDuel. Some of that depends on the weather in Texas too as players may flock to Kershaw or Strasburg if that game gets cancelled. Considering the cost of pitching tonight,, players are expected to look for cheap bats with Dixon Machado topping the projected ownership board on either site, followed by a mostly affordable middle of the Atlanta lineup against Bronson Arroyo. While ownership is not projected to be very excessive on any single hitter, Chase Utley (113 wRC+, .259 ISO vs RHP, 282 wRC+ over the last week) could be a contrarian pivot off of Machado for not much more on FanDuel ($300 difference). He's projected for around 5% of lineups on either site. Premium players can find potential ownership rates for all players on the Projected Ownership page.