Christian Friedrich Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The Dodgers are not the ideal team to target when they are facing a left-handed pitcher, but the 16.8% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate and 5.11 xFIP Christian Friedrich has against right-handed batters puts them firmly into play. Even though Justin Turner is more of a reverse splits hitter, he is still their best right-handed hitter. He has dealt with a low .220 BABIP against left-handed pitchers, but with a 39.8% hard hit rate and good plate skills, his numbers should be much better. Kike Hernandez (.184 ISO vs LHP) has some power upside, and is basically free on FanDuel at $2.1K. Yasiel Puig (.215 ISO vs LHP) had a incredibly disappointing season that forced him to spend time in the minors, but he is still a very talented hitter worth a shot in tournaments.

The Giants are fighting for one of the wild card berths in the National League, but they have sputtered to four losses in their last five games. They should be able to do some damage against Christian Friedrich, who fits in with the major trend of starting pitchers today. He doesn’t strike out enough batters (17.7%), he walks too many guys (9.3%), and his SIERA sits at 4.81. The hard contact is also a problem, at 32.1%. The Giants bats are all fairly priced on FanDuel, with Buster Posey (147 wRC+, .386 wOBA, .194 ISO vs LHP) and Hunter Pence (142 wRC+, .379 wOBA, .262 ISO vs LHP) standing out as great plays over there. Friedrich does struggle a bit more against right-handed batters, so that is where we would want to focus. The Giants bats are less appealing on DraftKings, where some of the prices are much higher. It’s pretty clear where we want to get our Giants exposure this evening.

Christian Friedrich had the best came of his career in his last start at home against this same Rockies team with 10 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings. However, there is nothing in his stats or his peripherals to suggest that we could expect anything close to that again, even if this game weren't at Coors Field. Friedrich has been pretty good against left-handed batters this season which could help neutralize the strong outfield hitters for the Rockies, but against right-handed batters, his 16.4% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate and average batted ball trends are likely to get him into trouble with Nolan Arenado (109 wRC+, .363 wOBA, .239 ISO, vs LHP), D.J. LeMahieu (134 wRC+, .399 wOBA, .176 ISO vs LHP) and Nick Hundley (122 wRC+, .382 wOBA, .241 ISO vs LHP). Arenado is the top overall hitter of the night and is the first guy we should lock into our cash game lineup. There is plenty of merit to using Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez in tournament stacks in case this game gets out of hand early.

Christian Friedrich has stark L/R splits, allowing an xFIP of 5.44 versus RHBs, compared to a much more respectable 3.50 xFIP versus lefties. The southpaw will face the Rockies today, a team who has a couple of formidable right-handed bats. Nolan Arenado is the biggest name on the Rockies, but it is DJ LeMahieu who boasts the largest wRC+ totals versus LHP. LeMahieu’s wRC+ vs. LHP is 136, compared to Arenado’s more modest 106, although Arenado does best LeMaheiu in power, holding a 0.235 ISO against LHP (DJ’s ISO vs. LHP is 0.177).

RHBs have a .344 wOBA against Christian Friedrich and the Cubs are projected to score five runs in Petco. Kris Bryant (164 wRC+, .299 ISO vs LHP this season) is the obvious top bat here, but also costs $1K more than any of his teammates on DraftKings, where a guy like Dexter Fowler (140 wRC+, .200 ISO vs LHP this season) could generate more value for $1.6K less. The top four bats in the lineup plus Javier Baez all have a wRC+ just above 140 vs LHP since last season. Baez could be a SS bargain for $2.7K on FanDuel, though he bats down in the order, while Zobrist carries a reasonable price tag of $4K or less on either site.

The Phillies are stacking up eight RHBs against Christian Friedrich in San Diego because they have a .358 wOBA against him since last season. Petco is a pitcher's park, but the most expensive Philadelphia bat costs just $4.1K on DraftKings and $1K less on FanDuel. For players paying up for Coors and/or pitching, there are some great low cost pivots in this game, including Tommy Joseph (155 wRC+, .273 ISO vs LHP) for $2.4K on FanDuel, who might be one of the top values on the slate and Cameron Rupp (154 wRC+, .265 ISO vs LHP since 2015), who is the highest priced player in the lineup ($4.1K on DK, $3K on FD). Aaron Altherr (108 wRC+, .236 ISO vs LHP since 2015) bats ahead of them for less than $3K on either site.

Christian Friedrich is striking out righties 18% of the time, giving up a 36% fly ball percentage, and giving up hard and medium contact 83% of the time. Jayson Werth (wRC+ of 182 vs. LHP), Anthony Rendon (wRC+ of 131 vs. LHP), and Chris Heisey (wRC+ of 130 vs. LHP), are all in play and look to make Friedrich pay for allowing such hard contact.

St Louis is one of several strong alternatives to Coors tonight. They are projected nearly five runs against Christian Friedrich, who has allowed a HR in 5 straight games and his 10.3 BB% this season only makes things worse. RHBs have a .358 wOBA against him since last season. While most RH bats are playable here, Tommy Pham (101 wRC+ vs LHP since last season) has a 279 wRC+ over the last week and is a strong value play on DK ($3.8K) and an absolute bargain on FD ($2.7K). Stephen PIscotty (186 wRC+, .265 ISO vs LHP this season) is a top overall OF bat.

Van Slyke has been more under the radar this year so far after returning from injury. Still, he has a respectable wRC+ of 140 against LHP, in addition to a 0.313 ISO. Van Slyke will be batting 8th, so perhaps he is best used as a GPP play today with the upside of receiving a couple of free base on balls. Christian Friedrich will be the pitcher Van Slyke faces today, and Friedrich has struggled against RHBs, sporting a xFIP of 5.11. Look to Van Slyke as a punt outfielder with an above average matchup and a below average lineup position.

The Diamondbacks are one of top teams in the majors versus LHP this year (117 wRC+, .355 wOBA, .195 ISO). Friedrich (4.97 SIERA) has had his struggles with RHB and gets a massive ballpark downgrade heading to Chase Field that won't correlate well with his 35.0% Hard% allowed to RHB. We can make a case for rostering any of the Diamondbacks right handed batters in this matchup but it is best to stick to the top half of the order for cash games. Wellington Castillo (192 wRC+, .465 wOBA, .338 ISO vs LHP) is the top play in the Diamonbacks lineup given his numbers and the scarcity at the catcher position. Paul Goldschmidt (186 wRC+, .457 wOBA, .211 ISO) and Yasmany Tomas (168 wRC+, .431 wOBA, .324 ISO) have mashed LHP and are great plays tonight has well. Rickie Weeks (151 wRC+, .406 wOBA, .281 ISO) has hit lefties well in a small sample size this season and can be considered in tournaments as he slides into the cleanup spot versus Friedrich.