Coco Crisp Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Aaron Sanchez is either tied for the lowest price tag ($9K FD) or second lowest ($9.6K DK) priced pitcher on the two game slate. While he's facing a Cleveland offense that lost 35 points of wRC+ on the road (85 wRC+, .155 ISO, 21.7 K% on the road vs 120 wRC+, .188 ISO, 18.8 K% at home). The Indians are a stronger offense vs RHP - 103 wRC (7th) with a .175 ISO (9th) - and that seems more realistic than the enormous drop-off on the road. However, the real concern with Sanchez (3.00 ERA, 3.55 FIP, 54.4 GB%, 20.4 K%, 30.3 Hard%) is that this is an elimination game for the Blue Jays and only for the Blue Jays today, giving him very little room for error. He's absolutely the highest risk pitcher on the board for that factor alone even though Toronto is a slight favorite (-125). Sanchez did have some pretty significant batted ball splits too. He held RHBs to a 61% GB rate, 27.9 Hard%, 7.4 HR/FB and 16.4 K-BB%. LHBs had a bit more success against him with a 47.6 GB%, 32.7 Hard%, 12.8 HR/FB and 10.4 K-BB% all closer to league average. In the same lineup, Crisp and Perez are really the only below average hitters (via wRC+), but where as Stroman had virtually no split yesterday giving us a nice contrarian play in Napoli (111 wRC+, .242 ISO), players may want to lean more towards the stronger LH bats today: Carlos Santana (148 wRC+, .285 ISO), Tyler Naquin (138 wRC+, .225 ISO) and Jason Kipnis (120 wRC+, .200 ISO) to name the top performers against RHP in the lineup.

Edison Volquez is not finishing the season strong, having a rough go in his last few outings. Most pitchers with a k-rate south of 14% are going to struggle, and pitchers with a 35% hard contact allowed percentage tend to get shelled. Volquez’s 1.93 HR/9 illustrates the consequences of this mixture of contact and hard contact leading to the longball. The Indians do not have much to play for since the Rangers locked up home-field advantage on Friday night, but the LHBs in the lineup like Carlos Santana, Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor, and Coco Crisp are very much in play. The only downside is that the game will be played in Kansas City, a park with a 0,91 rating for left-handed home run power on the RotoGrinders Ballpark Factors tool. While this is a below average park rating, it is not the 0.79 rating that right-handers experience in the cavernous Kauffman Stadium. Look to the Indians for a viable stack that some may avoid because of where it will be played.

Mike Fiers has been a bit better of late (22.6 K%, 4.18 ERA, 3.88 SIERA, 3.67 xFIP over the last month), but Cleveland is a place where daily fantasy players probably don't want to use opposing pitchers at this point. The Tribe has a 123 wRC+ at home and just a 0.5 K-BB% over the last week. Terry Francona continues to hate the best bat vs RHP on the team as Tyler Naquin (148 wRC+, .269 ISO vs RHP) continues to bat eighth with new acquisition Coco Crisp (84 wRC+, .150 ISO vs RHP since 2015) batting a spot ahead of him today. Mike Napoli may be the most interesting bat here. He has a 111 wRC+ and .236 ISO vs RHP this season, facing a reverse split pitcher (.339 wOBA, 35.6 Hard% vs RHBs since 2015) and costs just $3.6K on DraftKings. Roberto Perez (48 wRC+ vs RHP this season) is the only other RHB in the lineup.

Trevor Bauer takes the mound this afternoon for the Indians fresh off a 13 strikeout performance against the Blue Jays in his last start. While he's been somewhat inconsistent this season it seems unlikely that he'll meet much resistance this afternoon as he defeated the Athletics in their only prior meeting this season and this Oakland team also happens to own just a .304 wOBA against right-handed pitching as well as an ugly .290 wOBA at home. Stephen Vogt tends to draw plenty of attention behind the plate when facing right-handed pitching, but it's been rookie Ryon Healy with a team best .360 wOBA against right-handed pitching thus far. Meanwhile Khris Davis has already smacked 33 home runs on the season and his .276 ISO against right-handed pitching highlights his upside here against the power-pitching Bauer. With Coco Crisp out of the lineup, Jake Smolinski gets a rare crack at the lead off spot.

James Shields has allowed 21 runs in only 9.1 August innings, covering three starts in which he's walked five and struck out just three with six HRs. That's twice as many HRs as Ks, resulting in a 9.00 ERA over the last month with a 6.14 SIERA and 7.08 xFIP with an 8.40 FIP. That's how you get a team like Oakland (89 wRC+ vs RHP) projected for 4.8 runs. While Khris Davis (111 wRC+, .263 ISO) has been their best hitter with the most power against RHP, Danny Valencia (103 wRC+, .139 ISO vs RHP this season) does have a 170 wRC+ over the last week and RHBs do have a 34.2 Hard% against Shields since last season. It might surprise players to learn that Ryon Healy (107 wRC+, .215 ISO) and Coco Crisp (103 wRC+, .192 ISO) are second and third in the lineup in ISO vs RHP this year. Healy costs just $3.3K on DraftKings, though there aren't many bats priced below $3K on FanDuel.

Gallardo (5.45 SIERA) has struggled this season, to put it mildly. He is clearly no longer that ace quality pitcher he once was when pitching for Milwaukee back in the day. As seen by his low K-BB%, Gallardo is having issues with his control and strikeout stuff. This should play right into the hand of the Athletics as they don't strikeout a lot to begin with. Taking the ballpark and lineup into consideration, this matchup just screams stack or fade as the Athletics really lack individual power upside against right-handed pitching outside of Khris Davis (.257 ISO). The top options (if you want to call them that) to consider for Oakland stacks would be Ryon Healy (.237 ISO vs RHP), and Coco Crisp (.197 ISO vs RHP). Marcus Semien and Yonder Alonso are also in play for tournament stacks solely based on their lineup positions.

Nolasco is one of those frustrating pitchers that we can never really feel comfortable stacking against nor feel comfortable rostering. What Nolasco brings to the table is less than inspiring, below-average ground ball stuff (42.3%), and a relatively high hard contact rate (34.8%). The other issue with this matchup is that Oakland doesn't exactly have the hitters to take advantage of Nolasco other than Khris Davis (119 wRC+, .346 wOBA, .268 ISO vs RHP). There secondaary options in the Athletics lineup that "may" have some upside would be Ryon Healy (124 wRC+, .352 wOBA, .239 ISO vs RHP), Stephen Vogt (.160 ISO vs RHP), and Coco Crisp (.201 ISO vs RHP). This isn't a matchup we should aggressively target on either side but on an abbreviated slate there is case to be made for both sides with a slight lean to Oakland righties.

Weaver (5.56 SIERA) has struggled almost equally with batters from both sides of the plate making an Oakland stack a completely viable option in tournaments as a cost saving strategy. Weaver is allowing a 48.8% fly ball rate and 33.9% hard contact rate which makes him prone to blowups. He also has the ability to maneuver his way through outings without giving up too much damage if the BABIP goes his way. The top options in consideration for an Oakland stack would be Khris Davis (118 wRC+, .344 wOBA, .277 ISO vs RHP), Coco Crisp (.205 ISO vs RHP), and Stephen Vogt (.163 ISO vs RHP). Davis is the only Athletics bat that would viable for a one-off play if going that route.

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.