Danny Salazar Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Luis Severino is the top pitcher on the board. His 22.5 K-BB% is fifth best in baseball with no pitcher above him matching his 50.8 GB%, while he's kept his hard hit rate below 30% as well. He's the top projected pitcher tonight by the RotoGrinders Player Projections by a fair margin over Rich Hill and his possible tune up for the WC game could not come with much more strikeout upside (Rays 24.8 K% vs RHP). Rich Hill snapped a streak of nine straight starts allowing a HR last time out, but that didn’t hamper his overall effectiveness due to great peripherals (23.9 K-BB%) despite a 34.1 Hard% that nearly meets his 35.9 GB% over this span. While there may be some GPP worthy San Diego bats to consider due to these numbers, the Padres and their 25 K% on the road, vs LHP and over the last week, should not present many issues.Hill threw 96 pitches in his last start and would seem likely for a similar or slightly lighter post-season tune-up here, something players need to consider with a cost above $10K on either site. Tanner Roark has a 28.0 K-BB%, 51 GB% and 27.3 Hard% over his last six starts and that’s with a 50% hard hit rate last time out in Atlanta. He’s in a great spot against the Phillies tonight (16.1 K-BB% vs RHP). Garrett Richards worked his way up to 85 pitches last time out. The Angels are still mathematically alive, but five games behind the Twins, so they’re unlikely to push him too far, but he could close in on 100 pitches tonight. He’s been a great ground ball generator (57.4%) this season and has not allowed a hard hit rate above 28% with a 14.2 SwStr% since returning from the DL. He's in a favorable spot in Chicago against the White Sox (17.0 K-BB% vs RHP). Danny Salazar has made four appearances this month, totaling 6.1 innings. Two of them were starts, but he has not gone more than 2.2 innings in any appearance. He threw 54 pitches last time out, so perhaps they want to stretch him out to 75 before the post-season, which could get him through five innings? He’s cheap enough on DraftKings ($6.4K), where that could be useful, but it’s not a great spot against the Twins (105 wRC+ vs RHP).

There are five pitchers on tonight's board who exceed a 25% strikeout rate this season. Unfortunately, the only one above a 30% strikeout rate (Danny Salazar 32.4%) returns from the DL with an elbow issue and has not thrown a professionally competitive pitch in two weeks, which makes him very likely to be facing some sort of pitch limitation that would make him unplayable tonight. Fortunately, the next two highest strikeout rates are in favorable spots. Stephen Strasburg has a 28.4 K% (second best on the slate) and is also third with a 30.3 K% over the last month. He's the top projected pitcher (RotoGrinders Player Projections) on the board in Miami. The Marlins have a 23.9 K% and 3.9 Hard-Soft% over the last week. Jacob deGrom's five Ks last time out was just his fourth time below eight in his last 12 starts. He's pitched into seventh in 12 of his last 15 and though his 25 HRs are tied for 17th most, his 28.7% 95+ mph EV is third best on the board. His 13.5 SwStr% is second on the slate. His 28.3 K% is third. He may have the top matchup on the board, hosting the Phillies (16.1 K-BB% vs RHP, 9.9 HR/FB road, 25.1 Hard% and 3.1 HR/FB last week). Zack Greinke has the fourth highest K% on the board (27.5%). He's catching the Dodgers at a great time (27.1 K% and 10.3 HR/FB over the last week). The one caveat is that they also have a 42% hard hit rate over the last week. Eduardo Rodriguez has allowed three to five ERs in seven of nine starts since returning from the DL after the break. His 15.3 K-BB% over that span is still above average and his 33.1 Hard% isn't terrible. For the season, his 25.2 K% is fifth best on the board and he's actually been better against RHBs. He has a 16.3 K-BB% against them since his return and 17.3% for the season. The Blue Jays have just a 28.3 Hard% against LHP this year. Other considerations might be Justin Verlander in his first start for the Astros in Seattle. He has eight or more Ks in seven of his last nine starts (25.1 K-BB%) with a 6.6 Hard-Soft% over that span. Kyle Hendricks has a 24.2 K% over the last month. His 12.6 SwStr% is fourth best on the board over that span. Robert Stephenson is the dark horse and deserves his own post, which begins with striking out 18 of his last 51 batters.

Salazar will make his return from the DL this evening, but after throwing just a 23-pitch simulated game at Class AA, he's not expected to take on a full workload this evening. Terry Francona stated that the Indians "won't go too long" with Salazar in his return, and while a strict pitch count may not be in play, his DFS potential is cratered by the fact that he's unlikely to throw more than five innings. Play the fade on him tonight, but it won't be long before Salazar is back on the DFS radar.

A pair of middle infielders with strong matchups outside of Coors (Corey Seager, Jason Kipnis) have the highest batter ownership projections on either site tonight with nobody currently owning an expectation above 20%. While both Coors teams are projected near the top of the run line board by Vegas, neither lefty on the mound in that game allows a lot of hard contact in the air. That could be one factor moving players in other directions tonight. Others could be an abundance of high priced pitching and the fact that two of the top three hitters in that game are left-handed. Danny Salazar could be in a quarter of FanDuel lineups where pitchers are priced more closely together. His $2.7K higher price tag on DraftKings may lean players more in the directions of Alex Wood ($9.6K) or Dinelson Lamet ($8.5K), who are expected to be more popular than higher priced pitchers. Jacob deGrom is in a tough spot in Yankee Stadium, but the highest strikeout (29.2%) and swinging strike rate (13.9%) on the board among qualified pitchers could potentially go under-owned, projected for less than 10% ownership on either site. Projected ownership rates are updated throughout the day and are available to premium players on the Projected Ownership page.

Danny Salazar has the top strikeout projection from the Daily K Predictor tonight (8.55). He's been on fire since returning from the DL, striking out 36 of 97 batters with at least eight in each of his four starts with a 19.2 Hard% too. His 16.6 SwStr% for the season is best among pitchers with at least 80 innings. He's in Minnesota tonight, against a Twins' offense with a 155 wRC+, 15.1 K% and 26 Hard-Soft% over the last week though. Alex Wood and Madison Bumgarner are tonight's top projected pitchers. While Bumgarner is rounding into form after a shoulder injury with seven innings in three straight with exactly seven strikeouts in each, Wood has seen some disturbing trends with a total of 19 strikeouts over his last five starts and a sub-50 GB% in each of his last four. He had a 45% hard hit rate last time out, but at least his swinging strike rate rebounded to 14.8%. For the season, his 24.8 95+ mph aEV is still best on the board, his 57.5 GB% is fourth among those with at least 110 innings pitched, his 19.5 K-BB% is 15th. He's in a favorable spot against the White Sox, who lose a DH from an already weak lineup. Jacob deGrom doesn't have an ideal matchup at Yankee Stadium (19.3 HR/FB at home, but 22.7 K% vs RHP). However, his 29.2 K% and 13.9 SwStr% are tops on the board among qualified pitchers tonight. Dinelson Lamet has seen his strikeout rate drop off slightly (26.3 K% over the last month), while walks have increased, but there's been a major improvement in contact management (-5.6 Hard-Soft% last three starts). He’s also in one of the top spots on the slate, hosting the Phillies (15.5 K-BB% vs RHP, 9.9 HR/FB on the road, 2.8 Hard-Soft% last seven days). Mark Leiter is on the other side of that matchup and has made himself very interesting over his last two outings. Neither were starts, but in long relief, he's struck out 16 or 34 Mets and Rockies with increased use of his splitter. He costs less than $7K against the Padres (25.2 K% vs RHP) in San Diego. There's potential for a quality start with several strikeouts, which would allow players to afford most of their desired bats.

Gary Sanchez is the only player currently projected to be in more than 20% of lineups on either site tonight. Milwaukee appears to have the potential to be the most popular stack, in a virtual tie for the top run line with Houston, but cheaper and with less weather risk. The Brewers are also facing a debuting, non-prospect 26 year-old lefty, while Carlos Rodon struggles to throw strikes to RHBs, but certainly has some upside against the Astros. High priced pitching plays a part in those decisions too and there's plenty of it tonight, giving no pitcher an expected monopoly on ownership with James Paxton and Jacob deGrom potentially being most popular. It's tough to argue with Danny Salazar in a high upside spot in Tampa Bay either. He's struck out 28 of 71 batters since returning from the DL and could fly a bit under the radar with Paxton and deGrom in perhaps stronger overall matchups with the Angels and Phillies. Projected ownership rates are updated throughout the day and are available to premium subscribers on the Projected Ownership page.

While nine of 20 pitches on the night slate have a 23% or better strikeout rate, there are four high priced standouts on the slate. James Paxton is second best according to RotoGrinders Player Projections tonight. He has struck out at least seven in six straight and eight of nine with at least six innings in eight straight starts. His 1.7% Barrels/BBE is lowest on the board with 29.9% 95+ mph EV. The Angels don't strike out a lot, but with a lot, but have just an 85 wRC+ on the road and 84 wRC+ with an 8.8 HR/FB vs LHP. Lining up predominantly RH should not be an issue for Paxton either, as RHBs have just a .266 wOBA against him this year and not much higher for his career. Jacob deGrom is the favorite among the Player Projections. He lasted fewer than six innings for the first time in nearly two months last time out and while three runs (two HRs) is not great, striking out eight Dodgers over five innings should be considered a victory. His 13.9 K% is best on the slate and a transition to Philadelphia puts him in a favorable spot (88 wRC+, 15.2 K-BB% vs RHP, 7.3 HR/FB last seven days). Danny Salazar has struck out 28 of 71 batters since returning from the DL, allowing hard contact on just 26.3% of batted balls over that span. While Tampa Bay has a dangerous offense and he's struggled with contact and walks in the past, it's one of the highest strikeout upside spots on the board (Rays 25 K% vs RHP, 27.8 K% last seven days). The Daily K Predictor has he and deGrom in a virtual tie with 8.8 each tonight. Yu Darvish should benefit from a park upgrade on most days with a trade to the Dodgers and is at least no stranger to pitching in difficult environments, which should help with this trip to Arizona. He's been inconsistent this season, but still has the ability to pop off a huge start, as is evident by sandwiching 22 strikeouts around a 10 run outing in his last three starts. Sonny Gray has just a pedestrian 23.4 K% among this group, but pitched better than his results in his Yankee debut with the defense kicking the ball around the infield. Where he's excelled recently has been contact management. He's produced a 60 GB% and -1.3 Hard-Soft% over his last seven starts.

The Daily K Predictor has Jose Quintana with a board leading 8.42 strikeouts tonight, ahead of Masahiro Tanaka (7.32) and Danny Salazar (6.41), while the RotoGrinders Player Projections like Alex Wood and Dallas Keuchel to top tonight's daily fantasy point totals. These are all All-Star quality names, but with many red flags to go around. Quintana struck out 12 Orioles on a 20 SwStr% in his first start for the Cubs and then another seven, but with just a 5.1 SwStr%. He has a career high 26.1 K% this year with an 8.8 SwStr% just slightly above his 8.5% career SwStr rate. He's in a high power, high strikeout spot in Milwaukee tonight (Brewers 19.4 HR/FB at home, 26 K% at home and vs LHP). Tanaka has an elite SwStr rate (14.6% and 15.9% over the last 30 days), but also has significant HR issues (23.0 HR/FB). He's in a similar high power, high strikeout spot to Quintana against the Rays at home (18.0 HR/FB vs RHP, 25 K% on the road and vs RHP). Danny Salazar is returned from the DL to throw seven one-hit innings without a walk and eight strikeouts. He's has control and contact issues throughout his career along with the tremendous upside. At just $8.2K on FanDuel though, he may be the top play on the board against a White Sox lineup (89 wRC+ at home, 87 wRC+ vs RHP) down Frazier and A.Garcia now. Alex Wood is coming off a disastrous start in which he struck out just four with four walks and allowed a grand slam to the pitcher. It's really his first disastrous start since moving into the rotation, though he still had a 42.1 Soft% in that game. While nobody wants to over-react to one bad start by a pitcher 21.6 K-BB%, 61.9 GB% and 83.9 mph aEV, his velocity has been trending downward over the last month and perhaps that's why the Dodgers elected to give him an extra couple of days. It's more of a caution flag than a red one. Dallas Keuchel has not pitched in the majors in nearly two months and made just two rehab starts, the most recent in which he faced just 19 low A batters. Facing an offense with a 123 wRC+ vs LHP with a potential workload limitation for more than $10K is a dangerous proposition. Not mentioned yet is the highest strikeout rate on the board among qualifiers, Robbie Ray (30.7 K%). He has five walks and just eight strikeouts over his last two starts (45 batters), which is actually an improvement over the four or more batters he'd walked in each of his previous five starts. He's also allowed eight HRs over his last six starts with a 43.3% 95+ mph EV that’s highest on the board. It's still difficult to ignore a 30% strikeout rate for less than $10K on this board against a team with 88 wRC+ vs LHP. On the other side of that matchup, Michael Wacha has the higher strikeout rate over the last month (31.1%).

There are a lot of batters with a lot of history against the pitchers they are facing tonight with four of them having three HRs in tonight's BvP matchups according to Baseball Savant. In the Statcast era (since 2015), Edwin Encarnacion (25 PAs vs Derek Holland) has the highest aEV (100.6 mph on seven BBEs). Brad Miller has a 90.9 mph aEV on 18 BBEs against Masahiro Tanaka. Miller's power is down this season (.110 ISO vs RHP), but Tanaka has been supplying a lot of it on his own (23 HR/FB). Starling Marte has a 98.2 mph aEV on four BBEs against Travis Wood, who returns to the National League. His three HRs have come in 31 PAs with a double and a triple as well. Jose Abreu has taken Danny Salazar deep three times in 24 PAs as well with a 91.6 mph aEV on 12 BBEs. Among those with at least 10 BBEs recorded by Statcast (and there are many today), a pair of Rays have the only aEVs above 92 mph. Corey Dickerson (95.1 mph aEV) and Logan Morrison (98.5 mph aEV) have both hit Masahiro Tanaka hard, but with a combined 12 Ks in 37 PAs as well. Evan Longoria also has a 91 mph aEV with two HRs in 25 PAs against Tanaka.

Under conditions where it may barely be considered humane to play baseball in, the Texas Rangers have the top implied run line tonight at 6.15 runs when the host the Orioles. While Chris Tillman pitched six innings of one run ball against them two starts back, he walked four with just three strikeouts and is going to be contending with 100 degree temperatures tonight. The same conditions apply to a Baltimore offense facing a contact managing Andrew Cashner (3.6% Barrels/BBE), who has just a 1.5 K-BB%. Though the Orioles don't have many LHBs, players should rightfully continue to attack with the likes of Seth Smith (249 wRC+ last seven days) and Chris Davis (55.6 Hard% last seven days) against Cashner's 32.4 Hard% 37 GB%, and 0.0 K-BB% vs LHBs this year. The Orioles (5.35) are one of eight teams projected between five and six runs tonight, the most interesting of which has to be the Indians (5.9). Over the last two months, RHBs have a .494 wOBA with 13 HRs and a 40.6 Hard% against him. Edwin Encarnacion has a 229 wRC+ and 50 Hard% over the last week and has three career HRs with a 100.6 mph aEV (seven BBEs) in 25 PAs against Holland. Considering the punishment being inflicted, any Cleveland batter who attempts to come to the plate right-handed should be played tonight (and perhaps they all should). This includes switch hitters like Francisco Lindor (136 wRC+, .191 ISO vs LHP this year) and Jose Ramirez (123 wRC+, .194 ISO vs LHP this year), but players can also save salary with Austin Jackson (168 wRC+, .250 ISO vs LHP this year) and Yan Gomes (136 wRC+, .275 ISO vs LHP this year). Just remember that players using Danny Salazar are only allowed three additional Cleveland bats on FanDuel unfortunately.