Franklin Gutierrez Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Strengthening Lance McCullers' case against the New York Yankees, aside from the top ground ball rate and a top seven K-BB% among qualified pitchers, the Yankees have just an 82 sOPS+ against ground ball pitchers (fourth worst in baseball). Aaron Judge (198 sOPS+) is the only healthy batter with more than 25 PAs that exceeds a 105 sOPS+ against ground ball hitters and then Chris Carter (105) is the only other above average bat. On the other end of the spectrum, the Nationals (122 sOPS+) and Dodgers (118 sOPS+) are top four offenses against ground ball pitchers. Washington is a tough draw for Mike Leake, even without Trea Turner, but Austin Barnes (257 sOPS+), Justin Turner (196), Kike Hernandez (132) and Franklin Gutierrez (121) are all RH Dodger bats who can make life tough on Clayton Richard tonight. PlateIQ tells us that Clayton Richard likes to work low and away to RHBs, while Brooks Baseball tells us he favors the curve and change as secondary pitches against batters from that side. Several RH Dodger bats appear to handle the low and away pitch well, but while Kike Hernandez and Austin Barnes have had some success against the curveball, no Dodger RHBs have had great success with the change over the last two years.

Aaron Judge and Edwin Encarnacion have the top batter projections tonight in the RotoGrinders Player Projections. Both have mashable matchups. The rest of the top five is scattered among different teams before the Yankees and Indians make up the reminder of the top 10 by themselves. It's surely a night where both offenses project very well and should be easily affordable with only only one $10K pitcher on either site. If looking to save a few dollars, the projections believe the best place for that might be first base on DraftKings, where you'd be forced to forego Encarnacion in favor of Danny Valencia (2.55 Pt/$/K) or Wilmer Flores (2.51 Pt/$/K) both facing LHPs for $3K or less, though the latter is third base eligible as well. Miguel Cabrera (2.48 Pt/$/K) is another top choice for a few dollars more. Projections for FanDuel really like another lefty-masher, Franklin Gutierrez (3.92 Pt/$/K) for just above the minimum.

Gio Gonzalez has a 3.03 ERA almost completely predicated on his ability to strand runners (86.8%) this year and as most players know, that's not much of a sustainable ability. He has the lowest K-BB rate of his career (8.6%) and is already more than half way to a career high in HRs with 10 already. The Dodgers have made great strides in their quest to improve against LHP this year, picking up some lefty-mashing bats in the off season. That's worked out nicely so far, as they've improved to a 102 wRC+, 10 BB% and 18.7 Hard-Soft% against LHP. The pitcher's low ERA in a negative run environment contributes to just a middling run expectation of 4.26 out of Vegas tonight, but with regression likely imminent, the Dodgers make for an affordably dangerous stack. Chris Taylor (210 wRC+, .267 ISO), Logan Forsythe (222 wRC+, .200 ISO), Austin Barnes (135 wRC+, .303 ISO), Cody Bellinger (148 wRC+, .333 ISO), Franklin Gutierrez (127 wRC+, .222 ISO), Kike Hernandez (163 wRC+, .354 ISO) and Corey Seager (117 wRC+, .206 ISO) have all been potent against southpaws this year and while there are some extremely small samples in there, some of those guys have a longer history of dominating LHP.

Not that players were likely planning to attack Jon Lester anyway tonight, but a glaring omission from the Dodger lineup tonight is Kike Hernandez, who is normally a capable and very affordable bat vs LHP. Though RHBs have just a .274 wOBA, 26.5 Hard% against Lester since last season, players could look at two other affordable players in the top half of the lineup tonight. Both Logan Forsythe (145 wRC+, .249 ISO) and Franklin Gutierrez (149 wRC+ .252 ISO) have smashed LHP since the start of the 2015 season.

He's followed by Joey Votto has a 169 wRC+ against RHP (.249 ISO). That's the highest mark for any batter over the last two plus seasons against the handed pitcher they are facing tonight. He is a near mortal lock for at least walk tonight against the control challenged Tyler Glasnow. Bryce Harper (163 wRC+, .275 ISO vs RHP) faces Adam Wainwright, against whom he has two career HRs (25 PAs). Kris Bryant has a career 155 wRC+ against LHP (.275 ISO). He's facing a lefty (Alex Wood) with a small sample reverse split last season, but Bryant is a superior overall bat. Make sure to check wind conditions at Wrigley. Franklin Gutierrez has become recognized for his lefty-mashing skills in recent seasons (149 wRC+, .252 ISO) and is likely to provide some salary relief in the middle of the Dodger lineup, though the matchup with Jon Lester is not ideal. Matt Carpenter (147 wRC+, .250 ISO vs RHP) rounds out the top five. Tanner Roark excels at producing weak contact, but Carpenter was listed as a potentially strong matchup against Roark's pitch types in Rotogrinders' excellent Trendspotting article (Premium Content) today.

Forsythe finds himself in the leadoff spot tonight against Clayton Richard, with Franklin Gutierrez slotting in at the clean up spot. Both are available at or under $2,800 on FanDuel which is criminally cheap in this match-up, and each provide excellent value over on DraftKings ($3,300 for Forsythe, $3,000 for Gutierrez). While Gutierrez is likely to get the hook once the Padres go to a RHP, he should still see a few ABs against Richard and given the prime lineup spot, he should have some run producing opportunities. Gutierrez finished 2016 with a strong .378 wOBA, .231 ISO and 51.6 hard% against LHP, while Forsythe was able to rack up an elite 31.4 Hd-Sft%. Outside of those two, we can confidently target Justin Turner on DraftKings at a measly $3,200, where he sets up as one of the premier value plays on the slate. Yasiel Puig and Yasmani Grandal are also worthwhile targets for what should be one of the highest scoring offenses of the night.

The Mariners have actually been swinging the bats very well of late. They also draw a plus matchup against Derek Holland tonight, as he owns a meager 14.3% strikeout rate on the season accompanied by a 30.4% hard hit rate, a 5.18 SIERA, and a 5.27 xFIP. He is a left-handed pitcher with traditional splits, as right-handed batters have a .333 wOBA and a 32.9% hard hit rate against him, compared to a .241 wOBA and an 18.0% hard hit rate for left-handed batters. Obviously, we will want to target Seattle right-handed batters here, but hat does eliminate a few of their better hitters. Nelson Cruz (157 wRC+, .400 wOBA, .312 ISO vs LHP), Franklin Gutierrez (151 wRC+, .392 wOBA, .251 ISO vs LHP), and Dae-Ho Lee (.175 ISO vs LHP) are firmly in play, Guillermo Heredia has been leading off against left-handed pitching of late, and tonight is no different. A Mariners stack of the righties is definitely a strategy to consider for tournaments.

Martin Perez shockingly held Seattle scoreless in his last start, but we shouldn't be overly concerned, as he had allowed six runs in each of his previous two starts. Perez is not as bad as his low 12.0% strikeout rate makes him seem with high ground balls (52.9%), and an ability to limit hard hits (30.2% Hard%). However, both his ground balls and soft contact are much better versus left-handed batters, and against right-handed batters his 10.4% strikeout rate and 32.5% hard contact rate are usually not enough to overcome a good 52.0% ground ball rate. Nelson Cruz (155 wRC+, .398 wOBA, .314 ISO vs LHP) and Franklin Gutierrez (154 wRC+, .396 wOBA, .257 ISO vs LHP) are the top options here as they usually are when Seattle faces a lefty. Mike Zunino is a great tournament play with his 53% fly ball rate and .241 ISO against left-handed pitching. If stacking the Mariners, Robinson Cano (.192 ISO) and Kyle Seager (.195 ISO) are contrarian options to consider, as they both hit lefties fairly well.

Cole Hamels followed up striking out 18 of 53 batters by walking and striking out four each of these Mariners last time because that's just how inconsistent he is. While strikeouts and HRs have made it to his career rates through various ups and downs, it's really the increased walk rate (9.0%) that's an issue this year, but is being well hidden by an 81.8 LOB% that has kept his ERA a run below his estimators. With tremendous upside when pitching well and with a significant park upgrade, he's still a pitcher to be considered tonight, but a $12.2K cost on Draftkings is dangerous against a team with a 16.4 HR/FB at home and 16.6 HR/FB vs LHP. The Mariners are projected for just 3.4 runs though. The two obvious bats to look at for Seattle are Franklin Gutierrrez (155 wRC+, .265 ISO vs LHP since 2015) at a cost of $3.1K or less on either site and Nelson Cruz (179 wRC+, .318 ISO vs LHP since 2015) who reasonably costs $4.2K or less on either site. He has a 97.2 mph aEV on seven batted balls against Hamels.

Reason #1: Hard contact generally leads to trouble, and Tyler Skaggs is giving up an enormous 50% hard hit rate on balls put into play.

Reason #2: Two of the Mariners first four batters, Franklin Gutierrez and Nelson Cruz, have wRC+ totals versus LHP over 140

Reason #3: A handful of the Mariners batters are seeing the ball well in recent games, considering that the two through five hitters are all striking out less than 24% of the time over the last week.

When Franklin Gutierrez is striking out less than 18% of the time over the last week and is facing a left-handed pitcher, play Franklin Gutierrez!