Hisashi Iwakuma Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

There are three players with three HRs against the pitcher they are facing tonight. Mookie Betts has the most abundant recent information against Kevin Gausman. His three HRs are backed up by a mere 88.4 mph aEV on 17 BBE with no other extra-base hits. Aside from Gausman's reverse split tendencies, there may not be any added incentive to roster Betts at such a high price. Avisail Garcia has three HRs in just 11 PA against Nathan Karns, but just a 77.1 mph aEV on four recorded BBE. Nelson Cruz likes facing Ricky Nolasco and while a few of their 19 matchups may be out-dated, Nolasco also has a bit of a reverse split and Cruz has a 93.9 mph aEV on six Statcast recorded batted balls. There may be something to this one, despite the six strikeouts. Among batters with at least 10 BBE against tonight's starting pitcher, you're not going to find a lot of success either. We have to go all the way down to Mike Trout at 93.3 mph (15 BBE) to find our highest aEV. Hisashi Iwakuma has also struck him out 15 times in 58 PA with just a single HR as his only extra-base hit, but this is a pitcher with a great decline in skills over the last year or so.

Hisashi Iwakuma is a low upside (17.3 K%), occasionally HR prone pitcher (28 allowed this season), facing a dangerous offense (14.7 HR/FB at home) in a power friendly park. There are some strikeouts here (Astros 24.6 K% at home, 23.5 K% vs RHP), but he’s failed to accumulate more than five in any of his last eight starts. Evan Gattis leads the offense with a .259 ISO vs RHP this season and he costs less than $4K on either site, but Iwakuma is not a bad pitcher and no other batter has an ISO above .202 vs RHP, while only Jose Altuve (154) and Correa (128) have a wRC+ above 115 against them. Projected for just under four runs, there may not be a lot of value in a lineup without a lot of cheap bats.

Hisashi Iwakuma is in a nice run prevention spot against the coldest offense on the board (41 wRC+ over the last week) in the most pitcher friendly in play tonight, but may also have the lowest strikeout upside. He has just a 17.3 K% on the season and the Angels strike out just 16.2% of the time vs RHP. Considering the state of pitching on tonight's board, expected run prevention in a favorable park might be more appealing than normal for $7.1K on DraftKings. The Angels are projected for just 3.9 runs. Iwakuma will still allow a few HRs, so Mike Trout (172 wRC+, .277 ISO vs RHP since 2015) is an option as always, but costs a fortune and has just one career extra-base hit (a HR) in 52 career plate appearances against Iwakuma.

In an earlier post about Chase Anderson, the 40/40/20 rule was referenced, meaning when a pitcher has a flyball % > 40, a hard contact % > 40, and a strike out % <20. Over the last two weeks, Hisashi Iwakuma nearly meets this rule for offensive production, considering he has a FB% OF 41, a hard contact % of 38, and a meager 11% k rate. Iwakuma on the season has allowed similar statistics to both LHBs and RHBs, making all of the Angels hitters today viable options for DFS purposes. If today is a day to create rules based on sabermetric data, another rule should be that Mike Trout should be in every DFS lineup on days that his strikeout % over the last seven days is less than 10%. Trout’s has whiffed in 9% of at-bats over the last week and a big day for Trout is probable.

With a run total of just 7.5 and both teams projected to score nearly the same, the game between the Yankees and Mariners should be a close, low-scoring one. Masahiro Tanaka gets the start for the Yankees and is in play in GPP's coming off a five start stint that has seen him post a 3.07 SIERA and 25%+ K rate. He faces Hisashi Iwakuma who gets to face a young, inexperienced Yankees lineup as a slight favorite. While his upside has been limited this season (just a 17.6% K rate), the matchup has potential to change that putting Iwakuma in play in GPP's. The hot hitting Gary Sanchez is the only bat to target from the Yankees while only Nelson Cruz is worth a look from the Mariners facing Tanaka who has allowed a <.280 wOBA to both sides of the plate. For the most part, this game is one to avoid outside of the two pitchers.

Iwakuma is good control pitcher that doesn't walk a ton of batters or strike them out frequently. Iwakuma has some struggles with left-handed batters as well, only inducing a 36.5% ground ball rate and allowing a 33.0% hard hit rate. Loading up on Red Sox bats may not be the way to go as Iwakuma rarely ever gets shelled, but David Ortiz (186 wRC+, .454 wOBA, .371 ISO) and Jackie Bradley Jr. (147 wRC+, .397 wOBA, .281 ISO) have mashed right-handed pitching and are firmly in play despite the ballpark downgrade. Mookie Betts (140 wRC+, .387 wOBA, .238 ISO) and Xander Bogaerts (128 wRC+, .369 wOBA, .158 ISO) both sacrifice the platoon advantage but still hit right-handed pitching well and should be included in any Red Stox stack. Brock Holt (.162 ISO vs RHP) would be the best candidate to round out the stack, if going that route, as he gets the bump up to the two-hole with Pedroia out of the lineup.

Hisashi Iwakuma has a 12.5 K-BB% with an ERA and estimators above four this year, but somehow carries a price tag above $8K on both sites in Detroit tonight. His HR rate is down to league average this year (12.8 HR/FB), but his fly ball rate has jumped to 38.9%, so he's still allowing the same amount of HRs (14 this season) with about an average rate of hard contact (30.5%). LHBs (.323 wOBA since 2015) have hit him a bit better than RHBs (.289 wOBA since 2015), but Miguel Cabrera (167 wRC+, .222 ISO vs RHP since 2015) is still our top overall bat here. Steven Moya (100 wRC+, .208 ISO vs RHP this season) is the salary saver. With six batters excluding Upton, Maybin, and Iglesias carrying and ISO of .197 or higher vs RHP this year, a HR is likely, but it's going to be difficult guessing where it will come from. Kevin expressed some concern about weather factors in this game too this morning, so players will want to watch for his late update.

Hisashi Iwakuma hasn't been bad over the last month (3.71 ERA, 18.8 K%), but there's no reason to go against the best offense in baseball with a marginal pitcher tonight. LHBs have been about average (.314 wOBA) and RHBs a bit below (.294 wOBA) against him since last season. David Ortiz (210 wRC+, .400 ISO vs RHP this season), who has two career HRs against Iwakuma in just nine PAs, and Jackie Bradley (157 wRC+, .293 ISO vs RHP this season) might be the top spots to look for offense in an expensive lineup projected for 4.93 runs tonight. Both have a hard hit rate above 50% over the last week. The top three are still playable, but don't offer strong value at such high costs in this matchup.

Almost by default, Hisashi Iwakuma becomes one of the top SP options of the day because he gets the pleasure of facing the San Diego Padres. Vegas has the Mariners as -184 favorites and the Padres are projected to score just slightly more than three runs. Iwakuma has struggled this season (>.329 wOBA allowed to both sides of the plate) but comes in with career numbers of <.300 wOBA allowed to both sides. If there is ever a time to turn it around, today will be that day. He has pitched better in his last five starts so there are signs that he has already started to do that. No player in the Padres starting lineup has a wOBA of >.340 against RHP. James Shields takes the mound for the Padres - he hasn't been terrible this season with a 3.06 ERA (3.90 xFIP) and a 21.2% K rate. He's vulnerable to LH bats (.380 wOBA allowed to them last season, .311 this season) and the Mariners have loaded their lineup with seven lefties. Robinson Cano (.442 wOBA, .364 ISO vs RHP this season) is the top option for the home team with Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz also excellent choices for your lineups today.

Hisashi Iwakuma clearly seems to be a pitcher in decline with a higher walk rate and lower strikeout rate. From a batted ball standpoint, he's normalized his HR rate (9.7 HR/FB), but is allowing more fly balls, evening everything out. A great park might help slow the decline and the A's struggle a bit against RHP (89 wRC+). Iwakuma is not a pitcher to build around tonight (nobody is), but might be as good as anyone else who fits your remaining salary cap. The A's get a LHB back tonight in Lowrie (80 wRC+ vs RHP since last season), but he doesn't come close to replacing the one they lost (Reddick) and pushes Khris Davis (118 wRC+, .258 ISO vs RHP since 2015) down to 6th tonight. Danny Valencia (129 wRC+, .232 ISO vs RHP since 2015) has cooled recently (39 wRC+, 17.4 Hard% last seven days), making Iwakuma look even better here and leaving Stephen Vogt (121 wRC+, .196 ISO vs RHP since 2015) as perhaps the most interesting bat in the lineup as a Catcher batting 3rd for $3K or less.