Jose Miguel Fernandez Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

For some reason, DK doesn't want to raise Fernandez price. Fernandez doesn't have fantastic numbers this year (.130 ISO and .300 wOBA), but the guy doesn't strike out a whole lot (10.3% vs RHP) and owns a respectible .379 CXwOBA, which means he's due for some positive regression. Over on DK, he's priced at the near min of 2.8k and should be batting second in the lineup. You aren't going to find value like this often, so take advantage of it.

Finding some salary savers is a key on this slate, with obvious things to pay up for with both pitching and hitting. The top of the Angels lineup has a couple of prime candidates in Kole Calhoun and Jose Miguel Fernandez against Adrian Sampson, who has managed just 5 strikeouts in his first 11 innings after posting just a 15.8% K rate at Triple-A. Fernandez is an elite contact hitter who never struck out more than 9% of the time at any level of the minors and has just a 12% K rate with average hard hit ability who costs basically nothing. If he is batting in between Calhoun and Trout tonight, the run and RBI upside is too good to pass up at this salary with all these balls in play.

I'm probably going to over-extend my welcome here, but I'm playing Jose Miguel Fernandez again tonight. He crushed for us the last two nights, yet he's still extremely cheap. I want to pay up for pitching tonight, and he's going to help make that happen. Leake has limited the damage against lefties this season, but he has a very low strikeout rate as well. Fernandez is hitting everything hard right now, and with his low strikeout rate, we have high odds for contact in this matchup.

This is a slate where I am prioritizing pitching. As such, we are going to need some cheap bats, and the bottom of the Angels order against Yovani Gallardo is the place to get that done. I wish Fernandez played a different position, but it is what it is, and even at first base, this value is tough to pass up. In 91 games at Triple-A, Fernandez struck out just 8.6% of the tims, leading to a .333 average with a .396 OBP. So far in 23 major league games, he has managed a 37% hard hit rate and .293 average. Against the low strikeouts of Gallardo, he should be expected to get the ball in play multiple times tonight.

There's no nice way to say this, so let's just get it out there: the 2018 MLB version of Yovani Gallardo is nothing better than a trash heap starting pitcher. He can't strike anyone out. He's walking more hitters. He has no ability to control batted balls. It's just ugly all around. The Angels are the most logical spot for a full stack tonight, from the pricey outfielders like Trout and Ohtani to the value pieces like Fernandez and Fletcher. Fernandez hit his first career home run for the only run in last night's game, but I expect the Angels to do a lot more damage than that tonight against one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball. Stack 'em up.

I could just copy what I said about Jose Miguel Fernandez yesterday. We don't have a lot of value on this 8-game slate, and at this price, I really like Jose Miguel Fernandez again tonight. Gallardo has a 5.54 xFIP with a 13.6% strikeout rate and a 11.5% walk rate. Gallardo has a very low swinging strike rate and with the amount of hard contact he allows, the Angels are a top stack for me. Jose Miguel Fernandez has a .319 wOBA against right-handed pitchers in 65 PAs, but he has a .366 CXwOBA against a pitcher with limited strikeout upside. He had a .405 wOBA with a 143 wRC+ in 394 PAs in AAA this season.

With the pitching we have on this slate, we're going to need some value bats, and Jose Miguel Fernandez is really cheap for the Angels tonight. Sampson hasn't shown a ton of strikeout ability in the minors at any level, and when he went from AA to AAA his strikeout rate went down. Jose Miguel Fernandez has a .297 wOBA against right-handed pitchers in 63 PAs, but he has a .383 CXwOBA against a pitcher with limited strikeout upside. He had a .405 wOBA with a 143 wRC+ in 394 PAs in AAA this season.

He’s up, he’s down. He’s up, he’s down. Such is life when trying to pick on the home run prone, fly ball nature of James Shields. The current state of the Angels offense makes this an intriguing spot, as you have the pricey power of guys like Trout, Ohtani, and Upton, and you have more value with guys like Fletcher and Fernandez. I do like the value pieces today as home run darts that also allow you to spend up at other spots and/or on the mound, and you can always consider a full stack against Shields. However, I’m a bit lower on that today with the cool, damp weather in Chicago, which benefits Shields more than anything. If I had to rank my interest, I would put Trout and Fernandez as my point per dollar priorities.

Jose Miguel Fernandez isn't your typical rookie, as he's a 30-year-old former Cuban star. After struggling with the Dodgers in the minors in 2017, he's shown some power with the Angels in AAA this season. In 203 at bats, he has a .217 ISO with a very low 8.4% strikeout rate. He also had a 154 wRC+ in AAA this season. Fernandez is off to a slow start for the Angels, but he's cheap and he should hit 5th in this good matchup. While Koch has a lower wOBA to lefties this season, he still has a .189 ISO with a 43.5% hard hit rate to left-handed hitters.