Josh Thole Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Russell Martin a late scratch due to a neck injury. Josh Thole will replace him for Sunday's match-up with Oakland.

Josh Thole has frequently caught the knuckeballer R.A. Dickey ever since their Mets days, so Russell Martin gets the night off. Rick Porcello has marginally increased his strikeout rate, but also has developed a severe HR problem since arriving in Boston with 15% of his fly balls leaving the yard. That's an issue since his GB% has significantly decreased as well. He also has a Toronto problem tonight. Jose Bautista has three career HRs off of Porcello and an average 99 mph exit velocity (Baseball Savant). If we're being fair though, both Donaldson (23 PAs) and Encarnacion (29 PAs) have exit velocities below 90 mph against him. All three smash RHP for a wRC+ between 145-160 since last season with ISOs well above .250. Kevin Pillar (95 wRC+) isn't nearly as prolific, but gains a lot of value just by association at the top of the strongest order in baseball. Surprisingly, the Blue Jays are only middle of the board in projected runs tonight with 3.99