Justin Nicolino Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Justin Nicolino is set to make his return from the disabled list to take on the Colorado Rockies tonight at home, his first start since the end of June where he was pulled in the first inning due to the aforementioned injury. Nicolino has only made five starts this season, but he has not seen great success in that time span, posting a 14.3% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate, and 5.00 SIERA in that period. It also appears that those statistics are far from an anomaly as Nicolino has been consistently well below-average throughout his two-plus seasons in the Majors. This is further evidenced by his abysmal 12.2% career strikeout rate to left-handed batters and even worse 9.2% strikeout to righties, putting this Rockies squad in great position to string together a solid offensive outing this evening. Nicolino has managed to keep the ball on the ground at a respectable 57.1% to lefties, though that rate drops to a much more exploitable 42.3% rate against righties, meaning that righties have a much easier time lifting the ball in the air and making solid contact in their at-bat events. Despite being on the road away from the friendly confines of Coors Field, this Rockies team still does possess several hitters that have posted solid numbers against left-handed pitching. Nolan Arenado (215 wRC+, .531 wOBA, .422 ISO vs LHP) is the clear top target from the Colorado lineup and can be utilized in all formats, though D.J. LeMahieu (151 wRC+, .433 wOBA vs LHP) and Trevor Story (131 wRC+, .403 wOBA, .326 ISO vs LHP) both fall into the tier below Arenado for entirely separate reasons. LeMahieu lacks individual upside but is always a great cash game and stacking option given his strong on base and contact abilities, while Story sports a massive 37.5% strikeout rate against southpaws, reserving him to more of a tournament option when also taking his spot in the batting order into consideration. Even though Charlie Blackmon (132 wRC+, .403 wOBA, .254 ISO vs LHP) sacrifices the platoon advantage against Nicolino, he still remains firmly in play for tournaments given his elite skills against both left and right-handed pitching, just further making a full a Rockies stack more than viable with Nicolino's inability to strike opponents out on a consistent basis.

Justin Nicolino brings a 3.9 SwStr%, 1.12 GB/FB and 37.1 Hard% to Arizona (17.4 HR/FB at home, 18.1 HR/FB vs LHP). The Diamondbacks RHBs are a great pivot from Coors tonight (5.14 team run projection) and not entirely expensive. Nicolino has allowed a .331 wOBA to RHBs since last season and just Paul Goldschmidt (177 wRC+, .240 ISO vs LHP since 2015) is above $4.2K on DK or even $3K on FD (among RH bats). Welington Castillo (135 wRC+, .277 ISO vs LHP since 2015) is always a top catcher against mediocre LHPs at home. Yasmany Tomas (131 wRC+, .228 ISO vs LHP since 2015) has similar numbers at the same price, but bats lower in the order at a more plentiful position. Peter O'Brien bats 5th tonight in Brandon Drury's usual spot against LHPs, but may not be available on daily fantasy sites yet.

Justin Nicolino doubled his season strikeout total with six in his last start. He now has 35 in 18 career starts. Batters have additionally hit 39.3% of batted balls hard against him. Missing few bats, that's a lot of opportunities for offensive damage tonight. RHBs have hit him for a .328 wOBA since last season and all seven are stackable here. Sean Rodriguez bats 8th, but is still playable with middle infield eligibility and the lowest cost ($3K on DK, $2.5K on FD). He has a 191 wRC+ and .258 ISO vs LHP this season with a 53.9 Hard% in a small sample overall in the last seven days. In fact, Kang, Harrison (batting leadoff tonight), McCutchen, and Marte all have hit the ball hard more than 40% of the time over the last week. Kang additionally has a 124 wRC+, .229 ISO vs LHP in his career. Many of these Pittsburgh bats are expensive, but stand a good chance of paying off. Jordy Mercer is the most notable RH bat absent tonight.

Justin Nicolino has six strikeouts and a 3.1 SwStr% through five starts. His 4.30 ERA is still well below his estimators due to a .233 BABIP. The Rays have an implied run total of five tonight and could punish him with some strong RH bats against LHP. The top five (Guyer, Mahtook, Longoria, Pearce, Souza) are all stack worthy candidates with a wRC+ above 120 and ISO above .200 vs LHP since last season. Mahtook would be the bargain of the bunch ($3.2K on DK, $2K on FD), but is also the most likely to be PH for against a RHP. Pearce has pounded lefties for an even better 279 wRC+ and .447 ISO this season and costs below $4K on either site.

Justin Nicolino has an awful -6.9 K-BB%. He has struck out just four batters and half of them came in his first start. The Nationals are a much better offense vs LHP, where their RH bats thrive and their LH bats still do well enough. Washington is one of many offenses atop the board with a 4.5 run projection tonight and is a strong offense to stack tonight. Michael Taylor is still not a good hitter vs LHP (84 wRC+ career), but can be rostered in the leadoff spot at a low cost as he's at least much less likely to strike out tonight. Ryan Zimmermann (168 wRC+, .336 ISO vs LHP since 2015) is the highest cost 1B on DK for a reason and probably worth it, while going for just $3.2K on FanDuel. Jayson Werth (150 wRC+ wRC+, .330 ISO vs LHP) and Bryce Harper (168 wRC+, .249 ISO vs LHP) make this a strong top five stack with Murphy being average (93 wRC+ vs LHP).

Justin Nicolino is sitting in the boat next to Mat LatoS, with both pitchers enjoying a better ERA than the deeper numbers indicate. Nicolino has a wOBA of 0.296 against RHB, but his xFIP against righties is a generous 5.98. This may make players like Anthony Rendon and Jason Werth slightly less obvious plays today as they bat 2nd and 6th in the Nationals lineup.

Justin Nicolino shut down the Dodgers for seven innings, getting just two strike outs on four swinging strikes in his only major league start this year. He now had a 0.9 K-BB% in just over 80 ML innings. The Diamondbacks go entirely right-handed tonight, providing some salary relief at a middle infield position with Phil Gosselin, who has a 147 wRC+ vs LHP since last season. He quickly becomes one of the top value plays of the night. Brandon Drury (119 wRC+, .250 ISO vs LHP since last season) has a 232 wRC+ out of the two spot over the last week and continues to be a value play eligible at the same positions. Tomas and Castillo both hit LHP in the 130 wRC+ range over the last year plus and offer decent value in the mid-price range, though Castillo may provide more positional value. Paul Goldschmidt continues to pound LHP (184 wRC+, .255 ISO), but is one of the more expensive players on the board. An Arizona stack is more cost viable no with the lower cost up top. They are projected to score 4.5 runs tonight.

Nicolino wasn’t exactly blowing it past batters last year, posting a 12.3K% against LHP and a 6.4K% against RHP. Good things happen when the ball is put into play, and that is exactly what we expect the Dodgers to do tonight. Kike Hernandez (.473 wOBA – 207 wRC+ in 141 career AB’s against LHP) has a tremendous track record against lefties, and is an excellent value play given his $3.1K price tag on DraftKings. Both Yasiel Puig (.375 wOBA – 144 wRC+ career vs LHP) and Corey Seager (.372 wOBA – 139 wRC+ in 61 AB’s against LHP) also serve as great plays this evening, given their success agasinst LHP in the past. Fire up the Dodger hitters 1-6 with confidence tonight.