Michael Bourn Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

While not considered a major surprise, Pedro Alvarez's absence here is interesting as Buck Showalter elects to DH Mark Trumbo and go for defense in this game with Michael Bourn roaming the Outfield. Alvarez does have the highest exit velocity against the opposing pitcher since last season, his 105 mph aEV against Stroman came only four batted balls though (one HR). Stroman was the only pitcher in baseball to keep the ball on the ground more than 60% of the time this season. Matt Wieters has had the most success against him with two HRs and three extra-base hits in 15 career PAs, but with just an 83.1 mph aEV on 11 batted balls since last season.

Luis Cessa is not finishing the season on a high note, allowing hard contact on 39% of at-bats that have ended in contact over the last two weeks, while only striking out 17% of hitters he faced over that period. Lefties have hitting Cessa hard 40% of the time and elevating the ball in 38% of at-bats that have ended in contact. Michael Bourn will try and set the table for the Orioles today, leading off in front of the O’s power bats. Chris Davis holds a 0.265 ISO versus RHP and makes a high-risk/high-reward play every time he takes the field.

Bartolo Colon still has the lowest SwStr rate (5.4%) by a full half point and the sixth highest hard hit rate (36.2%) in baseball even after striking out eight Diamondbacks with a 27.8 Hard%. The Diamondbacks have just two strongly above average hitters against RHP and just a team 86 wRC+ with a 16.4 K-BB%, but this is a very dangerous run environment with a pitcher who misses few bats. This is really a spot where players should limit themselves to the top four if they want any exposure at all and unless you believe Segura and Bourn can swipe a few bags, maybe just Goldschmidt (144 wRC+, .220 ISO vs RHP since 2015) and Lamb (153 wRC+, .317 ISO vs RHP this season), though the latter has a -64 wRC+ over the last week and costs $5.2K on DraftKings.

Colin Rea has struck out 18 of his last 72 batters, but hasn’t had a SwStr rate above 7.3% in any of those three starts. Even with that, he has just an 8.8 K-BB% on the season and while facing a mediocre offense, he does so in a tough run scoring environment with a terrible defense behind him. While both left and right handed batters have a wOBA just above .310 against him since last season, LHBs have a much higher 36 Hard%. As one of three offenses with a run projection exceeding five today (5.16), players should be looking at all three LHBs and Goldschmidt (147 wRC+, .237 ISO vs RHP since 2015). Jake Lamb (168 wRC+, .348 ISO vs RHP this season) has a 255 wRC+ and 64.3 Hard% over the last week. He's one of tonight's top overall bats. Chris Herrmann (108 wRC+, .217 ISO vs RHP this season) and Michael Bourn (198 wRC+ last seven days) are both a tremendous bargain on FanDuel at $2.2K each.