Nick Solak Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

It’s fairly obvious at this point that the Detroit bullpen is the one to attack on any given slate, especially behind a young pitching staff that doesn’t generally pitch deep into games. A trip to Fenway behind Casey Mize, who LHBs exceed a .400 wOBA and xwOBA against since last year, only enhances the value of Boston bats, but this is going to be no secret tonight. The Red Sox have the highest implied run line on the board (5.18).

It may be skipping the attention of players how bad the Kansas City bullpen has been though. They have a team 5.77 ERA and 4.96 FIP over the last 30 days out of their relievers. Brady Singer has been pretty good, but his 9.2 SwStr% does not support his 26.3 K% and his .297 career wOBA against LHBs is pushed up to a .332 xwOBA by Statcast. This could be an undervalued spot for someone like Jose Ramirez (162 wRC+ last 30 days), a switch hitter who doesn’t suffer no matter who the Royals bring to the mound.

A couple of surprisingly poor bullpens over the last 30 days have been the Braves (4.97 ERA, 4.83 xFIP) and Twins (5.24 ERA, 4.96 FIP). Not only are you likely to see a lot of the Minnesota bullpen with Lewis Thorpe starting, but Taylor Rogers and Hansel Robles have been worked extensively early in the week, so you’re likely to see the bottom end of it. What’s more, the Rangers have just a 3.69 implied run line in Minnesota tonight, but seven of nine projected starters exceed a 100 wRC+ overall this year. Nick Solak is at 156 and has a 139 wRC+ vs LHP since 2019. The Atlanta bullpen will be active behind a returning Max Fried as well. Trea Turner has had some success against Fried too (.471 xwOBA with two XBHs in 15 PAs). It may be difficult to find much further value in that lineup though. The Philadelphia bullpen is the last one to mention, with a 5.57 ERA and 4.93 FIP over the last 30 days. Neris threw 40 pitches on Monday and Coonrad 28 on Tuesday too, while Chase Anderson rarely goes deep in his outings, but good luck finding a productive bat in the Milwaukee lineup these days.

It has been a weird season for Fiers, who started out the season with a 7.03 ERA through April, then had a 2.45 ERA from May to July. Over the past month, Fiers has been getting roughed up again with an 8.34 ERA, 5.30 SIERA, 1.94 WHIP, 4.37 HR/9 and .436 xwOBA over the past 30 days. He gets a start tonight in Globe Life Park vs. the Rangers, who don’t have a great lineup but do have a very hitter-friendly home park that will make it tough for Fiers to turn it around. Shin-Soo Choo (.388 xwOBA vs. RHP this year), Nick Solak (.362), Danny Santana (.347), Nomar Mazara (.346), Ronald Guzman (.341), Willie Calhoun (.325), Rougned Odor (.308) and Elvis Andrus (.296) are all potential options for tonight. Odor has mostly had a rough year, but does have a .389 xwOBA over the past 2 weeks. All Rangers’ bats are $4.4k or more on DK with the exception of Ronald Guzman ($3.8k) and Jeff Mathis ($2k) who will both likely bat at the bottom of the order. Fiers has a bit of a reverse platoon split, but it’s not drastic and he can be targeted from either side of the plate. The Rangers currently have a 5.13 implied total vs. Fiers and the A’s.