Paul Clemens Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Paul Clemens has actually done a solid job striking out left-handed batters (23.2% K%), but he has not had as much success against right-handed batters (11.8%), and he is surrendering a hard hit rate of over 40% to both right-handed and left-handed batters. It probably wouldn't be beneficial to just grab a bat or two here as one offs given the fact this game is being played at the pitcher paradise, AT&T Park, but loading up Giants bats as a part of tournament stack would be the optimal way to attack Clemens and the high team total for San Francisco. Hunter Pence (119 wRC+, .345 wOBA vs RHP) and Brandon Belt (132 wRC+, .364 wOBA, .186 ISO vs RHP) would be vital parts of any Giants stack.

Paul Clemens may be the worst pitcher on the board tonight. Even with Petco behind him and David Ortiz out of the lineup, the Red Sox are projected for 4.8 runs tonight. Batters from either side have hit the ball hard 36% of the time against him in his career, while RHBs have a .396 wOBA. Mookie Betts (141 wRC+, .229 ISO vs RHP this year) is tonight's top bat and Hanley Ramirez (96 wRC+, .151 ISO vs RHP this season) has a 255 wRC+ over the last week. Unfortunately, Boston bats are still priced as if this game is taking place in Fenway. Jackie Bradley Jr. (135 wRC+, .263 ISO vs RHP this season) gets bumped up a few spots and costs $3.2K on FanDuel, while Sandy Leon (131 wRC+, .182 ISO vs RHP this season) costs $2.8K on there in the fifth spot, but the value in this lineup is more difficult to find on DraftKings.

There is nothing anywhere in the skill set of Paul Clemens that implies he should be a major league pitcher. He has a 5.09 SIERA (5.06 ERA) with a 17.1% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate and has allowed tons of hard contact to both right and left-handed batters (44.2%). He induces a bit more strikeouts to lefties but allows a 50.0% fly ball rate, and is only striking out 13.2% of right-handed batters, while only managing to get his ground ball rate up to 46.4%. Outside of Freddie Freeman and his .395 wOBA, .286 ISO and 41.7% hard hit rate, it is difficult to ever feel excited about any individual bats in this Baves lineup, but Clemens is a pitcher we want to attack. Matt Kemp (.191 ISO vs RHP), Adonis Garcia (.153 ISO vs RHP), and Tyler Flowers (125 wRC+, .360 wOBA, .175 ISO vsRHP) are guys all have above average hard hit rates against right-handed pitching, with Ender Inciarte having elite contact skills out of the leadoff spot.

The Padres enter today's game against Chicago as substantial +235 underdogs and with Paul Clemens on the mound for the home team it could be a long day in San Diego. Clemens should be avoided at all costs as the Cubs have a run total topping five even in pitcher friendly Petco Park. Outside of Alex Dickerson and maybe Ryan Schimpf, the Padres bats can also be avoided as they have struggled all season against all pitchers and face the more than capable Kyle Hendricks.

Paul Clemens is a pretty awful pitcher with a 4.73 ERA and estimators even higher. Interestingly, RHBs have crushed him for a .433 wOBA this year, while LHBs are below .300. Arizona only has two LHBs in the lineup tonight, but only Jean Segura (117 wRC+) and Paul Goldschmidt (130 wRC+, .192 ISO vs RHP) are above average vs RHP this year among their RH bats and they play in a great park. Further disappointing is the fact that they retain price tags as if they were playing in that great park and not Petco. Projected to score just 4.2 runs tonight, Goldschmidt looks like he may be the only reasonable play here in a lineup particularly difficult to budget for players paying up for pitching.

Paul Clemens is a terrible pitcher (4.61 ERA, 5.18 SIERA, 5.8 SwStr%) facing an ice cold team (46 wRC+, 20.0 K-BB% over the last week) in a negative run environment. You'd think there would be some usable bats here, but only Neil Walker (113 wRC+, .174 ISO vs RHP since 2015) has a wRC+ above 75 over the last week (228) and then only Jay Bruce (109 wRC+, .259 ISO vs RHP since 2015) joins him above 25 or with a hard hit rate above 27%. While batters from either side have a hard hit rate above 40% this season, RHBs actually have a much higher .442 wOBA, so perhaps the rookie T.J. Rivera, who just made his debut a couple of days ago, is worth a $2.7K or less price tag in the second spot.

While the sample size is too small to come to any definitive conclusions, it is apparent through 11 innings of right-handed ABs that Clemens does not flash strike out upside, whiffing a paltry 8% of RHBs faced. With Jay Bruce out of the lineup, Adam Duvall will be cleaning up for the Reds. Duvall boasts a ridiculous 0.315 ISO against RHBs, but the downside with Duvall against RHP is his 27% k rate. Facing Clemens today should eliminate the strike out risk, leaving nothing but glorious upside for Duvall and the other right-handed Reds hitters.

With a double header, the Cardinals are sitting a number of regulars, opening up some salary-saving options. Paul Clemens (6.32 SIERA, -1.6 K-BB%) has allowed a .396 wOBA while surrendering 2.38 HR/9 to right-handed batters in his short career. We typically only go out of our way to roster Stephen Piscotty against lefties but he still is more than capable of hitting right-handed pitching (121 wRC+, .349 wOBA, .176 ISO since 2015) as awful as Clemens. The entire top half of the Cardinals order is in play for stacking in tournaments, but Tommy Pham (142 wRC+, .379 wOBA, .270 ISO vs RHP since 2015), Greg Garcia (157 wRC+, .405 wOBA vs RHP), and Jedd Gyorko (124 wRC+, .356 wOBA, .265 ISO vs RHP) make for the best options and can provide some salary relief to pay up elsewhere.