Ryan Merritt Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Ryan Merritt is one of two rookie starters today, but at least Urias has some major league experience and a strong pedigree. Merritt has one major league start and has struck out just six of 37 major league batters. In over 300 innings of AA and AAA experience since the start of 2015, he's had a strikeout rate below 16% at every single stop and stint. Nearly immaculate control is the reason he's even made it to the majors. The Blue Jays had a 108 wRC+ and .185 ISO at home this season, but were just league average (100 wRC+, .168 ISO) vs LHP to the surprise of most people this year. Aside from having the advantage of being an unknown quantity, the Jays should have a major edge here against the soft-tossing rookie. Encarnacion (142 wRC+, .275 ISO vs LHP) and Donaldson (150 wRC+, .240 ISO vs LHP) have to be considered two of the top bats on the board today, while Melvin Upton (132 wRC+, .258 ISO vs LHP) and Jose Bautista (103 wRC+, .209 ISO) are the only other batter in the lineup that can boast either an ISO above .165 (Troy Tulowitzki) or wRC+ above 109 (Darwin Barney) vs LHP.

Ryan Merritt is a low strikeout arm with great control. He was ranked 28th in the system by Fangraphs before the season and has done little to change that. He also hasn’t pitched in three weeks. The Royals are likely to see a lot of bullpen in this game. With the Trible still playing for home field, what part of the bullpen they see may be determined by the score. Whit Merrifield (144 wRC+, .147 ISO vs LHP) is likely to see the young lefty twice and costs $2.9K on FanDuel, as will Kendrys Morales (146 wRC+, .233 ISO vs LHP this season), who costs $3.2K there. Both have a wRC+ above 140 over the last week.