Tommy Joseph Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

The RotoGrinders Player Projections might be grading players on size tonight when Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge own the top two overall projections, at least on DraftKings. Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo sneak in between the pair on FanDuel. Stanton has a 157 wRC+ and .357 ISO vs RHP this year and faces Mark Leiter in a small park in Philadelphia. Judge (168 wRC+, .318 ISO) gets a power downgrade in Detroit and has struggled over the last month, but Jordan Zimmerman has a 30.6 GB% over his last seven games with a hard hit rate above 40% in five of them. Freddie Freeman (182 wRC+, .323 ISO vs RHP) faces Erasmo Ramirez, who has a 22.0 Hard-Soft% in four starts with the Mariners. Anthony Rizzo faces Asher Wojciechowski, who has allowed five HRs over his last 11.1 innings. No team has more than a single batter in the top nine on either site, but add another pair (Brett Gardner & Gary Sanchez) among the top 11 overall projected hitters. Jose Bautista appears as a top projected value on DraftKings (2.49 Pt/$/K) for just $3.1K against Austin Pruitt. He has just a 96 wRC+ and .186 ISO vs RHP this year and a -3 wRC+ over the last week. While Gardner (3.55 Pt/$/K) doubles as a top value on FanDuel, along with teammate Didi Gregorius (3.59 Pt/$/K), each below $3.5K, it's Tommy Joseph projected as the top value (3.82 Pt/$/K) at just above the minimum ($2.1K) against Justin Nicolino (5.5 SwStr%).

R.A. Dickey has shown that he can still be an extremely hittable pitcher at this stage of his career, coming off of two straight outings allowing exactly four earned runs, but he seems to do just enough, consistently enough, to limit damage that the Atlanta Braves are able to keep utilizing him as an innings eater for their young and eventually up and coming squad. This year, Dickey has seen a small drop in his already low strikeout rate, down to 15.6% to go along with a 9.3% walk rate. As usual with his knuckleball, Dickey has managed to induce groundballs at a respectable clip (47.9%) and limit hard contact to just 26.8% of the time. With the aforementioned low strikeouts and high walks, it's difficult to imagine Dickey's 4.31 ERA continuing to improve with a 5.15 SIERA, and he has allowed a minimum of three runs in 12 of 20 starts this season. When attacking Dickey with opposing batters, a problem arises with a bit of guesswork in figuring out which individual batters to utilize against him, as the nature of a knuckleball makes at bat outcomes relatively unpredictable. This makes the Philadelphia Phillies more of a stack or fade situation in tournaments this afternoon since there should be plenty of baserunners with a high probability of home runs but difficult to predict where said production will come from. Aaron Altherr (150 wRC+, .406 wOBA, .267 ISO vs RHP) and Nick Williams (118 wRC+, .356 wOBA, .192 ISO vs RHP) are the clear top targets from this Phillies offense, while Freddy Galvis (.190 ISO vs RHP), Cesar Hernandez (108 wRC+, .341 wOBA vs RHP), and Tommy Joseph (.177 ISO vs RHP) are more of second tier options but are logical members to round out a Phillies stack in tournaments if deciding to deploy that strategy on Sunday's main slate.

R.A. Dickey continues to be an extremely hittable pitcher at this stage of his career, coming off of two straight outings allowing at least five earned runs, but he seems to do just enough, consistently enough, to limit damage that the Atlanta Braves are able to keep utilizing him as an innings eater for their young and eventually up and coming squad. This year, Dickey has seen a drastic drop in his already low strikeout rate, down to 10.7% to go along with an 11.4% walk rate. As usual with his knuckleball, Dickey has managed to induce groundballs at a respectable clip (50.9%) and limit hard contact to just 28.6% of the time. With the aforementioned low strikeouts and high walks, it's difficult to imagine Dickey's 5.10 ERA improving with a 5.81 SIERA, and he has allowed a minimum of three runs in each of his last seven starts. When attacking Dickey with opposing batters, a problem arises with a bit of guesswork in figuring out which individual batters to utilize against him, as the nature of a knuckleball makes at bat outcomes relatively unpredictable. This makes the Philadelphia Phillies more of a stack or fade situation in tournaments tonight since there should be plenty of baserunners with a high probability of home runs but difficult to predict where said production will come from. Aaron Altherr (152 wRC+, .404 wOBA, .220 ISO vs RHP), Tommy Joseph (.213 ISO vs RHP since 2016), and scorching-hot Odubel Herrera (382 wRC+, .754 wOBA, .750 ISO vs RHP) are the top hitters we would want to target in tournament stack, while Cesar Hernandez (111 wRC+, .341 vs RHP) and Michael Saunders, who has two home runs in seven at-bats against Dickey, are logical members to round out a Phillies stack as well.

The Phillies are facing Edinson Volquez. Over his last three starts, his walk rate has dropped to a manageable 9.2%, but his strikeout rate has fallen off a cliff too (14.5% with a 7.7 SwStr%). LHBs (.358 wOBA, 36 Hard%) have been more successful than RHBs against him since last season (.337 wOBA, 29.2 Hard%). The Phillies don't have any particularly good hitters against RHP, but Tommy Joseph is the only bat with an ISO above .200 against them since 2016 (102 wRC+, .205 ISO). Aaron Alther continues his hot streak (133 wRC+, 60 Hard%), giving more credit to the theory that his mis-adventures last season were more due to injury than talent. Cesar Hernandez (108 wRC+ vs RHP since 2016) and Michael Saunders (101 wRC+, .194 ISO vs RHP since 2016) can be useful bats as well, though no Philadelphia bat is deemed essential or of significant value with an implied run total of just four. .

Tommy Joseph is the hottest bat in the league (10 PA min.) over the last week with a 355 wRC+ (41.7 Hard%, 3 HRs). While he faces one of the top pitchers on the board in Yu Darvish (.RHBs .281 wOBA, 28.2 Hard% since last season), he's been a bit more vulnerable this season with a double digit walk rate and reduced strikeout rate. The park boost in Texas along with the low cost could make Joseph a viable contrarian option if he continues batting cleanup. J.D. Martinez is also red-hot upon his return from injury (.335 wRC+, 71.4 Hard%, 2 HRs). Looking to make up for lost time, Martinez is hammering baseballs and faces a lefty (Wade Miley), who has allowed RHBs a .351 wOBA since last season. Justin Bour (308 wRC+, 66.7 Hard%, 4 HRs) is NOT in the lineup against a lefty tonight and would not be an option against Dallas Keuchel even if he were. Mike Trout (302 wRC+, 43.8 Hard%, 4 HRs) is an absolute monster tonight. He faces Derek Holland, whom he has homered three times against, and has homered four straight times. He was in over 50% of lineups last night on the half slate and may be in as many tonight with double the games. Yasmani Grandal (299 wRC+, 55 Hard%, 1 HR) has just a 4.3 K% and is facing a pitcher (Ty Blach) who has struck out just 12 of 120 RHBs, despite a .295 wOBA allowed. Perhaps due to the extremely negative run environment, Grandal is an affordable catching option tonight.

Jeremy Guthrie is set to make his first Major League start of 2017 tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies and his first since pitching for the Kansas City Royals in 2015. Guthrie is no longer a Big League caliber arm in the rotation, which is backed up by his atrociously low 12.7% strikeout rate and 5.02 SIERA from the aforementioned season. In 2015, Guthrie allowed just slightly above the league average hard contact (30.7%) but surrendered fly balls nearly 40% of the time, meaning he can be susceptible to the long ball in the right matchups. However, the fly ball nature of Guthrie can make him a frustrating pitcher to stack against if the BABIP ends up working in his favor. With plenty of other high team totals on the slate, the preferred route would be to target one or two Phillies bats with some home run upside, like Michael Saunders (.205 ISO vs RHP in 2016) or Tommy Joseph (.226 ISO vs RHP in 2016/17), who also happen to slot into the fifth and sixth spot in the Phillies order this evening.

Your Wednesday night Bargain Basement team is headed by several min-priced bats in the leadoff spot tonight, including last night's start Gorkys Hernandez (although tonight against a RHP), Joey Rickard (131 wRC+ vs LHP last season) and Andrew Toles ($2.1K), who sits atop a Dodger lineup projected to score 4.7 runs tonight according to our Vegas Odds page. Tommy Joseph and Cameron Rupp are also $2.4K or less with ISOs greater than .280 vs LHP, though weather could potentially move that game off the board. Leadoff men Toles, Hernandez and Rickard are also $3K or less on DraftKings tonight, where Matt Joyce ($2.4K) also projects for some value atop the Oakland lineup tonight. He bounced back with a 141 wRC+ and .234 ISO vs RHP last year.

Rotogrinders Projections favor Jose Altuve and Mark Trumbo as the top hitters tonight as they flip flop the #1 and #2 spot on each site. Trumbo had just a 54 wRC+ vs LHP last year, but with a .212 ISO and he went deep last night. Altuve had a 141 wRC+ vs LHP, but faces an interesting young arm in James Paxton. Value hunters might look to Tommy Joseph on FanDuel ($2.0K), who projects for over 4 points per $1K of salary. He hammered LHP for a 140 wRC+, .281 ISO and Brandon Finnegan certainly had his trouble with RHBs (38.3 Hard% and 27 HRs). DraftKings projections like Matt Joyce ($2.4K) the most for value. Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom, and Rich Hill are in a virtual tie for the top pitching performance on either site.

The Phillies RH bats towards the heart of the order absolutely have upside this evening, especially as low-cost GPP options. Brandon Finnegan allowed 27 HRs to RH bats last season, good for a 1.83 HR/9 rate, a number that jumped to 2.27 in Cincinnati, where he'll be pitching tonight. The Phillies themselves certainly aren't lefty mashers - they ranked 2nd to last in ISO against LHP last season, better than only Atlanta - but Finnegan's issues keeping the ball in the yard puts guys like Maikel Franco, Tommy Joseph, Aaron Altherr and Cameron Rupp into play. Tommy Joseph is arguably the most intriguing of the group - not only is he available for minimum price at FanDuel, but he finished a short 2016 with strong splits against LHP (.383 wOBA, .281 ISO) and it definitely doesn't hurt matters that he'll get to do battle in one of the more hitter friendly parks in the league. Franco also displayed solid power numbers against lefties last year (.238 ISO), which sets him up as one of the better mid-range plays at 3B. Weather could be an issue in Cincinnati on Wednesday, so make sure to stay up to date with Kevin Roth's weather updates as well as the DFS Alerts App.

Cincinnati is a nearly run neutral, but very power friendly park, hosting two of the worst offenses in the National League last year. Cincinnati boasts an Opening Day starter, who only managed a 16.6 K% mostly out of the bullpen last year. For his career, RHBs (.330 wOBA) have been a bit better against Scott Feldman than LHBs (.321). The batter most worth looking at here is Tommy Joseph, who had a 101 wRC+, but .235 ISO and 37.7 Hard% vs RHP last season, putting the ball in the air 45.7% of the time. Unfortunately, he's batting sixth, but he's solidly in bargain territory on FanDuel ($2.1K) for you Kershaw buyers today. On the other side, Jeremy Hellickson was perfectly average in most ways for the Phillies last year. He's not a terrible choice at less than $7K in a decent spot for those who would rather spend on offense, but the upside is somewhat limited. He has been a bit HR prone on occasion, spreading them out evenly to righties and lefties in his career. While Joey Votto (169 wRC+, .254 ISO vs RHP last season) is rarely a poor choice, Adam Duvall (104 wRC+, .260 ISO) showed tremendous power against same handed pitching last year. Scott Schebler (109 wRC+, .171 ISO) is the other batter with some pop in this lineup. He costs $3.6K on DraftKings.