Yasmani Grandal- Yasmani Grandal went deep twice on Thursday to double his season long output. Grandal as managed to drive in 8 runs on Thursday, which made his season long numbers seem a lot more palatable than they did on Wednesday. With that said, Grandal's power output on Thursday may not be sustainable unless he sees a regression in his batted ball rates. His 53.8% ground ball rate isn't going to generate a ton of games like Thursday. He will need to get the ball in the air more frequently to continue to generate significant fantasy value. Otherwise, Grandal has been a very solid option to begin the season. His BB Rate is a great 16.1% and his K Rate is a reasonable 19.5%. His Line Drive Rate is back to 2013 levels at 23.1%, but we still aren't seeing enough fly balls to justify anything more than a second catcher in mixed leagues.
Mike Fiers- Mike Fiers comes with some ups and downs over the course of the season. Part of the benefit of being a Fiers owner is that you will accumulate a significant number of strikeouts as his 29.6% K Rate is pretty close to sustainable over the course of time. The negative is that Fiers trends toward an extreme fly ball pitcher with a tendency to allow the home run. While the strikeout rate can be a boon to fantasy owners, the other tendencies can off-set your gains significantly. I wouldn't necessarily walk away from Fiers because 25+% K Rates don't grow on trees for starters, but ride will get bumpy from time to time.
Danny Espinosa- Danny Espinosa isn't very valuable in regular fantasy leagues because of his consistent struggles against right-handed pitchers, but in daily games, he is a solid value play against left-handers. On Friday, Espinosa goes up against Eric Stults, who has struggled thus far in 2015. Given Espinosa's success against left handed pitchers, I'm a pretty big fan of his for Friday's slate of daily games especially given his current salary. Draftkings Salary- $3,400.00
Michael Wacha- Michael Wacha has been fairly successful through his first 5 startes despite doing his best Shelby Miller impersonation. Cardinal fans and fantasy owners alike will remember how Miller's strikeout rate vanished from one year to the next. Well, Wacha is following suit in a disturbing way. His 13.4% K Rate is astounding low for a pitcher achieving the results Wacha has thus far. While his 50+% ground ball rate has helped him substantially, Wacha will not be able to continue this trend of success unless he starts striking people out again. His 87% Strand Rate and .229 BABIP Against will not last very much longer, which means fantasy owners will need to start seeing the strikeout numbers increase. If you don't start seeing him strike batters out, you may want to sell him based on his early season success to someone willing to buy him on reputation. His success is unsustainable as is.
Joey Votto- There are nine (9) first baseman that are priced ahead of Joey Votto on Friday on Draftkings. Nine. This is disgusting value. Votto, who is slashing .357/.458/.714 against right handed pitching and he has all 7 of his home runs off right handed pitching. He has made a living on killing right handed pitching in 2015. On Friday night, he goes up against Hector Noesi. In case you were wondering, Noesi is not only right handed, but he is also giving up 54.5% fly balls and a 16.7% HR/FB rate. Nine first baseman are more expensive than Votto. I'm not kidding. This might be the easiest decision to be made in daily fantasy on Friday. Draftkings Salary- $4,500.00.
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