People keep beating Ray Flowers. It’s easy. Ask around. But he’s back for the challenge yet against Friday thanks to Fantasy Alarm and Draft Kings in the $1,000 Ray Flowers Challenge.
*Players are listed in the table in order of preference for the day of action. The write-ups are listed in alphabetical order for ease of reading.
CATCHER
| Probable | vL | vR | vL | vR | Last 7 | ||||||||
| Player | Tm | Bat | Opp | Pitcher | Hand | OPS | OPS | wOBA | wOBA | OPS | Aces$ | DK$ | FD$ |
| Brian McCann | NYY | L | BAL | Ubaldo Jimenez | R | .553 | .888 | .262 | .389 | 1.048 | 4950 | 4100 | 3700 |
| J.T. Realmuto | MIA | R | COL | Kyle Kendrick | R | .983 | .556 | .427 | .245 | 1.200 | 4000 | 3600 | 2800 |
| Francisco Cervelli | PIT | R | PHI | Kevin Correia | R | .898 | .780 | .405 | .353 | 0.818 | 4200 | 3400 | 2800 |
| Josh Phegley | OAK | R | LAA | Hector Santiago | L | .822 | .752 | .363 | .338 | 1.000 | 3250 | 2800 | 2400 |
Cervelli is batting .364 over his last 29 games. He’s also hitting a solid .308 against righties this campaign.
McCann is batting .294 over 34 at-bats against Ubaldo. He’s produced six hits and four RBIs his last three contests and check out his slash line against righties: .285/.342/.546.
Phegley plays a lot against lefties as he should since he’s hitting .325 (40 ABs) with a solid wOBA.
Realmuto takes on Kendrick, not someone to be scared by. He’s also batting .526 over his last five games with 10 hits.
FIRST BASE
| Probable | vL | vR | vL | vR | Last 7 | ||||||||
| Player | Tm | Bat | Opp | Pitcher | Hand | OPS | OPS | wOBA | wOBA | OPS | Aces$ | DK$ | FD$ |
| Albert Pujols | LAA | R | OAK | Jesse Chavez | R | .632 | .915 | .271 | .397 | 1.065 | 5200 | 4400 | 3900 |
| Darin Ruf | PHI | R | PIT | Jeff Locke | L | 1.074 | .469 | .468 | .213 | 0.800 | 3500 | 3000 | 2200 |
| Kennys Vargas | MIN | B | TEX | Wandy Rodriguez | L | .869 | .528 | .386 | .235 | 0.545 | 4000 | 3600 | 2300 |
| Yonder Alonso | SD | L | LA | Clayton Kershaw | L | 1.071 | .856 | .485 | .385 | 0.839 | 4750 | 3400 | 3000 |
Alonso is batting .342 overall, .368 at night and .429 against lefties. Can he keep that going against the toughest lefty in baseball?
Pujols is batting .438 over 17 at-bats against Chavez. One of the hits was a homer. Pujols has three homers in four games and six in nine overall.
Ruf has success against lefties batting .387 with a 1.074 OPS this season. Locke is really struggling having allowed 15 hits, five walks and 11 runs over his last 10.1 innings.
Vargas has 40 at-bats against lefties this season and has a .375/.419/.450 slash line. Dirt cheap too.
SECOND BASE
| Probable | vL | vR | vL | vR | Last 7 | ||||||||
| Player | Tm | Bat | Opp | Pitcher | Hand | OPS | OPS | wOBA | wOBA | OPS | Aces$ | DK$ | FD$ |
| Joe Panik | SF | L | ARI | Chase Anderson | R | .908 | .857 | .406 | .377 | 1.121 | 4850 | 4200 | 3500 |
| Dustin Pedroia | BOS | R | TOR | Drew Hutchison | R | .902 | .802 | .400 | .357 | 0.952 | 4900 | 4100 | 3500 |
| Ian Kinsler | DET | R | CLE | Danny Salazar | R | .599 | .763 | .271 | .343 | 0.862 | 4900 | 4100 | 3400 |
| Howie Kendrick | LA | R | SD | Odrisamer Despaigne | R | .742 | .810 | .328 | .357 | 1.071 | 5050 | 4100 | 3300 |
Kendrick is batting .300 against righties this season and over his last three games he has six hits, three runs and five RBIs.
Kinsler is batting .294 with a 0.88 BB/K ratio against righties. He’s also batting .429 with a wOBA over .400 the past week.
Panik the last six games – two homers, seven runs, .429 average and 714 SLG. Hell, over his last 10 games he has at least two hits seven times (not to mention a hit in all 10).
Pedroia the last six games – six runs a .375 average and .444 OBP. He loves that home cooking too (.367/.424/.523).
THIRD BASE
| Probable | vL | vR | vL | vR | Last 7 | ||||||||
| Player | Tm | Bat | Opp | Pitcher | Hand | OPS | OPS | wOBA | wOBA | OPS | Aces$ | DK$ | FD$ |
| Kyle Seager | SEA | L | HOU | Brett Oberholtzer | L | .941 | .766 | .411 | .337 | 0.752 | 5150 | 4400 | 3400 |
| Pedro Alvarez | PIT | L | PHI | Kevin Correia | R | .308 | .829 | .143 | .364 | 0.647 | 4500 | 3700 | 2800 |
| Martin Prado | MIA | R | COL | Kyle Kendrick | R | .818 | .637 | .356 | .286 | 0.531 | 4500 | 3800 | 2600 |
| Aramis Ramirez | MIL | R | WSH | Jordan Zimmermann | R | .545 | .644 | .243 | .283 | 0.500 | 4550 | 3300 | 2300 |
Alvarez has 10 homers in 163 at-bats against righties this season. Correia will be making his 2015 debut with a run of five straight seasons with a HR/9 mark over 1.00.
Prado has a homer and a .385 batting average in 26 at-bats against Kendrick. He also has hit in nine of the last 10 games.
Ramirez has eight hits in 22 at-bats leading to a .364 batting average. One of the hits is a big fly. He has a hit in four of his last five games.
Seager is torching lefties. In 52 at-bats he’s batting .327 with a .942 OPS. He’s also batting .291 with a .864 OPS on the road this season.
SHORTSTOP
| Probable | vL | vR | vL | vR | Last 7 | ||||||||
| Player | Tm | Bat | Opp | Pitcher | Hand | OPS | OPS | wOBA | wOBA | OPS | Aces$ | DK$ | FD$ |
| Jose Reyes | TOR | B | BOS | Joe Kelly | R | .430 | .816 | .205 | .358 | 1.094 | 5150 | 5200 | 4100 |
| Andrelton Simmons | ATL | R | NYM | Bartolo Colon | R | .414 | .751 | .192 | .333 | 0.581 | 4850 | 3600 | 2400 |
| Elvis Andrus | TEX | R | MIN | Tommy Milone | L | .761 | .534 | .339 | .249 | 0.464 | 4750 | 4000 | 2600 |
| J.J. Hardy | BAL | R | NYY | Michael Pineda | R | .423 | .545 | .186 | .244 | 0.609 | 4550 | 3100 | 2300 |
Andrus is batting .297 against lefties this season. He’s also hitting .375 over 24 at-bats when Milone is on the bump.
Hardy has a hit in 4-straight games. He’s also hit three homers against Pineda in 11 at-bats while batting .545.
Reyes has an eight game hitting streak that has brought his average up from .265 to .302. He’s also batting .349 on the road and .324 against righties.
Simmons has eight hits in 15 at-bats when Colon is on the bump. He’s got a hit with four RBIs in his last four games.
OUTFIELD
| Probable | vL | vR | vL | vR | Last 7 | ||||||||
| Player | Tm | Bat | Opp | Pitcher | Hand | OPS | OPS | wOBA | wOBA | OPS | Aces$ | DK$ | FD$ |
| Jose Bautista | TOR | R | BOS | Joe Kelly | R | 1.017 | .883 | .435 | .392 | 1.094 | 5500 | 5500 | 5100 |
| Alex Gordon | KC | L | STL | Jaime Garcia | L | .804 | .820 | .362 | .371 | 0.692 | 4800 | 3800 | 2800 |
| A.J. Pollock | ARI | R | SF | Madison Bumgarner | L | 1.072 | .824 | .464 | .361 | 1.000 | 5500 | 3900 | 4600 |
| Corey Dickerson | COL | L | MIA | Jose Urena | R | .847 | .886 | .376 | .381 | 1.250 | 5250 | 4900 | 4300 |
| Joey Butler | TB | R | CWS | John Danks | L | .932 | .841 | .403 | .372 | 0.815 | 4000 | 3800 | 3100 |
| Ryan Raburn | CLE | R | DET | David Price | L | .969 | .462 | .425 | .193 | 0.545 | 4300 | 2500 | 2300 |
| Colby Rasmus | HOU | L | SEA | Felix Hernandez | R | .850 | .758 | .373 | .329 | 0.600 | 4000 | 3100 | 2200 |
| Tyler Collins | DET | L | CLE | Danny Salazar | R | .000 | .943 | .000 | .407 | 1.357 | 3000 | 2900 | 2600 |
Bautista has 33 homers and a .898 OPS against the Sox over 107 games. Over the past two weeks he’s sporting a wOBA of .470.
Butler has a hit in nine of 10 games. He’s also ripping up lefties with a .591 SLG and .932 OPS.
Collins is batting .342 with a .943 OPS against righties. He’s also the owner of a .450 the last two weeks.
Dickerson faces a guy who is having trouble getting batters out. Dickerson also has an impressive wOBA against righties and he picked right up where he left off with two hits in his first game back from the DL.
Gordon is 4-for-9 against Garcia. He’s also hit .306 on the road this season, .356 against the Cardinals (35 games) and owns a .392 wOBA the past two weeks.
Pollock has a tough matchup with MadBum, but there’s still a lot to like. He has a .945 OPS on the road. He has a .866 OPS against MadBum. He’s crushing lefties this season with a 1.072 OPS.
.325/.398/.571 Mr. Raburn against lefties.
It’s only 10 at-bats, but Rasmus has seven hits against King Felix. He has a .475 SLG against righties this season and .465 for his career.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday at 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).