DFS DIAMONDS

*The follow list of players are guys that Ray recommends as daily plays. He will try to avoid the obvious, so you will rarely see the Mike Trout’s and David Price’s of the world listed.

CATCHER: Welington Castillo swings right-handed. He faces Chad Bettis who cannot, cannot, get righties out. Check out Bettis’ abysmal slash line in his career against righties (.315/.365/.471).

FIRST BASE: Justin Bour has 24 homers in 410 career at-bats against righties and that effort includes a .273 batting average and .827 OPS. He’s slightly bettered that number at home in his career as well with a .838 home OPS. He takes on Justin Verlander.

SECOND BASE: Jedd Gyorko is up against lefty Jonathon Niese. Gyorko has five hits in nine at-bats against Niese. Gyorko has long been a much better performer against lefties with a .258/.335/.438 career slash line that includes 13 homers in 333 at-bats.

THIRD BASE: Kyle Seager has torn up Martin Perez with 10 hits in 20 at-bats. Three of those hits have been homers on his way to a 1.450 OPS over 20 plate appearances. Seager has a .814 OPS on the road in his career and has crushed everyone in Texas with a .351/.102/.586 line there over 44 games.

SHORTSTOP: Alexei Ramirez has hit .293 in his career against lefties. He’s also facing the struggling Scott Kazmir having gone 8-for-22 against him (.364) with a homer and six RBI.

OUTFIELD: Gregory Polanco is 6-for-12 against Michael Wacha. On Opening Day he ripped a couple of hits, took a walk, and scored two runs. He’s long been successful against righties with career numbers of .272/.341/.405.

OUTFIELD: David Peralta is 4-for-5 against Chad Bettis. The former pitcher hit .336 with a .950 OPS at home last season and righties, he pounded them nearly as hard (.325/.384/.552).

OUTFIELD: Franklin Gutierrez has a mere .658 OPS in his career against righties showing virtually nothing. However, when a lefty is on the hill (Martin Perez today) Franklin is a star with a .291/.347/.491 line. Let him rip.

BRAVES NINTH INNING

Sounds like Braves’ manager Fredi Gonzalez is committed to doing something smart. However, making that decision may not yield the desired result in the fantasy game. "Whether it's the eighth inning or ninth inning, [Arodys Vizcaino] is going to face the tough part of the order," Gonzalez said. "[Monday], it just so happened to be the eighth inning. We've got to think outside the box a little bit. Today, it kind of materialized." Let me break that down for you. Vizcaino is the “primary” closer for the Braves (hello Houston Astros). What Gonzalez is admitting is that Vizcaino is the Braves best option to get the hardest outs and if that’s the 9th inning fantastic. If it’s the 8th inning like it was Monday – then so be it. The problem with this line of thought, not that I disagree with it, is that you still need to have a competent option to work the 9th inning if your “primary” guy is called on to work the 8th inning. Monday the team turned to Jason Grilli and the 39 year old allowed a run and three baserunners as he narrowly escaped a meltdown.

I’ve said the following since the calendar flipped to 2016. I believe Vizcaino will lead the Braves in saves this season. He’s simply more talented than Grilli. However, the position of Gonzalez at the moment isn’t going to make Vizcaino owners happy as it sounds like Gonzalez will use his best reliever, Arodys, whenever he’s needed. Makes all the sense in the world, but that isn’t going to boost the fantasy value of Vizcaino. Don’t worry. Sooner or later the Braves will deal Grilli, and if he doesn’t tighten things up we won’t be seeing him much in the 9th inning regardless of the matchups.

BATTING ORDER UPDATES

Diamondbacks: Chris Owings, second

I really don’t care. For more on Owings see his Player Profile.

Marlins: Marcell Ozuna, second

Think what you will about Ozuna who the front office wanted to move this offseason, but hitting second between Dee Gordon and Christian Yelich, ahead of Giancarlo Stanton, is about as prime a landing spot as you could ever hope for as a hitter. Ozuna is just 25 years old, but last year he was a total mess. Appearing in just 123 games, he was demoted and saw 33 games of work at Triple-A, Ozuna hit a poor .259 with a terrible .308 OBP and a disconcerting .383 SLG. That SLG was .072 points lower than his mark in 2014 as his OPS fell to .691. He also saw his Isolated Power mark drop .062 points down to .124, and he hit just 10 homers in 459 at-bats. Talented no doubt. Great hitting coach no doubt (Barry Bonds). Terrific spot in the batting order. No doubt. Production at the big league level? Not so much. He’s in a position to succeed, but there are plenty of hurdles to clear before he can be looked at as anything more than a 5th outfielder in mixed leagues.

Rockies: Mark Reynolds, sixth

It’s just one day, but the thought was the Ben Paulsen would play first base this season the majority of the time, but after watching Reynolds produce better this spring the Rox went with Reynolds even with a righty on the hill (Zack Greinke). Reynolds has hit at least 20 homers in seven of eight seasons, he only missed last season when he hit 13 homers, but he’s also the owner of an alarming 32 percent career K-rate. He could hit 25 homers in Colorado, perhaps 30 if he played daily, but he last hit .235 in 2010, hasn’t had an OBP above .315 in three years (league average) and, amazingly, he hasn’t had a .400 SLG in three years. Not really sure with his power how that’s even possible. This one is more about Reynolds ruining the outlook of Paulsen than really carving out a spot for himself. For now, both guys are really NL-only options.

Athletics: Danny Valencia, fourth

The A’s faced Chris Sale on Opening Day, and Valencia hit clean up in that setups behind Josh Reddick and in front of Khris Davis. Valencia could frequently hit in that spot when a lefty is on the bump as he’s always dominated against southpaws. The numbers are eye-popping against lefties in his career: .321-19-105 with a .862 OPS over 641 at-bats. Money. He’s looked like junk against righties with a .664 OPS, though last season he did show a spark against righties that we simply hadn’t seen before (.881 OPS). I need Valencia to do that again before I can buy into it, but it certainly seems possible that he could match, or potentially exceed, the numbers he posted last season (.290-16-66-59).

Cubs: Ben Zobrist, third

Zobrist hit third on Opening Day for the Cubs behind Jason Heyward and ahead of Anthony Rizzo. That’s some flipping prime real estate. However, with Joe Maddon at the helm, I simply can’t trust that this will be the lineup on a daily basis. How could anyone? Just take a look at what happened last season to their lineup (there were 119 different lineups). I’m mildly excited about the outlook for Zobrist, but I’m also realistic and know that things are very likely to change over the course of the season.