DFS MLB Hitting Coach: May 17

Here’s another big one, folks! We have a huge 14-game slate, with some big GPP tournaments, and some very big name pitching options.

If you're looking to spend up on pitching, I'll try to make it as easy on you as possible. I promise you I will give you at least one value option at each position, but if I see something I like, I may include more. 

I also appreciate the positive feedback on the new statistics that I’m featuring on the tables. It’s a little bit more work, but I feel that they are all important stats to highlight.

As far as weather is concerned, you’re going to want to keep an eye on the Marlins/Phillies, Braves/Pirates, and Mariners/Orioles games. All three have rain in the forecast, but as of right now at least, it shouldn’t be enough to postpone anything. 

And again, players are organized from highest to lowest salary using FanDuel pricing. 

Victor Martinez put up a donut last night, on a night where all of his teammates were getting in on the action. Don’t be fooled, V-Mart is still in a class of his own as a catcher-eligible option on FanDuel. He is also 12-for-37 (.324 AVG) for his career against Phil Hughes, with a home run and five RBIs. 

Buster Posey is coming off of a solid series against the D-Backs where he went 4-for-13 (.308 AVG) with two doubles and two RBIs. He gets a matchup against Colin Rea of the Padres, who has given up a .378 wOBA against right-handed hitters this season. Plus, like most Padres pitchers, he is much worse on the road, allowing a 4.87 xFIP and .361 wOBA.

Chris Herrmann will continue to get starts because of his great production in recent weeks. His ability to switch gloves and play the outfield really gives him more opportunities at the plate. He should be in a good situation tonight against Michael Pineda, who is on pace to have the worst season of his career. His command just isn’t there, as we can see with his 1.60 WHIP and decreased 15.8% K-BB%. Love his price on both DraftKings and Aces.

Matt Wieters is my recommended punt play at catcher. He’s just way too cheap on FanDuel to ignore. He has homered against Wade Miley in one of their previous four meetings, and has been slightly better against lefties throughout his career. 

David Ortiz continues to kill the ball the way that any ordinary 40-year-old veteran wouldn’t. Believe it or not, he is currently on track to have his best year EVER at the plate. His .453 wOBA obviously unreal and his 47.6% Hard Hit Rate is good enough to be the 2nd best in MLB in both categories. 

Miguel Cabrera didn’t let owners down the last time he faced Phil Hughes a few weeks ago at Target Field. He likes to face Phil Hughes. Over his career, he has batted .439/.465/1.000 with six homers, five doubles, and 14 RBIs over 41 at-bats against the former Yankee. 

Freddie Freeman is the BvP special of the day. And how could he not be with his ridiculous numbers against Juan Nicasio? 6-for-12 (.500). 4 homers. Nine RBIs. .647 OBP. 2.397 OPS. .844 wOBA. One strikeout. Wow.

Mark Teixeira is my recommended play if you’re looking to go cheap at first base. He is 5-for-13 (.385 AVG), lifetime, against Zack Greinke, with a homer, two doubles, and four RBIs. Greinke is giving up a lot more contact this season, and Teixeira has been solid, going 6-for-16 (.375 AVG) with three doubles over his last four games.

Jose Altuve obviously crushes lefties, and this season, he has done it to the tune of .458/.567/.833. The only problem with rostering Altuve is truly his huge price tag, which would make it very difficult to roster the pricey pitchers tonight. 

Robinson Cano may have low ownership after a rough homestand, but I think that’d be a huge mistake because he is a much better hitter away from Safeco Field, and because he is 6-for-11 (.545 AVG) with two homers and two doubles in his previous meetings against Ubaldo Jimenez.

Neil Walker has a 49.5% fly ball rate this season. When you consider that Max Scherzer is allowing a 1.90 HR/9, which is the highest in his career, I feel you have to give guys like Walker a hard look. He has held his own against Scherzer in their previous meetings, going 3-for-9 (.333 AVG) with two home runs. Also, just because he’s facing Scherzer, DraftKings decided to use a terrible algorithm that has Walker’s price below $3000!

Howie Kendrick will get a shot against his former teammate, Jered Weaver, for the first time in his career. Weaver has grinded out a few solid outings, but the truth of the matter is, he’s a shell of his former perennial Cy Young candidate self. After a terrible start, Kendrick has been solid, even going 5-for-13 (.385 AVG) with a couple RBIs over his last three games. 

Matt Carpenter sure is doing everything in his power to prove that last year’s power surge wasn’t a fluke. Over his last 10 games, he has gone 12-for-36 (.333 AVG) with five homers, three doubles, eight walks, 10 runs, and 9 RBIs. If I am paying up for a third baseman tonight, I absolutely want shares of Carpenter regardless of the format. 

Jake Lamb is a major reason why the Fantasy Alarm team is headed back to the Playboy mansion to defend the Playboy Championship. He gets a pretty sweet matchup at home against Michael Pineda, who has given up a line of .343/.400/.569 against left-handed hitters this season. 

Trevor Plouffe looks very comfortable at the plate, and  is a great value throughout the industry. Over his last seven games, he has gone 9-for-27 (.333 AVG) with a homer, two doubles, five runs, and three RBIs. And yes, I am well aware of this matchup against Mike Pelfrey, who is allowing a 4.88 xFIP, and 37.2% Hard Hit Rate. 

Kelly Johnson has been one of my favorite value plays lately. He has gotten the bulk of the starts at third for the Braves after they sent Adonis Garcia back down to AAA Gwinnett. Over his last four starts, he has gone 6-for-16 (.375 AVG) with a homer, two doubles, and five RBIs. I like his matchup against Juan Nicasio, mainly, because Nicasio hasn’t been good against lefties this season, allowing a line of .297/.371/.587 and four of his five home runs. 

Manny Machado is officially shortstop eligible on both DraftKings and FanDuel. He gets a nice matchup at home against Wade Miley of the Mariners, who he has gone 3-for-7 (.429 AVG) with a homer, walk, and zero strikeouts against throughout his career. 

Addison Russell is one of my favorite plays tonight because a) Chase Anderson sucks, b) Chase Anderson sucks even more against right-handed hitters and c) Russell has been extremely hot. In fact, he is in the middle of a 9-game hitting streak, where he has gone 14-for-36 (.389 AVG) with two homers, a triple, four doubles, and 13 RBIs. 

Marcus Semien may be featured in my articles permanently if his price continues to remain stagnant. I mentioned last night that he is the ultimate GPP play because of the power he has been able to showcase this season. His 10 home runs lead all American League shortstops, and his home run last night was what sealed the deal for Team Fantasy Alarm in the Playboy qualifier. 

Didi Gregorius is getting to face his former team for the first time in his career. I like his price point throughout the industry, and I like the fact that he is swinging a pretty hot bat. Over his last six games, he has gone 7-for-22 (.318 AVG) with a home run, three doubles, and six RBIs. 

Mookie Betts has five multi-hit games in his last nine, and is in the middle of a 7-game hitting streak, where he has gone 11-for-35 (.314 AVG) with two homers, a triple, two doubles, nine runs, and a whopping 10 RBIs. 

Yoenis Cespedes should be someone you should consider rostering if you’re looking to make an impact with an under-owned name in your GPPs. Everyone hates to roster Cespedes as it is against righties, even though he has been much better against righties the past few seasons. On top of that, he has been solid against Max Scherzer, who definitely threw 20 strikeouts last week against the Tigers, but is very prone to the long ball. I mean, think about it, he even allowed two homers in that 20 strikeout performance. And lastly, that DK algorithm that I mentioned with Walker is definitely in effect here with Yoenis’s salary under $4000.

Marcell Ozuna just hasn’t disappointed in recent weeks, and will be looking to continue his 15-game hitting streak tonight against Vince Velasquez of the Phillies. I like him A LOT in GPPs because people will always look to roster his teammates in Yelich and Stanton instead. Nonetheless, he is close to a must play on Aces where he is only $4150. 

Adam Jones is no longer a bargain play, but it doesn’t mean you should forget about I’m tonight. He is in the middle of an 8-game hitting streak, where he has gone 15-for-34 (.441 AVG) with a whopping four homers, 10 runs, and 11 RBIs. He has also had some success against Wade Miley, reaching base three out of seven plate appearances, and even taking one out of the park. 

Miguel Sano has such huge upside, and will generally be under-owned because of the false idea that he would prefer to hit against lefties as a right-handed hitter. He has demonstrated much more power against righties, and even had a higher OBP against righties last season. He is coming off of a big home run last night against Jordan Zimmermann, and gets a better matchup tonight against Mike Pelfrey. 

Melky Cabrera gets a matchup with Dallas Keuchel, who really isn’t as bad as everyone is making him out to be (advanced stats suggests so), but the one thing he hasn’t done well is avoid the base-on-balls. Cabrera is a very disciplined hitter, who has more walks than strikeouts this season, and has gone 5-for-13 (.385 AVG) against the southpaw throughout his career. 

Justin Upton has hit for 26 home runs in five of his last seven seasons. That home run total of two is definitely going to improve as the season goes on. Virtually all of the advanced statistics are similar to what we’ve been seeing from J-Up the last few seasons, so it really comes down to picking our spots. I think that spot might just be tonight against Phil Hughes of the Twins. Runners will likely be flooding the bases, and he should get some good pitches to hit. 

Trayce Thompson went double dong last night and has now homered five times in his last eight games. That’s preeeeety good, guys. I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t get the start tonight. He’s simply too good to ignore, and is obviously a much better hitter than Yasiel Puig. 

Brandon Drury will continue to get starts, especially with A.J. Pollock and David Peralta out of the lineup. He currently has hits in eight of his last 10 games, and has gone 15-for-42 (.357 AVG) at the plate in that time frame. He has demonstrated power this season, and I like his situation against Michael Pineda, who has given up seven of his nine home runs against right-handed hitters. 

Matt Holliday just continues to hang below $3000 on FanDuel, and remains a great value play in the outfield. With Adam Jones finally going over $3000, your best bang for your buck is going to be coming from Holliday for the next few weeks. We’ll see if he’ll be able to take the momentum he gained from that big road trip back home to Busch Stadium.  

Matt Joyce is going to get the majority of the starts in the outfield while Starling Marte is out on maternity leave. Joyce responded with a great 3-for-4 outing with a homer and three RBIs last night. Joyce simply does not hit for average. The reason you want him in your lineups is because of the long ball, and his ridiculous ISO really demonstrates it. 

Cameron Maybin hasn’t played for anything resembling a “good team” in quite some time, and he definitely looks motivated after watching his first game in a Tigers uniform. I mean, the dude stole second base with an eight run lead! With Anthony Gose sent down to the minors, Maybin should get an opportunity for everyday playing time in Detroit. He gets a good matchup against Phil Hughes, who the Tigers have owned throughout the years, which means he should get some chances with runners on. 

Be sure to keep an eye on the Fantasy Alarm Daily Lineups page to confirm that your players are starting.

If you guys have any questions, you can always reach me on Twitter @kle18. Good luck!