Fantasy Baseball RPV Breakdown: August 16

By: Joe Pisapia @JoePisapia17

Most fantasy analysts are cowards, or at the very least suffer from selective memory. They only want to glorify their successes without taking heat for their miscues. Even the great Clayton Kershaw gave up seven runs in a game once to the Diamondbacks a few years ago. That doesn’t make him all of a sudden “Not Clayton Kershaw." 

My Luis Severino pick last week was risky but calculated. Unfortunately, Severino was the Titanic and the Hindenburg in consecutive starts. But that doesn’t mean that we throw in the towel. In fact, what we do is get back to basics and get back on the horse with some sound cash game plays to bounce back from our losses from last week. The season long batting average of this weekly piece is still worthy of title contention, so we can’t lose sight of the prize.

Here are the trends, matchups and information you need to know for Week 20 in the world of DFS.

PLAYER AT PEAK SALARY TO AVOID:

Jay Bruce NYM ($5.0K Draft Kings)

We all know Jay Bruce offers power and Arizona is a friendly ballpark, but there are simply too many strong outfield alternatives to anchor your roster with the “all or nothing” Jay Bruce. His season long stats are impressive without question as he remains one of the league leaders in HR (27) and RBI (85), but the Mets' offense has all kinds of issues and Bruce doesn’t offer enough upside in games where he doesn’t homer to warrant his purchase.

PITCHER PRICED BELOW VALUE:

Jose Quintana CWS ($9.2K DraftKings/$8.7K FanDuel)

There are few pitchers more consistent in baseball with less fanfare than Jose Quintana of the White Sox. His 35 FPPG on FanDuel and 19 FPPG DraftKings makes him a wonderful slight fade from the very top of the pitching board in cash games. The Indians may be a tough assignment, but in two starts this year against the Tribe, Quintana has a 3.29 ERA, 14K/2BB and a 1.02 WHIP. His second start against the A’s is at home where Quintana sports a dazzling .89 WHIP. He’s worthy of ownership in both games this week and his first start may have some GPP upside as a contrarian play against the Indians Cory Kluber.

HITTER PRICED BELOW VALUE:

J.D. Martinez DET ($3.7K DraftKings/$3.5K FanDuel)

J.D. Martinez missed a good chunk of the season due to injury, but he’s homered in back to back games and is starting to heat up. Luckily, his salary is still well below $4K on both major sites. Martinez has developed into one of the best power hitters in baseball over the last two years, not to mention also one of the best RBI men. It was only a matter of time before he knocked the rust off and it looks like he’s ready to once again be a reliable DFS entity. All his games are at home this week where he possesses a terrific 1.051 OPS. Buy now, before the price tag flies back up to the elite level. 

TARGETING TEAMS:

Having lost 11 games in a row, the Los Angeles Angels are completely imploding. This offseason I hammered them for not doing enough to address their offensive depth or their pitching and it’s not surprising to see Mike Trout’s team floundering. The Angels face the Mariners and Yankees this week and right now the smart money is on the opposition. Nothing is going right for the halos and that Albert Pujols contract is starting to stranglehold the front office’s ability to improve this team next year.

Grab that hammer and get ready to crack open that piggy bank as the Nationals and Cubs head to Colorado this week. The Cubs offense especially will be off the chart in terms of salary. If you want shares of Anthony Rizzo or Kris Bryant you’re going to have to find some real pitching values. The trouble is this weekend’s starters don’t offer a ton of low end appeal. You may be better off starting John Lackey and company on the Coors field discount and hope for a Cubs win. It may be the only way to afford the bats.

Here’s a look at tonight’s Relative Position Value per Dollar Lineup (RPVPD) for DraftKings. RPVPD is the Fantasy Black Book’s DFS player evaluation tool. For more Optimal Lineups head to FantasyAalrm.com for the DFS Playbook.

Joe Pisapia (@JoePisapia17) is the seven-time best-selling author of the Fantasy Black Book Series for baseball and football and hosts Fantasy Sports Tonight on Sirius/XM Fantasy Sports Radio.