MLB DFS Bargain Bin- Sunday, July 15th All Slates

MLB DFS /

MLB DFS Bargain Bin- Sunday, July 15th All Slates

Welcome to a Sunday edition of the MLB DFS Bargain Bin, where the goal is to provide a general overview of the ledger and touch on where the weakest pitching spots might be, and by extension, where there may be some value bats to consider. Additionally, I’ll look to identify where a value arm or two might be intersecting with an offense that’s running cold or is otherwise inefficient against a certain handedness.

Before we go bargain hunting, a few particulars about format and content:

The nature of the beast with value plays is at least a modest amount (and sometimes substantially more) of risk. After all, these players are usually priced where they are for a reason. Therefore, the Bargain Bin may prove to be a bit more of a rollercoaster ride on some slates than your typical “tout” article!
Naturally, that doesn’t mean there isn’t upside to be had. All of these selections are therefore suitable for GPPs (and usually avoidable for cash games), and they can often help you accommodate multiple higher-priced studs into your lineup.
In this Quick Hits version, I’ll suggest players that are typically value-priced across all four major DFS sites (Yahoo, FanDuel, DraftKings and FantasyDraft). Naturally, check final pricing before making your lineup decisions, as I am not listing salaries in this edition.
This is not a position-by-position breakdown, but rather, I’m just identifying games where I think there’s value players in potentially favorable fantasy spots.
The goal is to recommend truly affordable players, as opposed to, say, a player priced just $300-$400 away from the highest-priced option at his position. The goal is to recommend truly affordable players, as opposed to, say, a player priced just $300-$400 away from the highest-priced option at his position. I don’t have set-in-stone price limits in mind for each site, but I do consider legitimate affordability a very important criteria.

With those housekeeping items out-of-the-way, I’ll give you my thoughts on where there may be some value spots to exploit on Sunday evening’s slates!

DraftKings /

MLB DFS Bargain Bin- Sunday, July 15th Bargain Pitcher

Sean Manaea– OAK at SFG

Manaea has undeniably been up and down this season, but the stage is set for one of his better performances Sunday. The southpaw has a slightly better ERA on the road (3.39), along with a markedly better strand rate (82.5 percent, as opposed to 70.1 percent at home). He faces a Giants team that’s struggled against left-handers throughout the season, irrespective of where they’ve faced them.

At spacious AT & T Park, they’re sporting an anemic .267 wOBA and 73 wRC+ against lefties over the last month of play, along with a -8.2 wRAA that qualifies as the second lowest in baseball over that stretch. The projected starting lineup reflects that overall ineptness, as they carry a mediocre .301 wOBA and unimpressive .133 ISO against left-handed pitching, as well as a 20.5 percent strikeout rate.

Manaea had the unenviable task of facing the Astros at Minute Maid Park in his last road turn, but he produced quality starts in his two prior outings outside of the Oakland Coliseum, allowing just three earned runs over 13 innings while generating a 9:1 K:BB against the Tigers and White Sox, respectively. He’s posted quality starts in five of his last six trips to the mound overall, and the conditions line up for him to repeat the feat again Sunday.

ALSO CONSIDER: Jeremy Hellickson, WAS at NYM

FanDuel MLB /

MLB DFS Bargain Bin- Sunday, July 15th All Slates Quick Hits

The Orioles are apparently turning to their bullpen for the first-half finale Sunday, which puts all Rangers value bats under consideration. Heading into Saturday night’s action, Baltimore relievers had allowed a 4.50 ERA, .339 wOBA and 10 homers over the last month of play, while working the seventh-most innings in the majors over that span (104.0). They’ve had their share of struggles against both handedness of hitter during that stretch as well, so essentially all affordable Texas bats could make for viable plays.

A number of Red Sox bats have favorable histories against Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman, although a few are above true value range. However, Steve Pearce (.571 average over 10 plate appearances), Mitch Moreland (.556 average over nine plate appearances) and Christian Vazquez (.429 average over 15 plate appearances) especially stand out among the affordably priced. Also worth noting that the Blue Jays bullpen has yielded a 5.27 ERA and allowed a .472 wOBA on the road against lefty bats over the last month of play (boosting Moreland’s value).

On the other side, Red Sox lefty Brian Johnson has a trio of value Blue Jays that have made life hard on him as well — Kevin Pillar (.571 average over seven plate appearances), Kendrys Morales (.500 average over six plate appearances) and Justin Smoak (.600 average over six plate appearances). Tesocar Hernandez also boasts a .353 wOBA and .484 CXwOBA against southpaws, putting him in play as well.

The Indians will likely be a popular stack against the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka, but not many of them are priced cheaply. However, two that are worth considering would be Yonder Alonso (.343 wOBA, .456 CXwOBA, 39.0 percent hard contact rate against right-handed pitching) and Jason Kipnis (.396 CXwOBA, 37.2 percent hard contact rate against righties).

The Pirates’ Joe Musgrove has been especially hit hard by lefty bats at home (.398 wOBA, 27.3 percent line-drive rate, 36.4 percent hard contact rate allowed), although he doesn’t give up many home runs overall. Therefore, among bargain Brewers lefty bats, I’d give Travis Shaw, the switch-hitting Jonathan Villar and Brad Miller consideration (as well as Christian Yelich, if he’s affordable enough).

The Royals’ Birch Smith has taken his share of lumps as a reliever this season, and he’ll be a spot starter for Sunday’s first-half finale against the White Sox. Smith has allowed a .380 wOBA and 52.5 percent hard contact rate to lefty bats and a .365 wOBA and 40.4 percent hard contact rate to righty hitters. Meanwhile, the KC bullpen has been bad against both sides of the plate on the road over the last month as well, so I’d consider rolling out any and all discounted White Sox bats. It’s worth noting the top four CXwOBAs in the projected starting lineup for Chicago belong to Yoan Moncada (.528), Matt Davidson (.500), Daniel Palka (.488) and Jose Abreu (.416).

MLB DFS Bargain Bin- Sunday, July 15th All Slates Quick Hits

The Tigers’

Francisco Liriano

could find himself in some trouble against the potent Astros lineup in Minute Maid Park on Sunday, and several Houston bats have favorable track records against him. While many are priced above value range (i.e.

and

and

all check in with impressive numbers against left-handed pitching and should be reasonably priced.

More from FanSided

Another veteran arm that doesn’t exactly have the most appealing of matchups Sunday is Mike Leake, whose high 80s fastball could be disastrous at Coors Field. Besides the usual high-priced suspects (Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon), give Gerardo Parra (.364 average against Leake in 22 plate appearances), Ian Desmond (.346 average against Leake in 28 plate appearances) and Chris Iannetta a look as viable value options.

The Mariners bats were quiet Saturday and Tyler Anderson has been very good lately, so I’m not overly high on Seattle bats. However, anything can and often does happen at Coors, so value bats like Chris Herrmann, Kyle Seager and Ryon Healy are worthy of consideration. Jean Segura, who might be priced outside of value range, is a career .625 hitter against Anderson (over eight plate appearances), so he’s worth considering as well.

The Cubs and Padres may ultimately end up in a relatively low-scoring affair, but I’d give Wil Myers (.452 wOBA, .441 CXwOBA, .415 ISO against lefties) and Christian Villanueva (.454 wOBA, .577 CXwOBA and .420 ISO against southpaws) some consideration in large-field tournaments versus Jon Lester. On the Chicago side, the switch-hitting Ian Happ has made hard contact at a 45.0 percent rate versus southpaws, putting him in consideration as a value option against Eric Lauer.

The Angels’ Deck McGuire has surprised with some solid efforts the last two times out, but he’s been a starter in name only, as he hasn’t pitched more than four innings in any outing this season. Therefore, affordable bats on the Dodgers the likes of Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, Joc Pederson, Andrew Toles, Matt Kemp and the switch-hitting Yasmani Grandal are worthy of a look. Moreover, with the Angels bullpen having had trouble with both sides of the plate on the road over the last month, the matchup could be even better later in the game.

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