FanDuel MLB: Monday Value Plays

FanDuel MLB: Monday Value Plays

This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.

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PITCHER

Zack Godley, ARI at SF ($8,500): Godley is the most expensive pitcher on the slate and will be a chalky play for cash games. He's got a good matchup against the Giants in a solid pitcher's park and has put together a decent season with five wins and six quality starts (out of 11 starts). This suggests he's probably 50/50 to get the 10 bonus points, which is nice on top of the matchup. The Giants .313 team wOBA against right-handed pitching is just below league average, but their 25.1 percent strikeout rate is the sixth-worst mark in baseball. Godley has struck out just under a batter per inning, and it helps that Brandon Belt will miss this contest.

GPP Fade: Nick Tropeano, LAA vs KC ($8,000): Tropeano is having a good season considering he wasn't on most people's radar in either season-long or DFS to start the season. He's averaging just under 28 fantasy points per game and will garner some attention tonight due to the small slate. However he has a difficult matchup with the Royals when taking a look at the team stats. Kansas City comes into the game striking out the least against right-handed pitching (17.7 percent of the time) and Tropeano's 20.4 percent strikeout rate is below the league average.

Cheap GPP Consideration: Julio Teheran, ATL at SD ($7,600): More or less every pitcher is worth GPP consideration tonight with only four games on tap. Teheran probably gets the best matchup out of any pitcher given it's the Padres in Petco. Against right-handed pitchers, San Diego has struggled this season with the second-lowest wOBA (.289), the fourth-lowest ISO (.136) and the highest strikeout rate (25.9 percent). For whatever reason, Teheran has performed better over the last few seasons on the road that at home, as evidenced by his 2.97 ERA and .288 wOBA away marks since the beginning of the 2016 season.

CATCHER/FIRST BASE

Paul Goldschmidt, ARI at SF ($4,200): With the lack of costly upper-tier pitching tonight, it shouldn't be hard to fit Goldy into a lineup even at this price. While his overall numbers have been disappointing, his .477 wOBA against lefties this season is better than any other season he's had. Southpaw Derek Holland's 4.94 ERA is in line with his 6.20, 4.91 and 4.95 stats from the previous three seasons.

SECOND BASE

Ian Kinsler, LAA vs KC ($2,800): Kinsler is finally heating up after a slow start, posting a 1.324 OPS over his last week that included three home runs. He's been moved back into the leadoff spot, and a matchup against lefty Danny Duffy (5.71 ERA) should be a good one. Kinsler owns a career .375 wOBA against left-handed hitters.

THIRD BASE

Johan Camargo, ATL at SD ($2,700): Camargo is also starting to find his offensive groove, and he has a .963 OPS over his last seven games. Over 151 plate appearances in the big league he has a .388 wOBA against left-handed pitching, and he gets Clayton Richard tonight in Petco Park. While Petco is usually a place to stay away from offensively, it's in the discussion tonight with only four games on the slate ,one of them being in San Francisco. Teammates Tyler Flowers ($3,100), with a .558 wOBA against lefties, and Ozzie Albies ($4,300), who holds a .417 wOBA in that split, help make up a nice stack.

SHORTSTOP

Ketel Marte, ARI at SF ($2,600): Shortstop looks like a great spot to punt tonight, as Didi Gregorius has been struggling and Brandon Crawford has a tough matchup against Godley. A .319 wOBA against lefties isn't bad given Marte's salary and position, and it's worth noting he's coming off a three-game series in which he went 5-for-9 with a double, two triples and two home runs. A matchup with Holland is nothing to shy away from, either.

OUTFIELD

Brett Gardner, NYY at DET ($3,300): The Yankees have the highest implied run total of any team tonight and Gardner, along with Greg Bird ($3,400), seem to be economical ways to get a piece of that action. Gardner's .355 wOBA against right-handed pitching this season is almost exactly the same as last season's .359 mark. Meanwhile, Mike Fiers is giving up a .367 wOBA to opposing lefty batters, a small tick up from his .347 mark a season ago.

Justin Upton, LAA vs KC ($3,500): Many will rightfully flock to Mike Trout ($5,500) tonight, but for a $2,000 discount Upton has his own considerable upside. Known as a streaky hitter, Upton homered in Sunday's game and had a .472 wOBA against left-handed pitchers last year (.376 for his career). Duffy's weakness this season has been to right-handed hitters, giving up a .393 wOBA against them.

UTILITY

Miguel Cabrera, DET vs NYY ($3,500): After his stint on the DL, it seems like Cabrera has been an afterthought in DFS, carrying a low ownership percentage in his first few games back. He still owns a .385 wOBA against right-handed pitching this season, and while 2017 was a disappointment he had wOBA's of over .400 the two previous seasons. Thanks to yesterday's rainout, he'll get the advantage of facing Domingo German instead of Luis Severino, and it's German who has allowed a .341 wOBA (6.41 ERA) to right-handed hitters on the year.

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire. Kevin Payne plays in daily fantasy contests using the following accounts: Fanduel: kevinccp, Draft Kings: kevinccp, Yahoo: kevinccp.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Payne
Kevin has worked for RotoWire over a decade and has covered basketball, baseball and football. A glutton for punishment, he roots for his hometown Bills, Sabres and the New York Yankees. You can follow him on Twitter @KCPayne26.
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