A very slow day in the majors leaves you with a few mid level players who could be among the top performers tonight.
Value plays:
Billy Butler – Justin Verlander has struggled this season (4.76 ERA) against the Royals this season, and Butler is the most likely Royal to experience a productive day against the Tigers ace. Butler has a career .367 batting average against the elite righty, having 33% of his hits go for extra bases. The Royals as a team are batting .251 against Verlander, a number that isn’t impressive unless you consider that the MLB is batting .217 against Verlander this season. Kansas City is a good bet to at least score against the Tigers tonight, and with Butler accounting for 40% of their RBI and 50% of their HR’s, he is a good play in daily fantasy baseball games tonight despite the tough matchup
Aramis Ramirez – The Brewers are getting hot at the right time, and that doesn’t only apply for the NL wild card race. Milwaukee’s late season surge has provided plenty of value for their loyal fantasy baseball owners, and tonight should be no different for ARam. Look past Jordan Zimmerman’s sub 3 ERA and you’ll see that Ramirez holds a .462 batting average and a .923 slugging percentage. He has accounted for 57% of the Brewers extra base hits against the Nats “ace”, and with the BrewCrew clicking on all cylinders right now, the veteran third basemen is worth your while tonight.
Players to avoid:
Michael Cuddyer – The Rockies are a bad baseball team that has some good players on it. Cuddyer is one of those players, but he has done very little to encourage fantasy baseball owners against Trevor Cahill. He has only 1 hit (a harmless single) in 14 career at bats against the sneaky good Diamondbacks righty. The odds of Cuddyer breaking that trend shrink when you consider how good Cahill has been lately. He has recorded 3 straight quality starts (going 3-0 over that span) and has not given up a HR since August 10th. The thin air in Coloardo doesn’t make up for these stats, giving me daily fantasy baseball owners no reason to risk a roster spot on the Rockies utility man.