We have ourselves a nice little slate on this Monday evening, and a special treat for you who play daily fantasy on Yahoo! I’ve included some specific plays for Yahoo below, and I want to thank Yahoo for some of the prices of the players they have on there! Per usual, there’s your value bats for FanDuel and DraftKings so that you can afford Shohei Ohtani (L) (L) or Luis GarcÃa (R) (R), or maybe both! Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best value plays of the day!
All Sites:
Michael Brantley (L) (L), OF HOU ($3,000 FD/$3,100 DK/$14 Yahoo) - Kyle Tucker (L) (L) and Yordan Alvarez (L) (L) are in play, but Brantley is cheaper, so he gets the feature in this article. He’s hitting .364 this year against righties with a .378 wOBA. Away from his home park, Brantley is hitting .392 on the year with an even more impressive .440 wOBA! Over the last two weeks, he has a .947 OPS and while the majority of his hits have been singles, his .580 slugging percentage on the road this year blows out his .389 slugging percentage at home. He’s in store for a big day today, and he’s incredibly affordable.
Jorge Soler (R) (R), OF KC ($2,800 FD/$2,700 DK/$9 Yahoo) - Soler’s .222 average against southpaws this year isn’t overly impressive, but his five home runs in 81 at-bats is eye-catching. Chicago’s Dallas Keuchel (L) (L) has served up a .260 batting average to right-handed hitters and Soler is red hot. In his last 16 at-bats, he’s hitting .313 with a 1.513 OPS, and four of his five hits have sailed over the fence. Perhaps more notable is that he’s punched out just once! When Soler makes contact, good things happen, and that’s happening right now. Soler has multi-homer upside against Keuchel and his 4.73 road ERA.
Yahoo:
Kris Bryant (R) (R) ($12) - When you look at Bryant on other sites, his price is through the roof, but he’s quite affordable on Yahoo today. He’s 6-for-14 with one homer off Wade Miley (L) (L) and he’s hitting a robust .333 off lefties. Oh, he also has a .470 wOBA against southpaws! So far through July, Bryant is hitting .288 with an .883 OPS and for the year as a whole against Cincinnati pitching, he’s hitting .417 with a 1.281 OPS.
J.T. Realmuto, C PHI ($12) - Like his teammate below, Realmuto has great numbers against Ross, going 6-for-13 off him in his career. Ross has been tougher on righties compared to left-handers, but that hasn’t stopped Realmuto before. The veteran backstop has an .809 OPS this month, and while he’s been a bit cold of late, he’s in a great spot today and has an .805 OPS versus the Nats this year.
FanDuel:
Jean Segura (R) (R), 2B/3B/SS PHI ($2,900) - Watch out, Joe Ross (R) (R). Segura is 8-for-14 in his career off Ross, and Segura has hit righties at .303 clip (.340 wOBA) in 2021. Segura loves his home park, hitting .321 there on the season, and he’s hit safely in nine of 11 home games this month. He’s rocking a seven game hit streak and hitting .274 overall for the month of July. Segura is a great play today, along with Realmuto.
Max Kepler (L) (L), OF MIN ($3,300) - Detroit’s Matt Manning (R) (R) is struggling and allowing a lot of hard contact. Kepler has a .900 OPS over his last 30 at-bats, including three home runs, and he’s punched out just four times. In July, Kepler has hit .271 with a .952 OPS, and he has a quality .839 OPS against right-handers in 2021. On the road this season, Manning has an 8.56 ERA and 1.46 WHIP. Ouch.
DraftKings:
Andrew Vaughn (R) (R), 1B/OF CWS ($2,600) - Vaughn has a .304 average with five home runs in 79 at-bats against southpaws this year. The young slugger is hitting .324 in the month of July and he’s hit safely in his last five games, three of which have been multi-hit efforts. At home this year, Minor is 3-5 with a 5.61 ERA and has served up 10 home runs in just 59.1 innings of work. Also, of the 17 home runs he’s allowed this year, 16 have come to right-handers. Fire up Vaughn today!
Aristides Aquino (R) (R), OF CIN ($2,200) - Aquino has two at-bats against Kyle Hendricks (R) (R), and both of them have sailed over the fence for a home run. He’s posted a .961 OPS against right-handers this season and over his last 20 at-bats he has a .925 OPS. The powerful outfielder has hit safely in three of his last four contests and has massive upside today, especially if he gets a hold of a ball or two.
Player News
Teoscar Hernández launched a three-run homer Wednesday as the Dodgers downed the Padres 5-2.
The struggling Hernández had gone 17 games without a homer before taking Jeremiah Estrada deep in the sixth inning. The ball left his bat at 108.6 mph and traveled a projected 420 feet. It was his only hit of the game to go along with two strikeouts and two routine flies, but hopefully it will get him going. He had been 3-for-38 with one RBI since May 31.
Ben Casparius threw four innings of one-run ball Wednesday in his start against the Padres.
Although he settled for two strikeouts and just two missed swings, Casparius was able to get 12 outs on 54 pitches in his longest outing this season. If the Dodgers keep stretching him out, he’ll probably offer some mixed-league value, even if his ERA seems likely to increase in the rotation. He has a 2.86 ERA and a stellar 46/9 K/BB in 44 innings to this point. Unless something changes, he’ll face the Padres again next Monday or Tuesday.
Michael Kopech walked three of the four batters he faced in relief Wednesday against the Padres.
Kopech came in with a 4-2 lead to the start the seventh and got Jake Cronenworth to ground out after three straight pitches around the zone. His control disappeared afterwards, and with no idea where the ball was going, he brushed back Elias DÃaz three times in his plate appearance. Kopech fared a little better on the next walk to Fernando Tatis Jr., but he was then pulled with the bases loaded. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Anthony Banda came in and got Luis Arraez to pop up and Manny Machado to ground out (on a 3-0 pitch) to end the threat.
Alex Vesia struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth for his third save Wednesday against the Padres.
The Dodgers had Tanner Scott, who earned a save Monday, face the heart of the order while up 4-2 in the eighth today, leaving the bottom of the lineup for Vesia in the ninth, and Vesia wound up striking out Jake Cronenworth, Tyler Wade and Elias DÃaz for the save. Vesia is definitely behind his fellow lefty in line for saves right now, but he’s still an option in deeper leagues.
Randy Vásquez pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed one run Wednesday in his start against the Dodgers.
The Padres are really cracking down on getting Vásquez out of the game before the lineup hits for a third time, and it seems to be doing some good. He faced 18 batters today and then made way for Adrian Morejon with Shohei Ohtani coming back up. Ohtani went on to ground out to end the inning with the score still tied at 1-1. Of course, as a consequence of all of these quick hooks, Vásquez hasn’t received a decision in his last four starts. The Padres did end up losing today, but they’re still 8-6 on the year when Vásquez pitches. He’s set to face the Dodgers again next week.
Jo Adell hit his 13th homer as the Angels scored all of their runs in the sixth inning of a 6-5 win over the A’s on Wednesday.
Adell’s homer came off Osvaldo Bido, the third pitcher in the frame after starter JP Sears was lifted and Grant Holman failed to retire any of the three batters he faced. Adell was losing playing time before Mike Trout returned and seemed to be very much in danger of falling out of the Angels’ plans, but he’s timed this hot streak very well; he’s hitting .333 with seven homers in 55 plate appearances over his last 15 games.