Daily Fantasy Strategy – 8/3 – For Draftstreet

I’m writing this on Friday afternoon, so forgive me if any of the insight in the Daily Five becomes stales by Saturday morning, or line-up changes or injuries occur. You do the best with what you have.

Anyway, I believe in this space someone had previously highlighted guys who did well against same-handed pitchers (“reverse split” players), and I thought it would be a good time to have a fresh look at these tables. Below you’ll find the best Left-vs-Left and Right-vs-Right and the worst Right-vs-Left and Left-vs-Right hitters, covering 2012 and 2013 (to improve our sample size a little bit) with a minimum of 200 plate appearances.

Let these serve as a reminder that not all players require platoon protection in your daily leagues, and not all players with a platoon advantage are sure bets.

Lefties against Lefties – The Best

Righties against Righties – The Best

Lefties against Righties– The Worst

Righties against Lefties – The Worst

Some of those names simply remind you not to get too creative and not to bench your stars. When time allows, I’ll try to tackle some sort of OPS-gap to better highlight who is and is not a platoon candidate.

The Daily Five
Tyson Ross – $8,127
Low game time temperatures and a light inward wind normally wouldn’t be enough to start someone against the big bad Yankees, even in Petco. But you may have noticed that these aren’t the Yankees of old – even though the team’s been successful, they have just a .299 wOBA as a unit against righties. Ross, meanwhile, has looked comfortable as a starter through two turns and brings an appreciable strikeout potential.

Zach McAllister – $11,056
You know who’s even worse against righties? The Marlins, with a .272 team wOBA against northpaws. McAllister has had one good turn and one bad since returning from an injury hoping to continue his stellar start to the year. There isn’t a whole lot of strikeout potential in his arm but the Marlins bring the promise of safe ratios.

Chris Johnson – $7,263
John Lannan with a major outward wind against the Braves provides a few tasty match-ups, but I’m rolling with Johnson thanks to the price and the position (Justin Upton is enticing at a shade under $9K as well). Johnson isn’t just a tidy batting average – he has a .416 wOBA against lefties on the year.

Adam LaRoche – $5,087
LaRoche aint what he once was but he can still hit homers off a righty. Lend your team a hand and get ready to high-five in victory when LaRoche slaps one over the fence. This is a match-up that won’t leave you with your head in your palm. Donovan Hand jokes fin.

Norichika Aoki – $7,510
Aoki has disappointed this year, barely cracking league average at the dish and being thrown out on the bases 10 times. He seems to have turned a corner, though, stealing six bags in the past three weeks without getting caught. He draws a Nationals team that has only thrown out nine baserunners all year long (78 attempts), as well as Dan Haren, who continues to be up and down.

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