Stan Son dives into Saturday’s five-game MLB slate on DraftKings to find undervalued players to put in your DFS lineups.
There are five MLB games on the early slate for Saturday, with the first starting at 2:20 p.m. EST. Here are three value picks for the slate. This article is written before the actual lineups come out, so keep track of updates throughout the day.
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1B Abraham Toro, Boston Red Sox vs. Miami Marlins, $2,600
Toro has primarily been playing first base for Boston, although he hasn’t been playing every day, so make sure he’s in the lineup.
Toro is a switch-hitter that’s received 269 plate appearances this season. He has seven home runs, 33 runs, 26 RBI and two stolen bases. The walk rate isn’t great at 5.2%, but the strikeout rate is only 14.9%. The ISO of .139 isn’t great, but that number is brought down by the .104 ISO as a righty against left-handed pitching. Against righties as a left-handed batter, Toro has a .148 ISO and six of the seven home runs have come from that side of the plate. He does have three plate appearances hitting from the right side against right-handed pitching, notching a double and a sacrifice fly.
Saturday’s matchup is a good one, as Cal Quantril is sporting a 4.5 FIP and has allowed 16 home runs in 106 innings. The average exit velocity is 90.2 mph, the barrel rate is 11% and the hard-hit rate is 42.6%. Quantrill has been good against lefties, sporting a 15.1% K-BB% and 0.71 HR/9. Against righties, though, the FIP is 5.62 and the HR/9 is 1.96. The HR/9 is also higher on the road.
This could be one of those times when Toro bats from the right side.
C Carlos Narvaez, Boston Red Sox vs. Miami Marlins, $3,200
Yes, I’d like to stack Red Sox against Quantrill. Please and thank you.
Against right-handed pitching, Narvaez is sporting a .160 ISO. Six of the 10 home runs hit have come against right-handed pitching. In addition, Narvaez has been much better at home, where the wOBA is .374 and the wRC+ is 133, compared to .269 and 70 on the road respectively.
2B/3B Paul DeJong, Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies, $3,200
DeJong missed a few months due to getting hit in the face with a pitch. Since July 1, he’s hit five home runs with nine runs, 14 RBI and two stolen bases. The walk rate has been 8.5%, strikeout rate at 18.3% and the slash line at .297/.352/.578. The strikeout rate has been around 30% the past few years, so I’m not buying the plate discipline. With that said, the power is still evident and he could be on a little heater.
All five home runs have come against left-handed pitching. While the ISO is sub-.100 against righties, DeJong has a career .194 ISO against righties.
DeJong has been batting third or fourth in the lineup and gets a good matchup against Taijuan Walker on Saturday. Walker has allowed a .262/302/429 slash with seven home runs against righties in 42.2 innings.