We’re starting to get down to the nitty gritty of the 2015 baseball season. From a fantasy perspective, we now have a solid idea of which players have lived up to their average draft position – ADP – and which have not.
But we’re more concerned with determining which players we should continue to pay top dollar for in 50/50 cash games, and which don’t even deserve our time of day. It wasn’t easy compiling this list with some of the names even forcing me to scratch my head, but the stats don’t lie and daily fantasy baseball is all about getting max value for the salary absorbed to roster said player.
Andrew McCutchen OF – It pains me to add Cutch to this list, but it must be done. The current All-Star and former NL MVP has lost a few steps, and because of it, his output in the stolen bases department has taken a nose dive.
Routinely priced out as a top tier outfielder at FanDuel, he currently costs almost as much as Mike Trout who has outscored him by 60+ points in season long leagues and averages nearly 1.5 more DFS points per game.
He’s still a stud for sure and the leader of the Pirates charge, but he’s not performing like the elite player he once was this season. He’s more or less been a roll of the dice than a consistent force as in year’s past.
Felix Hernandez SP – King Felix will forever go down in Seattle Mariners’ lore as one of the most dominating pitchers ever to toe the bump for the fledgling franchise. Unfortunately, those that drafted him in season long leagues and trotted him out to the hill in a majority of his DFS starts have been left shaking their head after paying an exorbitant price to snag him.
Normally a shoe-in for a top 10 finish in season long leagues, Hernandez finds himself on the outside looking in this season at No. 12. While he sports a 13-6 record and 3.13 ERA, he hasn’t pitched past the 7th inning in any of his last nine starts, and only gone past that mark in three of his 23 overall starts.
Most troubling is the amount of HRs allowed. He conceded 16 all of last season, but has already been taken yard 14 times to date. He just doesn’t look to be his determined self, and I believe it has everything to do with the Mariners underachieving while playing for a lame duck manager. Hopefully this isn’t the end of one of the best pitchers I’ve had the joy of watching for many years. Regardless, he’s not worth paying top dollar for this season.
Ryan Braun OF – Once upon a time, the Brewers outfielder was one of the most sought after players in all of fantasy baseball. Then he got caught using PEDs and his world was turned upside down.
After struggling through an injury riddled 2014 campaign in his return from suspension, the results have been pretty hit or miss in 2015 with the slugger batting .268 with 19 HRs. He’s currently mired in a 3-for-19 slump without a HR, and has only hit one into the cheap seats dating back to July 25.
His current form and overall boom or bust nature relegates him to big money guaranteed prize pools where the payoff could be huge. You can’t count on him for stud production like his current salaries at both FanDuel and DraftKings dictate.
Hanley Ramirez SS/OF – Hanley hasn’t fielded one grounder at shortstop this season, yet holds eligibility there after playing the position for so many years. With the position basically a wasteland for fantasy purposes, he checks in as the second best player at that position.
But that means absolutely nothing for daily fantasy purposes. Save for a brilliant month of April that saw him lead the league in home runs, the former All-Star has done just about nothing since but incur annoying injury after annoying injury and come up with more doughnuts than crooked numbers in DFS.
He’s averaging just 7.74 fantasy points per game at DraftKings and a pathetic 2.54 at FanDuel. For DFS purposes, I’d much rather draft a player like Brandon Crawford who is in the midst of a career year and costs $800 less than Hanley to roster at FanDuel.
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