Daily Fantasy Baseball Must Starts: Tuesday June 5th

by Kyle Soppe.

Big name outfielders have tough draws today, make sure to dig a bit deeper when building your daily fantasy baseball team.

Value plays:

Alex Avila – The Tigers Catcher is day to day with a hamstring injury, but if he is penciled in tonight, he should be in your daily fantasy baseball roster. He’s batting .400 against Ubaldo Jimenez and has more RBI than hits, meaning his hits are doing damage. Avila has gotten on base over 57% of the time against Jimenez, and with the Indians pitcher sporting a 5.79 ERA, you can count on Avila to be in the middle of a strong Tigers attack.

Robinson Cano – Yes, he is one of the best players in baseball, making it difficult to consider him a “bargain”, but his matchup against James Shields is impossible to ignore. Cano is batting a remarkable .403 against Big Game James with a .758 slugging percentage in 62 career at bats. Almost half of his hits go for extra bases against the Rays righty and for the season Cano has hit 89% of his HR’s against right handed pitchers. At $160,000 Cano won’t come cheap, but statistically speaking, he is worth far more than that.

Daniel Murphy – The Mets 2b figures to be in the lineup tonight against Jordan Zimmerman, as he boasts a .500 career average against the righty. He is slugging .833 against the Nationals starter and has generally been more efficient against right handed pitchers this season. Murphy’s batting average is 70 points higher against right handers and his OBP is 10 points higher. Look for Murphy to provide the pop in the Mets lineup tonight, and prove to be a sleeper in daily fantasy baseball games.

Players to avoid:

Ryan Braun – The top priced OF in Fantazzle’s salary cap baseball games ($170,000) is not worth rostering today as he matches up against Ryan Dempster and the Cubs. The divisional opponents have seen each other 49 times, and the Hebrew Hammer has only managed 11 hits. Braun is always a threat to produce, but the price tag combined with the lack of past success makes tonight a good day to stay away from one of the top hitters in the game today.

Carlos Gonzalez – Another elite outfielder who has a difficult match up tonight is CarGo. Ian Kennedy has held the Rockies OF to a harmless .235 average, striking him out as many times as Gonzalez has gotten a hit. He is tied with Braun for the top priced outfield option, and with a history like this, I’m not buying into him as a top option today.

Use this advice in an attempt to qualify for June 29th’s $1,000 fantasy baseball freeroll! Ways to earn a spot in this league are any of the following: