Fantasy Baseball Picks, May 6, Top 4 Bargain Bats
DFS Fantasy Baseball bargain hitters for Friday's 13-game MLB slate at DraftKings
This week’s version of Major League Baseball’s Friday night under the lights includes 13 games to start what should be a busy and fun fantasy baseball weekend. There are so many options to choose from and ways to attack the slate, which has three pitchers checking in with a salary over $10K. If you’re paying up for them or building around expensive hitters like Bryce Harper ($6,200), José RamÃrez ($6,300), Aaron Judge ($6,100) or Nolan Arenado ($6,000), you may need to stretch your salary in other spots to compensate for those hefty price tags.
In this post, I’ll take a look at my four favorite bargain bats for Friday. These hitters come at a very low cost but still bring upside due to their matchup, form and expected opportunity. If you find these picks helpful and want to get them on a regular basis subscribe below and follow @ZT_Sports on Twitter for pre-lock updates and to keep up with the rest of my content on this and other platforms.
One programming note before we dive in, I’ll be away from my desk this weekend, so there will be no Bargain Bats posts for Friday or Saturday. You’ll still be able to find my full-slate previews for Saturday and Sunday on DraftKings Playbook, and I’ll be back to bargain bats on Monday morning here on Fantasy 4.
The Friday night schedule could end up being a wild ride with rain potentially impacting multiple early games on the East Coast. Thankfully, most of the value seems to be concentrated in the later games, so you can focus on those options and avoid the washouts. For the second straight day, the value also seems to be mostly in the OF, which is where three of my four picks for the day are eligible.
Taking a look at the options available for Friday, here are the 4 Bargain Bats I think will end up outproducing their low salaries.
OF Pavin Smith, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Colorado Rockies, $3,000
Smith has moved up in the lineup for Arizona, batting first or second in four of his past six starts. He is 19-for-71 (.268) on the season with four doubles, three home runs, a stolen base and a solid .359 wOBA. The lefty has hit all three of those home runs in his past six games for a .476 wOBA over that span.
He and the DBacks welcome Chad Kuhl ($7,900) and the Rockies to start the weekend set, putting Pavin in a good opposite-hand matchup and likely in the top third of the lineup. Kuhl has been effective this season but let lefties post a .369 wOBA against him last year and a .357 wOBA against him over his career. There is some nice value potential throughout the Diamondbacks’ batting order with Christian Walker ($3,300), Cooper Hummel ($2,700), Carson Kelly ($3,400) and Nick Ahmed ($3,100) all checking in under $3.5K.
OF Manuel Margot, Tampa Bay Rays at Seattle Mariners, $2,900
While the Rays have shuffled their lineup around a little with Josh Lowe in the minors and Ji-Man Choi (elbow) on the injured list, Margot continues to be a very solid producer for them so far this season. The 27-year-old is hitting .306 (22-for-72) so far this season with three doubles, a triple and two stolen bases. He hasn’t homered yet this year but does have a 42.6% hard-hit rate and .337 wOBA.
He had multiple hits in three straight games to start this current road trip and then went 1-for-4 with a steal on Thursday. He has averaged 13.5 DKFP per game over that span and is surprisingly still priced under $3K.
3B Kevin Smith, Oakland Athletics at Minnesota Twins, $2,200
The 25-year-old Smith was acquired by the A’s in the Matt Chapman trade and has been taking Chapman’s spot at 3B for most of the season. He has played 16 games for Oakland, going 10-for-46 (.217) but half of his hits have been for extra bases including one home run. He has a .275 wOBA and .152 ISO on the year, but he has been trending the right direction lately and seems to be adjusting to his everyday role.
Smith had a mini four-game hitting streak before going 0-for-3 on Wednesday, and during that span was when he had his home run and two doubles while going 5-for-13 (.417). On the season, he has a 51.5% hard-hit rate with three barrels, so the potential is there for even more as his hits start dropping in more regularly. The A’s lineup hasn’t been very productive this season, but Smith is showing he has upside and is a solid way to get a cheap play in the IF, as you look to stock up on high-salary bats in other spots.
OF Juan Yepez, St. Louis Cardinals at San Francisco Giants, $2,100
Yepez’s salary has officially started to climb, going up a massive $100 after spending his first two games in the Majors at the minimum of $2K. He’s obviously still incredibly affordable and has shown he can handle MLB pitching in the early going. He had a pair of doubles and 12 DKFP in his debut on Wednesday and picked up two more hits on Thursday for 8.0 DKFP. He hit fifth in both of those games and only struck out one in his first seven plate appearances.
Coming into the year, Yepez was the No. 6 prospect in the Cardinals’ system according to MLB Pipeline. The Venezuelan was originally acquired by St. Louis in May 2017 for Matt Adams and emerged as one of their better batting prospects with a breakout 2021 and a strong Arizona Fall League. He has the flexibility to play multiple OF spots or 1B and should remain a regular in the lineup for St. Louis as long as he keeps producing. He’s a great ultra-cheap play and brings enough pop to offer solid power potential.
As lineups come out Friday night, I’ll update you if things change in my picks. I’ll also try to find some more infield options as lineups come out since there aren’t many apparent at this point. I’ll post those updates on Twitter @ZT_Sports, and you can let me know what other bargain plays you are looking at for this Friday. I’ll be back with more bargains on Monday, but be sure to check out my picks on Playbook for Saturday and Sunday (I’ll tweet the links for that as well).
Have a great weekend and good luck!