If you are reading this article, it’s a safe bet you follow Major League Baseball, and it’s also a safe bet you know about the plight of Chris Davis. So I don’t need to get into the details of how historically bad he’s been. What I do need to get into is something that anyone playing today’s slate must be aware of. Chris Davis is priced at $500. That’s right, $1500 below the standard minimum price. This has happened before, either by accident (Kike Hernandez was $220 one day a few years back) or due to FanDuel running a silly promotion (on Alex Rodriguez’s final game, they made him $660). This is the first time FanDuel has priced a player at this low a price simply as a strategic/gameplay decision. So, what do we do? Well, first, there’s the chance he is not in the lineup. If that’s the case, he’s not a play even though accepting a 0 for $500 can allow you to get an extra high end bat or two. The lack of a truly expensive pitcher, the lack of Coors Field bats (since they’re on the early slate, and that’s if they even play since Denver is apparently going to be completely destroyed by a bomb cyclone snowstorm this morning) means that you simply won’t need to take the automatic 0 if he’s not in the lineup. But what if he is in the lineup? Absent an unusual amount of quality value that isn’t tied to the underpricing of a player currently failing at an historically bad rate, I think he’s a lock. Simply put, he’s a snap play regardless of whether you think he is truly this bad (not -76 wRC+ bad, but pitcher level bad), or whether you believe it’s simply impossible for him to be this bad and he will likely recover to below replacement level, but better than a pitcher. Let’s start with the easier case after a quick word from our sponsor.
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