Fantasy Baseball: Time to Pick Up New York Mets First Baseman Lucas Duda
The New York Mets have been ravaged by injuries, taking away most of their top fantasy baseball offerings, but this week would be a good time to snatch up Lucas Duda.
If you follow baseball, you’re likely at least a little familiar with New York Mets first baseman Lucas Duda. If you’re a Kansas City Royals fan, you love Duda for not being able to throw home. In terms of fantasy baseball, the 31-year-old has been a good source of power over the past few seasons, when he’s been healthy, which is the case right now.
Over the last seven days, Duda has been crushing the ball, belting three homers, driving in nine and walking at a 14.8% clip while batting .435. While it’s hard to say that all of those numbers will continue much longer, they do have a good chance of lasting another week.
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Starting today the Mets begin a four game series with the visiting Milwaukee Brewers and follow that up with a weekend series against the Pirates at Citi Field. While the Brewers remained in first in the NL Central after splitting a four game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend, the one obvious weakness on their club has been their pitching, which ranks 18th overall in ERA at 4.25.
As a staff, the Brew Crew pitchers hold a 3.51 walks per nine rate, which ranks in the bottom half of baseball, and also sets up nicely for Duda, who has destroyed when he’s ahead in the count, batting .320 and getting on base at a .614 clip to go along with a 1.294 OPS. With Milwaukee pitchers having a hard time with the strike zone, Duda could start the week off with a bang or two.
Even though he’s batting .267 on the year with a .406 OBP, he tends to fare a little better against right-handed starters, batting .286 with a .427 OBP through 23 games played. This also comes into play for the weekend series against the Pirates, who will be throwing all righties, just like the Brewers.
The Pirates pitching staff has fared a little better in terms of walks per nine, accumulating the third-lowest rate in the game at 2.83. Their staff ERA is actually a little worse than Milwaukee’s however, at 4.28.
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Duda definitely won’t be a long-term add to your fantasy baseball squad, but he’s only owned in 5.8% of ESPN leagues, so if you’re looking for an insurance policy for Eric Thames, who hit .059 last week, plugging in Duda for a few games could be the difference between a win and a loss if you’re in search of a boost on offense.