In every MLB Plays of the Day post, several FantasyLabs writers use our Trends and Player Models tools to highlight each one player to roster heavily in cash games and/or tournaments for the day’s main slate.

Here are today’s plays of the day.

The Play of the Daigle

Who is John Daigle? You’re about to find out.

John Daigle: Jon Gray, COL, SP

Like Andy Dufresne escaped from the hell that is Shawshank State Penitentiary, Gray is free from Coors Field. He can breathe a deep sigh of relief, for today will be his first pitching appearance of the season not made at Coors. And against the Padres, who have a 26 percent strikeout rate vs. right-handed pitching, Gray should immediately reap the rewards, as his 9.95 SO/9 are second-highest among pitchers tonight.

Gray does have a bottom-three batted-ball distance of 238 feet, but his fly-ball percentage of under 22 percent (though resulting in a Plus/Minus of -3.82 at Coors Field) yield a Plus/Minus of +1.46 at Petco. His 98 percent Bargain Rating at FanDuel makes him worthy of a dart throw, at a minimum.

Check out the rest of John’s recommendations for today in his slate breakdown.

The Remaining Plays of the Day

Here are all the plays recommended by people whose surnames don’t rhyme with “bagel.”

Bryan Mears: Albert Pujols, LAA, 1B

Because MLB DFS is so data-driven, and because in my opinion the average DFS player is getting much smarter and using tools from FantasyLabs or elsewhere, I’ve now tried to figure out where users might have biases in data. One potential location of bias could be batter splits.

I do think that batter splits are really valuable, especially in cash games. Because baseball is a daily sport, sites like DraftKings and FanDuel cannot always price players appropriately according to their matchups. That means that they’re usually priced in the middle of their splits: If they have stellar splits against left-handed pitchers, they’ll be underpriced against them. Likewise, they’ll be overpriced against right-handed pitchers.

However, sometimes we overweight splits. For example, if you look at Player Models today you’ll see that Albert Pujols has a negative Isolated Power (ISO) differential of -.029. The issue with weighting players heavily by splits is that you sometimes miss players who have elite batting stats regardless of their splits.

Pujols is an example of this. Although he hits better against lefties than righties, Pujols’ .234 ISO against RHP is still elite and something you want to target, especially in tournaments, where it pays A) to be less price-sensitive (which you’re doing by targeting a batter with negative splits), and B) to find contrarian plays. Pujols (and Josh Donaldson today and any day against a righty) is a great example of that in tonight’s slate.

Tyler Buecher: Josh Donaldson, TOR, 3B

In targeting the slate’s highest-projected scoring game, I’m willing to take some chances by paying up for someone capable of reaching his ceiling. Stroking a 293/.391/.667 slash line, Donaldson is certainly on my radar for tonight. He has hits in nine of his last eleven games, with four home runs over that duration. Combining a fly-ball percentage of 57 percent with a hard-hit percentage of 42 percent, Donaldson has a 4.04-second batted-ball air time leads his position.

Donaldson should have plenty of opportunity to go yard against A.J. Griffin, who over the past 15 days has been a bottom-five pitcher in terms of pitch speed (87.2 miles per hour) and hard-hit percentage (35 percent) — two factors that can get a pitcher in trouble against a team of power hitters. With negative differentials against right-handers, Donaldson could be a somewhat sneaky play and have a lower lineup percentage than usual.

Anytime a team is projected to score five runs, it’s worth getting some exposure, and Donaldson offers some of the highest Consistency among third basemen.

Brandon Hopper: Matt Adams, STL, 1B

Matt Adams is hitting the ball 300 feet over the last 15 days. I’ll wait here so you can read that again.

That mark is tops on the slate and up 74 feet from his 12-month running average. The rest of his advanced stats are basically just as good. His hard-hit percentage is up 12 percentage points, and his exit velocity is up seven MPH. Of course with an average batted-ball distance of 300 feet, Adams has been hitting the ball in the air: 52 percent of his hits are fly balls and 41 percent are line drives, which means that only five percent of his batted balls are grounders.

Additionally, he’s only $2,300 on FanDuel, where he’s got a Bargain Rating of 70 percent.

I don’t see any reason that Mike Matheny wouldn’t have him in the lineup, but reading Matheny’s mind isn’t something I’m keen on trying, either. Just make sure that he’s actually playing before you set your lineup.

Kelly McCann: Michael Conforto, NYM, OF

I can’t find a good reason not to play Michael Conforto tonight. He leads the league this season in hard-hit percentage at 50 percent. He bats third in a potent offensive lineup. His .403 wOBA versus righties is sixth-best on tonight’s slate and his .284 ISO versus righties is seventh-best.

Perhaps the most appealing thing about Conforto is that (even though he has been ripping the cover off the ball all season) his recent advanced metrics are still on the rise. His average batted-ball distance, hard-hit percentage, and exit velocity have all increased over the past fifteen days. Both Conforto’s Consistency and Upside rank third-best for outfielders on tonight’s slate. Still trying to figure out why you wouldn’t play him? Yeah, me too.

By the way, twenty-two outfielders are priced higher than him tonight, so he carries a gigantic 96 percent Bargain Rating on DraftKings. Worried about his matchup? Mike Foltynewicz has allowed a .401 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) and nine homeruns to left-handed hitters in 41 innings pitched  this season.

Matthew Freedman: Jose Bautista, TOR, OF

Bautista is the highest- and third-highest-rated outfielder in the CSURAM88 and Bales 2016 models for DraftKings, where has a low $4,100 salary and a high 91 percent Bargain Rating. He’s the No. 3 hitter for a lineup with a slate-high Vegas implied total of 4.9 runs. Additionally, he has eight Pro Trends and the slate’s third-best Park Factor. Finally, he has experienced a Salary Change of -$200 over the last month. He’s not a sexy play, but he’s a very solid one.

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The Plays of the Day series is our answer to the question, “Who do you guys like today?” We publish a Plays of the Day article every weekday for MLB and every Wednesday for PGA.