At FantasyLabs, we believe that we have the best tools and data available to those who play daily fantasy sports. We also realize that these tools and data are only as beneficial as our ability to communicate their functionality and worth.

With this in mind, our Trend of the Day series features articles that walk subscribers through an important trend each weekday, created with our Trends tool. Also, shortly after you create a trend, you will be able to see it under the “My Trends” column in our Player Models.

MLB Trend of the Day: Pitchers Facing Kansas City, 2016 Edition

For a couple of seasons now, the Royals have earned a reputation as a team that you generally want to avoid targeting with pitchers. They don’t have a ton of power, nor do they play in a park that is especially tough to pitch in, but they have rarely been a source of big strikeout numbers in recent years.

Today, the Royals’ bats will be opposed by Rick Porcello, a pitcher who has been doing a lot of things right in 2016. With six wins, Porcello is already 75 percent of the way to his 2015 total in that category, and he has lowered his earned run average by over a run and a half in the process. Beyond superficial stats, his SIERA is the lowest of his career, his strikeouts are up, and his walks are down.

Today, there will surely be people who fade Porcello solely based on the “Don’t play pitchers against Kansas City” creed. Is that going to be the right move?

Step 1: Team Filters > Opposing Team > “Kansas City Royals”

 

We are starting off on the wrong foot here. Kansas City has indeed been a negative matchup since 2014 — they are one of only six teams to hold opposing pitchers to a Plus/Minus of -1 or worse over that time period.

Step 2: Time Filters > MLB Season > “2016”

 

As you can see, the Royals have been a slightly favorable matchup for opposing pitchers thus far in 2016. Although +0.4 is not a score to get excited about, it is significantly higher than it has been in previous seasons. In fact, using DraftKings scoring, the Royals are the 12th-most favorable matchup for pitchers at the moment.

Step 3: Time Filters > Game Number

With a relatively small sample, we’ll want to be sure that the Plus/Minus isn’t being influenced by one or two outlier games:

 

By looking at the Game Number graph, we can see that isn’t the case.

The Takeaway

The Royals are not a team to target by any means. Especially since they are fielding more or less the same roster as they fielded last season, it’s possible that they turn things around. But at some point, you need to listen to what the current season’s data is telling you and so far, in 2016, the data is telling us not to fear the Royals.

If you like Rick Porcello tonight, don’t feel as if you need to second-guess yourself because of the matchup.