Kansas City @ San Francisco picks

We look poised for a lefty-on-lefty pitcher's duel at Oracle Park on Monday night. The Royals' Kris Bubic sports a solid 1.66 ERA, and the Giants' Robbie Ray's ERA is not too shabby either at 3.04. Neither offense is tearing the cover off the ball, with San Francisco at 15th by OPS and Kansas City at 26th.

The most direct route to attacking Robbie Ray is exploiting his significant weakness of giving up too many barrels. It's why his two shortest outings this season came against teams with overwhelming barrel power at the top of the lineup in the Phillies and Yankees. The Royals aren't a team with much of that in the lineup; they rely more on combining hits than power. Entering this game, Kansas City has the fourth-lowest barrel rate in the majors and the seventh-lowest hard-hit rate. I'm confident Ray can control his part in keeping this a low-scoring affair.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Bobby Witt Jr. as the 4th-best hitter in baseball as it relates to his batting average talent.. Bobby Witt Jr. is penciled in 2nd on the lineup card in this game.. The wind projects to be blowing out to CF at 15-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Hitting from the opposite that Robbie Ray throws from, Bobby Witt Jr. will have an edge in today's matchup.. Bobby Witt Jr. has an 87th percentile opposite-field rate on his flyballs (35.4%) and sets up very well considering he'll be hitting them in the direction of baseball's 2nd-shallowest RF fences today.

Matt Chapman projects as the 9th-best home run hitter in the league, according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X).. Matt Chapman is projected to hit 4th in the batting order today.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Matt Chapman will hold the platoon advantage against Kris Bubic today.. Bats such as Matt Chapman with extreme flyball tendencies are usually more effective when facing pitchers like Kris Bubic who skew towards the groundball end of the spectrum.

Wilmer Flores is penciled in 2nd in the batting order in this matchup.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Wilmer Flores will have the handedness advantage against Kris Bubic today.. Extreme flyball hitters like Wilmer Flores usually hit better against extreme groundball pitchers like Kris Bubic.. The Kansas City Royals outfield defense profiles as the 11th-weakest among every team today.

Vinnie Pasquantino is penciled in 3rd in the lineup in today's game.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Vinnie Pasquantino pulls a high percentage of his flyballs (37.5% — 95th percentile) and has the good fortune of hitting them towards baseball's 2nd-shallowest RF fences today.. In the past week, Vinnie Pasquantino's exit velocity on flyballs has seen a big rise, from 93.4-mph over the course of the season to 106.4-mph of late.. Despite posting a .275 wOBA this year, the leading projection system (THE BAT X) believes Vinnie Pasquantino has had bad variance on his side given the .052 deviation between that figure and his estimated true talent wOBA of .327.

Heliot Ramos's BABIP ability is projected in the 92nd percentile by the leading projection system (THE BAT X).. Heliot Ramos is projected to hit 1st on the lineup card in this game.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Heliot Ramos will have the handedness advantage over Kris Bubic in today's game.. Heliot Ramos has an 87th percentile opposite-field rate on his flyballs (35.3%) and is a great match for the park considering he'll be hitting them towards the game's 2nd-shallowest RF fences today.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Willy Adames in the 92nd percentile when assessing his home run ability.. Willy Adames is projected to hit 5th in the batting order in this game.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Hitting from the opposite that Kris Bubic throws from, Willy Adames will have an edge today.. Extreme groundball bats like Willy Adames usually hit better against extreme flyball pitchers like Kris Bubic.

The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. Michael Massey pulls a lot of his flyballs (37.3% — 95th percentile) and has the good fortune of hitting them towards MLB's 2nd-shallowest RF fences in today's game.. Michael Massey's launch angle this season (22.9°) is considerably better than his 16.7° mark last year.. Michael Massey has been unlucky this year, compiling a .217 wOBA despite the leading projection system (THE BAT X) estimating his true talent level to be .301 — a .084 discrepancy.

In the league, Oracle Park's RF dimensions are the shallowest.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.

It may be sensible to expect improved performance for the Kansas City Royals offense going forward, given that the leading projection system (THE BAT X) sees them as the 5th-unluckiest offense in the game this year.. In the league, Oracle Park's RF dimensions are the shallowest.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. The Kansas City Royals have 6 bats in the projected batting order that will hold the platoon advantage over Robbie Ray in today's game.. Robbie Ray's 92.9-mph velocity on his fastball this season is a notable 1.1-mph decrease from last year's 94-mph figure.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Jung Hoo Lee as the 17th-best batter in the majors as it relates to his batting average skill.. Jung Hoo Lee is projected to hit 3rd in the lineup in this game.. In the league, Oracle Park's RF dimensions are the shallowest.. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 16.7-mph in this contest, the most-favorable of the day for bats.. The Kansas City Royals outfield defense profiles as the 11th-weakest among every team today.