Tampa Bay @ Houston picks

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Junior Caminero in the 91st percentile as it relates to his batting average talent.. Junior Caminero is projected to bat 4th on the lineup card today.. Junior Caminero will have the benefit of the platoon advantage against Colton Gordon in today's game.. Junior Caminero pulls a high percentage of his flyballs (33.3% — 75th percentile) and sets up very well considering he'll be hitting them towards MLB's 2nd-shallowest LF fences in today's game.. Bats such as Junior Caminero with extreme groundball tendencies are usually more effective when facing pitchers like Colton Gordon who skew towards the flyball end of the spectrum.

When estimating his home run skill, Christian Walker ranks in the 93rd percentile according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X).. Christian Walker is projected to hit 4th in the lineup in today's game.. Christian Walker pulls many of his flyballs (34.6% — 86th percentile) and is a great match for the park considering he'll be hitting them towards the game's 2nd-shallowest LF fences in today's game.. Home field advantage typically boosts batter stats across the board, and Christian Walker will hold that advantage today.. Christian Walker has made sizeable gains with his Barrel% in recent games, upping his 12.1% seasonal rate to 36.4% in the last 14 days.

The switch-hitting Taylor Walls will have the advantage of batting from from his good side (0) today against Colton Gordon.. Over the last two weeks, Taylor Walls's 28.6% rate of hitting balls at a HR-maximizing launch angle (between 23° and 34°) shows big improvement over his seasonal rate of 17.3%.. Based on Statcast data, the leading projection system (THE BAT X)'s version of Expected Batting Average (.248) implies that Taylor Walls has experienced some negative variance this year with his .184 actual batting average.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Junior Caminero in the 91st percentile as it relates to his batting average talent.. Junior Caminero is projected to bat 4th on the lineup card today.. Junior Caminero will have the benefit of the platoon advantage against Colton Gordon in today's game.. Junior Caminero pulls a high percentage of his flyballs (33.3% — 75th percentile) and sets up very well considering he'll be hitting them towards MLB's 2nd-shallowest LF fences in today's game.. Bats such as Junior Caminero with extreme groundball tendencies are usually more effective when facing pitchers like Colton Gordon who skew towards the flyball end of the spectrum.

The shallowest left field fences among all major league stadiums are found in Minute Maid Park.. Because groundball batters have a substantial edge over flyball pitchers, Zack Littell and his 36.5% underlying GB% (via the leading projection system, THE BAT) finds himself in a difficult spot today being matched up with 2 opposing GB hitters.. Zack Littell will be at a disadvantage playing on the visting team in today's matchup.. Zack Littell's fastball velocity has fallen 1 mph this season (91.4 mph) below where it was last year (92.4 mph).. Among all SPs, Zack Littell's fastball spin rate of 1981 rpm grades out in the 5th percentile this year.

Jose Caballero is penciled in 1st in the batting order today, which would be an upgrade from his 86% rate of hitting in the bottom-half of the lineup this season.. Batting from the opposite that Colton Gordon throws from, Jose Caballero will have an advantage in today's game.. Jose Caballero pulls many of his flyballs (38.9% — 97th percentile) and will have a big advantage hitting them towards the league's 2nd-shallowest LF fences in today's game.. In the past 14 days, Jose Caballero's exit velocity on flyballs has seen a big rise, from 89.4-mph over the course of the season to 93.5-mph in recent games.. Jose Caballero's ability to hit the ball at a BABIP-maximizing launch angle (between -4° and 26°) has improved from last year to this one, rising from 43.9% to 54.7%.