With the NBA and NHL finishing their second round of the playoffs, the MLB is almost at its time when it can shine alone on the sports calendar (with all due respect to the WNBA, whose regular season tips off tonight). Shine some teams — including my Los Angeles Dodgers — have.
24 teams, including Los Angeles, are in action as part of tonight’s 12-game DFS featured slate at DraftKings. Here are two pitchers, three infielders, and three outfielders I’m targeting. As usual, all eight players come from different games.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Corbin Burnes, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Colorado Rockies, $9,100 – Despite bouncing around between a few different stops over the last couple of seasons — the Diamondbacks are his third franchise in as many years — Burnes has established himself as a true top-level starter, having earned Cy Young Award votes in each of the last five seasons and posting a sub-three ERA in six of his eight seasons. He was tremendous last Saturday against the Dodgers, pitching seven shutout innings (25.6 FPTS) to out-duel Dustin May ($7,200). If Burnes can shut down Los Angeles’ high-powered offense, he can certainly do so against the 7-36 Rockies, who rank last in baseball in OPS on the road.
Value
Andre Pallante, St. Louis Cardinals at Kansas City Royals, $6,300 – Pallante finally bounced back in his last game, giving up two earned runs in 7.1 innings (27.5 FPTS) — both of which came in the eighth — after giving up three or more in each of his last four games prior. To be fair, that outing came against a bottom-10 offense in the Washington Nationals, but the Royals have a bottom-10 offense too, including the sixth-worst OPS at Kauffman Stadium and the fourth-worst OPS against right-handed pitchers. Pallante’s most pressing issues are that he tends to give up a lot of hard hits and not strike out many batters, and while Kansas City hasn’t struck out often, it has posted the league’s eighth-lowest hard-hit percentage.
INFIELDER
Stud
Francisco Lindor, New York Mets at New York Yankees, $5,200 – Given that the Mets sit astride the NL East and the Yankees top the AL East, this Subway Series should be good one. Lindor is trending in the right direction in his last 10 games, slashing .317/.391/.585 with three homers and four stolen bases (12 FPTS per game) across that span. He’s also a true switch hitter, posting nearly identical splits against right-handers and left-handers, so the southpaw Carlos Rodón ($10,100) shouldn’t bother him too much. Rodón has gotten lucky this season — his 3.29 ERA is better than his 3.64 FIP, and he’s allowing just a .210 average on balls in play. He also gives up a higher-than-average number of opposite-field hits, and we all know where the short porch at Yankee Stadium is.
Stud
Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants vs. Athletics, $4,500 – Chapman hasn’t been quite as good as he was in his debut season with San Francisco, but he’s shown signs of life with a .263/.333/.395 slash line in his last 10 games (7.6 FPTS per game). He still combines a good sense of plate discipline and power, connecting for eight homers in the early going and also ranking third in the NL with 31 walks. He doesn’t square it up often, but when he does, it goes: he ranks in the 86th percentile in hard-hit percentage and the 93rd percentile in average exit velocity. Athletics starter JP Sears ($7,400) is terrible at generating whiffs, neutralizing one of Chapman’s weaknesses.
Value
Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays at Miami Marlins, $3,500 – The question is whether or not I trust Lowe’s hot bat to stay hot after he produced an incredible performance last night: three-for-five, two homers, four RBI’s (35 FPTS). Overall, he’s trending in the right direction, with three multi-hit games in a row to bring himself over the Mendoza Line and a solid .278/.350/.583 slash line over his last 10 (9.5 FPTS per game across that span). He should have a chance to maintain his form against the unraveling Max Meyer ($8,200), who has given up five or more earned runs in each of his last three starts for the cellar-dwelling Marlins and is backed up by the league’s sixth-worst bullpen. Meyer loves to throw breaking balls, and Lowe has been incredibly unlucky given his contact on breaking balls so far, posting an expected slugging percentage .170 higher than his actual mark.
OUTFIELDER
Stud
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Los Angeles Angels, $6,500 – This one is akin to taking Nikola Jokić every week in basketball DFS competitions or Saquon Barkley every week in NFL DFS — Ohtani is, quite simply, the best baseball player in the world, and he showed why last night with a two-for-five, two-homer, six-RBI (36-FPT) performance against the Athletics. The two-time reigning MVP now leads the major leagues with 15 homers after hitting seven in his last 10 games (18.4 FPTS per game across that span), and he’s a decent bet to go deep again, given that Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz ($5,000) ranks in just the 16th percentile in average exit velocity and is backed up by the league’s worst bullpen.
Stud
Wyatt Langford, Texas Rangers vs. Houston Astros, $5,000 – Langford has had a rough go of it in his last 10 games, slashing just .158/.273/.342 across that span, but he’s managed to return a decent 8.5 FPTS per game because he’s gone deep twice in his last four games. He should have a chance to continue his turnaround against Lance McCullers Jr. ($6,800), whose most recent start last Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds might’ve just been the worst by any starter all season: one out, seven runs, and three walks (-17.5 FPTS). It’s hard to imagine an outing quite that atrocious from McCullers again, but then again, it’s hard to predict anything about his performance, given that he hasn’t pitched since 2022.
Value
Zach McKinstry, Detroit Tigers at Toronto Blue Jays, $3,700 – The veteran has been on a cold streak as of late, having slashed just .206/.289/.265 in his last 10 games (4.7 FPTS per game), but he’s starting to turn it around, with two double-digit fantasy performances in his last three games. He should have a chance to continue his solid form against Toronto starter Bowden Francis ($5,700), who has given up three or more earned runs in five of his last six starts and ranks in the bottom quartile in all but two Statcast categories. Francis also throws his fastball 56% of the time, and so far this season, McKinstry has slugged an incredible .526 against fastballs.
