We are exactly a third of the way through the MLB season, with almost every team having played between 52 and 55 games this season. So far, three of the six division leaders are the same teams who won their respective divisions in 2024, with the New York Yankees topping the AL East, the Philadelphia Phillies leading the NL East, and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers setting the pace in the NL West.
Tonight, the middle third of the season gets underway, with all 30 teams in action, including 22 on the featured 11-game DFS slate at DraftKings. Here are two pitchers, three infielders, and three outfielders who should be in your lineups tonight.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Corbin Burnes, Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, $9,300 – Burnes took the defeat in his most recent start, but to be fair, that was against the Dodgers’ high-powered offense, and it’s not like he was that bad in that start, going seven innings and giving up four hits and three runs while striking out eight (22.8 FPTS). Plus, in the four starts before that, he had conceded one or fewer earned runs, including a shutout against Los Angeles. If he can be that effective against the Dodgers, he should have no problem against the Pirates, who have posted the league’s second-worst OPS this season, scoring the fewest runs and hitting the second-fewest homers.
Value
Brady Singer, Cincinnati Reds at Kansas City Royals, $7,500 – Most of the damage against Singer this season came in a 13-9 defeat to the Houston Astros on May 10, when he conceded seven runs on nine hits in just 2.1 innings (-12.8 FPTS). Besides that, though, he’s been pretty solid, giving up three or fewer runs in all but two of his starts, and while he doesn’t go particularly deep in games and struggles somewhat with his control, he usually provides decent value. He does tend to give up a lot of hard hits, posting just a 20th-percentile average exit velocity, but Kansas City ranks fifth-to-last in the league in OPS and dead last in home runs. The Royals have also walked less frequently than any other team.
INFIELDER
Stud
Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners vs. Washington Nationals, $5,300 – While much has been made of the absolute power show coming out of Los Angeles and New York, Raleigh is right behind with 17 long balls of his own. He’s hit four over his last 10 games, a span across which he’s slashed .278/.386/.667 (10.2 FPTS per game) and the Mariners went a solid 6-4. While Mitchell Parker ($6,300) has only conceded two homers, he’s actually gotten very lucky, giving up an expected slugging percentage .142 higher than the actual mark opponents have hit against his signature fastball, and two hits that have stayed in the yard would’ve gone out at T-Mobile Park. Also, the Nationals’ bullpen sports the league’s second-highest ERA.
Stud
Manny Machado, San Diego Padres vs. Miami Marlins, $4,700 – Machado has been overshadowed somewhat by his teammate Fernando Tatís Jr. ($5,800), but the veteran has been fantastic in his own right. He was hitting for a high average to start the season, and while that average has dropped, he’s found his power stroke in the last few games, going deep in each of his last two contests. The result: a .319/.391/.497 slash line for the season with six homers, 24 RBI’s, and nearly as many walks as strikeouts. Max Meyer ($8,200), meanwhile, has been arguably the Marlins’ best starting pitcher, but that doesn’t mean much when he has a 4.15 ERA and is backed up by the league’s sixth-worst bullpen. Meyer throws sliders on 36% of his pitches, and Machado has a .489 slugging percentage this season against sliders.
Value
Christian Walker, Houston Astros vs. Athletics, $3,800 – Walker broke a recent power drought with a two-run walk-off bomb last night against the Mariners, pulling the Astros within a game and a half of the AL West lead. All in all, while the 34-year-old’s batting average is still poor, he’s starting to see the ball better over the last few weeks, hitting a solid .250 over the past 10 games (7.2 FPTS per game) to keep himself above the Mendoza line. Walker is a decent bet to go deep again tonight against JP Sears ($7,900), who has been blown up in each of his last two starts and has ranked in the American League’s top five in home runs allowed in each of the past three seasons. Plus, the Athletics’ bullpen is the third-worst in baseball.
OUTFIELDER
Stud
Aaron Judge, New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels, $6,600 – Judge did what he was supposed to do in a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies, going deep twice at a mile high, and he’s now recorded double-digit fantasy points in each of his last four games. He’s only hit .333 over his last 10 games, dropping his season-long average below .400, but the fact that he’s even close to that vaunted mark this late in the season is remarkable and makes him worth every cent of his DFS salary. Tyler Anderson ($7,200) is a southpaw who’s given up 10 homers already this season, and in 43 plate appearances this season against lefties, Judge is slashing .455/.581/1.182. The cherry on top is that the Angels’ bullpen is the league’s worst.
Stud
Juan Soto, New York Mets vs. Chicago White Sox, $5,100 – Since I’ve moved to New York and been introduced to Mets fan X spaces, I’ve seen lots of posts bemoaning how unlucky Soto has gotten this season. That take is fair — his expected .297 batting average and .576 expected slugging percentage both rank in the league’s top decile and far outpace his actual marks. Launch angle sweet-spot aside, Soto ranks near the top quartile in every single Statcast category, so at some point, his luck is bound to turn around. That rebound could begin against the White Sox and Jonathan Cannon ($7,700), whose biggest weaknesses, such as his 11th percentile whiff rate, neutralize Soto’s. Cannon tends to throw his cutter against lefties, and Soto has mashed cutters this season to the tune of an .875 slugging percentage.
Value
Chandler Simpson, Tampa Bay Rays vs. Minnesota Twins, $4,000 – Simpson has an excellent combination of contact and speed, and he’s especially been elite over his last 10 games, slashing .400/.419/.400 across that span, with seven stolen bases. The 24-year-old’s 14 stolen bases this season rank fourth in the American League, and he should be a constant threat to steal a base as long as he can get on board. That might be tough against Joe Ryan ($9,700), who ranks second in the AL in WHIP, but Ryan is slower than average on all of his pitches and Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers ($4,200) has a below-average pop time, so Simpson — who has 99th-percentile sprint speed — should be well-suited to capitalize.
