Another beautiful day of baseball is in the cards for Wednesday with a loaded slate of games. With 10 matchups on the table for the main DraftKings MLB DFS offering, which players are best for building today’s lineups around?
Let’s dive in for a couple of must-start options for fantasy baseball lineups.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]
SP Noah Cameron, KC Royals at STL Cardinals, $8,800
With Nick Pivetta ($10,000) and Chris Sale ($9,800) both pitching in this window of games, it’s quite tempting to target one of the top two aces here. However, they’ll end up rostered in far more lineups than those without them, so we’re going for a slightly cheaper pick with nearly just as much upside.
The Royals play the Cardinals in St. Louis, Missouri again tonight as Noah Cameron ($8,800) gets the starting nod. The rookie looks like he belongs alongside the top options on a talented Kansas City staff through the first four games of his MLB career. While there’s a bit of risk in paying up for a player with this little experience, Cameron has allowed just one run or fewer in all of his four appearances with at least 6.0 innings of work in each. He’s struck out 16 with a tasty 0.82 WHIP, and while the Cardinals offense may test him, I believe in the upside here as Cameron averages 19.8 FPTS to start his career with a safe floor of 15.5 so far.
1B Freddie Freeman, LA Dodgers vs. NY Mets, $5,800
Sure, Shohei Ohtani ($6,400) gets all the headlines, but his teammate Freddie Freeman ($5,800) is arguably having the better season between the two Dodgers. With an incredible .369/.425/.626 slash line and monster 1.061 OPS, the first baseman is enjoying one of the best seasons of his lengthy career at the age of 35.
Ohtani has been slumping a bit over the last couple of weeks but Freeman keeps doing his own thing with a .414 AVG over his last seven games. The Dodgers take on the Mets again this evening with Griffin Canning on the mound for New York. The righty has a 3.23 ERA but a 1.40 WHIP makes him vulnerable, and Freeman happens to slash .403/.471/.694 against righties with seven home runs. The veteran should provide some top production with his bat tonight with an average performance of 10.2 FPTS and 16 in his last outing.
OF Aaron Judge, NY Yankees vs. CLE Guardians, $6,500
Is Aaron Judge ($6,500) expensive? Yes. Is he also the best hitter in baseball? Also yes. He’s one of the hottest commodities in MLB DFS lineups and the most expensive batter on the slate, but it feels like leaving him out can hurt even more than paying up does.
If you went for Noah Cameron in your SP slot, you’ve got a little bit more wiggle room in the salary department. Judge is worth every penny of the price tag with a .387/.485/.757 slash, gargantuan 1.242 OPS, plus 21 homers and 50 RBIs. At Yankee Stadium against the Guardians tonight, he faces off against Luis L. Ortiz, whose 4.40 ERA and 1.43 WHIP should have Judge licking his chops. He doesn’t hit as well against righties, but it doesn’t really matter when the multi-time MVP’s splits against those hurlers are still better than 95% of the league’s. Play the matchup here.
