Saturday marks the official start of summer, and summer means one thing: baseball. Except for when there’s a golf major championship or the occasional NBA free agency signing, baseball rules the day when the weather is hottest.
Plenty of stars are in action as part of tonight’s 11-game featured DFS slate. Here are a few that you absolutely need to include in your lineup.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st]
SP Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs, $8,500
I believed in Misiorowski so little during his MLB debut that I picked the opposing pitcher, Sonny Gray ($9,700), figuring that Gray would be a guarantee to pick up a win and therefore four FPTS. So for his second start, I’m going to swing all the way in the opposite direction and posit him as a must-start over pitchers like Gray, Chris Sale ($10,700), Framber Valdez ($10,500), Gray, and Kris Bubic ($9,500). I’ve been wrong on Misiorowski once, and I don’t want to be wrong on him again in case he does something like he did in his MLB debut, pitching five innings of no-hit ball while generating 13 whiffs (22.9 FPTS). As expected, the walks were an issue — he issued four of them — but he can throw 100 miles per hour with 2600 RPM of spin, so I’m not sure I care about the walks.
In theory, the Cubs are a bad matchup for a pitcher with control issues, given that they chase at the league’s eighth-lowest rate and rank ninth in walk percentage. However, after a hot offensive start to the season, Chicago has cooled down somewhat; though the Cubs have posted the league’s fourth-best OPS on a season-long basis, that mark has dropped to just 23rd in June. This month, Seiya Suzuki is slashing .217/.250/.417, Kyle Tucker has hit just one homer, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is hitting just .259, so Misiorowski is facing a difficult opponent at a good time. Plus, Chicago’s starter is Jameson Taillon ($8,700), who leads the NL in homers conceded and has the third-highest ERA and second-most losses of the Cubs’ starting pitchers, so Misiorowski could record a win.
OF Fernando Tatís Jr., San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers, $5,100
Tatís has put his cold stretches behind him and has recaptured some of his MVP-level form from the beginning of the season, slashing .343/.489/.429 over his last 10 games (10.7 FPTS per game), and though his power hasn’t quite been there, he’s made up for it by stealing three bases across that span. The San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic native made the most of his plate appearances in the series’ second game last night, walking twice and coming around to score each time (10 FPTS). Despite hitting ground balls far too frequently, he’s ripping the cover off the ball, posting a 96th-percentile average exit velocity.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, will counter with some combination of Emmet Sheehan ($6,900) — making his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery last May — and Justin Wrobleski ($6,500), and I don’t have a ton of faith in either of them. Sheehan posted a 4.92 ERA in his rookie season in 2023 and was overly reliant on a four-seam fastball that ranked in just the 43rd percentile in run value, while Wrobleski has a 6.03 ERA through his four appearances, although most of the damage came in an April 8 start in which he conceded eight runs in five innings (-3.4 FPTS). Los Angeles’ reserve unit is beat up after two straight bullpen games.
3B Jazz Chisholm Jr., New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels, $5,100
Chisholm has been hot since returning from the injured list on June 3, slashing .333/.426/.538 (9.6 FPTS per game) in his 12 games, and although the Yankees offense has been terrible as of late, getting shut out in three consecutive games, the Bahamian hasn’t been the issue. His season stats are unimpressive as a whole, but he still has some bright spots as a hitter, ranking in the 83rd percentile in barrel rate and the 88th in walk rate. Plus, despite having just 47th percentile sprint speed, he steals enough bases to keep pitchers honest — four in his last 10 games.
If New York wants to turn its form around, going against Jack Kochanowicz ($5,500) is a great way to do just that. This season, Kochanowicz sports a 3-8 record and a 5.53 ERA, and he’s had games with at least as many earned runs as innings pitched five separate times so far. There are a few pluses — he throws the ball hard, and because he relies on his sinker, he produces grounders at a high rate — but he ranks in just the fifth percentile in hard-hit rate. Plus, Chisholm’s OPS has been 99 points higher against right-handed pitchers, and Kochanowicz has allowed a .911 OPS to left-handed hitters.
