Notoriously, baseball is the one major American sport without a salary cap.
Unfortunately, DraftKings’ DFS contests do, so if you want to earn tonight’s $50,000 first prize, you’ll have to hope for excellent production from some budget options. Here are some of my favorites from tonight’s seven-game featured slate:
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $150K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st].
SP Cade Horton, Chicago Cubs vs. Cleveland Guardians, $6,200
Horton is coming off a brutal last start, conceding eight hits and seven runs in four innings (-8.8 FPTS) against the Houston Astros. However, there were still a few positives to take away from that game — his average velocity and spin rates were slightly up relative to his previous start and he generated his second-highest chase rate of the season — but it was simply a hitting master-class by the Astros more than a disastrous pitching performance by him.
Cleveland’s offense just isn’t as good as Houston’s. The Guardians have been slumping mightily over the last month-plus, posting by far the league’s worst OPS in June, and they’ve scored just six runs over their first two games in July. They’ve posted barrels at the league’s third-lowest rate this season and struck out at an above-average rate, mitigating two of Horton’s most glaring weaknesses. Plus, Horton is back on friendly turf in Wrigley Field, where he’s averaged 12.0 FPTS per game and pitched to a 3.38 ERA. Per Statcast, Wrigley is the league’s third-most hitter-friendly venue.
2B/SS Hyeseong Kim, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago White Sox, $4,100
I hope Max Muncy ($4,700) heals up quickly, because the knee injury that he suffered in a collision at third base last night was pretty nasty-looking, and he had been playing extremely well, slashing .313/.405/.719 (12.4 FPTS per game) over his last 10 games. While the Dodgers haven’t released any updates on his condition and it’s unclear whether he’ll require a stint on the injured list, I’d be extremely surprised if he plays tonight. That should open up an everyday slot in the lineup for Kim or Kiké Hernández ($3,200), but with Hernández slumping and right-hander Aaron Civale ($6,000) on the mound, I’ll go with Kim, even if his $4,100 DFS salary is a little bit more expensive than I’d usually like for this column.
Civale avoids giving up hard hits, but that’s about his only strength as a pitcher, and generating hard hits is about Kim’s only weakness as a hitter. The hurler ranks in just the 35th percentile in expected batting average and the 33rd percentile in whiff percentage, and Kim makes consistent solid contact, ranking in the top quartile in squared-up percentage and expected batting average. Plus, though no runner has stolen a base against Civale yet in his 38 innings pitched, he has a below-average outs above average figure, so Kim can use his elite speed to record a steal for the second straight game.
OF Jasson Domínguez, New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, $3,600
While the ultra-talented rookie still makes some frustrating gaffes — he strikes out way too much and is a pretty terrible defender — there have been some promising flashes of the potential that made him one of the Yankees’ most highly-touted prospects. His contact is starting to come around — he’s hitting .361 in his last 10 games (7.3 FPTS per game), and while he hasn’t hit a home run since May 21, he still has 75th-percentile bat speed and an 86th-percentile hard hit percentage, so the tools are there as long as he stops pounding it into the ground.
Domínguez should have a decent shot at keeping up his solid form against Chris Bassitt ($7,600), who had a miserable outing his last time out, conceding eight runs, eight hits, and more walks than strikeouts in just two innings (-13.3 FPTS) against the Boston Red Sox on June 28. He’s been pretty solid otherwise this season, and he might be able to bounce back at Rogers Centre, where he has posted a 2.60 ERA (20.2 FPTS per game), but Domínguez has averaged 2.6 more FPTS per game on the road than at home. With the teams tied atop the AL East, it’ll be up to the 22-year-old Dominican to stop his team’s skid.
