If you felt like yesterday’s four-game featured DFS slate felt like it didn’t leave you with too many options, today’s 13-game slate should offer plenty.
With nearly the entire league available for fantasy players, it should be easy to get some of the league’s best — and hottest — players into your DFS lineups. Here are two pitchers, three infielders, and three outfielders I’m targeting for tonight’s action:
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Extra Inning [$50K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, $9,900 – Perhaps I should have learned my lesson of picking against the White Sox when I put Taj Bradley on my pitcher rankings on Wednesday and the White Sox got to him so thoroughly that the Tampa Bay Reds demoted him to the minors after the game. To be fair, the pope’s team is 5-1 since the All-Star break and has the league’s third-best OPS across that span, but Imanaga is no less hot, having recorded 26 or more FPTS in each of his last two starts. The southpaw has also averaged 3.8 more FPTS per game at the road than at home, and Rate Field is one of the league’s most pitcher-friendly.
Value
José Berríos, Toronto Blue Jays at Detroit Tigers, $7,400 – 11 games ago, the Tigers had the best record in the MLB. But they’ve since lost 10 of their 11 games, and now that honor belongs to Toronto. Since the All-Star break, Detroit has the league’s worst OPS, while the Blue Jays have the league’s best. While form can change quickly in a game as volatile as baseball — look no further than my pick of Imanaga to underscore this point — Berríos looks like a decent bet to pick up a win against the Tigers’ mediocre starter, Keider Montero ($6,200). Berríos is maddeningly inconsistent, with two negative fantasy performances in his last six games, but he also has three 20-plus-FPT efforts in that same span.
INFIELDER
Stud
José Ramírez, Cleveland Guardians at Kansas City Royals, $5,800 – Though he hasn’t hit for a great average, Ramírez has gone nuclear through the first three-plus weeks of July, posting a .250/.375/.653 slash line and smacking eight homers through 20 games (13.8 FPTS per game). So while his DFS salary is high, he represents excellent value if he keeps hitting like he has since the start of the month. Plus, I feel good about Ramírez’s ceiling against Michael Wacha ($7,700), who gives up pulled fly balls at an above-average rate and has just an eighth-percentile fastball by run value. Some 53% of Wacha’s pitches are some form of fastball.
Stud
Rafael Devers, San Francisco Giants vs. New York Mets, $4,700 – Devers has heated up in his last three games after largely struggling through his first two months in San Francisco, posting 10, 14, and 35 FPTS across a three-game series in Atlanta. In the series finale, the 28-year-old had one of the most impressive homers of the season, digging a ball nearly out of the dirt to lace it into the short right-field porch at Truist Park. While the Mets have one of the league’s better pitching staffs, Clay Holmes ($7,500) has had six below-average starts in a row, a span in which he’s had a 5.04 ERA.
Value
Carlos Narváez, Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, $3,500 – I hate to fade my own team, but the Dodgers just haven’t been able to get anything going since the All-Star break, and they won’t have nearly their best starter on the mound for the series opener tonight. Emmet Sheehan ($6,400) had three straight okay starts in his return from Tommy John surgery, but got shelled for seven hits and five earned runs (-2.05 FPTS) last Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Narváez, meanwhile, homered last night in a 21-FPT effort and has benefited from playing at Fenway Park, with a .961 OPS and an 8.3-FPPG average at the venue.
OUTFIELDER
Stud
James Wood, Washington Nationals at Minnesota Twins, $5,400 – With the exception of a two-double, two-run (25-FPT) effort on Monday against the Cincinnati Reds, Wood has been in pretty cold form lately, averaging just 5.6 FPTS per game over his last 10 contests. However, after starting the second half with a six-game homestand, the Nationals will now go on the road, and Wood has averaged one more FPT per game on the road. I’d also like any lefty against Zebby Matthews ($7,100), who has a 6.26 ERA in five starts this season and has allowed a .931 OPS to southpaws in his two-year career. Matthews throws four-seam fastballs on nearly half his pitches, and Wood has a .644 slugging percentage against four-seamers this season.
Stud
Chandler Simpson, Tampa Bay Rays at Cincinnati Reds, $4,600 – After spending most of his season as a mainstay in my values section, Simpson has improved his fantasy value so much that he now qualifies as a stud outfielder. He’s recorded two straight 20-FPT games because he’s totaled four stolen bases across that span, and in 24 games since he was recalled to the majors, he’s posted a .341/.379/.398 slash line (8.5 FPTS per game), and he’s also been 2.2 FPPG better on the road than at home. Nick Martinez ($7,000) doesn’t miss many bats, and among 455 qualified pitchers, he’s tied for the 74th-most runner bases gained, though also the seventh-most outs created.
Value
Mickey Moniak, Colorado Rockies at Baltimore Orioles, $3,800 – The Rockies as a whole have been extremely hot since the All-Star break, posting the league’s second-best OPS across that span, and they’re no longer on pace to finish with the worst 162-game record in baseball history. That’s thanks in large part to Moniak, who’s slashed .378/.439/.595 in his last 10 games (9.8 FPTS per game), including double-digit outputs in four of the six games since the showcase. Dean Kremer ($8,000), though extremely hot in his last several starts, has allowed an OPS 91 points higher to southpaws and is backed up by the league’s fourth-worst bullpen.
