The MLB Trade Deadline brought plenty of movement throughout the league yesterday with a handful of blockbuster trades that shook up the playoff landscape. With the first day of August ringing in the home stretch of the regular season, we’re taking a look at today’s 11-game slate for DraftKings’ featured fantasy baseball contests.
Check out these three must-start players for Friday’s MLB DFS lineups.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st]
SP Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays vs. Royals; $8,500
Plenty of DraftKings DFS players will flock to the top of the lineup pool for guys like Hunter Brown, Joe Ryan and Carlos Rodon tonight. However, we’re saving salary and banking on upside with a hurler coming off a couple of his best fantasy performances of the season in Kevin Gausman.
The Blue Jays righty averages 17.2 FPPG this season with a 3.82 ERA and 1.10 WHIP to complement 122 strikeouts in 122 innings. Sure, he can be a little inconsistent sometimes, but he brings great form into this matchup as well. Gausman tallied 32.3 points in his last outing and 30.15 points in the one before that, so both appearances since the All-Star break resulted in great fantasy production with just five hits and one earned run allowed across 13 innings while striking out 18 batters. He posted nine strikeouts back on July 6 and put up a 31.6-point performance on June 26, so he’s gone for at least 20 points in four of his last six games. There’s upside here that I believe Gausman can once again tap into against a Royals squad that ranks 18th with a .239 average since the All-Star Game.
OF Jarren Duran, Red Sox vs. Astros; $4,600
I debated between multiple Red Sox stars for tonight’s lineup and really considered Alex Bregman for this spot, but Jarren Duran has looked just as red-hot at the plate lately and brings a lefty-on-righty battle against Hunter Brown.
Sure, Brown remains one of the best pitchers in baseball, but he also experienced a rough July that was pretty poor by his elite standards. With the pitcher in shaky form, Duran seems like a great pick this evening as he comes off fantasy performances of 32, 26, 12 and 27 points in his last five contests. Slashing .265/.332/.793 this year with 62 runs, 60 RBI and 11 homers, Duran averages 9.0 FPPG overall and has shown lately how he can access his upside when everything’s clicking. He bats .286 with a .902 OPS against righties, so there’s a ton to like this evening as the Red Sox face the Astros at Fenway, especially at this salary.
3B Manny Machado, Padres vs. Cardinals; $5,100
The Padres took some massive swings at the deadline yesterday by acquiring Mason Miller, Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano via a handful of deals. They certainly improved, but hopefully Manny Machado still gets some spotlight tonight even with his new teammates.
The third baseman hit double-digit fantasy points in seven of his last eight games with five of those performances hitting 15 points or greater. Machado slashes .302/.362/.510 this year with 64 runs, 71 RBI and 20 dingers, but those marks improve to a .429 average and 1.133 OPS over his last 10 outings. Opposing pitcher Matthew Liberatore is good enough but not great, so the matchup doesn’t play a significant factor here. Machado’s putting up fantastic numbers at the moment and keep this hot streak going — excluding him from lineups would be a mistake.
