We’ve got a five-game slate for Thursday night’s MLB action.
Let’s find some studs and values for your MLB DFS lineups on DraftKings. This article was written before lineups were announced.
Make your DraftKings MLB DFS picks here: MLB $150K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves vs. Toronto Blue Jays ($10,500) — The matchup isn’t great from a fantasy perspective because Toronto is 29th in strikeouts. That said, the Blue Jays are also 26th in ISO, 26th in wOBA and 24th in wRC+. Sale has a robust 30.2% strikeout rate and 23.8% K-BB%. The average exit velocity is only 86.8 mph, while the barrel rate is 6.8%. He’s put up at least 20 FPTS in all but one start this season, with three of those over 30 FPTS.
Value
Jared Jones, Pittsburgh Pirates at Houston Astros ($7,500) — Jones lasted only 4.1 innings in his MLB debut, giving up five earned runs, two walks, and seven hits (two home runs). Now he travels to Houston to face an Astros team that is 20th in strikeouts, eighth in ISO and ninth in wRC+. That said, Jones is averaging 99 mph on the fastball and has posted a 28.6% strikeout rate with a 7.7% barrel rate. While he served up two home runs, both to lefties — and Houston has one of the best southpaw sluggers in Yordan Alvarez — he was also unlucky with a .455 BABIP and 64.5% strand rate. I’ll side with the stuff and upside.
INFIELD
Stud
Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks ($4,500) — Muncy doesn’t have speed or hit for a high average. Still, he has excellent plate discipline, takes his walks and mashes pitches into the bleachers. He has 14 home runs in 209 plate appearances with a .264 ISO. He owns a 147 wRC+ with 11 long balls against right-handed pitching. Ryne Nelson has a 5.45 FIP with an 11.9% K-BB%. The average exit velocity is 90.6 mph with an 11.7% barrel rate. He’s allowed 15 home runs, with eight coming off the bat of a lefty. Nelson’s K-BB% against lefties is only 9.5%.
Value
Michael Massey, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins ($2,700) — Massey has five home runs and a .200 ISO in 129 plate appearances. Four of the five home runs have come off a righty. Massey has put up at least 20 FPTS in two of the last three contests. Andrew Morris is slated to open for the Twins with Marco Raya potentially making his MLB debut. There’s a strong chance it becomes a bullpen game, and the Twins have one of the weaker units in the league.
OUTFIELD
Stud
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks ($6,500) — Not too much analysis needed here. Ohtani, good. Nelson, bad. Now, Ohtani hasn’t been as unbelievable as in the past two seasons, but he still has 10 home runs, 40 runs, 33 RBIs, six stolen bases and a .223 ISO in 264 plate appearances.
Value
Jac Caglianone, Kansas City Royals at Minnesota Twins ($3,100) — Caglianone swings fast and hits hard. He has posted a 93.4 mph average exit velocity, a 15.4% barrel rate, and a 76.6 mph bat speed. His major issue is that he doesn’t lift the ball, with a launch angle of only 7.7 degrees. Oh, and he strikes out at a 30.2% clip. Still, he hit a bomb two games ago and has put up 11 and 23 FPTS in the last two contests. As previously mentioned, Minnesota’s pitching options aren’t great.
