The MLB just completed its first-ever Rivalry weekend, where each team played a three-game series against one of its most geographically proximate rivals. There were a few surprising sweeps — the Los Angeles Angels swept the Los Angeles Dodgers — and several highlight-worthy plays, including Cody Bellinger’s Sunday grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning to steal the Subway Series for the Bronx Bombers. By all measures, it was a success, drawing more than 1.6 million fans across the 45 games.
But now we’re back to regular baseball, without the draw of decades-old rivalries writing a new chapter on the field. Of the nine games on tonight’s featured DFS slate on DraftKings, none are traditionally intense rivalries, but there are still plenty of talented players. Here are two pitchers, three infielders, and three outfielders I’m targeting for tonight’s action.
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PITCHER
Stud
Luis Castillo, Seattle Mariners at Chicago White Sox, $9,500 – Castillo has had three elite starts in his last four, sandwiched around a five-inning, seven-hit, five-run (1.9-FPT) stinker against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 9. In those three starts, he’s pitched exactly six innings and given up one or fewer earned runs in each one, scoring between 11.9 and 25.7 FPTS. I’d expect something closer to his ceiling tonight, given that he’s pitching against a White Sox offense that has only been spared from infamy by the fact that the Colorado Rockies have been so awful. This season, Chicago has posted the league’s worst OPS and hit the third-fewest home runs, posting just a 14-33 record so far.
Value
Quinn Priester, Milwaukee Brewers vs. Baltimore Orioles, $6,900 – The Orioles have been a disaster as of late, losing six straight games to fall to 15-30 and firing manager Brandon Hyde. Since the start of May, they’ve only scored 49 runs, the third-fewest in the major leagues, and they’ve also walked the second-fewest times of any team. That should work in Priester’s favor; the veteran right-hander has given up only one earned run in each of his last two starts (12 FPTS per game), although he was saddled with the loss in both of them. He ranks in just the ninth percentile in chase rate and fifth percentile in walk rate, but given how infrequently Baltimore has walked this month, he should be able to exhibit better control in this one.
INFIELDER
Stud
J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies, $4,900 – Realmuto got the day off yesterday in the series finale against Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, but he should be back in the lineup tonight against a much easier opponent in the Rockies’ Kyle Freeland ($5,000). The veteran southpaw has been atrocious this season, pitching to a 6.15 ERA (7.4 FPTS per game), and Realmuto has been slightly better against left-handed starters than right-handed starters for his career. He’s only slashing .245/.327/.723 this season and is just two-for-11 in his last three games, but he recorded an RBI the last time he faced Freeland on April 2 in a nine-FPT game and went four-for-11 (10.7 FPTS per game) in that early-season series.
Stud
Yandy Díaz, $4,300 – Díaz wasn’t able to travel to Toronto for the Rays’ series against the Blue Jays last week because of passport concerns, but he was fairly solid during the Rivalry Weekend series against the Miami Marlins, recording at least one hit and one RBI in each of the three games (8.3 FPTS per game). Díaz consistently makes hard contact, ranking in the 92nd percentile in average exit velocity, the 93rd percentile in hard-hit percentage, and, most impressively, the 91st percentile in whiff percentage. That’s a good combination against a rookie hurler in Colton Gordon ($6,000), who produced just two whiffs in his rocky MLB debut last Wednesday (4.1 innings, seven hits, three runs, 4.4 FPTS) and averages just 91.1 miles per hour with his fastball.
Value
Miguel Andujar, Athletics vs. Los Angeles Angels, $3,500 – Sure, the Angels swept their crosstown rivals over the weekend, but they’re still not a great team and their pitching is pretty poor. This season, the Angels’ staff as a whole has a 5.08 ERA and their bullpen has an MLB-worst 7.06 mark. Starter José Soriano ($7,300) is one of the team’s better pitchers, not giving up an earned run over seven innings in his last start against the San Diego Padres (21.6 FPTS), but he doesn’t induce many chases and he concedes a lot of hard hits. Andujar isn’t poised to take advantage of those weaknesses, but he is almost guaranteed to put it in play, and Soriano has allowed the league’s sixth-highest batting average on balls in play. Plus, Sutter HealthPark is a hitter’s paradise; there, the Athletics have scored 4.2 runs per game and given up 6.6.
OUTFIELDER
Stud
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Arizona Diamondbacks, $6,500 – I like to pick one player from every game for slates larger than eight games, and while it would’ve been nice to pick speedy rookie Hyeseong Kim ($3,100) as a value option, Ohtani is simply a must, even for his $6,500 salary. With the exception of a zero-for-six performance against the Angels in the second game of their series, Ohtani has been ridiculous over his last 10 games, averaging 15.2 FPTS per game behind a .356/.400/.800 slash line with six homers and 15 RBI’s. Sure, he was zero-for-three against Brandon Pfaadt ($8,700) on May 8, but I don’t expect a repeat performance from the homer-prone pitcher.
Stud
Javier Báez, Detroit Tigers at St. Louis Cardinals, $4,200 – Cardinals starter Sonny Gray ($9,000) has imploded the last two times he’s faced a decent offense, giving up six runs (four earned) in 4.1 innings (6.6 FPTS) against the New York Mets on May 2 and seven earned runs in 3.2 innings (-3.2 FPTS) last Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Tigers’ offense is closer to the Mets’ and Phillies’ than it is to the Pirates’. Báez is the ultimate boom-or-bust player, with three homers in his last five games and also three hitless games across that stretch. Gray’s one strength this season has been his control, but that’s fine; Báez was never going to walk anyway. 44% of Gray’s pitches are either sweepers or sinkers, and Báez has posted a wOBA better than .350 against both pitches this season.
Value
Carson McCusker, Minnesota Twins vs. Cleveland Guardians, $2,000 – McCusker has only taken one at-bat in the major leagues, when he grounded out in the top of the eighth inning yesterday. But Minnesota announced that he’d be in the starting lineup for tonight’s game as he seeks his first career hit, and this season, he’s been excellent at the AAA level. In 154 at-bats in St. Paul, he slashed .350/.412/.650 with 10 homers and 36 RBI’s, and at six-foot-eight, 250 pounds, he has all the tools to be a slugger at the MLB level. Logan Allen ($6,500) has really only had one poor start this season, but he hasn’t fooled a lot of batters, ranking in just the eighth percentile in whiff rate and the 17th percentile in strikeout rate.
