With the MLB entering the backstretch of its season and the NBA and NHL coming to a conclusion, the spotlight will be on the diamond for the next several months. Thankfully, this is a star-filled era in baseball, and eyeballs are being drawn back to the game.
Several of those stars will take the mound as part of tonight’s 10-game featured DFS slate on DraftKings. I’ll take you through my five favorite starting pitching options for tonight’s contest, looking at pitchers with a variety of price points.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st].
1. Shane Baz, Tampa Bay Rays ($7,800)
I’ll start out with a bit of a budget option here. Baz’s main issue is that he gives up too many home runs, as he’s conceded 12 big flies this year, the fifth-most in the American League. But he still has plenty of tools, from an 87th-percentile fastball velocity to a 79th-percentile ground ball rate to just a 14.7% pulled fly ball rate. His tendency to give up hard hits didn’t matter too much in his most recent game, as he had a respectable 5.2-inning, three-run, two-homer (8.6-FPT) outing in a 13-3 win over the Houston Astros last Thursday and a 5.2-inning, one-run, one-homer (18.6-FPT) performance the Sunday before that.
Enter the Rangers, who shouldn’t give Baz much trouble, given that they had the league’s worst OPS in May. They do hit the ball hard, with an above-average exit velocity, and they’re definitely liable to go deep, but going deep doesn’t matter that much when you get on base less than two-sevenths of the time. Baz has actually averaged more fantasy points at home (13.6) than on the road (12.3) despite Steinbrenner Field being a hitter-friendly park.
2. Nick Pivetta, San Diego Padres ($10,000)
In this crucial series between the second- and third-placed teams in the ultra-competitive NL West, San Diego has won each of the first two in the tenth inning. While the Giants are sending a relatively untested player to the hill in Kyle Harrison ($8,300), whose 2.51 ERA across his 14.1 innings is nearly two full runs better than his expected mark, the Padres will have arguably their best starter on the mound in the series finale. Pivetta has recorded 21 or more FPTS in each of his last three starts, throwing six innings and giving up two or fewer runs in each one.
Plus, San Francisco has struggled offensively over the last month or so, going only 14-16 since the start of May and posting the league’s eighth-worst OPS across that span. Oracle Park is also the third-most pitcher-friendly park in the league, producing the second-fewest homers relative to the same hitters’ production at other parks. That should neutralize one of Pivetta’s weaknesses, given that he tends to give up a lot of pulled fly balls and sports just a 16th-percentile barrel rate. The Giants have the league’s second-lowest average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage and have hit the sixth-fewest homers at home.
3. Mick Abel, Philadelphia Phillies ($9,000)
Abel, Philadelphia’s eighth-ranked prospect, has just one career start to his name, but it was an excellent one, as he blanked the Pittsburgh Pirates over six innings of shutout, five-hit ball, striking out nine and walking none (32.5 FPTS). His production shouldn’t have come too much of a surprise, given that across 10 starts for AAA Lehigh Valley this season, he’s posted a 2.21 ERA and a 2.58 strikeout-to-walk ratio, indicating that he’s ready for the majors. The 23-year-old’s fastball touches 97 miles per hour and he generated 16 whiffs in his debut, thanks to an arsenal featuring four pitches with spin rates north of 2,300 RPM.
It won’t necessarily be easy, because Toronto’s offense has been in hot form over the last month, posting the league’s fourth-best OPS and hitting the fifth-most homers in May. Still, some of that offensive explosion has come against bad teams, as the Blue Jays scored 39 runs in a four-game set against the Athletics, who have had easily the league’s highest ERA this season. Toronto has scored a total of nine runs in its last seven games against non-Athletics opposition and scored just three in the series opener, so I still have high hopes for Abel tonight.
4. Miles Mikolas, St. Louis Cardinals ($7,300)
Mikolas had a rough go of it in his most recent outing, giving up nine hits and four runs in just four innings of work (1.6 FPTS) in a 6-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on May 28, but the general trend is good. Overall, the veteran has given up one or fewer runs in four of his last six outings, recording 20 or more FPTS in all four of those. Although he hasn’t gone deep into the game very frequently this season — he hasn’t lasted more than six innings or tossed more than 89 pitches — he’s fairly efficient on a per-inning basis, as his WHIP is the lowest it has been in three seasons and he averages the 16th-fewest pitches per plate appearance.
The Royals, meanwhile, have a winning record in spite of their offense, not because of it. This season, Kansas City has posted the league’s fifth-lowest OPS, and while it was somewhat better during May, three games against the Baltimore Orioles and four against the Chicago White Sox usually help with that. The Royals make extremely soft contact — they’ve hit by far the fewest home runs in the league this season and recorded among the fewest hard hits — so the lack of whiffs shouldn’t hurt Mikolas too badly. He had a great start against Kansas City on May 17, pitching six innings of shutout ball (23.1 FPTS) in a 1-0 win.
5. Sawyer Gipson-Long, Detroit Tigers ($6,000)
This one is a total wild card, given that he hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2023 and is recovering from Tommy John surgery, but he was pretty effective in those September 2023 outings, giving up just six earned runs in 20 innings across four starts. He ranked near the top decile in virtually all Statcast categories the last time he took the mound, and he has an eclectic pitch mix, throwing his slider, changeup, four-seamer, and sinker in nearly equal proportions. The 27-year-old has looked ready for a return to the majors, owning a 2.20 ERA across five starts at three minor league levels.
Plus, he couldn’t ask for a kinder team to return against than the White Sox, who have posted the league’s lowest OPS this season and have hit the third-fewest homers. Chicago did experience an offensive explosion in the series opener yesterday, but before that, it had scored a combined six runs across four losses, including a sweep at the hands of the Orioles. The White Sox aren’t historically bad like they were last season, but that’s a low bar, and Gipson-Long is talented enough to clear it. It’s unclear how long he’ll pitch, but if he can get to five innings, he stands a good shot at picking up a win (four FPTS).
