With All-Star voting approaching its conclusion — the first phase will end next Thursday — it’s a perfect opportunity to look back on what some of baseball’s brightest stars have been doing this season. This 2025 MLB season has been special so far, and the jump in ratings has reflected that.
Baseball’s stars will not only appear on the All-Star teams; they should also appear in your fantasy lineups tonight as part of the featured 13-game DFS slate on DraftKings. 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 Rally Cap [$50K to 1st]
PITCHER
Stud
Hunter Brown, Houston Astros at Los Angeles Angels, $11,200 – This one’s pretty simple: Brown leads the American League in ERA, even over Tarik Skubal, and he also ranks in the top 10 in several other statistical categories. For good measure, he’s going against a team that ranks fifth-to-last in OPS during the month of June and eighth-to-last overall. Brown has only really had one bad start — a five-run, five-inning (3.9-FPT) affair against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 21 — and since then, he’s recorded 22 or more FPTS in each of his starts. The 26-year-old truly has no weaknesses — he ranks above the median in every single Statcast category — and while the Angels lead the league in barrel rate, Brown ranks in the 77th percentile, as well as the 94th percentile in hard-hit percentage and the 97th in average exit velocity.
Value
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals, $7,200 – The fact that Kershaw’s average fastball sits below 90 miles per hour is concerning, but the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer has proven himself valuable regardless. He’s pitched 12 innings of one-run ball combined over his last two outings (25.6 FPTS per game), and if he can replicate production like that again tonight, he’ll be an absolute bargain for his DFS salary. I like his chances against a struggling Nationals offense that has posted the league’s lowest OPS this month, and Kershaw will have a platoon edge over Washington’s most dangerous hitter, James Wood ($5,700), even if Wood has still been tremendous against lefties. He’s also struggled to induce chases this year, but the Nationals chase at the league’s ninth-highest rate.
INFIELDER
Stud
Spencer Torkelson, Detroit Tigers at Tampa Bay Rays, $4,500 – Effectively, this is an anytime home run bet because Torkelson doesn’t hit for average (he’s hitting .227 for the season and .194 over his last 10 games) and has no speed. But the 25-year-old can rake; his 16 homers rank fifth in the American League and his 14.0% barrel rate ranks in the 85th percentile league-wide. That might be all he needs against Shane Baz ($7,700), who, despite not having allowed any homers in his last two games, has still given up 13 long balls this season and ranks in the 27th percentile in barrel rate. He also throws his four-seamer nearly half the time, and Torkelson has a .627 slugging percentage against four-seamers this season.
Stud
Hunter Goodman, Colorado Rockies vs. Arizona Cardinals, $4,500 – Recently, the Rockies have actually been okay — they’re 5-5 in their last 10 games, and they have the league’s highest OPS in June by 24 points — and Goodman has been a major piece of that. He’ll probably be Colorado’s All-Star representative in Atlanta, and he deserves it, slashing .302/.318/.674 (11.4 FPTS per game) over his last 10 games. While he’s actually been better on the road (8.9 FPTS per game) than at home (7.3 FPTS per game), I always like a hitter at Coors Field, and that’s especially true against Zac Gallen ($7,400), who’s given up four or more earned runs in six of his last seven starts. The last time Goodman faced Gallen, he hit a two-run shot in the first inning as part of a 30-FPT effort.
Value
Xander Bogaerts, San Diego Padres vs. Kansas City Royals, $3,200 – As a Dodgers fan, Bogaerts ruined my favorite day of the week — Yoshinobu Yamamoto day — when he recorded three hits against the Japanese star, including a solo homer, en route to a 29-FPT performance. Maybe I should be concerned that he seemingly hasn’t hit anyone except Los Angeles, but he’s generally been trending upwards in the last week and a half and he also averages more FPTS at home (7.5) than he does on the road (six). Plus, Michael Lorenzen ($6,200) is prone to the occasional blow-up outing, and he ranks at or below the median in every single Statcast category besides walk rate, where Bogaerts excels.
OUTFIELDER
Stud
Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves at Miami Marlins, $6,300 – At this point, there’s nothing more that can be said about Acuña, whose hot start to the season shows no signs of ending. His slash line in the last 10 games — .469/.614/.875 (14.6 FPTS per game) — is truly mind-blowing to look at, and he’ll continue to be worth his monstrous DFS salary until he slows down. I doubt that’ll happen against Miami, which has had the league’s third-worst ERA this season and is starting a relatively untested long reliever in Janson Junk ($5,700), who has sandwiched four very good long relief outings around a four-inning, nine-hit, five-run (negative-five-FPT) disaster.
Stud
Juan Soto, New York Mets at Philadelphia Phillies, $5,400 – Despite the Mets’ six-game losing streak — a span across which Soto has slashed just .190/.346/.333 (6.2 FPTS per game) — the southpaw has really started to find his form recently. In the first 11 games of June, he put up numbers that justify his 15-year, $765-million contract, posting a 1.333 OPS and 13.9 FPTS per game. On a season-long basis, despite an underwhelming overall performance, he ranks in the league’s top decile in nine out of 13 Statcast categories, which is not something even Shohei Ohtani ($6,500) can say. It’ll be tough for him against Zack Wheeler ($10,800), who has virtually no weaknesses as a pitcher, but good hitting usually beats good pitching in the end.
Value
Addison Barger, Toronto Blue Jays vs. Chicago White Sox, $4,000 – Toronto has had an injury crisis in its outfield, with Daulton Varsho ($4,100), Nathan Lukes ($3,200), and Anthony Santander ($3,100) all on the injured list, so it means more consistent playing time and better DFS value for a player like Barger. The 25-year-old has had a solid last 10 games, slashing .289/.341/.500 across that span (7.8 FPTS per game), and he’s also averaged more FPTS at home (7.3) than on the road (6.5). I like his value against Davis Martin ($6,500), who has a tendency to give up hard hits. Barger has hit all eight of his homers against right-handed pitchers.
