The Major League Baseball season has reached its halfway point, with the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers on pace to win 100 games. Both of those teams are part of tonight’s featured eight-game DFS slate as they seek their 51st wins of the campaign.
Of course, the two teams’ rosters are star-studded, so in order to fit their top players into your lineup tonight, you’ll need to pair them with some budget options. Here are some of my favorites:
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $150K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st].
SP Dietrich Enns, Detroit Tigers vs. Athletics, $6,500
I whiffed on both of the last two starters to get called up for their season debuts, so while Enns isn’t the quality of Jacob Misiorowski or Chase Burns, he has had a 2.89 ERA in 62.1 innings with Triple-A Toledo this season. The 34-year-old is somewhat of a known commodity despite pitching in the Japanese and Korean leagues over the last three seasons, but he was solid as a reliever in his last MLB season in 2021, pitching to a 2.82 ERA over nine relief appearances with the Tampa Bay Rays. He ranked in the league’s top quartile in seven of the 13 Statcast categories that season.
It’s not like the Athletics have a particularly dangerous lineup away from Sutter Health Park. This season, they have the league’s ninth-best offense overall, but their OPS is .749 at home and just .713 on the road. The Athletics have also been cold for the better part of the month, posting just a .713 OPS so far in June. In his last MLB season, Enns’ biggest issues were his struggles to induce whiffs or ground balls, and this season, the Athletics have whiffed at an above-average rate and hit grounders at the league’s seventh-highest clip.
2B/3B Kiké Hernández, Los Angeles Dodgers at Colorado Rockies, $3,800
The Dodgers have tended to start the fan favorite against left-handed pitchers, and the last time they did so, last Friday against the Washington Nationals, Hernández was excellent, going two-for-three with two doubles and two runs scored (16 FPTS). For his career, the Puerto Rican has an OPS 120 points better against southpaws than against righties, so even if there hasn’t been a noticeable difference this season, the logic behind the platoon makes sense. Michael Conforto ($3,900) or Max Muncy ($5,000), both of whom have had excellent series, might get the day off, and the ultra-versatile Hernández has played every position except catcher in his MLB career.
Hernández — or, frankly, any player in Los Angeles’ lineup — should be good against Austin Gomber ($4,500), who gave up nine runs on 12 hits in 4.2 innings (-15.3 FPTS) in his most recent start last Friday. His shaky performance could be chalked up to nerves — it was just his second start of the season — but over six-plus seasons in the MLB, he hasn’t shown a long pedigree of success, posting a sub-four ERA just once in a season in which he pitched just 29 innings. Gomber led the NL in home runs conceded last season, and frankly, his only real skill is his control. Walking hasn’t typically been one of Hernández’s skills; lacing the cover off the ball has.
OF Randy Arozarena, Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins, $4,000
Arozarena has been a staple on the base paths over the last week and a half, posting a .286/.419/.429 slash line to improve his season OPS to .754. He’s recorded eight or more FPTS in five of his last seven games, making him a consistent fantasy asset. He’s also posted 1.2 more FPTS per game on the road than he has at home, so I like his fantasy ceiling better at Target Field, the fifth-most hitter-friendly park in baseball, than I do at T-Mobile Park, the least hitter-friendly venue.
Plus, I don’t trust Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson ($7,200). Like all starters in Minnesota’s rotation as of late, Woods Richardson is prone to the occasional blow-up, as he did on May 14 and June 10, when he gave up six earned runs in each contest. The 24-year-old gives up barrels at just a ninth-percentile rate and also has below-average control, which should pair will with Arozarena, who laces the cover off the ball and has excellent plate discipline despite whiffing and striking out too frequently. The Cuban also ranks ninth in the American League in stolen bases this season, and Woods Richardson has a negative-one Net Bases Prevented figure.
