Welcome to the final Friday of the MLB regular season. There’s a lot going on in the baseball world as we head into the weekend. The National League playoff race is still wide open and there’s a few doubleheaders on tap to clog the schedule; but, at the very least, there doesn’t seem to be any weather to worry about. It’s something, right?

Here are my top offenses to stack this evening on DraftKings.

Set your DraftKings lineups here: MLB $150K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st]

1. Atlanta Braves

You know what? It’s the final Friday of the regular season, so let’s close things out exactly how they began: By stacking all possible assets against the terrible Red Sox pitching staff. Now, to be fair to Chris Mazza ($5,600), the right-hander has been far from the team’s worst arm in 2020. In fact, Mazza’s only surrendered a barrelled ball in 1.8% of opponent plate appearances — one of the lowest marks in baseball among pitchers with at least 50 batted ball events. However, we’re also talking about a small sample size for a 30-year-old with five MLB starts under his belt and a massive .322 expected batting average this season. Mazza is far from unhittable, the bullpen behind him is worse and the Braves come into this slate leading all teams in wOBA (.357) and wRC+ (122). This could get ugly.

Players to Consider

Ronald Acuna Jr. ($5,900)
Freddie Freeman ($5,400)
Ozzie Albies ($5,400)
Marcell Ozuna ($4,900)
Travis d’Arnaud ($4,800)

Editor’s Note: Braves 1B Freddie Freeman and C Travis d’Arnaud are not in the lineup for tonight’s game vs. the Red Sox.

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2. Chicago Cubs

While Dylan Cease’s ($8,200) raw stuff has never been in doubt — there’s not too many starters with the ability to average 97.5 mph with their fastball — the 24-year-old is also the type of pitcher that can be prone to blowups. Really, you just have to take a quick glance at Cease’s numbers from 2019 to understand what I’m talking about. Equipped with a 10.7% walk rate and a 1.55 WHIP, the top prospect pitched to a putrid 5.79 ERA across his 73.0 innings of work. This season, despite his walk rate ballooning to 13.7% and his strikeout rate falling to 16.7%, Cease owns a 3.52 ERA. Believe me, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more fraudulent figure in baseball. The RHP has been incredibly lucky, surviving on unstable marks in both strand rate (81.9%) and opponent BABIP (.240). Specifically, he’s walked 12 men in his past two outings and, if Cease is wild again this evening, the Cubs will make him pay.

Players to Consider

Willson Contreras ($4,300)
Anthony Rizzo ($4,300)
Ian Happ ($4,200)
Kyle Schwarber ($3,900)
Jason Heyward ($3,700)

3. San Diego Padres

When in doubt, stack against the pitcher with a high contact rate and an even higher fly ball rate, right? Generally speaking, you want to be attacking Tyler Anderson ($6,600) when he’s pitching outside of San Francisco. Unfortunately, this slate is pretty ripe with quality arms, so we’ll sort of have to ignore the fact that Anderson’s held opponents to a minuscule .251 wOBA at home in 2020. Still, in a larger sense, the left-hander’s tendencies are worrisome. Anderson’s 15.8% strikeout rate is a career-low by a wide margin, while his 28.6% opponent line drive rate is the highest mark of any starter that’s thrown at least 50.0 innings. The 30-year-old’s 0.64 GB/FB ratio is also among the lowest figures in baseball, which could be a factor against a Padres team that currently sits sixth in home runs (89). Plus, with this being a seven-inning contest, you might get some of San Diego’s big bats at lower ownership than usual.

Players to Consider

Manny Machado ($5,500)
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($5,300)
Wil Myers ($5,000)
Eric Hosmer ($5,000)
Austin Nola ($4,500)

4. Boston Red Sox

This sets up to be a relatively high scoring affair, as Kyle Wright’s ($6,200) season has been nothing but bleak. Yes, the 24-year-old is coming off his best outing of 2020 — throwing 6.1 scoreless innings against the Mets on Sunday — yet that start is the exception to the rule. In fact, for his career as a whole, Wright owns a ridiculous 15.2% walk rate; a number that he pairs with a robust 1.89 HR/9. If you’d like to just focus on the struggles contained to this truncated campaign, Wright possesses a .551 expected slugging percentage, a .407 expected wOBA and a 7.08 expected ERA — the fourth-worst mark for any pitcher that’s faced at least 140 batters. In short, the top prospect has proven he’s not quite ready to pitch at this level. He’s only here due to injury and I expect Boston is aware of the scenario.

Players to Consider

Rafael Devers ($5,200)
Xander Bogaerts ($4,900)
J.D. Martinez ($4,300)
Alex Verdugo ($3,900)
Bobby Dalbec ($3,900)

Editor’s Note: Red Sox 3B Rafael Devers and SS Xander Bogaerts are not in the lineup for tonight’s game vs. the Braves.

Set your DraftKings lineups here: MLB $150K Relay Throw [$50K to 1st]

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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is theglt13) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.