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Wow, it's yet ANOTHER massive Friday slate with fourteen games on both the FanDuel and DraftKings main slates! After a week off from this column, I am back to try to break it down for you and get your research started by offering some of my favorite picks for tonight's MLB DFS slate.
This slate is loaded from top to bottom with pitching and hitting, and I think we are likely to see the recent trend of really high scores continue as offenses around the league continue to heat up with the weather. There is no shortage of aces on this slate, either, although most of them have pretty difficult match-ups. You can always play these high-end starters anyway and count on good pitching beating good hitting, but my pitching picks will trend down towards the mid-tier where we have a few "good" pitchers facing some pretty bad offenses.
As always, this article will provide my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Friday's main slate locks at 7:05 EST on 6/24/2022. The lineup picks will range from some elite high-priced players to mid-priced options, and value plays. I'll give you a few of my top pitching options and then some infielders, outfielders, and teams to stack! You can also read more DFS advice and lineup picks for other sports here. It's also essential to monitor injury news and today's MLB starting lineups. Now that we got all of that out of the way, it's onto the picks!
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DraftKings, FanDuel Pitchers - MLB DFS Lineup Picks
Merrill Kelly vs. DET ($7,900 DK, $8,900 FD)
I have been a pretty strong advocate for Kelly going back to last season and while he has had a few stinkers this year, he's still pitching better than most people would like to admit. He's gone six or more innings now in three straight starts and is coming off a really solid outing against Minnesota in which he struck out five without walking anyone and allowed only one run over seven innings.
Kelly's velocity was back up in that game, as he was sitting around 93-94 MPH on his 2-seam and 4-seam fastball and he even touched 95 a few times. He's a crafty pitcher who mixes his pitches well and while he does allow the ball to be put into play, he usually finds a way to get outs. Detroit is slowly warming back up, but this team is still pretty bad overall offensively and Kelly has a chance at spinning a good one here if he has that good velocity and control. His FD price is a bit steep for his lack of strikeouts, but I think he makes for a really solid SP2 over on DraftKings.
Jeffrey Springs vs. PIT ($8,500 DK, $8,300 FD)
Springs has been getting it done with strikeouts but disappointed a bit against the Orioles in his last start when he couldn't finish the fifth inning and yielded four runs on seven hits. I have been on him pretty much every start since he broke into the rotation as I think he's a really solid young pitcher with promise. Those four earned runs he allowed were the most in any start he's made this season, and I think he can get back on track here against a Pirates offense that is full of young, free-swinging hitters. Only Ke'Bryan Hayes has a K% under 20% in Pittsburgh's projected starting lineup tonight. I like Springs here at home in a solid match-up and in a great park for pitchers.
Also consider: Aaron Nola, Michael Kopech, Alek Manoah
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DraftKings, FanDuel Infielders - MLB DFS Lineup Picks
Nolan Gorman - 2B, STL vs. Kyle Hendricks ($3,700 DK, $3,100 FD)
The rookie second baseman has been a big boost to this St. Louis offense this year. The Cards are loaded up with right-handed bats, but Gorman and Brendan Donovan give them two solid lefty sticks that they can use to break up the righties. Whether he hits up in the 2-hole or further down the lineup, Gorman has been productive and has a .364 wOBA and .247 ISO against RHP this season. Hendricks is showing strong splits this year with lefties hitting him considerably harder. Gorman has some pop in his bat, with six home runs already, and his one weakness (strikeouts - with a 31% K rate) should be mitigated here against Hendricks who simply doesn't whiff many hitters (16% K rate).
Christian Walker - 1B, ARI vs. Rony Garcia ($3,900 DK, $2,900 FD)
Sticking with the value theme here, why not attack Garcia with some Diamondbacks hitters tonight? Garcia hasn't been terrible, but he has allowed a lot of loud contact to opponents and has only a 28% groundball rate against RHH this season. Ignore Walker's .208 average, he's been one of the unluckiest players in baseball in terms of batted balls going for hits. Instead, let's focus on the fact that he has 19 home runs with two weeks to play before the All-Star break and three in his last four games. He has multiple hits in three of his last four, too. He's constantly underpriced and slept on by much of the field, don't be afraid to fire him up as a cheap one-off or a piece of a Snakes stack.
Evan Longoria - 3B, SFG vs. Graham Ashcraft ($3,000 DK, $2,300 FD)
If you want someone to pick the top six hitters off a projections page, go read someone else's article! To me, that's not helpful! It's pretty easy to recommend Byron Buxton, Aaron Judge, and Paul Goldschmidt every day. What's tougher is getting some value pieces right and finding some spots that others won't because they are not willing to dig deep enough!
Okay, I said all of that to justify why I am recommending yet another cheap hitter and a guy who probably won't be mentioned anywhere else in the industry today. Longoria missed the first three weeks of the season and has been pretty average at best up to this point. But he's showing some signs of getting it going with a four-game hitting streak. While many might look at the Giants lefties tonight against Ashcraft, I will point out that he's been really tough on LHH allowing only a .071 ISO and getting a ton of ground balls (66%).
However, Ashcraft is allowing 45% hard contact to righties and his GB% drops 20% to 46%. He throws a hard cutter and sinker with his slider being his offspeed pitch. A lot of cutter pitchers end up with reverse splits, so this makes some sense and Longo can handle the cutter. He has the best profile of any Giants hitter today against this unique pitch mix and the wind just happens to be projected to blow out to left field! Can we get a 1% owned dong tonight, Evan, please?
DraftKings, FanDuel Outfielders - MLB DFS Lineup Picks
Andrew Vaughn - OF, CHW vs. Austin Voth ($3,900 DK, $3,100 FD)
While the White Sox trolled me last night and did absolutely nothing against Dean Kremer (they did have seven hits off him to be fair, they just failed to score), I think I have to consider going back to them a bit here tonight as Austin Voth is making another start for the Orioles. Voth has an ERA over 8 and has been terrible as both a reliever and starter. He has some pretty strong reverse splits, which plays into Chicago's strength as they have mainly right-handed bats in this lineup. Chicago has been pretty "meh" for much of the season, but should finally have Tim Anderson and Luis Robert back in the lineup together on either side of Vaughn. Last year, Vaughn was mainly a platoon player against LHP, but he's shown he can hit RHP and has earned playing time as an everyday player this year by putting up a .365 wOBA against righties.
Jarren Duran - OF, BOS vs. Cal Quantrill ($3,500 DK, $2,700 FD)
This one shouldn't need too much justification, but here it goes anyway. Duran has been thriving as the new leadoff man for the Sox since being called back up. He's been on base in every game but one since his promotion and is driving the ball for extra bases and swiping bags. Quantrill is a mediocre pitcher who doesn't miss bats and has been worse against lefties. While Boston doesn't have a top-five implied total, we know this offense is very good and Duran at the top of this order should have a solid floor for cash games nightly. He's still a pretty solid bargain on both sites, I wouldn't hesitate to deploy him in cash games.
Yordan Alvarez - OF, HOU vs. Luis Severino ($5,700 DK, $4,200 FD)
Finally, we have a high-priced hitter! But will people play Yordan tonight in what is perceived as a tough match-up against a red-hot Sevvy on the bump? I hope they don't because I want him all to myself (okay, I guess some of you can play him, too, but some of you STILL won't either!)
Alvarez has been the best hitter on the planet this year, I'm not sure if that's even up for debate. He has four homers in his last three games and is now up to 21 on the season. With a short porch in left field and a hard-throwing righty on the mound, I have to play Alvarez here. He can turn around a 96 MPH fastball with the best of them and I think he has the upper hand in this match-up even though Sevvy has been lights out this season.
DraftKings, FanDuel MLB DFS Stacks
Here are my top stacks for tonight (in the order in which I like them)
- White Sox (5.0 implied run total) vs. Austin Voth (4.93 xFIP)
- Dodgers (5.1 implied run total) vs. Ian Anderson (4.96 xFIP)
- Cardinals (5.1 implied run total) vs. Kyle Hendricks (5.18 xFIP)
The only team I didn't mention in the player blurbs was the Dodgers, but I think they are absolutely worth a look tonight if you can find the value to fit in their salaries. Anderson is largely overrated and the Dodgers are fresh off a beating of Hunter Greene. I usually like the Cardinals more against LHP, but Hendricks is really hittable and the Cubs bullpen has gone downhill recently.
I hope I gave you a head start on your research today and I wish you the best of luck! If you ever have questions about DFS or fantasy baseball, my DMs are always open and I appreciate you taking the time to read my picks today.
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