This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
Thursday is a light day for baseball, and DraftKings' slate of contests is comprised of four games, the first of which starts at 12:35 p.m. ET. Hey, get your DFS lineups in, watch some MLB baseball, and then chill for the NHL and NBA playoffs. Sounds like a great Thursday to me! Here are my DFS lineup recommendations.
Pitching
Dylan Cease, CWS vs. CLE ($9,700): Hopefully Cease's last start was a sign of things to come. He has a 4.12 FIP to go with his 4.86 ERA, and last year he had a 3.09 FIP so it wouldn't be surprising to see him perform better. Cease still isn't allowing many home runs and has struck out 25.5 percent of the batters he's faced. Cleveland is down in the bottom three in runs scored, mostly because it is last in slugging percentage and home runs.
Trevor Williams, WAS at MIA ($6,400): Cease has the highest salary of any pitcher, and my other recommendation has the lowest salary. These are two punchless offenses, both in the bottom six in runs scored. The Marlins, though, are down in the bottom three, a trio that seems likely to finish as the bottom three in some order. Williams has been a mediocre pitcher in his career, this season included, but this salary and this matchup is worth a roll of the dice.
Top Target
Though Luis Robert ($4,100) has never even managed to play 100 games in a season, for DFS that doesn't really matter. What matters is that he is healthy right now, and he has 12 home runs already. Plus, since 2021 he has an 1.089 OPS versus lefties. Rookie Logan Allen is a southpaw, and while he has a 3.43 ERA through four starts, he's giving up a lot of contact. That includes righties hitting .279 against Allen.
Bargain Bat
CJ Abrams ($2,600) came to Washington as a key piece in the Juan Soto trade. He's still only 22 and has work left to do, but he has four homers and five stolen bases this season. The shortstop also has a .708 OPS versus righties in his career. Now, that's not great, but it's not bad, and it shows Abrams can at least handle himself in those matchups. I get the feeling Eury Perez is going to have a rookie season akin to Hunter Greene. He's a vaunted prospect, he has a huge fastball, he's going to strike a lot of people out, but he's also going to allow a ton of home runs. In Perez's first start, he went 4.2 innings against the Reds and struck out seven, but also allowed two home runs.
Stacks to Consider
Rays at Mets (Tylor Megill): Josh Lowe ($4,900), Brandon Lowe ($4,600), Luke Raley ($3,600)
Megill has a 4.02 ERA, but a 5.23 FIP. His strikeouts are down and his walks are up, with the only positive coming from the righty being the fact he's "only" allowed 1.12 home runs per nine innings, below his career 1.57 number. I decided to just straight-up go with three lefties from the Rays, as in his career Megill has let lefties hit .295 against him.
This game is right up Josh Lowe's alley. Not only is he enjoying a breakthrough season, in his career he has an .838 OPS versus righties and an .859 OPS on the road. Brandon Lowe has eight home runs, and while he is really struggling with lefties, he has slugged .435 against righties. Since 2021, he has a .490 slugging percentage against right-handed pitchers as well. Raley has also been bringing the power, having slugged .557 with eight homers. This is his first season getting any notable playing time, and he has an OPS over 1.000 on the road on top of everything else.
Orioles vs. Angels (Tyler Anderson): Anthony Santander ($4,700), Ryan Mountcastle ($4,500), Austin Hays ($4,200)
Anderson was not a good pitcher prior to last season with the Dodgers, and now that he's a few miles down the road it really feels like 2022 was a fluke. The lefty has a 5.79 FIP through seven starts for the Angels. He's struck out a mere 5.97 batters per nine innings and walked 4.54 batters per nine, and that's not an ideal ratio, to say the least. Since Anderson is a lefty, and he has handled southpaws this year, I went with three guys who hit right handed.
Santander is a switch hitter, but unlike Adley Rutschman, he does better against lefties. Since 2021 Santander has an .824 OPS versus southpaws, as well as an .804 OPS at home. Mountcastle hit 33 home runs in 2021, and while he dropped down to 22 in 2022, he has nine already this season. While he doesn't walk, he has slugged .501 against left handers over his last three seasons. Hays has been hitting for average, as he's batted .299 this year. He hasn't always shown power, but he has slugged .489 this year, and he's slugged .474 against lefties since 2021.
