Happy Memorial Day! Because of the holiday, there is a lot of MLB action, but much of it is in the afternoon. In the evening, there are six games starting at 6:10 p.m. ET or later. Here are some holiday MLB DFS lineup recommendations. Good luck!
Pitching
Randy Vasquez, SDP vs. PHI ($9,600): It's now 10 starts into this season for Vasquez, and he still has a 2.96 ERA. Sure, he has a 3.67 FIP, but that's not too shabby, and his 7.41 K/9 rate is viable, as opposed to where he has been the prior couple of seasons. These are two teams in the bottom 10 in runs scored, so I'm expecting a low-scoring game, especially given that it is in San Diego.
Emmet Sheehan, LAD vs. COL ($8,600): Sheehan has not built upon last season in full, mostly because he has been homer prone, which wasn't the case last season. However, he does have a 3.76 ERA at home, because his homer issues have shown up more on the road. This is after he had an 1.85 ERA at Dodger Stadium last year. The Rockies have a sub-.700 OPS as a team while playing home games at Coors Field, so I am hoping Sheehan can handle this matchup.
Top Targets
There is a smidge of conflicting reportage vis-à-vis who will start for the Rockies (though the Rotowire starting pitching grid tends to be correct on that front) so to be on the safe side I'm going with a righty in Andy Pages ($3,600): Whoever starts for the Rockies is going to be a low-level MLB pitcher, but this allows me to not worry about a lefty seeing a lot of action on the mound. Pages has hit .282 with 11 homers and six stolen bases, and he's a big fan of Dodger Stadium. He has a career .874 OPS at home.
Well, it didn't take Travis Bazzana ($3,500) long to get into Top Target territory. To be fair, he is a second baseman with a .400 OBP. The lefty also just hit his third homer, so I am taking a bit of a shot on him here. Zack Littell has a 7.33 FIP in part because he's been remarkably homer prone. He's allowed 2.91 homers per nine innings! That's not super fluky, either, as he gave up 1.74 homers per nine last year over 32 starts.
Bargain Bats
Though Josh Naylor ($3,000) has started this season a bit slow, he still has five homers and 12 stolen bases. Plus, these days a .246 batting average isn't too bad. Also, his primary issue is that he's been terrible against lefties, but he's primed to face a right-handed starter Monday. That would be Aaron Civale, who has a 4.90 FIP compared to his 3.31 ERA, and on top of that lefties have hit .297 against him.
As has long been the case, the job presented to Joc Pederson ($2,500) is to hit for power against right-handed pitching. To that end, over the last three weeks he has a .949 OPS. Meanwhile, Tatsuya Imai's style of pitching hasn't translated to MLB from Japan yet, and it may never. Through five starts he has an 8.31 ERA and an 2.08 HR/9 rate.
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Stack to Consider
Athletics vs. Mariners (Luis Castillo): Nick Kurtz ($4,200), Zack Gelof ($3,000), Carlos Cortes ($2,800)
The plan seems to be for Castillo to start this game and for Bryce Miller to follow him in a tandem situation. Castillo has a 6.41 ERA this year. Miller had a 5.68 ERA last year. They are both right-handed as well. I have two lefties in this stack, as lefties have hit .276 against Castillo since 2024, but I do have one righty, as righties have hit .300 against him this season.
Kurtz has proven not to be a fluke, and he's not experiencing a sophomore slump. He has a .448 OBP with eight homers and six stolen bases. In his career he has an OPS over 1.000 against righties, and also an OPS over 1.000 at home. Gelof doesn't get on base much, but he has six home runs and six swiped bags. Eligible at second base and third base, Gelof has slugged .493 over the last three weeks. The 29-year-old Cortes has had a surprisingly impressive season, but he's yet to slow down. He's slashed .350/.430/.553 with 14 extra-base hits.
