This article is part of our Yahoo DFS Baseball series.
Memorial Day Weekend and baseball go hand in hand. Saturday is busy, but not so much in the evening with only six games starting at 7:05 p.m. ET or later. Here are my recommendations for your DFS lineups.
Pitching
Joe Musgrove, SD vs. PIT ($51): Things have been good for Musgrove after he left Pittsburgh for San Diego with a 1.90 ERA through eight starts. Now he'll be facing his former team, who happen to rank 29th in runs scored.
Tony Gonsolin, LAD at ARI ($43): Gonsolin got himself an extra day of rest, so now he's starting Saturday. He's pitched great as his 1.62 ERA will show and has some real offensive support behind him. The Diamondbacks are just on the outside of the bottom-10 in runs scored, and their team OBP is hovering around .300.
Jose Urquidy, HOU at SEA ($37): Urquidy is coming off his best start of the season and has posted a 2.61 ERA over his last four outings. The Mariners started the season well, but they've fallen off since with an 18-27 record while sitting in the bottom-10 in runs scored.
Top Targets
This is a tough Saturday for finding pitchers to target, so I'm going to the top of the list here. That is to say, Mike Trout ($24). He's already appeared in more games this season than last year and has produced a 1.080 OPS across the last two campaigns. Trout will be facing the lefty Yusei Kikuchi, who's managed a 4.38 FIP in his first season with the Blue Jays.
Vladimir Guerrero ($14) was experiencing a bit of a power outage, but he's hit a homer in two of his last three games. He sent 48 long last season to go with a .601 slugging percentage, so an uptick in power was to be expected. In his first year as a starter since his rookie campaign and his first with the Angels, Michael Lorenzen has recorded a 4.08 FIP along with a 4.13 ERA in all games not involving the Oakland Athletics.
Bargain Bats
It took Andrew Vaughn ($15) a few games to get going after returning from the IL, but he's been hitting with gusto the last couple of weeks slashing .375/.412/.531. Keegan Thompson has looked great for the Cubs, but he's primarily pitched in relief. Having to work as a starter is a different thing, and the bullpen will likely be involved early.
Last season, Frank Schwindel ($13) surprised by slashing .326/.371/.591 with 14 homers in only 64 games. He's getting a chance to DH this year thanks to the rule change, and has been picking it up after a slow start with an .856 OPS and four homers over the last two weeks. Johnny Cueto hasn't allowed a run after two starts. That's great! He also struggled to a 4.59 ERA the three previous seasons. (That's not so great!)
Stacks to Consider
Padres vs. JT Brubaker ($32): Manny Machado ($23), Eric Hosmer ($15), Luke Voit ($15)
Brubaker has posted a 4.64 ERA that - if maintained - would be a personal low as his career mark is 5.12. On top of that, he's allowed 1.64 home runs per nine innings. Petco Park isn't always kind to hitters, but Brubaker tends to be and I still like this stack.
I talk about Petco being friendly to pitchers, and then Machado has to put me in the awkward position of noting he's produced a .978 OPS at home since 2020. He's also registered eight home runs and seven stolen bases this season. Hosmer has slowed down after a hot start, but he still maintains a .331/.397/.459 slash line, and the lefty is getting to face a righty. Voit has missed some time this year, but he's slashed .263/.355/.496 through his career and has two 20-homer seasons to his name.
Dodgers vs. Merrill Kelly ($33): Freddie Freeman ($21), Will Smith ($17), Cody Bellinger ($13)
Memorial Day Weekend is a good time to remember how the heat of summer tends to lead to runs in Arizona. Offenses have gotten after Kelly the last few times he's taken the mound and that's led to a 10.50 ERA from his last three starts. That includes a game in LA against these same Dodgers where they hung eight runs on him in only two innings.
Freeman is kicking it back into gear and recently snapped a home-run drought. He's primed to hit .300 for the third-straight season and since 2020 has a .996 OPS against righties. Smith is one of the best catchers you can find for your DFS lineup with a career .887 OPS and 25 home runs last season. Bellinger is all-or-nothing these days, but the lefty can do damage against a right-handed pitcher. He's also picked up five homers and six stolen bases.
