MLB DFS Picks Today (7/8): Angels Stack vs. MacKenzie Gore

The schedule chopped Tuesday's board into two very different slates, an early FanDuel slate and an eight-game DraftKings main, and both point at the same problem. This is a concentrated day. A short list of pitchers is going to soak up almost all of the ownership, the fantasy-point projections cluster around a handful of names, and the whole question is whether you have the stomach to be different in the one or two spots where being different actually pays.

Stokastic's Eric Lindquist worked both slates in real time on MLB DFS Live Before Lock, Sims open and rerunning right up to lock. Below is the read that came out of it: the chalk arms everyone lands on, the one leverage stack we are making a stand with, and the cheap bats that make the whole build fit. Hold the Angels in mind as you read the pitching, because that stack is the reason the pitcher ownership breaks the way it does.

In Summary

• Two Slates Today. An early FanDuel slate and an eight-game DraftKings main. Build both in the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims.
• Chase Burns (CIN) and MacKenzie Gore (TEX) are the chalk aces. We play Burns heavy and go a touch under the field on Gore.
• The Los Angeles Angels (LAA) Against Gore are the leverage stand of the day, north of 10 percent and almost unowned.
• The Cleveland Guardians (CLE) are the top value stack against a reverse-split lefty. Travis Bazzana (CLE) and Kyle Manzardo (CLE) lead it.
• Roki Sasaki (LAD) at $6,800 FanDuel and Kyle Harrison (MIL) at $9,500 are the tournament arms we are overweight.
• Jake Cronenworth (SD) at $2,300 and David Fry (CLE) at $2,900 are the value bats that pay for the stacks.
• Shohei Ohtani (LAD) is the one Dodgers bat we do not fade.

Watch The Video

Watch MLB DFS Live Before Lock (7/8/26) on YouTube for the full before-lock breakdown of both slates, ownership and all.

The Pitching: Two Chalk Aces And Where The Leverage Hides

Start with the arms, because the ownership decisions here set up every stack downstream. On an eight-game DraftKings slate the field funnels onto a tiny group of pitchers, and no single arm is projected north of 20 percent because the money splits between the two obvious ones.

The one to internalize is Chase Burns. On paper the matchup looks scary, because the Phillies answered a hard right-hander by rolling out four lefties at the top of the order, and half of fantasy X spent the afternoon posting two-run home run parlays with Kyle Schwarber in them. That is the side we want no part of. Burns has traded a sliver of power for strikeouts this year and still misses bats against lefties at a 32 percent rate, so those solo-shot swings are just as likely to become punchouts. Being in Burns on two-thirds of our builds and being off the popular Phillies stack are the same decision.

Gore is the counterweight. At $8,800 he leads the popular tier and you can click him in cash without a second thought, but a strikeout-hunting righty at the top of a short slate is not a place to match the field. Going a touch under on him is a free leverage lever, and it tees up the stack we actually want to make our stand with.

Build both slates with us. Get 15 percent off any DFS or Props package with code MLBLBL at Stokastic MLB DFS The Sims run the whole board, so a $2,300 Cronenworth or an almost-unowned Angels stack surfaces before the field ever sees it.

The Stacks: Cleveland Value And The Angels Stand

Now the reason the pitcher ownership tilts the way it does. Two stacks carry this slate, and they sit at opposite ends of the ownership spectrum.

The row to sit on is Cleveland. Prielipp is a lefty whose power problem gets worse, not better, against left-handed bats, so the whole point is to attack him from that side: Kyle Manzardo and Travis Bazzana are the combination we keep coming back to, and pairing Manzardo with the platoon edge also cuts his pinch-hit risk. David Fry leads off specifically to face Prielipp three times before Minnesota goes to a righty out of the pen. It is the rare stack that is both the chalk and the value, which is why it clears 25 percent of our lineups.

The Angels are the payoff promised up top. Because everyone is on Gore and almost nobody wants the other side, the Angels sit near zero ownership on a night when Neto and Trout are batting one-two with the power to end Gore's outing early. That is the definition of a leverage stack: real upside the field has abandoned. North of 10 percent is a genuine stand on a slate this concentrated, and it is the single most differentiating decision you can make today.

The one lever that matters today: on a board everyone builds the same way, the Angels against MacKenzie Gore is the rare spot where real upside is sitting almost unowned. That is where a tournament like this gets won.

Value Bats: The Salary That Makes It Fit

Both stacks lean on cheap bats to afford the arms, and this is where the Sims earn their keep. Each of these hitters is priced like a punt and bats near the top of a lineup you actually want a piece of.

Jake Cronenworth (SD) · $2,300 · San Diego vs Jose Cabrera — priced like a punt but batting near the top most nights, and the single most appealing piece of value on the board. He is the reason you can fit a second stack.

David Fry (CLE) · $2,900 · Cleveland vs Connor Prielipp — leading off to get three cracks at the reverse-split lefty before Minnesota turns to the pen. The pinch-hit risk is real late, but three at-bats at this price is a gift for your salary cap.

PCA (CHC) · $4,300 · Chicago Cubs vs Dean Kremer — the FanDuel value that ties the Cubs stack together. He hits the ball hard and runs, so he scores fantasy points more ways than one.

Bazzana is the one we keep circling in the same breath. He is one of the best pieces of the Cleveland stack and a live home-run play against a lefty who cannot keep the ball in the yard, which is exactly why the top value stack and the best cheap bat are the same team today. Round it out with a one-off like Gunnar Henderson (BAL) at $3,100, a shortstop priced far below his ceiling.

A Worked Build: Two Arms And The Cleveland Five

Here is the single-entry construction we keep coming back to, and it is the whole reason we picked the cheap bats first. Pair the two arms we trust most, Chase Burns and Roki Sasaki, and let the strikeout upside carry the pitching rather than paying all the way up. From there the Cleveland five does the offensive work against Prielipp: Travis Bazzana and Kyle Manzardo from the left side, David Fry leading off, plus Gabriel Arias and one more Guardian at the bottom of the order.

That leaves exactly enough salary for the pieces that turn a chalk lineup into a tournament one. Zack Neto is the shortstop, the cheapest way into the Angels leverage stack, and Shohei Ohtani is the one Dodgers bat we will not fade. Jake Cronenworth at $2,300 is the last slot, the punt that makes all of it fit.

• Pitching: Chase Burns and Roki Sasaki, strikeout upside over raw salary.
• The Stack: a Cleveland five with Bazzana and Manzardo attacking Prielipp from the left side.
• Leverage: Zack Neto in for the almost-unowned Angels, plus Shohei Ohtani as the lone Dodger.
• The Punt: Jake Cronenworth at $2,300 to keep the whole build under the cap.

The read that ties it together is the one we opened with. The crowded parts of this build, Burns and a chunk of Cleveland, are where you and the field agree, and that is fine. The lineup wins or loses on the two spots nobody else wanted: an Angels bat in for Neto and the conviction to run it.

FanDuel And DraftKings Notes

Treat these as two separate problems. The early FanDuel slate opens up teams like the Cubs and Washington and rewards pitching deep, which is why Sasaki and the Cubs travel best there. The eight-game DraftKings main is tighter, and it is where the Angels stand and the Cleveland value do the heavy lifting.

The Dodgers are the one team we are under the field on across the board, with a single exception: Shohei Ohtani (LAD) looks nuclear again, and there is no walking into a tournament without him. Arizona is the pivot to be careful with. Corbin Carroll (ARI) and Ketel Marte (ARI) are viable on any slate, but this Arizona team ranks dead last against righties at an 81 wRC+, so we would rather not be at 11 percent there when the same salary buys a cleaner spot.

If a strikeout prop catches your eye while you build, shop it first: Kyle Harrison's number sits on the OddsShopper MLB strikeout props screen at the best available price across the market.

How We Build It

Every read above starts in the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims and projections. The Sims run millions of simulations of the slate to produce projections, projected ownership and leverage, which is exactly how a $2,300 Cronenworth or an almost-unowned Angels stack surfaces as a play in the first place. Drop your stacks into the single-lineup Sim and it fills the rest of the roster around them, then rerun right before lock to catch scratches like Hunter Goodman sitting out in Colorado. Pair this recap with today's full MLB DFS picks board for every projection.

FAQ

What are the best MLB DFS plays today, July 8? Chase Burns and MacKenzie Gore are the chalk aces, the Angels are the leverage stack against Gore, Cleveland is the top value stack against a reverse-split lefty, and Cronenworth and David Fry are the cheap bats that make the build fit.

Why go under the field on the Dodgers? The Dodgers stack is popular and expensive, and on a concentrated slate we would rather spend up on the almost-unowned Angels. The one exception is Shohei Ohtani, who is too good to leave out of a tournament lineup.

Should I stack the Phillies against Chase Burns? We are not. The field is loading Schwarber-and-Harper home run parlays, but Burns misses bats against lefties at a 32 percent rate, so we would rather roster Burns than bet the four lefties at the top beat him.

More on this:

• MLB DFS Hub: Every Live Stokastic MLB Page
• MLB DFS Live Before Lock Picks: August 17, 2026
• How To Build Winning MLB DFS Lineups (DraftKings & FanDuel)
• MLB DFS Picks Today (8/18): Gausman Is Chalk On A 17-Point Pitching Slate

The Bottom Line

Zoom back out and this slate is simple to describe and hard to execute. Nearly all of the projection lives in a few names, the field knows it, and the ownership on Burns, Gore and the popular stacks is going to be heavy no matter what you do. The edge is not finding the plays. It is having the conviction to make the Angels stand against Gore, to attack Prielipp from the left side with Cleveland, and to use the cheap bats up top to afford both. Get those decisions right and the crowded parts of your build stop being a liability and start being where you and the field simply agree, while your leverage hides in the spots nobody else wanted.

Run it back with the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims, and take 15 percent off any DFS or Props package with code MLBLBL. Thanks to MLB DFS Live Before Lock for the read. Now go build.