MLB DFS Picks Today (8/7): Rasmussen At $9,700
August 7, 2026
Drew Rasmussen — one of the featured players on today's slate.
The Quick Answer
Friday's 12-game MLB DFS slate doesn't have a Coors Field game or an Athletics home date at Sutter Health Park, so there's no obvious dart-throw park to overpay for. That's exactly why the pitcher we keep coming back to is Drew Rasmussen (TB, $9,700), who gets a road trip to Seattle with a strikeout rate that's been climbing for weeks, at a $300 discount to the slate's most expensive arm. The full pitcher board, why Boston, Miami and Cleveland lead the stacks without needing a premium, and what a small Sims boost actually does to Rasmussen's exposure are below.
Watch The Video
The full breakdown of Friday's 12-game slate, built live in the Stokastic MLB Data Hub, including the pitcher-by-pitcher rundown and the live Sims exposure boost. Watch on YouTube.
A Flat Slate With No Park To Chase
Twelve games, 24 pitchers, and not one of them projects for more than 18.7 fantasy points. That's unusually flat for a slate this size, and it sets up the rest of the day: seven of the teams in play carry sub-4.0 implied totals, and there's no Coors Field or Sutter Health Park game to inflate a stack artificially. With the extreme-hitting parks off the board, the edges have to come from matchups and pricing instead, which is where Rasmussen's spot stands out.
Rasmussen's Strikeout Surge Is The Slate's Best Value
Rasmussen has quietly turned into one of the best strikeout arms in baseball. His season strikeout rate is up to 26.5%, paired with just a 4% walk rate, for a roughly 22% K-BB rate that ranks near the top of the league. That number isn't a one-start blip: over his last two starts he struck out 45% of batters he faced, then 38% in the one before that. Tonight he leaves a good pitcher's park in Tampa Bay for an even better one in Seattle, against a Mariners lineup that ranks 28th in ISO against right-handed pitching and doesn't offer a dominant strikeout rate to offset it. His strikeout prop sits at 5.5, priced at -132 to the over on FanDuel.
The price gap is the tell. Logan Gilbert (SEA, $10,000) is the most expensive arm on the board and a fine play in his own right, but Rasmussen gets there for $9,700 in a matchup we like slightly better, and the field is currently rostering him at just 11% ownership. That's light for this profile, and it's the gap we spend the rest of this article boosting.
| Pitcher | Salary | Strikeout prop | The read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logan Gilbert (SEA) | $10,000 | — | Slate's priciest arm; 20% Sims exposure |
| Drew Rasmussen (TB) | $9,700 | 5.5 (over -132) | 26.5% K rate, 22% K-BB; 11% field owned |
| Nathan Eovaldi (TEX) | $9,500 | — | Slate's top projection at 18.7 points; 25% owned |
| Payton Tolle (BOS) | $9,000 | 6.5 (over -154) | Field's second-most-owned arm; our builds run him near 2x that |
| Max Fried (NYY) | $8,700 | 5.5 (under) | First start against his former team, Atlanta; capped at 78 pitches since injury |
| Kyle Leahy (STL) | $7,700 | — | Sub-3 home ERA; Busch Stadium playing pitcher-friendly this year |
| Shane Drohan (MIL) | $8,000 | — | Minnesota's 127 ISO vs. lefties is 4th-worst in MLB; Buxton still out |
| Jack Perkins (ATH) | $6,400 | — | 27% K rate but hasn't strung together a clean start; low-confidence |
| Kevin Gausman (CHC) | n/a | — | Hit-or-miss since May; facing Kansas City |
Shane Drohan's row is the one worth a second look. He's a lefty at a flat $8,000 facing a Minnesota lineup that owns a .127 ISO against left-handed pitching, the fourth-worst mark in the league, and Byron Buxton still hasn't resumed baseball activities. Zebby Matthews takes the mound for the Twins in that same game, a spot-start call-up who struck out 10 in his last look at Seattle, but Drohan's matchup on the other side is the one drawing real Sims exposure at 10% field ownership.
Boston, Miami And Cleveland Lead The Bats Without A Premium
Because seven teams are sitting under a 4.0 implied total and there's no standout hitter's park in play, the stacking pool stays cheap. Boston's 5.5 implied total is the slate's highest, built around a lineup facing Athletics starter Jack Perkins, and the Red Sox rank third in stack score. Miami checks in at 5.2 against Angels starter George Klassen and grades No. 1 in value on the slate, since its most expensive bat, Otto Lopez, is priced at just $4,300. Cleveland's 4.7 total against Chicago's Noah Schultz still ranks top five or six in value. St. Louis (4.9, against Colorado's Ryan Feltner) rounds out the group. The Yankees-Braves game, Max Fried's spot against his old team, is the one matchup on the slate where weather could be a factor worth checking closer to lock.
| Batter | Team | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shohei Ohtani | LAD | 39% | Slots into cheaper builds without needing a Dodgers stack |
| Kyle Stowers | MIA | 36% | Part of a discounted Marlins lineup at a 5.2 total |
| Jose Ramirez | CLE | 33% | $5,000; stolen-base upside even off a modest return from the IL |
| Jarren Duran | BOS | 29% | Top of the slate's highest-total stack |
| Ceddanne Rafaela | BOS | 25% | Second piece of the Red Sox build |
| Otto Lopez | MIA | 21% | Highest-priced Marlins bat at just $4,300 |
| Caleb Durbin | BOS | 20% | Third Red Sox bat drawing real exposure |
| Masataka Yoshida | BOS | 19% | Fourth Boston bat in the mix |
| Zach Neto | LAA | 12% | Lone real name from the Angels' build |
| Salvador Perez | KC | 12% | Facing Kevin Gausman's now-Cubs matchup |
Xavier Edwards is the row that stands out even without cracking the top 10. He's the highest-projected second baseman on the entire slate at just $3,900, which is what a 5.2 team total and a discounted Miami lineup does to pricing up and down the roster, not just at the top.
Worked Example: What A Small Sims Boost Does To Rasmussen
We ran the six-uniques exposure a second way to see how much room Rasmussen actually has. On the default build, he sits well behind the field's most-rostered arms. Give him a 10% manual boost in the Sims and our exposure to him climbs to 14%. Push the boost to 15% and he's up to 18%, essentially matching Logan Gilbert's own 20% exposure at $300 more. Everything else in the player pool comes down slightly, but Tolle, Eovaldi and Drohan stay the most-rostered arms even after the boost. That's the workflow worth copying: start with a small boost, check what it actually buys you, and only go further if the exposure keeps climbing without forcing it.
The Bottom Line
Friday's slate doesn't hand you a Coors Field shortcut, so the edge is in the pricing gaps instead. That $9,700 price on a pitcher facing a bottom-third power lineup, with a strikeout rate that's still trending up, is the single biggest one on the board, and Boston, Miami and Cleveland give you stacks with real value grades instead of a total you have to overpay to access. Run your own MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the Data Hub before lock, and check the correlation strategy guide if you're sizing Boston or Miami as your primary build.
Get The Stokastic MLB Sims
Every number above comes from the Stokastic MLB Sims, the same run that flagged Rasmussen's price gap and Miami's $3,900 second baseman before Friday's slate locks. Use code MLBSTRATEGY for 10% off any Stokastic DFS or Props package, weekly, monthly or all-access.
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For the full board and projected ownership, head to the MLB DFS picks hub, or sharpen the process with the Stokastic Sims tutorial and the multi-entry strategy guide. Newer to slate construction? Start with how to win at MLB DFS and the MLB DFS glossary before you build.
More on this: MLB DFS Hub: Every Live Stokastic MLB Page · MLB DFS Picks Today (9/16) · MLB DFS Primer For DraftKings And FanDuel