Welcome to the MLB Yahoo Cup Hot Corner! This free-to-enter, single-entry fantasy baseball contest consists of 27 rounds where the top 1,075 overall entries and the top 70 entries per round share $10,000, with $1,000 to first and $50 to first per round. Scoring will be cumulative across all rounds, with your seven lowest scores dropped at the end. You may join this multi-round MLB DFS contest at any point, but enter today to give yourself the best chance to take home the title. Click here to begin the chase!
We will focus on three players — one pitcher, one infielder and one outfielder — to be MLB DFS picks for tonight’s MLB Yahoo Cup contest.
MLB Yahoo Cup Fantasy Baseball Picks | Round 25
MLB DFS Pitcher: Jordan Montgomery — $38
With just three weeks left in the MLB Yahoo Cup, now is the time to make moves. That means targeting ceiling above all else and embracing a bunch of risk in an attempt to put up a massive score. Still, Robbie Ray ($56) feels like a borderline-must SP1 play for leaders and chasers alike, as his 32.3% strikeout rate and 1.01 WHIP are by far the best marks on the slate. Where to go at SP2 becomes the question of the day, and if trying to avoid what the masses are doing while still shooting for upside, look no further than Jordan Montgomery at $38.
Montgomery draws a decent Mets matchup, as they strikeout at a 23.9% clip against lefties along with only a 94 wRC+ to boot. The Awesemo Top Pitchers Tool gives him a 10.4% chance of putting up a top-two score at the position tonight, and considering every other player around him is being rostered at a substantially higher clip, Montgomery becomes the sneaky play. That salary can also give lineups access to a bigger bat or two than those trying to fit in another $40-plus SP2. All of this together makes Montgomery a high-risk/high-reward option to round out MLB Yahoo Cup lineups.
MLB DFS Infielder: Wander Franco — $22
The Blue Jays are going to garner the most attention on Yahoo tonight. So if trying to get different and make up ground, going to any of the other 25 teams on this slate is the optimal way to go. There is a number of teams that make their case as the next-best stack to target, but most seem to be negatively-leveraged — that is, they are being rostered at a far higher clip than their chances of putting up a top score.
The Rays, however, are going a bit overlooked on this slate according to the Awesemo Top Stacks tool. Despite having a 5.9% chance of putting up the most fantasy points on the night, the stack is only being represented by about 3.5% of lineups. And other than Nelson Cruz and Manuel Margot, who are projected to be rostered around 10%, no other player on the team is garnering any attention whatsoever.
That includes Wander Franco, who has performed up to his billing as one of the best young prospects in the game. The power is not off the charts, with only seven homers in 245 at-bats this season. But a .282/.344/.461 slash line is more than adequate and should further improve as he accumulates more plate attempts at the big-league level. Also, the shortstop position is especially grim tonight, so the risk of rostering Franco over anyone besides Bo Bichette is virtually non-existent. Although Matthew Boyd is a serviceable lefty for the Tigers, Franco and the rest of these righty bats for the Rays stand out as elite tournament options for tonight’s MLB Yahoo Cup.
MLB DFS Outfielder: Byron Buxton — $12
To say Buxton has struggled since returning from a broken hand in June would be an immense understatement. After playing MVP-quality baseball for the first few months of the season, Buxton is slashing just .122/.157/.224 over the Twins’ past 12 games. But a mere 51 plate appearances in that time is not nearly enough of a sample size to turn away from Buxton at only $12 on Yahoo today, especially when factoring in a matchup with Royals southpaw Daniel Lynch.
Through 11 starts in 2021, Lynch sports a brutal 5.29 ERA and 1.67 WHIP in 51 total innings. His underlying metrics are somehow even worse, getting hit up to the tune of a .481 xSLG and .369 xwOBA. Perhaps he will starts stringing together some performances that led to his billing as one of the Royals’ top pitching prospects, but so far that has not been the case. There is no doubt he will garner some attention at only $12, but it is justified considering the speed/power combination Buxton brings to the table. Do not play Buxton in a build that has a ton of popular plays already, but he makes an elite on tonight’s MLB slate on Yahoo.
