Tuesday, June 21, brings a rousing 13-game main slate beginning at 7:05 p.m. ET with a lot of evenly projected pitching options. Let’s get into the top MLB DFS picks today for pitchers and stacks for DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy baseball lineups.
DraftKings & FanDuel MLB DFS Picks Today (6/21)
Top Stack: Braves vs. RHP Anthony DeSclafani — 5.2 implied runs
The Stokastic Top Batters Tool is highlighting several Atlanta players at their respective positions on Tuesday. Anthony DeSclafani (ankle) will be taking the mound tonight for San Francisco after being activated off the 60-day injured list. The 32-year-old made two starts for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, throwing 41 and 60 pitches. DeSclafani has been a solid pitcher throughout his career, and most teams would happily have welcomed him into their rotations. However, from a fantasy perspective, when he gets hit he gets hit hard and allows a lot of power, particularly to lefties.
Matt Olson is a prime option tonight as the cornerstone for any Atlanta stack, but also as a one-off option. Rookie Michael Harris has been heating up, with a double, a triple and three home runs in his last seven games. In full stacks, all of the Braves with power are viable, including Ronald Acuna Jr., William Contreras, Austin Riley and Dansby Swanson.
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Evening Slate: Blue Jays at RHP Dylan Cease — 4.8 implied runs
The Stokastic Top Stacks Tool has anointed Toronto as one of the best options tonight, even with a tricky matchup against Dylan Cease. They have a 7% chance of being the top stack of the night while only being represented by 4.3% of the field, giving them solid leverage. They also are an interesting direct leverage play against the Cease backers, who are projected to include nearly 15% of all rosters on DraftKings and 10% on FanDuel.
Cease has not allowed a run in his last four appearances, but he has not been particularly efficient either, averaging nearly 107 pitches but only 5.4 innings. In two of his three outings prior to this stretch, Cease allowed six runs to the Yankees and seven to the Red Sox.
This looks like situation to just trust the data and the Stokastic tools. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernandez and George Springer are the core four to target in this intriguing tournament gambit.
Late Slate: Mariners at RHP James Kaprielian — 4.7 implied runs
James Kaprielian has been knocked around all season, but it has been particularly bad in June. Across three starts, he has lasted only 14 innings while allowing four home runs with just six strikeouts. This has resulted in a 7.07 ERA and 1.78 baserunners per inning. Even more telling is the nine home runs allowed in his last half dozen starts, and as a bonus, it is going to be in the upper-80s in Oakland with a 7 to 10 mph breeze out to right field.
Though it lacks many household names, Seattle has been among the top third of the league against right-handed pitching this season. Offseason acquisitions Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker are finally heating up, and rookie Julio Rodriguez has been a pleasant surprise earning his slot in the heart of the order. Add in Ty France, J.P. Crawford and even Taylor Trammell and suddenly the Mariners are a team that can be stacked in a myriad of ways.
Best MLB DFS Pitchers Today
Top Target: LHP Sean Manaea vs. Diamondbacks — 3.4 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $9,000 | FanDuel $9,900
Sean Manaea is not someone we think of as a ground ball pitcher, but he has been above average in the low- to mid-40% range for most of his career. Walks have been a bit of an issue, but it seems that his new baseline of a strikeout per inning is holding steady. All in all, Manaea is a worthy of our consideration in all formats tonight. Arizona is just below league average against southpaws by most advanced and standard metrics. Typically, Manaea avoids crooked numbers, with three or fewer runs in nine starts and 4, 5 and 6 in the other three.
Secondary Target: RHP Spencer Strider vs. Giants — 3.6 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $8,600 | FanDuel $8,700
This is not an easy matchup for rookie Spencer Strider, who is taking on a Giants squad that has most of its best hitters swinging the stick from the left side of the plate. It is also going to be warm and humid with a light breeze out to center field, which will do no favors for the pitchers tonight. On the flipside, Strider has performed well on the strikeout front, with a 33.3% rate against 105 lefties and a 41.3% rate against same-handed batsmen. Though the San Francisco lineup is not teeming with strikeouts, it is not brimming with power either, and the salary is solid on both DraftKings and FanDuel to land Strider on the short list for tournament headliners.
Late Slate Target: RHP Roansy Contreras vs. Cubs — 4.0 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $7,400 | FanDuel $7,700
Roansy Contreras is best utilized as an SP2 since it is unlikely that he gets a quality start, which needs to be a baseline expectation for FanDuel pitchers. Though the Cubs can be pesky, they lack consistency on offense, and that keeps them on the list of potential targets for mid-tier hurlers. The projected Chicago lineup has a 26.0% strikeout rate against right-handed pitching over the last two seasons, which is right in line with the 25.8% recorded by Contreras across his first 151 big league batter matchups. Tournaments only, but the Cubs have plated only 2.71 runners per game over their last 14 tilts.
Additional Opportunities
Not only does Sean Manaea look good in the DFS formats, he also should be targeted in the MLB player props market. Tonight, he has a 5.5 over/under for his strikeout prop and the Stokastic MLB Projections have him for 6.7, giving him a 68% probability of reaching the over.
Ben Rasa’s best MLB bets today comes from the Guardians vs. Twins game. Check out all of his MLB predictions today.
Other Pitching Options
- RHP Tony Gonsolin at Cincinnati Reds (Early)
- LHP Nester Cortes Jr. at Tampa Bay Rays (Main)
- LHP Martin Perez vs. Philadelphia Phillies (Main SP2, Evening)
- RHP Kyle Gibson at Texas Rangers (Main SP2, Evening)
- RHP Zac Gallen at San Diego Padres (Main, Late)
One-Off Hitters
- Freddie Freeman at RHP Tyler Mahle (Early)
- Nelson Cruz at RHP Jordan Lyles (Main)
- Josh Naylor at RHP Joe Ryan (Main)
- Kyle Tucker vs. RHP Trevor Williams (Evening)
- Jared Walsh vs. RHP Jonathan Heasley (Late)
Final MLB DFS Thoughts & MLB Weather Notes
There are no precipitation concerns today and several venues are seeing temperature increases, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Oakland and Pittsburgh.
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