All-Star break DFS withdrawal is coming to an end. Baseball returns on Friday night in a major way, with a huge fourteen game MLB DFS slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. Stokastic’s MLB DFS projections will be ready to go for Friday’s action, but it’s never too early to get a head start on the slate. Let’s take a look at some early stand out spots for Friday’s MLB DFS slate.
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MLB DFS Early Look: Friday July 14th, MLB Main Slate on DraftKings & FanDuel
Yankees in Coors
The New York Yankees will kick off the second half of their season in Denver, taking on Austin Gomber and the Colorado Rockies. This game’s Over/Under is 11.5 runs, most of that going to the Bronx Bombers’ side. The Yankees implied run total is just over 6.5. If that’s not appealing enough to make them them the Top Stack on tomorrow’s MLB DFS slate, they’re also dirt cheap on both DraftKings and FanDuel. The highest priced Yankees hitter on DraftKings is Gleyber Torres ($5,300), with most of their starting lineup priced in the $3.5-4.5K range. Getting to the Yankees is even easier on FanDuel, where their highest priced batter is Harrison Bader ($3,500).
MLB DFS cash game players are likely to have 4-5 Yankees in their lineup, but the real question is how owned they’ll get in GPPs. The pricing is slightly prohibitive on DraftKings, but FanDuel players are likely to see incredibly high ownerships.
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Will Brew Crew Bring the Value?
It’s difficult to get a feel for the entire slate before the industry gets a chance to produce fantasy point and ownership projections, but the early lines and pricing has the Milwaukee Brewers standing out. They’ve opened with an implied run total of 4.8 as they take on the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark (GAB). For reference, Cincinnati’s GAB has become the second best hitters park in Major League Baseball behind Coors.
Graham Ashcraft will be the Reds’ starting pitcher when they begin 2023’s second half. The rookie was a decent prospect in their organization but has struggled throughout the season. Advanced metrics aside, Ashcraft’s overall results have his ERA at 6.28 with only strikeouts in 81.2 IP. Those numbers are actually down in July after he posted consecutive strong starts against the San Diego Padres (July 5) and Washington Nationals (June 30th). Ashcraft was shelled in his previous three starts, including a 4 IP, 10 Earned Run outing against these same Brewers on June 3rd.
The highest priced Brewer on FanDuel is Christian Yelich ($3,700) and their only other starter above $3k is Willy Adames ($3,100). The Brew Crew are very affordable on DraftKings, as well. Yelich and William Contreras are $4,600 and $4,400, respectively, but no other starters are north of $4k besides Willy Adames. They also offer some multi-position eligibility with Owen Miller and have very low priced plays in the OF, including Jesse Winker ($2,500), Joey Wiemer ($2,400) and Raimel Tapia ($2,400) who could get the start against a righty. Rowdy Tellez is an affordable $3,5000 at 1B. All these players have steals upside and power that can be lifted further in this ballpark.
Are the Braves Taking Batting Practice Off the rest of MLB?
One stack that won’t be cheap on Friday’s MLB DFS slate is the Atlanta Braves. However, there’s some changes to their pricing that may make stacking up the most powerful team in baseball a bit easier. Atlanta looked like they were taking batting practice out there in June. Their priced continued to soar in MLB DFS and yet the Braves never stopped blasting home runs, with the likes of Sean Murphy, Matt Olson and Austin Riley (and everyone else in their lineup) joining MVP candidate Ronald Acuna Jr. giving starting pitchers nightmares.
The Braves will be tough to roster when they host the Chicago White Sox and Michael Kopech on Friday. However, despite huge price tags on DraftKings for Acuna ($6,600) and Olson ($6,000) there has been a bit of a reduction on some of the Braves’ ancillary pieces. Orlando Arcia has dropped to $3,900 at SS and Marcel Ozuna and Eddie Rosario are both under $4k. Michael Harris III is at $4,100. It will still cost a pretty penny to stack up the Braves, but perhaps no team is a scarier fade in all of baseball.
Tyler Glasnow, Kenta Maeda in Prime Matchups
If you’ve been looking for good starting pitching over the last few weeks, all you had to do was target the Kansas City Royals. The 26-65 Royals have recently made middling pitchers like Aaron Civale look like world beaters. They had marginal success against Shane Bieber to close out the first half, but now the Tampa Bay Rays head to Kansas City and bring Tyler Glasnow with them. Glasnow is the second highest priced pitcher on DraftKings, just below Shohei Ohtani (Ohtani is not in the FD pool). He did suffer an injury last week but is scheduled to return and their could not be a better spot. If Glasnow is healthy, he is one of the top strikeout pitchers in the league and he could not ask for an easier matchup.
MLB DFS players will find a great spend-down option tomorrow in Kenta Maeda who will be on the mound for the Minnesota Twins against the Oakland Athletics. Oakland and Kansas City are “1a and 1b” in terms of good pitching spots. Maeda is similar to Glasnow in that he is coming off a major injury and may have minor pitch count limitations. However, they differ in salary. Maeda is $7,700 on DraftKings and a flat $7,000 on FanDuel. He will make a strong option in cash games and tournaments. The only consideration will be Maeda’s ownership in GPPs and the overall chalkiness of the rest of your lineup.
A lot can change between Thursday night and Friday. Keep up with Stokastic for expert MLB DFS news throughout the day, plus Stokastic’s industry-leading MLB DFS projections to give you the sharpest takes beyond this early look!
