Welcome to today's MLB DFS picks and daily fantasy baseball playbook for DraftKings and FanDuel. This early slate is loaded with swing-and-miss arms, a Coors Field shootout, and a Chase Field scorcher that could turn into a launching pad. We've got confirmed lineups in the first two games and projected lineups everywhere else as of the last pull, so keep an eye on late scratches before you lock anything in. For the sharpest MLB DFS projections, run your build through the DFS Optimizer, track live ownership trends, and check confirmed lineups at FantasyAlarm.com. Let's build some winning rosters.

MLB Weather Today, 7/22

Pirates vs Yankees – Partly cloudy, 84°, 10 mph wind, 6% precip. Nothing scary here, just a normal summer day at the Stadium.

Orioles vs Red Sox – No weather information available at Fenway. Don't overthink this one from a park-factor standpoint.

Mets vs Brewers – Partly cloudy, 71°, 9 mph wind, 0% precip. Comfortable conditions, nothing pushing the ball either direction.

Giants vs Royals – Partly cloudy, 81°, 9 mph wind, 0% precip at Kauffman.

Nationals vs Rockies – This is the marquee weather game. Clouds, 91°, 8 mph wind, 12% precip at altitude. Coors is Coors, and thin air plus a warm afternoon is exactly the recipe that inflates offense, and it's the highest implied team total on the entire board.

Athletics vs Diamondbacks – Partly cloudy but scorching, 99° at Chase Field, only 2 mph wind. Retractable roof conditions there mean the ball may not carry as dramatically as the raw heat suggests, but hot air still helps exit velocity.

Reds vs Mariners – Clear, 87°, 7 mph wind at T-Mobile Park.

Cardinals vs Angels – Partly cloudy, 83°, 8 mph wind at Angel Stadium.

MLB DFS Lineup Picks: Starting Pitchers

MLB DFS Top Pitchers

Logan Henderson (MIL)

Pitch count concern flagged. The peripherals here are elite: a 2.97 ERA backed up by a 2.71 FIP and a 10.26 K/9 across his first seven starts, and he draws a Mets lineup that's been below-average against right-handed pitching (92.5 wRC+ on the year). His 0.93 WHIP and 75.5% strand rate suggest he's not getting lucky either, this is a legitimately dominant peripheral profile with a .200 average and .342 slug allowed. The catch: he's only been stretched to 33.1 innings total this season, meaning he hasn't consistently gone deep into games, and a 5.5% walk rate this efficient makes an early hook even more frustrating if it happens. If the Brewers are managing his workload tonight, that caps his ceiling even if the stuff is as good as advertised. Worth monitoring his pitch count in-game rather than assuming a full workload.

Gerrit Cole (NYY)

Confirmed and locked in as a heavy Yankees favorite (-185, 5.6 implied team runs) against Pittsburgh. Cole's traditional line (3.93 ERA) is a tick behind his peripherals (3.94 FIP, 9.0 K/9), so there's no hidden red flag here, it's a fair representation of where he's at, and his 1.16 WHIP with a .243 average allowed is still comfortably above-average production. One thing worth knowing: Pittsburgh's offense actually rates above average against right-handed pitching this year (115.9 wRC+), so this isn't the automatic get-right spot the moneyline implies. His 1.47 HR/9 is the highest of this pitcher group, so the home run ball is the realistic path to a bad night rather than a walk-driven meltdown, his walk rate sits at a tidy 5.2%. Cole's swing-and-miss stuff still travels against anyone, but this Pirates lineup has had some pop against righties.

Jake Bennett (BOS)

Confirmed for Boston against Baltimore, and the surface ERA (2.35) is outstanding. Dig one layer deeper and there's a gap worth flagging: his FIP sits at 3.03 but his xFIP is 3.83, and his K/9 (6.37) is the lowest of this group. That gap between FIP and xFIP usually signals some regression risk: he's outperforming his true talent level on balls in play and homers allowed, and a .232 BABIP against is unlikely to hold at that level all season. His 78.1% strand rate is right in line with the group, so it's not a sequencing outlier there, but a 4.4% walk rate is genuinely excellent and keeps his floor stable even if the ERA climbs. Still a fine real-life pitcher in a game where Boston is favored (-155), but treat him as the lowest-strikeout-ceiling arm on this list.

Emerson Hancock (SEA)

The deepest sample of the group, 99.1 innings across 18 starts, with a 3.17 ERA that's actually backed up by mostly-in-line peripherals (3.66 FIP, 8.52 K/9). His 1.01 WHIP and .209 average allowed hold up across that full sample, so there's real confidence in this level of performance being sustainable rather than a hot stretch. He gets a Reds lineup that's been one of the weakest offenses in baseball against right-handers this season (85.3 wRC+, the softest matchup of any pitcher on this list). A 6.4% walk rate is the one number that's a shade high relative to this group, but a 79.1% strand rate suggests he's managing traffic well when it happens. Seattle is favored at home (-155), and this is as clean a floor-plus-ceiling profile as you'll find on the slate.

MLB DFS Value Pitchers

Hunter Dobbins (STL)

Small sample so far as a starting pitcher with rough surface numbers: a 5.93 ERA and a walk rate (5.27 BB/9) that will make you nervous. A 13.1% walk rate and 1.54 WHIP are the real story here, that's the highest walk rate of any pitcher on this slate, and it's the reason the ERA has ballooned despite a strikeout rate that plays. But his K/9 (8.56) is real, and the Angels' offense grades out below average against right-handed pitching this year (94.8 wRC+). At $6,700, he's priced more like a fringe arm than a strikeout play, which is exactly the gap you're looking to exploit at that salary. Just know the walk rate means the floor can get ugly in a hurry, this is a ceiling-chasing punt play, not a safe cash-game arm.

Brady Singer (CIN)

Worth a level-set here rather than a full sell: Singer's ERA (4.56) is actually better than his FIP (5.44), which is the opposite of a good sign, his surface numbers are getting some help from sequencing or defense that may not continue. His K/9 (7.63) is the lowest of the value tier, and a 1.96 HR/9 (the highest of anyone in this playbook) points to a real contact-quality issue that shows up in a .487 slugging percentage allowed. A 1.41 WHIP and .272 average against round out a profile that's closer to replacement level than the ERA suggests. The appeal at $6,000 is mostly about swing volume in a game with a total near 8 runs, not swing-and-miss upside. Treat him as a source of innings and moderate strikeout floor rather than a ceiling piece.

Top Options For Strikeouts

Ranking by swing-and-miss ability on tonight's picks, using K/9 and DFS market value on the strikeout prop:

Best Odds For A Win

The favorites among tonight's picks, by moneyline:

MLB DFS Lineup Picks: Stacks & Hitters

MLB DFS Top Hitters

James Wood (OF, WSH) & CJ Abrams (SS, WSH)

The headliners for the Coors Field trip, and the numbers back up the hype. Wood carries a 172.4 wRC+ against right-handed pitching this year, Abrams sits at 159.4, both elite, both hitting in the highest implied-total game on the slate (6.3 runs for Washington) against a Rockies righty. Wood's .308 ISO and .426 OBP against RHP show this is legitimate power-plus-patience production, not just a hot BABIP, though his .347 BABIP is a touch elevated and worth watching for regression over a larger sample. Abrams pairs a lower walk rate (9.5%) with strong bat-to-ball skills (18.6% strikeout rate), so he's more of a pure hit-and-power threat than a patient one, and his .291 BABIP looks sustainable rather than fluky. This is the correlation play of the night.

Hunter Goodman (C, COL)

Goodman gets the benefit of catching in his own home ballpark against a righty, and his 119.9 wRC+ against RHP this season is a strong mark for the catcher position on any slate. The power is the carrying tool here, a .325 ISO against right-handers is elite for any position, let alone behind the plate, and it comes with a .568 slugging percentage. The tradeoff is a 30.1% strikeout rate, the highest of any hitter in this playbook, so the floor comes with real swing-and-miss risk built in. A .255 BABIP is actually below what you'd expect given his quality of contact, which suggests some batted-ball luck could turn in his favor rather than against him. Coors Field power at a shallow position, this is a ceiling play more than a safe one.

Ben Rice (1B, NYY)

The best pure numbers of this entire hitter group: a 177.0 wRC+ against right-handed pitching, confirmed in the two-hole for the Yankees against Pittsburgh. Every underlying number supports the top-line result, a .346 ISO and .632 slugging percentage against RHP put him at the top of this list for raw power output, and a strong 14.8% walk rate against a manageable 22.6% strikeout rate shows real plate discipline behind it. His .297 BABIP is right around a normal expectation, so there's no red flag suggesting this is unsustainable variance. Locked in.

Ketel Marte (2B, ARI)

Marte's excellent from either side of the plate, but specifically against lefties he's been outstanding, a 146.9 wRC+ this year, and he draws a southpaw (Gage Jump) in a Chase Field game where it's currently 99 degrees. A .304 ISO and .598 slugging percentage against LHP show the power is fully carrying over from his switch-hitting profile, not just a platoon-side illusion. His strikeout rate against lefties (11.6%) is outstanding for a power bat, and paired with a modest 6.3% walk rate, that tells you he's an aggressive but highly efficient contact hitter in these matchups. The sample here is smaller than the righty-facing bats above (112 plate appearances), so treat the exact number with a little more caution even though the skill set behind it is real. Power backdrop at a middle-infield spot that's usually thin.

MLB DFS Value Hitters

Trent Grisham (OF, NYY)

Confirmed in the leadoff spot at just $4,100, Grisham's 107.8 wRC+ against right-handed pitching is a solid, above-average mark for that price point, riding shotgun with the rest of this Yankees lineup against Pittsburgh. His profile skews toward discipline over power, a strong 13.9% walk rate against a low 15.6% strikeout rate is one of the better contact-and-patience combinations in this player pool. The raw power (.193 ISO) is more modest than the top-tier bats above him, so the appeal here is volume of plate appearances and on-base ability rather than a home run ceiling. A .222 BABIP is a bit below what his contact profile would suggest, which could mean some batted-ball luck evens out in his favor going forward.

Caleb Durbin (3B, BOS)

Worth being straight about this one: Durbin's 95.1 wRC+ against right-handed pitching is a shade below league average, so this isn't a smash-spot bat, it's a cheap-salary floor piece at $3,300 in a Red Sox lineup that projects for solid team scoring, not an individual standout. His power output (.169 ISO) and strikeout rate (14.6%) are both fairly modest, nothing here suggests a hidden ceiling that the wRC+ is missing. A .262 BABIP is roughly neutral, so there's no obvious luck-based case for improvement lurking underneath the topline number either. At this salary the job is mostly about saving cap space for the studs above him on this list, not projecting a breakout.

Daylen Lile (OF, WSH)

Part of the Coors Field game stack at only $4,400, Lile's 100.5 wRC+ against RHP is right at league average, a reasonable complementary piece if you're building out the Nationals stack beyond Wood and Abrams. His .200 ISO and 17.5% strikeout rate against right-handers show a fairly balanced offensive profile, not a slugger, but not an easy out either. A modest 5.6% walk rate is the one number that stands out as below average here, so he's more of a contact-and-gap-power bat than a patient one. A .273 BABIP is in a normal range, so this looks like a fair representation of his current talent level rather than a number due for a correction in either direction. At this price, he's a sensible way to add a third piece of Coors Field correlation without stretching the budget.

MLB DFS Top Stacks

Primary Stack: Washington Nationals vs Gabriel Hughes (COL RHP)

Why: Highest implied team total on the board (6.3 runs) in the best hitting environment in baseball. Washington's overall line against right-handed pitching (107.1 wRC+) is solid on its own, and Coors Field amplifies everything. Hughes himself is a real wildcard here, he's made just two starts this season (11.1 innings), so there's very little track record to lean on, and a 1.15 WHIP with a 3.18 BB/9 in that small sample suggests some traffic-allowing tendencies that Coors Field will not forgive. Curtis Mead rounds out the lineup as a lower-owned complementary piece behind the two headliners, giving this stack three viable ways to construct exposure at different price points.

Targets: James Wood, CJ Abrams, Daylen Lile, Curtis Mead

Primary Stack: New York Yankees vs Mitch Keller (PIT RHP)

Why: Confirmed lineup, heavy favorites (-185), and an offense that grades solidly above average against right-handers (106.4 wRC+) top to bottom. Keller's season-long numbers back up the fade: a 5.14 ERA over a full 103.1 innings with a matching 4.47 FIP, so this isn't a small-sample outlier, it's a fairly accurate read on where he's at right now. His 1.33 WHIP and .421 slugging percentage allowed suggest the Yankees don't need a huge amount of luck to do damage, and a strand rate in the low 60s (63.6%) means traffic he allows has been scoring at an above-average clip. Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm further down the confirmed lineup add extra stacking depth beyond the two hitters already highlighted above.

Targets: Ben Rice, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm

Primary Stack: Arizona Diamondbacks vs Gage Jump (ATH LHP)

Why: Arizona's offense has been excellent against left-handed pitching this year (107.5 wRC+), and they get a lefty at Chase Field with the temperature pushing 99 degrees. Jump's peripherals are a mixed bag worth understanding before you pay up for the fade: his 9.63 K/9 is genuinely elite and his .687 HR/9 is modest, but a 1.32 WHIP and .264 average allowed show he's not exactly a lockdown arm either, and his 3.10 FIP running well ahead of his 3.79 xFIP hints his results have been better than his underlying stuff so far. Corbin Carroll has been outstanding against lefties this year (172.6 wRC+), arguably even better than Marte's own number, and Nolan Arenado adds a veteran power bat further down the order that grades right around league average against LHP (96.3 wRC+) in the extreme heat helping the ball carry.

Targets: Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Nolan Arenado

“Contrarian” Stacks

Contrarian Stack: Colorado Rockies vs Cade Cavalli (WSH RHP)

Why: Most of the attention on this game is going to the Nationals side given the total, which could mean the Rockies get overlooked despite playing in the same hot, thin-air environment. Colorado's line against right-handed pitching (96.5 wRC+) is close to league average, so the appeal here is more about ballpark and pitcher matchup than a hidden offensive gem. Cavalli himself is actually a quality arm on the season (3.78 ERA, 3.21 FIP, 10.23 K/9 over 104.2 innings), so this isn't a case of exploiting a bad pitcher, it's a case of trusting that Coors Field creates scoring even against good ones. Mickey Moniak (142.2 wRC+) and Cole Carrigg (146.5 wRC+) both grade out excellently against right-handers individually, well above the team aggregate, and give this stack real top-line upside beyond Goodman alone.

Targets: Hunter Goodman, Mickey Moniak, Cole Carrigg

Contrarian Stack: Boston Red Sox vs Dean Kremer (BAL RHP)

Why: Worth the honest framing: Boston's team-wide line against right-handed pitching (87.1 wRC+) is the softest of any team featured tonight, so this isn't a top-to-bottom smash spot. The appeal is Boston's -155 favorite status and individual bats in the lineup rather than the aggregate offensive profile. The real engine behind this stack is Kremer specifically: his 3.12 HR/9 is by far the highest of any pitcher on tonight's slate, and it's produced a .547 slugging percentage allowed despite a respectable .232 average against, meaning contact against him tends to go a long way when it's made. That gap shows up starkly in his 6.18 FIP against a much friendlier 3.46 xFIP, a homer-driven split over a small sample (26 innings, 5 starts) that could easily continue for another night before it corrects, and Willson Contreras (150.1 wRC+ vs. RHP) is the individual bat best positioned to punish that tendency, with Masataka Yoshida (102.3 wRC+) rounding out a reasonably deep three-bat stack.

Targets: Caleb Durbin, Willson Contreras, Masataka Yoshida

Contrarian Stack: San Francisco Giants vs Seth Lugo (KC RHP)

Why: San Francisco's team-wide line against right-handers (102.0 wRC+) is right around league average, but Rafael Devers individually has crushed RHP this year (139.1 wRC+), in a game with a total near 8.7 runs at Kauffman. Lugo's season-long profile supports the matchup case: a 4.39 ERA with a similar 4.34 FIP over 110.2 innings, so it's a consistent, not-great level of performance rather than a fluke, and a .280 average allowed with a .465 slugging percentage shows hitters are squaring him up regularly. His 1.41 WHIP is the highest of any opposing arm faced by tonight's featured stacks, giving the Giants a reasonable number of extra baserunners to work with beyond Devers alone. Luis Arraez (125.0 wRC+) offers a high-average, low-strikeout complement at the top of the order, while Willy Adames (102.3 wRC+) adds another right-on-average bat further down the lineup.

Targets: Rafael Devers, Luis Arraez, Willy Adames

Player Pool

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Stacks

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