Get excited for some Friday baseball! Unfortunately, there are no day games to get you through the workday, but that means you have plenty of time to get your lineup perfect before the main slate that kicks off at 7:05 PM EST on both DraftKings and FanDuel. There are some exciting games happening across the league today with Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and the Los Angeles Angels headed to Coors Field to take on the Colorado Rockies, a division rivalry game with the Philadelphia Phillies hosting the New York Mets, and the San Francisco Giants hosting their division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks. There is no shortage of exciting pitchers and hitters to target today, from the top end down to some great value plays. Let’s end the week strong with some winning MLB DFS lineups and get into today’s playbook! Be sure to check in with our MLB DFS Tools, with the daily MLB projections, MLB DFS rostership projections, and our MLB DFS Lineup Generator when building those lineups today to help you decide which players you should be targeting!
MLB DFS Playbook June 23
MLB Weather Updates
Seattle Mariners vs Baltimore Orioles: A chance of thunderstorms to keep an eye on, less than a 50% chance by game time, but still monitor as the day goes on.
Texas Rangers vs New York Yankees: Rainfall, but not currently looking heavy enough to warrant any worry.
New York Mets vs Philadelphia Phillies: Thunderstorms here as well; this one worries me a bit more. Keep a close eye on this one and potentially avoid this matchup completely if you don’t want to take much risk.
DFS Lineup Construction Thoughts
Some great pitchers taking the mound today, and a ton of viable options across the board. If you are paying up for pitching, I would go with Logan Webb or Logan Gilbert at the top end today, but I personally like saving a little money on the pitching end, as noted by my favorite pitchers today. There are some other cheap pitchers as well that have upside with guys like Wade Miley and Emmet Sheehan, but I personally don’t like the amount of risk they come with compared to some of the other pitchers. On the hitting side, the biggest highlight is the Los Angeles Angels heading to Coors Field, and I am willing to pay up for the Angels hitters today at Coors. Outside of Coors, some of my favorite lineups to target today include the Toronto Blue Jays, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Guardians, and the Texas Rangers.
Recommended DFS Starting Pitchers
Top Options for Strikeouts
Kodai Senga vs St. Louis Cardinals
Hunter Greene vs Houston Astros
Mitch Keller vs Milwaukee Brewers
Logan Gilbert vs Chicago White Sox
Best Odds for a Win
Kodai Senga vs Philadelphia Phillies
Logan Webb vs Arizona Diamondbacks
Chris Bassitt vs Oakland Athletics
Joe Musgrove vs Washington Nationals
Favorite Starters to Use for DFS Lineups
Joe Musgrove, San Diego Padres
Only getting one strikeout in his last outing is not what you want from Joe Musgrove. However, going 6 innings and only giving up 2 earned runs against the Rays is also nothing you can complain about. Washington does not strike out much as a team with the lowest K% in the majors, but they are also not a very dangerous offense, especially against right-handers. While he may not have as much strikeout upside as others today, he should still be able to put up a good outing against Washington along with a great chance for a win.
Brayan Bello looked fantastic in his last outing against the New York Yankees. He struck out 8 batters while only giving up 1 run off 4 hits. He has also gone 7 innings in both of his last starts and is starting to establish himself as a reliable starter for the Red Sox. The Chicago White Sox have the second lowers wRC+ against right-handed pitchers with an 82. They also strike out a fair amount and should be a great matchup for Bello to get another high strikeout game today.
Dane Dunning still holds a 2.78 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP through 64.2 innings this season. While the strikeouts have been pretty much nonexistent, he has shown much better strikeout numbers in the past giving me reason to believe there should still be more strikeouts coming down the road. The New York Yankees have been dreadful since they lost Aaron Judge. Since his injury, the Yankees have slashed .196/.258/.353 making them dead last in the league in both OPS (.611) and wRC+ (68) over that stretch. Despite all of this, Dunning is one of the cheapest pitchers on the board today and I will happily take a chance on him.
Recommended DFS Hitters
Highest Expected Run Totals
Los Angeles Angels vs Kyle Freeland
Colorado Rockies vs Patrick Sandoval
Toronto Blue Jays vs Oakland Athletics
Philadelphia Phillies vs New York Mets
Favorite Hitters to Use for DFS Lineups
Andrés Giménez, 2B Cleveland Guardians
Andrés Giménez was one of my value plays yesterday. He had a hit, a run, and a stolen base. Nothing incredible but returned his value for you with a low price tag, and today you get him for even cheaper coming in $500 cheaper on DraftKings (though the same price on FanDuel). He is slashing .319/.402/.486 against lefties this season and I just have a hard time passing him up when he is facing a lefty and you can get him for this cheap at second base.
Gunnar Henderson, 3B/SS Baltimore Orioles
Gunnar Henderson is starting to build up his case for AL Rookie of the Year after a bit of a slow start. During the month of June, he has a 1.118 OPS to go along with 6 home runs and 2 stolen bases. While Logan Gilbert isn’t an easy matchup, he has been struggling with the long ball lately with a 1.89 HR/9 over his last 6 starts and could struggle some more today if Gunnar can keep up the monstrous hitting campaign he has had in June.
Leody Taveras, OF Texas Rangers
While I am not going to be targeting 9-hole hitters very often, Leody Taveras just continues to crush the ball for the Rangers. Over the last 10 games, he has slashed .325/.341/.575 and has 3 home runs, 2 stolen bases, and 4 multi-hit games. While Luis Severino did manage to keep the ball in the yard in his last start against the Boston Red Sox, he still is holding a 2.40 HR/9 along with a 6.30 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP. This Texas Rangers lineup is strong all the way down it so even hitting 9th Taveras has the potential to still produce great fantasy numbers in a matchup like this if Severino continues to struggle.
Mike Trout, OF Los Angeles Angels
Mike Trout has had a down season as far as Mike Trout's standards go. This seems too perfect of a matchup for Mike Trout to not expect him to deliver though. In Coors facing a lefty in Kyle Freeland should be ideal conditions for Trout to put together a monster game. You obviously are paying a lot still for someone who has been having a good not great season, but it is Mike Trout and nobody would be surprised if he was the best hitter in baseball again for the remainder of the season.
Player Pool
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