Happy Saturday! The second half of the season is officially underway after yesterday. Today we have a 12-game main slate on DraftKings with a 10-game slate on FanDuel with it not including the second of the doubleheader games of the San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays vs Kansas City Royals, with both slates starting at 7:05 PM EST. July is an important month where teams need to decide if they are contenders or not as we prepare for the trade deadline and start to have important questions answered, such as will Shohei Ohtani be on a new team to end the season? We don’t have to worry about those questions, though; we just have to worry about who will help us put together a winning MLB DFS lineup today. So, let’s jump into some of my favorite value options of the day! 

 

MLB DFS Value Pitchers

Alex Cobb, San Francisco Giants (DraftKings: $8,000 / FanDuel: $9,100) 

Alex Cobb has been great all season. He has a great 2.91 ERA, although, with a not-as-great 1.34 WHIP, he has been great at limiting the long ball with a 0.60 HR/9 and has been consistently getting strikeouts with a 22.5 K%. He is coming off a start with 7 strikeouts and no earned runs against the Seattle Mariners before the all-star break and should have no problem shutting down the Pittsburgh Pirates today while racking up plenty of strikeouts. 

Steven Matz, St. Louis Cardinals (DraftKings: $5,200 / FanDuel: $7,200) 

Steven Matz is coming off a season-high in strikeouts, fanning 9 against the Chicago White Sox through 5.1 innings while only giving up 2 hits and 0 earned runs. While the Washington Nationals don’t strike out a ton, he still should be able to put together a solid outing against them today, making him well worth this price. 

MLB DFS Value Hitters

Francisco Alvarez, C New York Mets (DraftKings: $3,600 / FanDuel: $3,300) 

Francisco Alvarez was red-hot going into the all-star break, hitting 5 homers over a stretch of 7 games to begin July. While Tony Gonsolin is no push-over on the mound, I do think that Alvarez has been locked in enough at the plate to trust him to continue this great hitting even after starting 0-3 in his first game back after the break. 

Jose Abreu, 1B Houston Astros (DraftKings: $3,100 / FanDuel: $2,700) 

While Jose Abreu didn’t have the greatest first half, I wouldn’t be surprised if he put together a great second half to still end the year with a solid overall season. He started off strong yesterday, going 3 for 4 with a run, rbi, and a walk. Don’t forget we are less than 3 years removed from him winning the AL MVP and getting him at this price feels like a steal, even with the struggles he has had at the plate this season.

Isaac Paredes, 3B Tampa Bay Rays (DraftKings: $4,000) 

Sorry if you are playing on FanDuel, but this is my one DraftKings-only play of the day. Isaac Paredes is too solid a value here not to include. He has been such a solid hitter all season and has always done great crushing lefties despite having better splits against righties this season, but he should do great today with the Royals running Cole Ragans out on the mound. He also has 3 home runs over his last 5 games, so hopefully can continue this recent power surge as well. 

Randal Grichuk, OF Colorado Rockies (DraftKings: $3,500 / FanDuel: $3,200) 

Randal Grichuk has 3 home runs over his last 6 games, along with 2 doubles and 8 total hits over that stretch. Getting to face Clarke Schmidt in Colorado today, I will not be surprised if Grichuk gets himself another homer today. Even without a homer, Grichuk should have no problem returning value at this price today with him locked in at the plate and playing in Coors. 

 

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