Welcome to the MLB Yahoo Cup Hot Corner! This free-to-enter, single-entry contest will consist of 27 rounds where the top 1,075 overall entries and the top 70 entries per round share $10,000, with $1,000 to first and $50 to first per round. Scoring will be cumulative across all rounds, with your seven lowest scores dropped at the end. You may join this multi-round MLB DFS contest at any point, but enter today to give yourself the best chance to take home the title. Click here to begin the chase!
Also, Yahoo is offering a massive $15K MLB Baller contest with $3,000 to first, plus an additional Vegas Getaway valued at $5,000 today. With a $15 entry fee and only 1,120 entries to compete with, it’s the best bang for your buck across the daily fantasy industry. Enter here now for your chance to win!
Let’s focus on three players — one pitcher, one infielder and one outfielder — to slot into your MLB DFS lineups for today’s Yahoo Cup and MLB Baller contests.
MLB DFS Pitcher: Joe Musgrove — $48
There are ugly pitching slates, and then there’s whatever today is. With only six games on the main slate, there are limited options to want to turn to for MLB Yahoo Cup lineups. But for those looking for some semblance of upside and security in the top range, look no further than Musgrove.
Combining last season with Musgrove’s one start this season, he sports the highest strikeout rate on the slate at 33.7%. That first outing against the Diamondbacks was especially impressive considering he saw a slight uptick to his fastball velocity, resulting in six scoreless without surrendering a single walk. He now heads to Arlington to take on a Rangers offense that will presumably roll out six left-handed bats, which may actually work to Musgrove’s favor. In his past 45 innings pitched, he has given up less slugging to lefties at .337 compared to .420 against right-handed bats while maintaining a strikeout rate above 30%. That makes Musgrove a lock-and-load as the top spend-up pitching option on Yahoo tonight.
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MLB DFS Infielder: Eric Hosmer — $18
After jumping out of the gate hot in his first two outings, Hosmer has struggled of late, going 3-for-16 with only one extra-base hit in the past four games. Surely taking Fernando Tatis Jr. out of the lineup will hurt the production of the Padres as a stack, but expect Hosmer to be much more effective going forward, especially versus righties.
Enter right-handed Kohei Arihara, who is making his major league debut with the Rangers after playing in Japan for the first six seasons of his career. Spring training provided the first look at him, and he had promising a 3.86 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in four starts. That carried over into a serviceable first start versus the Royals, where he went four scoreless innings before getting touched up for three runs in the fifth, after which he exited.
But with a fastball that doesn’t top 92 miles per hour and no strikeout stuff whatsoever, his chances at long-term success are not strong. That makes taking a shot on Hosmer as a one-off, who sports a career .292/.355/.470 slash line versus right handed pitching, a pretty easy decision. Take the savings from more expensive first base plays like Freddie Freeman or Rhys Hoskins and put it to work upgrading other bats.
MLB DFS Outfielder: Mike Trout — $25
It feels a bit like a copout to recommend the best player in baseball, but he warrants it tonight against the Blue Jays. The Angels carry the second-highest implied total at BetMGM at 5.38 expected runs, which is largely in part to having Trout firing on all cylinders of late. He has hit homers in three consecutive game, and against poor T.J. Zeuch tonight, he could very easily make it four.
In fact, fire up all the Angels you want this evening, as the No. 1 DFS player in the world, Alex Baker, gives them a 16.9% chance of being in the winning lineup on Yahoo, according to his Top Stacks Tool. That is the highest on the slate, and they are only being rostered at a 10% clip. The Angels present exceptional leverage worth locking in, making those hitters a priority across all contests on Yahoo tonight.
