MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Pitchers & Top Stacks for Monday, July 5

Monday, July 5, has a two-game late afternoon slate and a rousing nine-game main slate loaded with shaky pitchers. Let’s get into the top MLB DFS picks for pitchers and stacks for Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy baseball lineups.

Be sure to head over to the Awesemo MLB DFS home page for all the best written daily fantasy baseball content, including daily articles like Spotlight Pitchers, MLB DFS Tournament Strategy and MLB Cheat Sheets for all the major DFS sites.

MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Pitchers and Top Stacks, Monday, July 5

Yahoo Stack of the Day: Atlanta Braves at RHP Chase De Jong — 5.0 implied runs

Atlanta kicks off a three-game series in PNC Park tonight against the well-travelled Chase De Jong. Though he has just 83 innings in the majors under his belt, De Jong has collected these across five different seasons with four different clubs. He has a career 6.61 ERA, 1.63 WHIP, 1.84 home runs allowed per nine innings and just 6.61 strikeouts per nine.

Austin Riley and Dansby Swanson should be in the heart of the order, and with both at $14 salaries, they provide a lot of flexibility. Ronald Acuna Jr. ($26), Freddie Freeman ($22) and Ozzie Albies ($25) are the trio to target, and all three should see at least five at-bats if things go even remotely as projected tonight. Game-time temperatures should be approaching 90 degrees with 60 or 65% humidity, which should help mitigate the pitching-friendly nature of the Pirates’ home park.


Awesemo’s MLB DFS experts have created a new MLB Home Run & Strikeout Player Prop Tool that can help when making MLB DFS picks and offer some action down in the sports betting market. This expert tool is designed to predict the probability of hitters hitting home runs and pitchers to reach a certain number of strikeouts.


Evening Slate

Chicago Cubs vs. LHP Matt Moore — 6.0 implied runs

After sitting out last year, Matt Moore is now with the Phillies, his fifth team in five seasons. Over his last 300 innings, he has an ERA approaching 6.00 while allowing nearly 1.5 home runs per nine innings. The Phillies bullpen was not particularly taxed during their weekend series with San Diego, though they are not particularly good either, which bodes well for the Cubs. For the cherry on top of this matchup, weather is going to be mid-80s and a 12- to 15-mph wind blowing out to right-center field.

Chicago can roll out a very right-handed heavy lineup. Catcher Willson Contreras has been serving as an unconventional leadoff man in these situations, and he can be employed on all sites, particularly FanDuel where he is only $2,600 and hits better than most first basemen. Javier Baez and Kris Bryant have light-tower power and should be the cornerstones of any Cubs stacks. For differentiation, look to Ian Happ or Jake Marisnick at the bottom of the order as part of a wrap-around stack. Or, depending on how the order shakes out, gamers could employ a back-end stack with Baez and Patrick Wisdom, who has 11 home runs in just 97 at-bats.

Late Slate

Boston Red Sox at LHP Jose Suarez — 5.1 implied runs

Back on June 28, Jose Suarez replaced an ineffective Dylan Bundy and held the Yankees to just one run over 5.1 innings in New York. With Bundy officially moved to the bullpen, Suarez will be making his first start of the season. After being called up in 2019, Suarez logged 83.1 innings and has an 8.00 ERA while allowing 1.9 baserunners per inning. This season he has been very effective as a reliever, so it will be interesting to see if that momentum can carry over to this spot start.

This is a nice spot for Boston, as Suarez has below-average strikeouts, above-average walks and is allowing power to hitters from both sides of the plate. J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts and Hunter Renfroe are the power trio to use as the foundation for Red Sox stacks. The bottom of the order also is in play for some differentiation, with Christian Vazquez, Bobby Dalbec and switch-hitting Danny Santana providing salary relief and cheap power upside. Enrique Hernandez will be popular as the leadoff man, and do not be afraid to utilize Rafael Devers since the Angels bullpen is loaded with righties, including the recently demoted Bundy.

Spotlight Pitchers

Top Target: RHP Brandon Woodruff at New York Mets — 3.4 implied runs

  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $55 | FanDuel $11,400 | DraftKings $10,400

It is hard to come up with superlatives for Brandon Woodruff that have not already been used in prior writeups. Woodruff is on the short list for National League Cy Young candidates in the non-Jacob deGrom category. He is third with a 1.37 ERA and second with a 0.78 WHIP while posting 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings. The Mets lineup is nearly back to full strength, so they are not going to be a pushover. However, it is interesting to see the Vegas oddsmakers post such a low run total. It would seem that Woodruff has convinced them that his performance is by no means smoke and mirrors.

Secondary Target: RHP Joe Musgrove vs. Washington Nationals — 3.9 implied runs

  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $44 | FanDuel $9,600 | DraftKings $8,700

In his first season with the Padres, Joe Musgrove has career bests across the board. Across 89 innings he has a 2.63 ERA, which ranks 15th and is accompanied by a 0.88 WHIP, the fifth-best mark among starters. He is also on pace to smash his career best in strikeouts with 10.7 per nine, which is just inside the top 20.

It looks like Trea Turner may miss a fifth straight game after jamming his finger when he logged his third career cycle. Kyle Schwarber is on the injured list with a hamstring issue, which further weakens an already pedestrian Nationals offense. Gerardo Parra and Alcides Escobar have been getting their first at-bats in two and three seasons, respectively, and now are every-day starters for Washington. Do not be shy about getting Musgrove onto the majority of rosters Monday.

Wildcard: RHP Tylor Megill vs. Milwaukee Brewers — 4.1 implied runs

  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $27 | FanDuel $6,200 | DraftKings $7,200

The salary for Tylor Megill is enticing, even though he lacks experience. Megill came into this season as the Mets’ No. 21 prospect. He started out the season in Double-A for five starts before moving to Triple-A for another three. With the pandemic curtailing most minor league action, he has fallen behind on the development curve. Key MLB projection systems have Megill with above-average strikeouts, below-average walks and likely to struggle with lefty power. None of this should be a surprise since he projects more as a multi-inning reliever or opener at this point of his career.

Final Thoughts for the Monday, July 5, MLB DFS Slate

Finally there is a day without precipitation risks and excellent hitting weather on the East Coast and in the Midwest. As always, be mindful that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a home run play on Yahoo may be a below-average MLB DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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