Monday, May 23, kicks off the week with a 10-game slate teeming with offensive opportunities. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET and there are several matchup to dig into. Let’s get into the top MLB DFS picks today for pitchers and stacks for DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy baseball lineups.
DraftKings & FanDuel MLB DFS Picks Today (5/23)
Top MLB DFS Stack of the Day: Minnesota Twins vs. RHP Elvin Rodriguez — 5.1 implied runs
Tonight, the Yankees are in a good spot hosting Jordan Lyles, who led the league in home runs allowed last season. However, DraftKings has increased the salaries for the New York offense at a level above the most recent Coors Field games. Those that find some thrifty value plays will be able to work in full stacks, though keep an eye on differentiation as the logical path to New York stacks. Plus, rostering Gerrit Cole will lead to a lot of overlap with recent rookie callups catcher Adley Rutschman of the Orioles and Nolan Gorman of the Cardinals, both of whom are at the $2,000 minimum salary.
The Dodgers also have a nice matchup against Washington youngster Joan Adon, though there are some weather concerns that could take that game off the board. Philadelphia will be in Atlanta against rookie southpaw Tucker Davidson and while their mostly right-handed lineup is one to target, there is potential precipitation here as well.
This moves the Twins up the board as they will be at home against either rookie right-handers Beau Brieske, Elvin Rodriguez or both, as previously scheduled starter Eduardo Rodriguez (no relation) was placed on the injured list yesterday with a strained ribcage. Both of the potential pitchers today give up an abundance of power. That means we should target Brandon Buxton, Max Kepler, Carlos Correa, Jorge Polanco and Gary Sanchez, who all boast a .190 ISO or better since the beginning of last year when facing righties.
Late Slate: San Francisco Giants vs. LHP David Peterson — 4.2 implied runs
Tonight, lefty David Peterson will take on the Giants in San Francisco. It will be the 28th career start for the 26-year-old, who has tallied 135.1 innings in The Show across the last three seasons. Though he has allowed only one home run this season, Peterson does have a track record of allowing extra-base hits to righties.
Look to the top half of the Giants order tonight as they should be firing up a quartet of batters swinging the stick from the right side of the plate. Austin Slater will likely be leading off and while he is a potential pinch-hit risk, he should be in line for at least two, if not three, trips to the batter’s box with the platoon advantage. Evan Longoria, Darin Ruf and Wilmer Flores are not particularly exciting, but they do offer main slate salary savings and they have extra synergy all being adjacent in the lineup.
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Best MLB DFS Pitchers Today
Top MLB DFS Target: RHP Gerrit Cole vs. Baltimore Orioles — 2.5 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $10,500 | FanDuel $11,000
Gerrit Cole should be wildly popular tonight against the Batters of Birdland, who have a ridiculously low 2.5 implied run total. It would seem that Cole truly is a dominant ace who is not completely reliant on Spider Tack (or for the conspiracy folks out there, he has found new and inventive ways to enhance his grip on the ball).
Through eight starts, Cole has a perfect 4-0 record with a 2.89 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, both of which rank in the top-25 among starters. The 10-year veteran also ranks 10th with 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings. While that is his lowest rate of the last five seasons, it is all relative now that pitchers are regularly inspected for any foreign substances. Expect to see Cole on around half of all lineups tonight, so be sure to find differentiation with your secondary stacks at a minimum.
Secondary MLB DFS Target: LHP Marco Gonzales — 3.0 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $8,200 | FanDuel $5,300
This is a DraftKings-only play, but Marco Gonzales is simply mispriced at $5,300 in a matchup against the nondescript Oakland offense. On FanDuel, the non-Cole options include Luis Garcia, Miles Mikolas and Nick Martinez as primary pitchers.
Cole, Garcia and the Yankees will be a popular combination on DraftKings, so just realize what you are getting into regarding tournament overlap. Gonzales is a solid, but far from spectacular pitcher as the veteran of eight MLB campaigns tends to allow power to opposite-handed batsmen while his strikeouts are few and far between these days. Typically his big innings occur when he is not able to keep the bases clean for when he gives up the inevitable extra-base hits. Look to some of the Athletics as one-offs or duos in the hopes of collecting a home run or two in what will be a high leverage opportunity against the field on DraftKings.
Additional Opportunities:
Picking on Peterson with the San Francisco offense makes sense, however, we can look to him in the MLB player props market. He has an over/under on his strikeout prop of 3.5, and the Awesemo player projections have him for a reasonable 4.5 against the Giants. That gives him a 67% probability of reaching the over. Through four outings, he has four or more strikeouts twice and three strikeouts in the other two games. Again, the projected lineup for San Francisco has a low 17.8% strikeout rate against southpaws and Peterson has a mediocre 21.4% strikeout rate himself. He could easily get four strikeouts while also allowing a handful of runs, meaning we can profit in two different ways from the same situation.
Other Pitching Options:
- Luis Garcia vs. Cleveland Guardians (main)
- Nick Martinez vs. Milwaukee Brewers (late)
- Adrian Houser at San Diego Padres (late)
One-Off Hitters:
- Freddie Freeman at RHP Joan Adon (main)
- Nick Castellanos at LHP Tucker Davidson (main)
- Dalton Varsho vs. RHP Zack Greinke (late – Chase Field Roof is scheduled to be closed tonight)
- Julio Rodriguez vs. LHP Zach Logue (late – now batting cleanup and leading the league with 12 steals)
Final MLB DFS Thoughts &Â MLB Weather Notes
Atlanta is humid today, which could lead to some afternoon and early evening thunderstorms. Keep tabs on the forecast to see how which areas will be impacted. The Washington D.C. area is also looking at afternoon rain continuing into the evening, and anyone who has followed baseball over the last few seasons knows that the Nationals like to be cagey about their postponements.
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