It’s another full slate of Friday night MLB action, and we have a little bit of everything, including aces facing off in L.A., exciting rookies taking the hill, and a few lesser-known pitchers who have been red hot. With only two early games today, there are 13 games on tonight’s DFS main slate for FanDuel and DraftKings that locks at 7:05 p.m.
RotoBaller has all your fantasy baseball and DFS needs! Check our probable pitchers page to see all of today’s starters, and be sure to utilize our MLB DFS Optimizer to create unique lineups for tonight’s slate!
When we're looking for pitchers, we want to target guys who can limit runs and pitch deep enough into games to pick up wins. That said, we don’t always need to target pitchers on heavily favored teams. In fact, we want strikeouts more than anything whenever possible, as the scoring system on both FanDuel and DraftKings really rewards pitchers who rack up Ks. Narrowing down the list for tonight’s games was a challenge today, but here are my five favorite arms for MLB DFS contests.
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Best starting pitchers, sleeper SPs for Friday's MLB DFS contests
By Dan Palyo
Shohei Ohtani, Angels vs. Mariners ($10,400 DK, $10,000 FD)
You’ll notice I skipped both Gerrit Cole and Cristian Javier at the very top of the DK pricing. Cole has not been his dominant self lately, and the Red Sox are a tough matchup for him, especially with all the lefties they can stack up in their lineup. Javier has been solid, but he has not been the strikeout pitcher this season that he was last year and gets a hot Guardians team that doesn’t whiff much.
That brings me to Ohtani, who struggled in his last start against Houston but is in a great spot to bounce back. Seattle has been fairly mediocre against RHPs in terms of run creation while striking out far too often (25.7 percent of the time on the season). I have him projected for nine strikeouts tonight, and no other pitcher really matches his K upside.
Ohtani was excellent against the Mariners in his only other start against them this season, striking out eight Mariners over six innings while allowing just one run on three hits and four walks.
Luis Castillo, Mariners @ Angels ($9,800 DK, $10,600 FD)
Castillo was recommended in last week’s article, and he continued his recent strong stretch by racking up 22.2 DK points even in a 2-0 loss to Texas. He's faced the Angels once already this year and posted 26.4 DK points in that outing while shutting out the Halos over 5.2 innings.
Despite averaging more DK points per start than Gerrit Cole this season, Castillo is still under $10k on DraftKings, making him an outstanding GPP play. I have to imagine his rostership will be relatively low, as he’s facing a solid Angels lineup and going head-to-head with Ohtani.
He’s actually more expensive than Ohtani on FanDuel by 600 dollars, which will definitely make him the less-rostered of the two pitchers. He’s in great form and could end up outpitching Ohtani in this duel. I want exposure to both pitchers in tournaments.
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Marcus Stroman, Cubs @ Giants ($8,700 DK, $10,200 FD)
Stroman is arguably the hottest pitcher on the slate today. He has posted 20-plus DK points in four straight starts, including a 45-point masterpiece in a shutout of Tampa's elite offense.
Yet, DraftKings has been slow to raise his price. Stroman is not a guarantee for strikeouts, as he prefers to induce ground balls with his heavy sinker. He has one of the best ground-ball rates in baseball, and his 1.00 WHIP is a reflection of how good of a job he has done of keeping the opposition off the basepaths.
The Giants can be tough on RHPs, but they also strike out more than the average team against righties. Based on his recent form, Stroman should be able to hold them in check. This is strictly a DK-only play because of the price, though. I wouldn’t invest over $10K in a guy without a high strikeout floor as my only pitcher on FanDuel.
Tyler Wells, Orioles vs. Royals ($8,300 DK, $9,700 FD)
This is my guy today! I love Wells in all formats on both sites, let’s get that out of the way early. He's leading the majors in WHIP (0.85) among qualified starting pitchers.
He also happens to be coming off two of his best starts of the season. He held the Guardians to just one run over six innings with seven strikeouts, then followed it up with nine strikeouts over five frames against the Giants.
Wells' matchup checks all the boxes today. The Royals are well below average against RHPs in run creation and have a strikeout rate that is trending in the wrong direction (for them, but the right direction for Wells).
Wells has a solid ceiling (34 against Pittsburgh) and floor (10-plus DK points in every start but one), making him my favorite option on a point-per-dollar basis on DraftKings. I think he’s safe enough in this matchup to justify using in cash games on FanDuel, too.
AJ Smith-Shawver, Braves vs. Nationals ($6,500 DK, $7,200 FD)
Let’s talk about at least one cheap option. Adrian Houser will be a popular choice down here in this range against Oakland, but I don’t have much faith in him and have to remind everyone that Oakland just piled up a bunch of runs on the Pirates earlier this week.
Let’s look at this rookie from Atlanta instead. Smith-Shawver is making his first MLB start, though he did pitch 2.1 innings in relief last week. He looked great in that small sample, striking out three hitters while allowing only one walk. The 20-year-old phenom has jumped from High-A all the way to the majors this season, which is something you just don’t see all that often.
That means he’s incredibly inexperienced, making this a very risky play. Washington doesn’t strike out all that much and can be a pesky opponent despite its poor overall record. However, if this kid pitches anywhere close to what he’s done this year at all levels, he could absolutely crush this price tag, too. He has a good offense behind him and could pick up a win if he gets through five innings with the lead.
