MLB DFS Picks & Playbook For Today’s Games: Tuesday, July 23rd

Happy Tuesday! We have a great day of baseball in store for us. It is Paul Skenes day, and he will look to follow up his last start, where he threw 7 no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts before starting the all-star game. While Skenes isn’t on the main slate today, there is still no shortage of aces taking the mound, which should make for an exciting slate, so let’s keep this week going strong today with some more winning MLB DFS lineups!

We have an 11-game main slate this evening that will be getting underway at 7:05 PM ET on both DraftKings and FanDuel. This slate does include Coors once again, with the Red Sox vs. Rockies series continuing there and plenty of other great players to choose from to build some winning lineups around today, so let’s jump right into today’s playbook and my favorite MLB DFS picks for the day!

MLB DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, July 23

MLB Weather Today, 7/23

• Cincinnati Reds vs. Atlanta Braves

There are some thunderstorms this afternoon, but they should clear out before game time. The worst we are looking at should be a slightly delayed start. 

• Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs

A few thunderstorms scattered through the area, but they don’t look like they will affect the game as of right now. 

MLB DFS Lineup Construction Thoughts

The top-end pitching today is absolutely stacked. Chris Sale, Logan Gilbert, Garrett Crochet, Zack Wheeler, and Luis Gil are all so good that they are worth considering today, but you’ll have to pay for it. I am likely paying for it today because it gets ugly quickly after those five. I have one cheaper option in my favorites that you could pair with your favorite of the top five; if not, I would likely just pay up for pitching today and take two of the top five. The only other pitchers I could see giving consideration for today are Jose Berrios, Landon Knack, and Jon Gray. 

On the offensive side, obviously the Coors game has to have some consideration. I think you can go to both sides, with both the Rockies and Red Sox having some good players to target. Outside of Coors, some of my favorite lineups to target today include the Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Royals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs. 

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

Top Options For Strikeouts

• Chris Sale vs. Cincinnati Reds
• Garrett Crochet vs. Texas Rangers
• Zack Wheeler vs. Minnesota Twins
• Luis Gil vs. New York Mets
• Logan Gilbert vs. Los Angeles Angels

Best Odds For A Win

• Zack Wheeler vs. Minnesota Twins
• Chris Sale vs. Cincinnati Reds
• Logan Gilbert vs. Los Angeles Angels
• Albert Suarez vs. Miami Marlins

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves

Chris Sale is putting together his best season since 2018. He has been absurdly good, and he is worth paying this huge price tag for right now. He is coming off an outing with only 4 strikeouts, but that was against the Padres, who are one of the hardest teams to strike out. Before that outing, he had a stretch of 12 starts where he averaged over 8.5 strikeouts per start. 

The Cincinnati Reds are not a great team against lefties and have an over 23% strikeout rate against them since June. At least 8 strikeouts feel almost guaranteed tonight, with the potential for even more. 

Garrett Crochet, Chicago White Sox

Garrett Crochet leads the entire league in strikeout minus walk rate at 29.8% (Chris Sale is third at 26.9%). To put into perspective how insane that is, there are only 7 qualified starters with a strikeout rate higher than 29.8%. You shouldn’t worry too much about his last two starts; there should be no reason he isn’t back to throwing at least 5+ innings today. 

The Texas Rangers are also a below-average team against lefties and are in the bottom 10 in strikeout rate against lefties at 22.6%. Arguments can be made for any of the top five starters today, but Sale and Crochet are easily my favorites on this slate. 

Jose Soriano, Los Angeles Angels

You know we love to attack the Seattle Mariners because they strike out so much. They have by far the highest strikeout rate in the league against right-handers, at 28.7%. It helps when the pitcher has already shown strikeout upside, which Soriano has with 6 or more strikeouts in 6 starts this season. 

He only struck out 5 in his last outing against the Mariners, but he also struggled with command, with a season-high 4 walks. Despite that, he still made it through 6 innings, only giving up 1 run, getting both a quality start and the win. If he can command a bit better today, we could easily see him get 6+ strikeouts again, although the win potential is hurt a little with him facing Logan Gilbert. 

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

Highest Expected Run Totals 

• Boston Red Sox vs. Ty Blach
• Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Alec Marsh
• New York Yankees vs. Jose Quintana
• Atlanta Braves vs. Nick Martinez

Core MLB DFS Hitters

*Note: Will Be Updated As Official Starting Lineups Are Released

Vladimir Guerrero, 1B/3B Toronto Blue Jays

Vladimir Guerrero is crushing the ball right now with 8 hits in his last 4 games, including 3 homers and 2 doubles. After his slow start to the season, he still has a .292/.362/.473 slash line, which is his best since his monstrous 2021 season. 

He faces Tyler Alexander today, a lefty who gets crushed by right-handers. Righties have a .848 OPS against him this season, which is pretty much in line with the career mark for him of .823. This should be a great matchup for Vlad to keep this hot stretch going. 

Gavin Lux, 2B Los Angeles Dodgers

I was big on Gavin Lux to start the season as someone who I believed would be a great bat for the Dodgers; so far, it has not worked out that way. It looks like things might be turning around, though, with homers in back-to-back games and 5 total hits, although he did go hitless yesterday, but I think this is a better matchup for him today. 

I like the Dodgers as a whole against Jordan Hicks today, but it is going to be difficult to afford a lot of their bats, but I am happy to turn to a bat I do believe in that is starting to heat up that you can get for a very good price. 

Bobby Witt, SS Kansas City Royals

Bobby Witt could be $7,000, and I would still consider trying to fit him in my lineup. He is on another level right now, and if I can only get one top-priced hitter today (which is possible with how much I will be spending on pitching), it is going to be Bobby Witt 

Over the last 4 games, he has 12 hits with 3 hits in all 4 games, including 2 homers, a triple, and 2 doubles (he fell a single short of the cycle last night). The Royals will be facing Jordan Montgomery in his return, who has struggled so far this season, and I don’t trust him to shut down this hot Royals team right now. 

Lawrence Butler, OF Oakland Athletics

Lawrence Butler’s price has climbed a ton recently, with him all the way up to $3,700, up from the $2,500 he was before the all-star break, but that isn’t enough of a price jump with what he is doing right now.

The Athletics offense has been producing recently, and I think they will keep it up today against Jake Bloss. You can consider stacking a few Athletics bats today, but even if you aren’t, Lawrence Butler should probably be in your lineup. 

Player Pool

• FanDuel
• DraftKings

$ Tier	SP	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	OF
High	Chris Sale $10,500	Connor Wong $4,400	Bryce Harper $5,700	Ketel Marte $5,400	Rafael Devers $6,300	Bobby Witt $6,400	Shohei Ohtani $6,600
	Logan Gilbert $10,000	Shea Langeliers $4,300	Freddie Freeman $5,500	Jose Altuve $5,300	Alec Bohm $5,300	Trea Turner $6,200	Aaron Judge $6,500
							Juan Soto $6,100
							Jarren Duran $6,000
							Tyler O'Neill $5,700
							Yordan Alvarez $5,500
Medium	Garrett Crochet $9,800	Austin Wells $3,500	Vladimir Guerrero $4,800	Maikel Garcia $4,400	Ryan McMahon $4,600	Ceddanne Rafaela $4,600	Brenton Doyle $4,900
	Zack Wheeler $9,500	Freddy Fermin $3,100	Michael Toglia $4,100	Brandon Lowe $4,400		Ezequiel Tovar $4,400	Joc Pederson $4,600
						Willy Adames $4,300	George Springer $4,500
							Rob Refsnyder $4,300
							Jarred Kelenic $4,200
Low	José Soriano $7,600	Alejandro Kirk $2,800	Michael Busch $3,800	Richie Palacios $3,400	Eugenio Suárez $3,500	Anthony Volpe $3,900	Lawrence Butler $3,700
				Gavin Lux $3,200	Ernie Clement $2,900	Max Schuemann $2,500	Tyler Fitzgerald $3,700
							Davis Schneider $3,600
							Jake Cave $3,300
							Joey Loperfido $3,000

Stacks

Rockies	Ryan McMahon	Brenton Doyle	Michael Toglia	Jake Cave	Ezequiel Tovar
DraftKings	4600	4900	4100	3300	4400
Fanduel	3400	3700	3400	2700	3700

Red Sox	Ceddanne Rafaela	Tyler O'Neill	Jarren Duran	Connor Wong	Rafael Devers
DraftKings	4600	5700	6000	4400	6300
Fanduel	3300	4200	4300	3500	4500

Royals	Vinnie Pasquantino	Bobby Witt	Freddy Fermin	Maikel Garcia	Hunter Renfroe
DraftKings	4500	6400	3100	4400	3500
Fanduel	3100	4500	2600	2900	2900

Phillies	Nick Castellanos	Trea Turner	Alec Bohm	Kyle Schwarber	Bryce Harper
DraftKings	4400	6200	5300	5400	5700
Fanduel	3000	4300	3400	3900	4000

Blue Jays	George Springer	Ernie Clement	Vladimir Guerrero
DraftKings	4500	2900	4800
Fanduel	3300	2600	3600