Welcome to Wednesday! We have another full day of baseball ahead of us today. 

You can get things rolling right away today with an early 6-game slate starting at 1:10 PM ET, but today's playbook will be focused on this evening’s 7-game main slate, so you have no shortage of chances to build more winning MLB DFS lineups!

 

 

 

You will have plenty of time to enjoy the early games and get your lineups perfect for this evening’s 7-game main slate starts at 7:10 PM ET on both DraftKings and FanDuel. With that said, let’s get right into today’s playbook and some of my favorite MLB DFS picks for the day!

MLB DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, May 15

MLB Weather Today, 5/15

  • No current weather concerns for today. 

MLB DFS Lineup Construction Thoughts

While sometimes on a split slate you get unlucky and you don’t get many of the good pitchers on the main slate, today doesn’t have that problem. We don’t have Ranger Suarez, Garrett Crochet, Kyle Bradish, or Michael King as options, but I probably would prefer most of the options we have over those guys anyway.

While I mostly prefer closer to the top end of pitching today, I do have one cheap option you can choose if that’s the direction you want to go. Outside of my favorites, I also like Tanner Houck, Logan Webb, and Marcus Stroman today. 

On the offensive side, some of my favorite lineups to target today include the Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs, and Cleveland Guardians. 

 

 

 

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

Top Options For Strikeouts

Best Odds For A Win

 

 

 

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Pablo Lopez, Minnesota Twins 

Pablo Lopez has only one start with less than 6 strikeouts, and in six of his eight starts, he has 7 or more. Over his last three starts, he has had at least 8 strikeouts in each outing, including his 10 strikeouts against Seattle in his last outing. 

The Yankees have the fourth-lowest strikeout rate against right-handers in the league, but I really don’t think that matters too much for Pablo Lopez. I think he will certainly get to that 7-strikeout mark once again today. 

Framber Valdez, Houston Astros 

This looks like a great matchup for Framber Valdez. The Oakland Athletics have gotten basically all of their offense through home runs, and Framber is an elite groundball pitcher who never gives up homers (0.61 HR/9 on the season and a career 0.74 HR/9). 

Framber has the lowest strikeout rate of his career right now at just under 19%, but that is only 5 starts. I think we see that come back around to his career 23% mark, as he had an almost 25% strikeout rate last season. 

Taj Bradley, Tampa Bay Rays 

Taj Bradley looked great in his first start. Against the Yankees, he managed 6 innings, giving up only 1 run and striking out 7. That is against a Yankees team that I already highlighted as not striking out against right-handers much.

Now, he gets to face the Red Sox, who aren’t a bad offense, but they strike out a lot, with a 24.5% strikeout rate against righties. I think he at least matches his last outing of 6 innings and 7 strikeouts, with the upside for more today. 

Griffin Canning, Los Angeles Angels

I am most likely sticking with those first three options today for my lineups, but if you really need to save money, I think that Griffin Canning is an intriguing option with how cheap he is. He has gone at least 5 innings in each of his last 5 starts, and I think he can be better than he has been, considering he has a 16.4% strikeout rate while he has a career 23.7% strikeout rate. 

The Cardinals just scored 4 runs on Reid Detmers yesterday, but it still came with 7 strikeouts. They are listed as the fourth-highest run potential today, so clearly, this comes with a ton of risk, but at $5,500, I think there is enough upside to be worth the risk.

 

 

 

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

Highest Expected Run Totals 

Core MLB DFS Hitters

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

Matt Olson, 1B Atlanta Braves

Matt Olson had been slumping for quite a while, but he now has two homers in his last five games and back-to-back multi-hit games after a great performance yesterday with a homer, double, walk, and four RBIs. We knew he would heat up at some point, and now that he is getting to face Javier Assad, I think he will keep it going.

He is normally closer to a $6K player, so I am going to take the discount that he has after that slump, take the cheaper price while it is still there, and hope that we are at the beginning of a big hot stretch. 

Alex Bregman, 3B Houston Astros

Alex Bregman is back! He has 5 hits in his last two games, all for extra bases, with 3 homers and 2 doubles. This is another guy you can get at a discount because he has been slumping super bad up to this point. 

I really like stacking the Astros today against Aaron Brooks. Getting Bregman for this cheap, with him hitting this well, feels like a great steal. 

Corey Seager, SS Texas Rangers

You aren’t getting as much of a discount on Seager as you are on Olson and Bregman, but he still is probably too cheap, and he has been hitting better for longer than Olson and Bregman. Seager has hits in 10 of his last 12 hits including 3 homers. A .859 OPS over that stretch isn’t insane or anything but it is solid and the upside with Seager is always crazy high. 

The Rangers are another great stack today, facing Carlos Carrasco. If I can only get one bat from their lineup, I likely want it to be Seager, who I still think is easily their best hitter. 

Max Kepler, OF Minnesota Twins

Max Kepler ended his 14-game hitting streak last night, though it was because of a pinch-hit plate appearance, so he only had one chance to keep it going. Over that hitting streak he has a 1.223 OPS, only Aaron Judge, Bryson Stott, and Brent Rooker have a better OPS over that stretch. 

Marcus Stroman has been pitching fine but not great. He has had some good luck, and his 1.50 WHIP and 1.48 HR/9 suggest that his 3.80 ERA could be due for some regression. This Twins offense has been playing great, and I think Kepler is a great option in this spot. 

 

 

 

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