Happy Saturday! We’ve got a great 7-game slate of games kicking off at 7:05 EST today on both DraftKings and Fanduel. Today gives us a great mix of day baseball to enjoy, with a main slate in the evening to give us plenty of time to get our lineups perfect. We have another San Diego Padre joining Fernando Tatis Jr. in making their season debut this week with Joe Musgrove taking the mound against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Be sure to check in with our MLB DFS Tools, with the daily MLB projections, MLB DFS rosters projections, and our MLB DFS Lineup Generator when building those lineups today to help you decide which players you should be targeting!

 

MLB DFS Playbook April 22

MLB Weather Updates

No real weather concerns for the evening games today, but check back as it gets closer to game time. 

DFS Lineup Construction Thoughts

Unlike on Thursday when Fernando Tatis Jr. was $2,000 on DraftKings, we don’t get much of a discount for Joe Musgrove today, with him coming in at $9,200. While I love Joe Musgrove, I am worried that he could be on a pitch count today in his first start, so without any real discount, I am going to leave him off my lineups in his first start. The Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Mariners are my favorite offenses to target today, with some decent matchups for the Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Angels, and Houston Astros as well. There are a few different paths to handle pitching today, with some great pitchers at the top as well as some cheaper value plays that are intriguing.

Recommended DFS Starting Pitchers

Top Options for Strikeouts

Andrew Heaney vs Oakland Athletics

Luis Castillo vs St. Louis Cardinals

Garrett Whitlock vs Milwaukee Brewers

Joe Musgrove vs Arizona Diamondbacks

Framber Valdez vs Atlanta Braves

Best Odds for a Win

Andrew Heaney vs Oakland Athletics

Tyler Anderson vs Kansas City Royals

Kyle Gibson vs Detroit Tigers

Luis Castillo vs St. Louis Cardinals

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Favorite Starters to Use for DFS Lineups

Luis Castillo, Seattle Mariners

Luis Castillo is my current favorite for the AL Cy Young. If you haven’t watched him pitch yet this year, do yourself a favor and give him a watch. Castillo has looked untouchable so far, and even facing a tough offense in the St. Louis Cardinals, I am willing to pay for him. In his four starts this season, he has only given up runs in one game when he gave up 2 to the Chicago Cubs. In his three scoreless games, no team has more than 2 hits against him. I think he has a double-digit strikeout game coming as well, and I am willing to plug Castillo into my lineup every time he is pitching right now. 

Andrew Heaney, Texas Rangers

Andrew Heaney appeared to have figured it out after his rough first start against the Baltimore Orioles. He only got 4 strikeouts in his last outing against the Astros, but giving up zero runs and only two hits against the Astros through 5 innings is still a great outing. Today he gets to face the Oakland Athletics and I will be shocked if he doesn’t put up 8+ strikeouts. Heaney has always had amazing strikeout numbers, and last year (when healthy) with the Dodgers really seemed to have put it all together with a career-high 13.92 K/9 in 72.2 innings. He has the highest strikeout and wins odds for the day for a reason, and getting that for under $9,000 seems like a great deal. 

Kyle Gibson, Baltimore Orioles

Kyle Gibson does not have the strikeout potential that Heaney does, but anyone with a pulse can put up some strikeouts against the Detroit Tigers lately. You can trust that Gibson is going to go out and throw around 100 pitches of quality stuff against the Tigers. That is about all I need to know to convince me to put him in a lineup. Camden Yards is a great place to pitch now as well, so with a good matchup, a good park, and great chances for a win, I think Gibson is a great play that will probably be fairly low-owned compared to the other top-end pitchers. 

Garrett Whitlock, Boston Red Sox

Whitlock put up a great start against the Angels in his second start of the season. He only gave up 1 run on 3 hits and struck out 5. Most importantly, he threw 99 pitches and went 7 innings. He has 14 swinging strikes and has the potential to get some decent high strikeout totals if he can keep going 6 or more innings. While the Milwaukee offense is better against right-handers, they still strike out a decent amount and have days where they get cold. I like Whitlock at this price if you are looking for a cheaper play for today’s slate.

Recommended DFS Hitters

Highest Expected Run Totals 

Los Angeles Angels vs Zack Greinke

San Diego Padres vs Merrill Kelly

Texas Rangers vs Shintaro Fujinami

Baltimore Orioles vs Joey Wentz

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Favorite Hitters to Use for DFS Lineups

Ty France, Seattle Mariners

Ty France has had a solid, albeit unspectacular, start to the season. He only has one home run but is still slashing .300/.380/.450. He is hitting 2nd every day in this lineup, usually right in between Julio Rodriguez and Eugenio Suarez, which is a pretty good place to be. The Mariners have a great matchup today against Miles Mikolas, who has had a rough start to the season with an 8.10 ERA and 2.05 WHIP, France is a great hitter, and even if he doesn’t get you a homerun is going to get on base and can stack up the runs and RBIs very quickly. 

Xander Bogaerts, San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres have the second-highest implied run total today. They just got Fernando Tatis Jr. back, Manny Machado has been extremely cold, and their offense has looked mostly dead to start the season. I don’t think that will continue, but despite that, Xander Bogaerts has been one of the best hitters in all of baseball to start the season. He is hitting .349 and already has 5 home runs. Xander has been incredible and if he can start getting some extra offense around him, the fantasy potential is sky-high. 

Fernando Tatis Jr. , San Diego Padres

Here is the extra offense that Bogaerts should be getting. He is now only playable at OF and doesn’t cost $2,000 as he did for his debut, but he is still underpriced. Tatis is probably going to be up above $6,000 very soon. I have no doubt that if he stays healthy, he will be one of the best hitters in the league. The talent that Tatis has is ridiculous and I think it has been too long since he played that people have just forgotten how great of a hitter he is. Keep going after him while he is this cheap, especially in a great matchup. 

Jarred Kelenic, Seattle Mariners

Jarred Kelenic got the start against a lefty yesterday and still cost around the same amount that he does today against Miles Mikolas. I fully believe in what Kelenic is doing at the plate, don’t forget that he was a top-ranked prospect just a year ago. He has slowed down a bit in his last 4 games, but I think it is just a short cold stretch, and will keep up the hitting that he has been doing so far this season. 

Kike Hernandez, Boston Red Sox

Kike Hernandez has hot insane hot streaks and insane cold streaks. He will have a stretch almost every year where he is the best hitter in baseball for a few weeks, and it looks like we might be at the start of that. In his last three games, he has 6 hits, including a double and a home run. In a good matchup today against Miley, I am going to guess that he keeps that streak going. Boston’s offense has still been the second-highest-scoring offense so far this year, and while don’t have the star power they have the past few years, they can still put up runs. 

Player Pool

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