What’s up FAmily! Happy Sunday and no better way to end your weekend than with some major league baseball! Sunday baseball has a reputation for being out of the ordinary, so fantasy baseball managers must be on their toes as they build their MLB DFS lineups. Today’s DFS slate starts at 1:35p ET on DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo Fantasy. DraftKings and FanDuel will both cover nine games while Yahoo brings us 14 games throughout the afternoon. The weather forecast looks pretty good but make sure to check our MLB Weather Center before lock. We also have MLB Lineups, MLB Vegas Odds plus projections and a lineup builder in our Fantasy Alarm MLB Tools page. To get the big arms and bats in your lineups you will need to find some value plays and that’s where we come in. I have spent the morning researching and coming up with the best point per dollar plays on the slate. So, let’s get right into it and open Sunday’s MLB DFS Value Vault...

 

 

TOP VALUE ARMS

Kutter Crawford (BOS) $6.8K DK/$8.4K FD/$40 Yahoo

Red Sox rookie Kutter Crawford has a 2.38 ERA/1.01 WHIP and 2.52 FIP while holding opponents to a .218 batting average over his last five starts (since July 1st).  In that same time span all other Red Sox starting pitchers have combined for a 7.23 ERA in 28 games. The 26-year-old righty also has a 2.72 ERA/3.07 FIP and .215 batting average over his last five starts and is a completely different pitcher than the rookie that was optioned to Triple-A Worcester back in May after getting smoked out of the bullpen (10 ER/15 hits/8 walks in 10.2 IP).  He has over 11 DKFP in six straight appearances and over 15 DKFP in four of those outings and today faces a bad Royals team in Kansas City which is a pitcher's park.

Drew Rasmussen (TAM) $7.4K DK/$8.2K FD/$43 Yahoo

Drew Rasmussen came to Tampa in the Willy Adames trade in May of 2021 and since then the former sixth-round pick put up a 2.44 ERA, 2.86 FIP and 0.97 WHIP over the second half of his 2021 season and has a 2.95 ERA/1.21 WHIP this year. The right-hander faced this Tigers offense back in May when he threw five innings of shutout baseball, allowing four hits and no walks while striking out seven to earn the win. Rasmussen is a five-inning hurler, with just four of his 18 starts going longer and a majority being right at five. The innings issue is pretty much built into Rasmussen’s DK price, but I love the matchup against a team that is dead last in runs per game and the sixth highest K rate in MLB. 

 

TOP VALUE BATS

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (TOR) $3.8K DK/$2.9K FD/$16 Yahoo

George Springer is on the IL with a bad elbow and that led to Gurriel moving into the coveted Blue Jays leadoff spot last night. He should be getting more opportunities as the table setter due to hitting .360 over the last month with a 131.8 wRC+ and .417 OBP. Gurriel also has hits in 16 of his last 18 games with a .375 average and four doubles in that span. Today he faces righty Chris Archer and has a .353 wOBA with 45.2% hard contact in the reverse split while Archer has a horrible 5.63 xFIP with a low 16% K rate to right-handed bats.

Terrin Vavra (BAL) $2.0K DK/$2.2K FD/$17 Yahoo

Terrin Vavra, the #12 Orioles prospect per MLB Pipeline, was called up from Triple-A Norfolk at the trade deadline after Trey Mancini took his bat to Houston. He had been raking with Norfolk this season, slashing .324/.435/.451 (.886 OPS) with 28 walks against 36 strikeouts across 45 games. Vavra’s is known for his “hitter’s eye”, which allowed him to get on base at a very high rate across his Minor League career, with a .410 on-base percentage along with 21 home runs and a .468 slugging percentage.  Since the call up he is hitting .470 with a couple of RBIs and a wOBA of .512. Today he is batting 3rd in the Orioles lineup with the platoon advantage over Pirates pitcher Bryce Wilson. The right-hander has been bad this season with a 5.04 xFIP and he certainly is not missing any bats with a 14% strikeout rate to left-handed sticks as well as allowing a .295 ISO/.461wOBA.

 

Other Top Value Picks:

Ryan Mountcastle (BAL) $3.1K DK

Darick Hall (PHI) $3.3K DK   Nationals have no LHP ln their bullpen

Nick Castellanos (PHI) $2.7K FD

Bryan Reynolds (PIT) $2.9K FD

Ji-Man Choi (TAM) $9 Yahoo  Hitting cleanup 

Billy Hamilton (MIA) $2.0K DK/$2.0K FD/$7 Yahoo One of JV’s darts from today’s Playbook

 

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