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After watching my Steelers lose to their division rival Cleveland Browns last night, I'm ready to focus on baseball and forget about football until Sunday. They didn't just lose, they were handled in the second half and the Browns are not even a very good football team, it looks like it's going to be a rough year for Pittsburgh in the football department, too, and I am sorry Pirates fans that you can't simply flip over to Steelers football and enjoy some winning after a long season of Pirates irrelevance.
Enough about Pittsburgh, heck they aren't even on the main slate today! We do have three games set to start earlier than 7 PM EST, leaving us with "only" 12 games on the main slate, but that's still a nice big Friday slate of action and as always I got you covered with my favorite arms, bats, and stacks!
As always, this article will provide my daily fantasy baseball lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Friday's main slate locks at 7:05 EST on 9/23/2022. The lineup picks will range from some elite high-priced players to mid-priced options and value plays. I'll give you a few of my top pitching options and then some infielders, outfielders, and teams to stack! You can also read more DFS advice and lineup picks for other sports here. It's also essential to monitor injury news and today's MLB starting lineups. Now that we got all of that out of the way, it's onto the picks!
DraftKings, FanDuel Pitchers - MLB DFS Lineup Picks
Carlos Rodon @ ARI ($10,300 DK, $11,000 FD)
There are a few very worthy aces going tonight with both Gerrit Cole and Shohei Ohtani taking the hill for their teams, but I am going to plant my flag on Rodon, who comes into this start in excellent form and may have the best match-up of the three as he faces the Snakes in the desert.
Arizona has been an interesting team this year as they flipped from a team to target with pitchers early on in the year to a team we looked to stack later in the season once their best young hitters came up. But now that we have seen this current group of hitters for a while, I think they are much more vulnerable to LHP than righties. Kershaw, Urias, and Tyler Anderson all pitched well against them in their last series and Rodon dominated them in his last meeting with them a month ago, spinning six solid innings of one-run ball with 11 strikeouts.
Rodon's not been pitching deep into games, but he's been doing serious work in these 5-6 inning starts and has double-digit strikeouts in four of his last six. I worry a bit about Cole seeing Boston again so soon and they did get him for four runs last time out. I'm going to rank the studs in this order - Rodon, Ohtani, Cole, Nola and I'm staying away from Chris Bassitt just because I have a weird gut feeling about him going back to Oakland and I'm probably still upset about the way George Kirby busted against the Athletics yesterday.
Jeffrey Springs vs. TOR ($8,200 DK, $7,900 FD)
Okay, I know you probably already know that I am like the president of the Jeff Springs fan club, but I honestly was looking for any other pitcher in the mid-tier to recommend and I'm sorry but none of them compare to my fave young lefty. There's always a bit of a concern about a pitch count and lack of innings with Springs but his random 3-inning start now looks flukier than anything as he's been allowed to throw 78 and 94 pitches in his last two outings.
One of those outings was against the Blue Jays on September 13th and it was a beauty. You'd think that attacking the Jays, who have mainly right-handed bats in their lineup (and some darn good ones at that) would be dangerous (and it still is), but Toronto has only a 77 wRC+, .272 wOBA, and .137 ISO against LHP over the last two weeks AND a 26% K rate.
My man Springs is legit and it might be foolish to think he can do it again here against a good team, but at this price, I'm going to give it a shot. He's by far the most talented pitcher in this price range and I think the best point-per-dollar value on the slate.
Also consider - Shohei Ohtani @ MIN, Brady Singer vs. SEA
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DraftKings, FanDuel Infielders - MLB DFS Lineup Picks
Pete Alonso - 1B, NYM vs. Cole Irvin ($5,400 DK, $3,900 FD)
It's Alonso against a lefty who throws a sinker, how can I resist? The match-up with Cole Irvin here fits perfectly as Pete crushes that pitch and has the patience to sit back on the offspeed stuff that Irvin will throw at him, too. Pete's numbers against lefties are great again this year and his recent stretch of production has been impressive as well. Over the last two weeks, he has five home runs, 15 RBI, and 9 runs scored. I love the Mets stack today as Oakland's bullpen is highly suspect, too, and I think we could see Alonso and others (especially Eduardo Escobar) tee off on Irvin.
Elias Diaz - C, COL vs. Sean Manaea ($3,600 DK, $2,600 FD)
I usually try not to "cheat" and give out Coors Field plays, but I feel like this is a sneaky one. You can certainly stack either side of this Coors game with Ryan Feltner going for Colorado (Padres' lefties) and Manaea going for San Diego (Rockies' righties), but don't forget about the catcher!
Diaz has only 9 home runs this year but isn't your typical defense-first catcher either. He can hit and he has power. Just a few weeks ago he had a 4-5 double-dong night at the plate with 7 RBI! I'm not saying that happens here, but just that I really like him as a hitter and he matches up well here against Manaea, who is basically a two-pitch pitcher to righties, throwing his sinker and change-up exclusively. Diaz has great numbers against the sinker, which tends not to sink as sharply in the thin air of the Rockies, too. Manaea has been very hittable down the stretch and his solid start to the season seems like a distant memory.
Diaz has homered off Manaea once before in only four career at-bats and while Manaea did pitch well in his last visit to Coors Field, he did allow a home run in that game and has not pitched nearly as effectively lately
Jonathan Aranda - 1B/2B, TBR vs. Mitch White ($2,600 DK, $2,100 FD)
I would expect we see Aranda lead off for Tampa again tonight, especially after he had a tremendous game last night, going 2-4 with a home run and three runs scored. He's probably my favorite value on the slate and the eligibility at second base is clutch as we always struggle to find reliable players at that position. He's not a great bet to go yard again, but he's getting on base and putting up points. Mitch White and his 4.97 xFIP shouldn't scare anyone and this Toronto bullpen has been pretty bad lately, too.
DraftKings, FanDuel Outfielders - MLB DFS Lineup Picks
Giancarlo Stanton - OF, NYY vs. Rich Hill ($5,100 DK, $3,300 FD)
All eyes tonight will be on his teammate Aaron Judge as he attempts to tie Roger Maris's AL home run record, but did you notice that Giancarlo (do you remember when he was "Mike Stanton") has homered in two of his last three games? Judge is having an incredible year and Stanton is hitting only .215 but his power numbers are still there and he actually has the better profile of the two sluggers against Rich Hill's main pitch - the curveball. You can certainly pay up for Judge but consider Stanton here as an underpriced asset, especially on FD where he's only $3300.
AJ Pollock - OF, CHW vs. Eduardo Rodriguez ($3,500 DK, $2,500 FD)
I could put a few different Chi-Sox righties in here, but Pollock is the cheapest of the bunch and he also happens to have the best overall splits (both wOBA and ISO) against lefties this season. E-Rod has not been very good this year in Detroit and the White Sox have some pretty solid numbers against lefties over the last two weeks (158 wRC+ is the fourth-best in MLB). Pollock has always been a power threat against lefties and he does have 13 home runs this year while being a platoon player who has been forced into playing more than Chicago expected due to injuries.
I'm leery about a full stack, only because Chicago has burned me a bunch of times and because Detroit's bullpen is decent. But I think we can hunt homers with one-off plays like Pollock, Jimenez, and Robert. And Elvis Andrus should probably be in your cash game build leading off.
Edward Olivares - OF, KCR vs. Marco Gonzales ($3,200 DK, $2,400 FD)
Since he missed nearly two months of the season, it's quite possible that you forgot about Olivares and just how good he is, especially against LHP. It's a small sample size due to his extended absence, but Olivares has a .429 wOBA and .353 ISO against lefties this season and is hitting .305 overall with four homers. Since returning from his injury, he's hit in all five games safely with three doubles and a home run (which was just last night). He's still really cheap on both sites and facing a high-contact pitcher today in Marco Gonzales, who has only struck out 13% of hitters this season.
Olivares is easily my favorite outfield value and I would definitely get him in your cash game builds along with Elvis Andrus at SS and Jonathan Aranda at 2B. Starting with those three values is going to allow you to fit some solid high-priced pitchers!
DraftKings, FanDuel MLB DFS Stacks
Here are my top stacks for tonight (in the order in which I like them)
- LA Dodgers (4.9 implied run total) vs. Jose Quintana (4.25 xFIP)
- NY Mets (4.3 implied run total) vs. Cole Irvin (5.05 xFIP)
- Chicago White Sox (4.5 implied run total) vs. Eduardo Rodriguez (5.16 xFIP)
I hope I gave you a head start on your research today and I wish you the best of luck! If you ever have questions about DFS or fantasy baseball, my DMs are always open and I appreciate you taking the time to read my picks today.
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