This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
Instead of helping you find Easter Eggs on Sunday, I'm hoping to pick the right players for your MLB DFS lineups. There are 10 games on the DFS schedule with the first pitch is at 1:35 p.m. EDT. Onto those DFS recommendations!
Pitching
Kevin Gausman, TOR at TB ($10,800): Because the MLB season started Thursday, Sunday's starters aren't a remarkable bunch. That makes Gausman the top talent taking the mound having posted a sub-3.00 FIP in both of his seasons with Toronto while striking out double-digit batters per nine innings and allowing under one homer per nine. The Rays boasted a top-five offense last year. But if you want to bet on talent, go with Gausman as he's the lone ace on the slate.
Tyler Wells, BAL vs. LAA ($9,300): Wells held both lefties and righties below the Mendoza line last season, yet he still had a 3.64 ERA. His issue was allowing home runs, but that concern popped up much more on the road at 2.3 per nine innings compared to 1.6 at home. That's not great, though it's at least palatable. The Angels were average offensively last season, but Shohei Ohtani is gone and that means this year will likely be worse in terms of scoring runs.
Trevor Rogers, MIA vs. PIT ($8,900): If you want to roll the dice, consider Rogers. Two seasons ago, he posted a 2.64 ERA with a 2.54 FIP while striking out 10.62 batters per nine innings. It looked like a No. 1 starter had been born. Then in 2023, he registered a 5.47 ERA, but with a 4.37 FIP. That's not good, but it's more mediocre than awful. Rogers also only got to make four starts due to injury. Which version of the southpaw do we see in 2024? He makes his season debut at home against a Pirates team that has finished in the bottom-10 in offense for years. If Rogers is back in form, he's going to be a DFS steal for a bit…but only for a bit.
Top Targets
When RotoWire baseball writers were asked to turn in their preseason predictions, my pick for AL MVP was Kyle Tucker ($3,700). He fell one homer short of a 30/30 season in 2023 and is a career .276 hitter. Since 2022, he's managed an .836 OPS against his fellow southpaws, so you can't even neutralize him with a lefty out of the pen. Clarke Schmidt is a righty starter, but that's even better. This is especially true considering he notched a 5.23 road ERA last year while letting lefties hit .303 against.
Royce Lewis is already on IL, so Minnesota fans are probably sweating the health of Byron Buxton ($3,400) as he's the other perennially-injured Twins hitter who flashes tremendous upside when taking the field. Buxton slugged .530 the prior five seasons, and last year had 17 homers with nine stolen bases across 85 games. Brady Singer struggled mightily in 2023 by posting a 5.52 ERA. And fellow righties went a whopping .321 against.
Bargain Bats
Even with an inability to hit his fellow lefties, Jake Fraley ($3,000) managed 15 homers and 21 stolen bases in 2023. When a righty is on the mound, he'll be deployed as he produced an .838 OPS in those matchups since 2022. Jake Irvin's rookie campaign with the Nationals wasn't encouraging, save for those looking for another pitcher to target in DFS. He posted a 5.30 FIP with a 10.2 walk percentage while giving up 1.49 home runs per nine innings.
Over his career, Kerry Carpenter ($2,900) has slugged .505 against righties. Erick Fedde is back in North America with the White Sox after a season in Korea where he put up impressive numbers. But he had to head overseas to try and salvage his career for a reason. After all, the 31-year-old carried a career 5.41 ERA in MLB in six seasons with the Nationals.
Stacks to Consider
Orioles vs. Angels (Reid Detmers): Anthony Santander ($3,600), Cedric Mullins ($3,200), Ryan Mountcastle ($3,100)
Last season, Detmers had a 4.12 FIP compared to a 4.48 ERA. That's…something. Of course, I'm not here to make the case for Detmers, but why you should stack against him. So I'll point out his 5.06 road ERA. He may not allow a lot of homers, yet his line-drive rate is over 22 percent while this Orioles' trio could be spraying the ball around the park.
As a switch-hitter, Santander has options. But either way, he's produced an .864 OPS versus lefties since 2022 with an .823 at home. Mullins slipped a bit last year, yet still tallied 15 homers and 19 stolen bases in 116 games. He had a .708 OPS against his fellow lefties, which is noteworthy as Detmers is a southpaw with fellow lefties going .294 against. Mountcastle's numbers have dropped since he crushed 33 homers and slugged .487 in 2021. Having said that, he recorded a 1.052 OPS against lefties in 2023.
Rangers vs. Cubs (Jordan Wicks): Adolis Garcia ($3,900), Marcus Semien ($3,700), Josh Jung ($3,500)
Wicks started 2023 in Double-A, but was in MLB by the end of the year. That's not to say the lefty pitched well in the Majors. In seven starts, Wicks posted a 4.69 FIP and only struck out 6.23 batters per nine innings. He did manage to handle lefties, but only in a small sample size. That doesn't matter here as we have three righties who enjoy this type of matchup.
Garcia ran less last season, though hit 39 homers with over 100 runs scored and 100 RBI. And at home, he slugged .601. Semien produced over 20 homers and 10 stolen bases for the fourth full MLB season in a row. While he struggled at home in his first season as a Ranger, he managed an .895 OPS in Texas last year. Jung has shown a necessity for facing lefties in order to provide value. Wicks is a lefty and Jung has notched a .982 OPS against southpaws during his career.
