This article is part of our Yahoo DFS Baseball series.
Football has already subsumed Sundays, but DFS opportunities abound for MLB fans. You can always set your lineup and watch NFL games all day if you want. All 15 games have been included by Yahoo, which means you need to get your lineups in by 12:10 p.m. ET. Here are the players I like for Sunday.
Pitching
Framber Valdez, HOU vs. OAK ($56): Season by season, Valdez has gotten better. This year, he has a 2.55 ERA through 27 starts. On top of that, he has an 1.61 ERA over his last six starts. Now he faces an Athletics team that sits 29th in runs scored and is trying to stay ahead of the Tigers to avoid being last in team OPS.
Jordan Montgomery, STL vs. CIN ($44): Maybe Montgomery was more of a candidate for a change of scenery than we realized. In eight starts since being dealt by the Yankees, Montgomery has a 2.05 ERA. He's also a lefty, which means he can neutralize any of Cincinnati's lefty bats. The Reds already are below average in runs scored as is.
Reid Detmers, LAA vs. SEA ($36): Since the start of July, Detmers has a 2.95 ERA. Plus, this year he has a 3.56 ERA at home. The Mariners are 20th in runs scored and also usually have a few lefties in the lineup. The Angels southpaw has only allowed a .194 batting average to fellow left-handers.
Top Targets
Hey, don't take Mike Trout ($25) for granted. He has an 1.115 OPS versus lefties this season and an 1.176 OPS at home. Marco Gonzales has a 3.89 ERA but a 4.93 FIP. He's also struck out a mere 4.96 batters per nine innings.
It's been a tough year for Yuli Gurriel ($13), but he still has a .739 OPS versus lefties, and since 2020 his OPS versus lefties sits at .856. Southpaw Ken Waldichuk has a 5.40 ERA and has allowed righties to hit .300 against him.
Bargain Bats
In his breakout campaign, Andres Gimenez ($12) has slashed .299/.370/.475 with 16 homers and 18 stolen bases. The lefty gets to face right hander Joe Ryan, who has a 4.22 FIP. Additionally, Ryan has a 5.36 ERA on the road.
Bringing something of a poor man's Gimenez performance to the Bay, Thairo Estrada ($11) has 13 home runs and 19 stolen bases. He also has an .832 OPS versus lefties. The bloom is starting to come off the rose for Andrew Heaney, who is maybe not the latest reclamation project for the Dodgers. Heaney has a 4.85 ERA over his last five starts and has allowed 11 homers in that time.
Stacks to Consider
Cardinals vs. Reds (Luis Cessa): Paul Goldschmidt ($24), Albert Pujols ($21), Brendan Donovan ($17)
Cessa has a 5.34 FIP this season. He has a 4.84 ERA over his last five starts and has allowed seven home runs. That's inflated his HR/9 to 1.95, which should entice the Cardinals.
Goldschmidt is having arguably the best season of his career, as he's slashed .322/.411/.599 with 35 home runs. He also has a 1.123 OPS at home. With the NL Central all but locked in for the Cardinals, and with 700 home runs in sight for Pujols, I fully expect him to get every opportunity possible. He has 19 home runs on the year while slugging .520, and his OPS sits at .914 over the last two weeks. The lefty Donovan has a .782 OPS against righties and a .933 OPS at home.
Blue Jays vs. Orioles (Dean Kremer): Bo Bichette ($25), Matt Chapman ($16), Vladimir Guerrero ($14)
Kremer has a career 4.84 ERA. Admittedly, his ERA sits at 3.34 ERA, though it's up at 3.51 on the road. For his career, righties have hit .291 against him. He hasn't been much better in that area this year even as his ERA has improved, as righties have hit .282 against him.
Bichette has gotten scorching hot, recording a 1.290 OPS over the last three weeks with seven home runs. On the year, he has 24 homers and 11 stolen bases. Chapman has racked up 26 home runs and 26 doubles. He also has an .887 OPS at home. The fact Kremer lets righties hit for a good average against him actually plays into Guerrero's hands. Vladito has hit .283 against right handers in 2022 and has hit .296 against them since the start of the 2020 season.
Red Sox vs. Royals (Kris Bubic): Rafael Devers ($16), Tommy Pham ($15), J.D. Martinez ($14)
Bubic has a career 4.99 FIP. On top of that, he has a 5.55 ERA this season. Somehow, things have gotten even bleaker recently, as he has a 7.04 ERA over his last six starts. Now he has to visit Fenway Park, which bodes well for the Red Sox.
Devers has a .916 OPS at home. While the southpaw does better against righties, Bubic has allowed lefties to hit .364 against him this year. Pham has 16 home runs and eight stolen bases. Furthermore, he has an .825 OPS against lefties. Martinez's homers are down, though he does have 38 doubles and has hit .270. Additionally, he has a .935 OPS in matchups with southpaws.
