MLB DFS: DraftKings & FanDuel Slate Notes – Wednesday Main Slate 4/3/24

After a Tuesday slate that largely ran by the numbers and expectations (and saw some nice wins in our Discord!) baseball is back in action with a choppy Wednesday schedule and weather all around the league. The main slate includes five games on both DraftKings and FanDuel and two of those contests are carrying run totals of just 7.0 with questionable conditions in New York and Chicago once again tonight. The game in Chicago’s Wrigley Field, if it plays, will take place on a day that has seen 30-degree temperatures and snow, and the wind is blowing in toward home plate. The visiting Rockies have an implied team total below 3.0 runs tonight and the Cubs are not far ahead. In Queens, the Tigers vs Mets game is looking at conditions that are worse than what postponed yesterday’s game without the breaks that could have allowed them to play last night. This is a messy slate that could easily become a three-gamer. Fortunately, the other games offer prime targets for stacking and on the mound.

Don’t miss our Hitter Projections, including custom Home Run ratings for each player, and Pitcher Projections for more on the top opportunities today.

Note: All analysis is written utilizing available projected lineups as of the early morning, pay close attention to confirmed lineups and adjust accordingly. This article is posted and updated as it is written, so if a game has not been filled in, check back in a few minutes. Update notes are provided as lineups are confirmed to the best of our ability. Still, lineup changes are not typically updated as lock approaches, so stay tuned to official news for any late changes.

MLB DFS: Game by Game Main Slate Notes – 4/3/24

Pittsburgh Pirates (-142/4.93) @ Washington Nationals (+130/4.17)

• This game has a moderate weather concern with rain in the area throughout the day but it is expected to play
• The Pirates will be facing targetable Nationals righty Trevor Williams, who had a 5.55 ERA with a not-much-better 5.22 xFIP over 30 starts and 144.1 innings last season. Williams threw a better 89.2 innings in nine starts in 2022 but he has always been a bit of a mark for stacking. The righty yielded an ugly 5.16% home run rate on 10.2% barrels and managed just a 16.8% strikeout rate with 7.9% swinging strikes and a 22.3% CSW%, neither of which are remotely good. Williams pushes the Pirates to a healthy 4.93-run implied team total with several strong options for home run upside in the projected lineup. Even if the slate shortens to just three games, it is difficult to envision rostering Williams as anything beyond a low-probability dice roll.
• The projected Pirates lineup opens with Oneil Cruz who is off to a .316/.381/.474 start to his season but has also struck out in 42.9% of his plate appearances. Cruz has incredible raw talent but there is room for significant improvement. Luckily, for DFS purposes, we only need one good day, rather than the long-term development. Cruz is a good buy atop a stackable Pirates lineup for $3,500/$5,300, he hit 17 home runs and swiped 11 bases in 361 plate appearances in 2022 before losing last season to injury. Veteran outfielder Bryan Reynolds should be in his typical second spot in the lineup for $3,600/$5,200. Reynolds hit 24 home runs and stole 12 bases while creating runs 10% better than average last season  and he has a long ball on the board over the team’s first five games of 2024. Ke’Bryan Hayes is a player whose strong season we were following and discussing throughout last year, he finished with 15 home runs and 10 stolen bases with a significant 48.4% hard-hit rate. Hayes is a favored breakout candidate around the industry, he is off to a .409/.391/.483 start and has created runs 62% better than average in the tiny five-game sample, a nice start to what could be a big season. Hayes is cheap at $3,200/$4,400, he will likely be a $5,000 DraftKings player in a month. Jack Suwsinski is today’s overall home run pick, he has a 9.44 in the model today, trailing only Cruz’s 10.35 mark in this projected lineup. Suwinski obliterated 26 homers with a 15.7% barrel rate and 43.4% hard-hit rate amounting to a .230 ISO over 534 plate appearances. Suwinski is far too cheap at $2,700/$3,700 in a matchup primed for home run power. Andrew McCutchen and Rowdy Tellez lengthen the projected lineup. The veteran McCutchen still has a strong knack for getting on base, with him setting the table power-hitting Tellez could mash for a strong score from the left side of the plate for just $2,700/$2,800 at first base. Henry Davis is a premium prospect catcher with upside, he has outfield eligibility on FanDuel but not DraftKings for $2,700/$3,600 tonight. Davis went just .213/.302/.351 in a 255 plate appearance start to his career after a mid-season call-up last year but he has far more to offer at the plate and he has a .250/.429/.375 triple-slash over his first four games this year. Jared Triolo made 209 plate appearances last season and slashed .298/.388/.398 with three homers and six stolen bases which amounted to a strong 118 WRC+ in the moderate sample. Triolo has second and third base eligibility on DraftKings for just $3,400, he lacks power but his correlated scoring ability is interesting in stacks at low ownership. Michael A. Taylor is rarely popular or expensive and lurks toward the bottom of lineups. Taylor hit 21 sneaky home runs in only 388 plate appearances, adding 13 stolen bases, in his 2023 season. The outfielder is yet to hit a long ball in 2024 but he has stolen a base and has played in all five of the team’s games while creating runs 66% better than average in the irrelevantly small sample. Taylor is off to a .471/.476/.588 start this season, he is always in play for cheap shares to differentiate tournament lineups.
• Right-handed Mitch Keller finally had his long-awaited breakout campaign in 2023, pitching to a 4.21 ERA with a 3.70 xFIP and a 25.5% strikeout rate over 194.1 innings in 32 starts. Keller was not perfect, he had a few bumpy games but he was far more reliable and high-end than in seasons past, harnessing his elite stuff for the forces of DFS good for a change. Keller was not on form in his first outing of 2024, he did work 5.2 innings facing 27 hitters but he allowed four earned runs on seven hits with a pair of walks and only three strikeouts. The righty is looking to get on track against a Washington team that sits at 1-3 with a collective .252/.329/.407, a .156 ISO, 24.4% strikeout rate, and 96 WRC+ to start the season. This is a winnable game for Keller and he projects second behind only Tyler Glasnow on both sites tonight.
• The Nationals have a few interesting hitters and if they get the Dr. Jekyll version of Keller they will have an upside for run-scoring on this slate. CJ Abrams is a talented young shortstop coming off of a very good 2023, hitting 18 home runs and stealing 47 bases. Abrams managed just a 90 WRC+ with a .167 ISO among that good, so there is room for improvement, particularly in his on-base skills and hit tool. With his potential to steal bases, there is no excuse for Abrams to have just the .300 on-base percentage he posted last season. For just $3,200/$4,700 the lefty-hitting Abrams is the right way to start a stack of Nationals, the shortstop is out to a good start with a home run and three stolen bases in four games. Lane Thomas was a popular pick from this team last year, he slashed .268/.315/.468 with a .201 ISO, 28 home runs, and 20 stolen bases. Thomas is cheap for his potential at $3,000/$4,600. Jesse Winker has already departed a game early this season, the frustrating frequently injured outfielder has plenty of talent at the plate when he was healthy but he has lost the past two seasons to underperformance and injury. Over 668 plate appearances combining the short 2020 season and all of his 2021 campaign, Winker hit 36 home runs and had a .945 OPS, his 2021 season amounted to a .305/.394/.556 triple-slash with Cincinnati. The outfielder has had a strong start other than the shortened game during which he fell ill. Winker is slashing .625/.455/.571 with a 50% hard-hit rate over his first 14 plate appearances (reminder: this is a meaningless sample size). Joeys Meneses and Gallo are projected to follow Winker in the lineup. Meneses hit 13 home runs with a strong triple-slash but a below-average WRC+ last season, Gallo blasted 21 homers in just 332 plate appearances with an abysmal triple-slash but a positive WRC+, if they could be mashed into a single hitter ala Voltron, that player would be a superstar. Between the two, we still prefer Gallo; his power and premium contact skills are undeniable when he does make contact. Keibert Ruiz is an easily playable catcher option, he slashed .260/.308/.409 with 18 home runs in 562 plate appearances as an everyday backstop. Eddie Rosario joined this team in the Spring after hitting 21 home runs in a bounceback season for Atlanta last year. Luis Garcia Jr. and Trey Lipscomb round out the projected batting order.

Play: Pirates bats/stacks, Mitch Keller

Detroit Tigers (+116/3.36) @ New York Mets (-125/3.72)

This game has been postponed. 

• This game is severely threatened by weather. Again. (some of this content will be familiar to yesterday’s readers but projected lineups have been updated)
• Adrian Houser will make the start for the Mets, he is overpriced at $8,200 on FanDuel and his price went up from $6,800 yesterday to $7,200 on today’s DraftKings slate, making him a more difficult but still playable SP2 fit. Houser had a 4.12 ERA with a 4.30 xFIP and 20.0% strikeout rate but allowed a hefty 46.3% hard-hit rate last season. His 2022 strikeout rate was just 15.2% over a similar 21 starts and the Tigers have plenty of young talent this season.
• The Tigers should be better against right-handed pitching with several of their key bats on the left side. Parker Meadows is more interesting high in the lineup than at the bottom of it, he had three home runs and stole eight bases in 145 plate appearances last season as a call-up. Spencer Torkleson, Kerry Carpenter, and Riley Greene are an established three-man group that should be considered the power core of this team, while rookie Colt Keith should join that list soon. The lefty-hitting Keith is off to a fair start and comes at a $2,400/$2,800 at third base on FanDuel and second base on DraftKings. Veteran Mark Canha is an average correlation play from anywhere in the lineup, while the bottom few hitters are less appealing, even veteran Javier Baez is a better DFS option than Gio Urshela, who was in yesterday’s lineup before the rainout. Catcher Jake Rogers offers cheap positional power but little else, he hit 21 home runs in 365 plate appearances in 2023. Rogers gave way to Carson Kelly in yesterday’s version of the lineup and he may sit this one out. Zach McKinstry occupied the last spot in the lineup yesterday, the cheap middle infielder hit nine home runs and stole 16 bases while getting on at just a .302 clip over 518 opportunities last year, he is not a premium DFS option.
• Righty Casey Mize will be on the mound for Detroit, he checks in at $7,200/$7,300 (a $200 bump from yesterday’s DraftKings price) in his first MLB appearance since 2022. Mize threw 150.1 innings over 30 starts in the 2021 season but made just two starts before an elbow sprain led to Tommy John Surgery. Mize had a strong Spring to win a spot in the Tigers rotation, he typically operates in the mid-90s with a good slider and posted a 3.71 ERA with a 4.37 xFIP and just a 19.3% strikeout rate in the 2021 season. Mize is playable with a fair SP2 projection but he does not look like a priority on either site.
• The Mets should have their mostly standard top-end of the lineup in place, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, and Pete Alonso make for a strong three-man stack against most starters. Nimmo is an excellent table setter with power, while Lindor and Alonso combined for 77 home runs last season. Francisco Alvarez moved up to the cleanup spot behind that excellent trio again in yesterday’s lineup and we love him to occupy that spot today. Alvarez is one of the hardest-hitting catchers in the game, but he has work to do to fill out a stat line. The slugging catcher hit 25 home runs in just 423 plate appearances last season and is in a prime spot in the lineup. Brett Baty moved up to fifth to bring left-handed pop to the middle of the lineup. Baty underperformed expectations in his rookie season, slashing just .212/.275/.323 with nine home runs but his 43.4% hard-hit rate is encouraging and he is a well-regarded young player. Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte are less power-oriented than a typical four-five combination, Marte managed just five home runs last season and McNeil had 10 but are both capable of re-setting the table for the hitters who follow and Marte still has good stolen base potential. Tyrone Taylor and Harrison Bader rounded out yesterday’s lineup, both offer mid-range power at the plate with a bit of speed.

Play: Minor shares of either pitcher are just OK, same for the hitting on either side.

Colorado Rockies (+176/2.96) @ Chicago Cubs (-193/4.13)

• This game has a medium threat from precipitation, frozen or otherwise, and if it does play the conditions will be brutal for hitting with very cold temperatures and a strong steady wind blowing in toward home plate. The run total for these two teams is just 7.0 and the Rockies are carrying an implied team total below 3.0 while not facing Jacob deGrom.
• Reliever Luke Little is no deGrom and he is not the reason for the low implied total, the combination of a bad Rockies lineup and the awful conditions handled that. Little is going to open this game but he will not work more than an inning after closing last night’s contest. The expected bulk relievers are Ben Brown and Drew Smyly. Even on a short slate, we are not typically chasing buk relievers, particularly when the situation is not a direct swap to five secured innings of relief work.
• The Rockies are barely an option in this spot, the team has a few talented hitters and a few young players with potential to grow this season but this is just not the spot to roster them for DFS. Charlie Blackmon is a good contact hitter with on-base skills and correlated scoring upside. Blackmon hits ahead of Brendan Rodgers, a former top prospect who has been derailed by injuries, and Nolan Jones, last year’s breakout rookie. Jones went 20-20 over just 424 plate appearances while slashing .297/.389/.542 with a 135 WRC+ last year, he could do more damage in a full season in 2024. Kris Bryant did not deserve to be hit by a pitch in last night’s game in his old stomping grounds, the veteran has enough trouble staying healthy as it is. Bryant has had a woeful two seasons in Colorado but there is still a bat lurking inside him on the right day. This is not that day. Ryan McMahon is more playable in Colorado, Elias Diaz, Ezequiel Tovar, Elehuris Montero, and Brenton Doyle all of a bit of potential later in the lineup, but there is no reason to dip to the bottom of the Rockies lineup in the worst spot of the season so far for implied runs.
• Righty Cal Quantrill is on the mound for the visitors, he is not a strong option for DFS but he could get a bit of a push from the lousy conditions that will impact Cubs hitters perhaps even more than the Rockies, simply because they have further to fall. Quantrill made 19 starts last year, throwing 99.2 innings with a 5.24 ERA and 5.43 xFIP and striking out just 13.1% with a 7.9% swinging-strike rate. Quantrill is a very targetable pitcher in most other situations but the conditions are awful and Chicago is carrying just a 4.13-run implied team total, making them less appealing than they would otherwise be in this matchup.
• The Cubs stack went off in a big way last night, the team posted 12 runs with several home runs and plenty of cheap fantasy points. Chicago comes back today with a projected lineup that opens with switch-hitting Ian Happ ahead of righty masher Seiya Suzuki who blasted one of yesterday’s homers. Happ is a good source of correlated scoring via his on-base skills and he has power, the outfielder hit 21 home runs and added 14 stolen bases in his 691 plate appearances in 2023. Suzuki hit 20 home runs last year and posted a 10% barrel rate with a 48% hard-hit rate. For the second half last season, the outfielder posted an impressive .313/.372/.566 triple-slash with a .254 ISO and 149 WRC+ over 67 games and 256 plate appearances, hitting 13 of his 20 home runs after making adjustments. Suzuki is one to watch this season but, outside of the pitching matchup, this is not an ideal spot. Cody Bellinger homered and had a good day at the plate against a fellow lefty yesterday (he excels in the splits against same-handed pitching) and he comes back today at a fair $3,400/$5,700 against a bad righty. The only thing working against Bellinger and his teammates is the weather. Christopher Morel was part of the big day as well, hitting a solo home run and scoring as a correlation option later in the game. Morel hit 26 homers in 429 plate appearances while generating a 15.5% barrel rate and 50% hard hits last season. Dansby Swanson hit 22 home runs last year and has been a regular for good power at the shortstop position for several seasons. Michael Busch enters the projected lineup on the left-handed side of a platoon that saw Garrett Cooper mash last night. Busch costs just $2,600/$3,000, he hit two home runs and stole a base in 81 plate appearances during a cup of coffee last season. Nico Hoerner, Mike Tauchman, and Yan Gomes round out a good lineup in a bad environment.

Play: Not much, but if anything it would be Cubs bats. The conditions are brutal for hitting and this game may not play at all.

Toronto Blue Jays (+128/4.19) @ Houston Astros (-139/4.91)

• Houston starter Cristian Javier started his season on the right foot with a good six-inning game against the Yankees last week. Javier struck out six, allowing four hits and walking one but he gave up no runs in a game that the team would eventually lose. Javier had a mixed season in 2023, seeing some tremendous individual performances but adding up to just a 4.56 ERA with an ugly 5.16 xFIP and dipping to a 23.1% strikeout rate over 31 starts and 162 innings. Javier was far better in 25 starts and 148.2 innings in 2022, pitching to a 33.2% strikeout rate with a 2.54 ERA and 3.53 xFIP while inducing a 13.8% swinging-strike rate. In a hybrid role with nine starts and 101.1 innings including his bullpen work in 2021, the righty had a 30.7% strikeout rate with a 3.55 ERA and 4.35 xFIP. The xFIP numbers typically landing a run higher than his ERA is not a great sign for Javier overall, but he has kept those marks respectable in two of his three seasons and his potential for elite strikeout output outweighs any concern over runs against a top-heavy Toronto team. Javier projects in the middle of the board for $9,300/$8,800 tonight but he has a strong ceiling and makes an interesting tournament play.
• The Blue Jays may not be very good. Outside of the team’s top four hitters, there is not much to love in the lineup, the bottom third in particular is typically populated with defense-first players like Kevin Kiermaier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. These players can offer value to MLB teams but they do things that do not count for DFS purposes and they damage the potential to turn the lineup over multiple times in a game. Daulton Varsho represents the exact middle of this squad, he had a down season last year with 20 home runs and 16 stolen bases after a 27-16 season in Arizona in 2022 got him traded to Toronto for two better players. Varsho is the only capable lefty in Toronto’s typical lineup, he hits behind the run of good players that opens with outfielder George Springer and first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. along with shortstop Bo Bichette, who was back in the lineup last night. Springer hit 21 home runs and stole 20 bases last season but his hard-hit rate dipped below 40% with just a .147 ISO and 104 WRC+. Guerrero also had disappointing power output, posting just a .179 ISO with 26 home runs for the year. Bichette fills a premium position, he had a strong triple-slash last season and led the team at 25% better than average for run creation. The pricing has dipped slightly on the three stars at the top of the lineup, they have not been good out of the gate this season, and Justin Turner is cheap in the cleanup spot. Turner added important third base eligibility that allows him to be rostered alongside that group on DraftKings, he is good fourth option with bat-to-ball skills and mid-range power late in his career. We are firmly on Javier’s side of this decision.
• Veteran righty Chris Bassitt is on the mound for the visitors. Bassitt costs $8,400/$8,600 on the now four-game slate. The righty worked 200.0 innings over 33 starts last year, posting typical Chris Bassitt numbers with a 3.60 ERA, a 4.21 xFIP, and a 22.5% strikeout rate. He threw 181.2 innings with a 22.4% strikeout rate in 2022. In his first outing of 2024, Bassitt worked 5.0 innings against the Rays in Tampa, striking out six but walking two and allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits and a pair of walks. That is a common start for Bassitt, he is not a star but typically he can smooth out a few run-based speedbumps with an abundance of innings. This is a difficult spot to endorse against a high-quality Astros lineup but Bassitt carries an average-to-decent projection on this short slate, putting him in play on both sites.
• Houston’s lineup is an everyday option for DFS purposes. The Astros offer multiple elite bats, with Jose Altuve filling a premium position at second base. Altuve hit 17 home runs and stole 14 bases over 410 plate appearances last year and he has an upside to 25 or more homers in a full campaign. The second baseman costs $3,700/$5,400 and is well worth the investment on both sites. Altuve is off to a .360/.407/.720 start with a pair of home runs on the board over the team’s first six games. Yordan Alvarez is yet to homer this year and his triple-slash sits at just .125/.222/.125 after six contests, we are betting on the over for the rest of the season. Alvarez is one of the game’s best pure hitters and best power hitters at the same time, he is a tremendous option from the left side on any given slate and there are two of him in this lineup if you cannot afford the original. Kyle Tucker stands as that second, only slightly blurrier, copy of the lefty superstar and he hits immediately behind Alvarez in the lineup. Tucker is slightly more affordable with a $300 discount on FanDuel and a $200 price difference on DraftKings, and he brings a terrific bat with plus power to the plate. Of course, the best scenario tends to be including both hitters in a stack when possible. Tucker went 29-30 over 674 plate appearances last year, he has two home runs and a stolen base on the board already this season. Alex Bregman has started the season slow in the tiny irrelevant sample, but he has thunder from the right side of the plate in a contract year. The veteran hit 25 homers with a 125 WRC+ while striking out just 12% of the time and walking at a 12.7% clip last season. The top five hitters in the Astros’ projected lineup were all under 20% strikeouts (17.2% average) last season, they are a nightmare for opposing pitchers. Catcher Yainer Diaz is a member of that group. Over 377 plate appearances as a rookie last season, Diaz hit 23 home runs while slashing .282/.308/.538 and created runs 27% better than average with a .256 ISO. Those are star-caliber numbers over a full season and Diaz picked up right where he left off in 2024, he has two home runs and a .476/.542/.810 triple-slash over his six games to start the year. Somehow, the elite backstop still costs just $3,700 on DraftKings and $2,800 on FanDuel. Jose Abreu has any given slate pop from the right side but has been incredibly difficult to trust over the last season and a half. Chas McCormick has good power and speed from later in the lineup, the outfielder is an easy swap from a more expensive teammate on most slates. Jeremy Pena is off to a good start after a middling 2023, he and Jake Meyers typically occupy the final two spots in the lineup, Pena is a cheap way to fill shortstop and he has a bit of upside despite the limited numbers last year.

Play: Cristian Javier, Astros bats/stacks, Chris Bassitt in that order. Top-of-lineup Blue Jays are playable but the team is thin.

San Francisco Giants (+193/3.49) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (-213/5.12)

• The final game of the slate sees by far the best pitching spot with ace Tyler Glasnow relegating the opposing Giants to just a 3.49-run implied total as +193 underdogs. Glasnow has made two starts fo the Dodgers already, he opened the season in the Seoul Series with a five-inning start against the Padres and threw a better six innings against St. Louis last week. The righty struck out just three and walked four while allowing two earned runs in Korea, he gave up a solo home run and only one other hit while walking one and striking out five in the start against the Cardinals. Glasnow was signed on the back of his excellent 120.0 innings in 21 starts last year. The righty was coming back from a season lost to injury, he whipped up a 33.4% strikeout rate with a ridiculous 16.4% swinging-strike rate and 33.4% CSW% last year, pitching to a 3.53 ERA and 2.75 xFIP. Glasnow is the premium starter of the day, he is well worth the $10,000/$9,800 on both sites against a free-swinging Giants squad.
• San Francisco should have a standard version of their lineup in place against a righty tonight. Jung Hoo Lee is off to a solid start in his MLB career, he has gotten on base at a .345 clip from the leadoff spot so far, which is all the team truly requires from him, adding a home run to the tally is just a bonus. Lee is a good option for correlated scoring with Matt Chapman, LaMonte Wade Jr., and Jorge Soler who delivered as yesterday’s home run pick. Unfortunately, that group of hitters will be fed the buzzsaw that is Glasnow’s right arm. The Giants are not in a good spot in this matchup and they are difficult to get behind for stacking, even on a short slate. Wade is the only hitter in the projected lineup who was under a 22.6% strikeout rate last season (Lee was in the KBO), there are plenty of Ks on the board to feed Glasnow’s upside tonight. Michael Conforto struck out at a 22.6% clip last season and so did Thairo Estrada. Both players offer a bit of pop from the middle of the lineup and Estrada adds a bit of hit tool and speed, but they are likely overmatched in this situation. Mike Yastrzemeski joins Patrick Bailey and Nick Ahmed as even lesser options at the bottom of the batting order. Yaztrzemski hit 15 home runs in 381 plate appearances with a .212 ISO last season, he does have power from the left side but he struck out at a 26% clip last year. Bailey posted a 28.3% strikeout rate with a low walk rate and Ahmed was at 24.8% with a similarly bad mark for walks. Neither of the final two hitters is worthwhile for DFS play.
• Rookie Kyle Harrison has a chance to be a special lefty for a long time. The hyped top prospect got a seven-start cup of coffee in the Show last season and broke camp with the team in 2024. Harrison put up a 23.8% strikeout rate with a 4.15 ERA but a 5.02 xFIP in the small sample last season, the Giants let him get his feet wet but this year he has been thrown fully into the MLB pool. Harrison could be out of his depth against this Dodgers squad, his first start came against the Padres and he struck out five but allowed a pair of solo home runs in the game, reflecting his 5+% home run rate from last year. Harrison has the raw talent to get through this Dodgers lineup a couple of times but he may lack the full polish necessary to pay off his $7,800/$7,500 price tag. Still, on a slate that now loses both Houser and Mize from the SP2 pool, Harrison becomes the option by default simply on a talent basis.
• With an average salary of $6,300 and a total of $18,900 for the trio (DraftKings), the top three hitters in the Dodgers lineup are incredibly difficult to reach on a slate of this nature. There is not a lot of pitching value available to help offset costs and the rest of the Dodgers lineup is also high-priced, so players later in the batting order do not do enough to average down star prices, particularly when there are three of them. Still, there is no more elite trio in all of baseball, they are well worth rostering even against a talented young lefty like Harrison, and there is no real diminishment in expectations for either Shohei Ohtani or Freddie Freeman, both of whom hit left-handed. Mookie Betts is the leadoff hitter and the most user-friendly option in the group, given his triple-position eligibility on FanDuel and shortstop/second base split on DraftKings. Betts is off to a rollicking start to his season, slashing .500/.605/1.167 with five home runs and a stolen base on the board over eight games. Yes, five. A superstar by any measure, the multi-positional talent is our top choice from this lineup, but Ohtani and Freeman are not far behind. Ohtani has not been great for the team that invested half a billion dollars in him, he has no home runs and a .242/.297/.333 triple-slash over eight games and if you think that matters we have a whole bunch of old NFTs to sell you. Freeman has a home run and a stolen base with a robust triple-slash early in the season. The group hits ahead of slightly less expensive Will Smith, a star catcher league-wide and a very playable option particularly where his position is required. Smith is slashing .429/.469/.500 over the team’s first eight games, appearing in seven of them as an everyday hitter. Righty Teoscar Hernandez and lefty Max Muncy hit back to back with a ton of power but a lot of strikeouts in the heart of the order and the bottom group that includes Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez, and Miguel Rojas against the lefty are at least playable parts. Taylor is particularly interesting, he fills three positions on FanDuel for $2,500 and slots into shortstop or the outfield for $3,300 on DraftKings. The righty hit 15 home runs and stole 16 bases in a platoon role that delivered 384 plate appearances his way last season. Hernandez also fills three spots on FanDuel and Rojas lands in both middle infield positions, giving the Dodgers excellent flexibility on the blue site where they are slightly more affordable.

Play: Tyler Glasnow, Dodgers bats/stacks

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