Our Best MLB DFS picks and stacks are back for Friday’s loaded 11-game DraftKings main slate, and there’s plenty to like. Shohei Ohtani headlines the pitching pool, while Coors Field once again creates one of the night’s highest-upside hitting environments.
Whether you’re building cash-game lineups or chasing a GPP takedown, we’ve broken down the top pitchers, favorite stacks, and key strategy points that can help separate your lineup from the field. Let’s build!
Best MLB DFS Picks and Stacks for Friday
I’ll go over the top pitcher picks, as well as the best stacks at DraftKings. Before I do, let me remind you about our awesome MLB DFS projections, which combine projections and simulations to punch out thousands of elite lineups in just seconds. Check this tool out now for free for 7 days to see how it can improve your game.
Top Pitcher Picks for Friday
- Dylan Cease – Toronto Blue Jays ($10.2k)
- Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Dodgers ($10.7k)
- Reid Detmers – Los Angeles Angels ($8.3k)
- Gavin Williams – Cleveland Guardians ($8.9k)
- Jake Bennett – Boston Red Sox ($7.7k)
- Gerrit Cole – New York Yankees ($9.1k)
- Trevor Rogers – Baltimore Orioles ($6.7k)
Tier 1 Pitchers
Ohtani and Cease are the top contenders for the SP1 slot. Both are priced north of $10k, both offer elite strikeout stuff, and they reside in the top two slots for pitcher projections on Friday night. You can go either way and I doubt you’d be too sad, but Cease is the better value.
Tier 2 Pitchers
Detmers and Williams kick off the next tier. Detmers is in a dicey park, but Boston feels pretty punchless these days. They don’t K a ton, but he racks up strikeouts and suppresses power. There’s leverage to be had from the Boston side, but Detmers looks like a viable SP1 if you want to fade the top two arms, or he’s an elite SP2 to pair with one of them.
Williams is on the outside looking in for me. He’s not too expensive for who he can be, but he doesn’t project all that well. I think he’s playable in tournaments, but I’ll probably be fading.
Bennett is the next guy up and he’s a decent SP2. I prefer Detmers, as Bennett’s not getting a lot of strikeouts and the park factor is less than comfortable. Everything else does look good for him and the Halos don’t have Trout and K a ton, so there’s value+upside with him.
Cole is just a GPP play. He isn’t himself right now and the Twins offer pop in a good park for hitting. He is just cheap and he’s Gerrit Cole, so we can try him more than the field wants to if we’re rolling out a lot of MLB DFS lineups.
SP2
Rogers kicks off the deep dive value, as he’s too cheap for his talent. He’s red hot right now, but let’s temper expectations slightly by realizing 1. he’s been erratic all year 2. he could be pretty owned and 3. he’s facing a powerful lineup in a brutal park for pitching. He’s the best SP2 on the board, but he does not come without risk.
If Rogers gains steam, you can pivot to the likes of Luis Castillo, Jack Perkins, or Anthony Kay. There’s also the talented Logan Webb in Coors. Brady Singer is $5.5k and can be good at times, too. None of that sounds great, but YOLO.
Best MLB DFS Stacks for 7/3
- San Francisco Giants
- Colorado Rockies
- New York Yankees
- Athletics
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Baltimore Orioles
- Cincinnati Reds
I know this looks like a shit ton of MLB DFS stacks, but there are 11 games (and 22 teams), so listing 7 teams isn’t that crazy.
The Giants and Rockies occupy Coors Field tonight, so they need no sales pitch. San Fran will be chalky balls, so while they’re obviously a great stack, I will probably just ignore them in tournaments. I’d be more inclined to fire up the Rockies, who are in the same park and could be overlooked since they’re Not Good and also facing a good pitcher.
New York doesn’t have Aaron Judge, but they do have a solid matchup at home in a hitter’s park. Chalk Yanks have never failed us, have they folks? I don’t know how chalky they’ll be with Coors on the slate, but they grade out nicely.
The same goes for the Athletics and Dodgers. The A’s are at home against Tyler Phillips, and the Dodgers are at home against Michael King. King’s numbers look pretty good, so I actually am less into them than maybe I should be. I prefer the Athletics between the two, but it’s worth noting that their lineup is not near full strength.
One of Baltimore or Cincinnati are going to nuke and I have to think one of them will go completely overlooked. There are 22 teams in action and a bunch of them are in great parks and/or have good matchups. Target both sides here, but just make sure you don’t play Rogers and the Reds in the same lineup.
MLB DFS Strategy for Friday
Friday’s MLB DFS slate revolves around one major decision: whether to pay up for elite pitching with Shohei Ohtani/Dylan Cease or allocate more salary toward premium bats, especially with Coors Field on the slate.
You actually can do both, surprisingly enough. A lot of the Giants bats aren’t even that pricey, while there’s plenty of (scary) value that you can slide into the SP2 slot.
My personal strategy will be to target one of Cease/Ohtani in every lineup, and then rotate SP2 with Detmers, Bennett, and Rodgers. Perhaps a bit of Singer, just for kicks. I like Cease more, but if current ownership is right, paying an extra $500 for a lower owned Ohtani sounds More Fun.
In terms of stacks, load up on Coors at will, but keep in mind the field will also be doing that. I’ll personally be more interested in stacking up both sides if the Reds and Yankees game, while I also like the A’s, Dodgers, and Brewers a good amount.
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Noah Simpson is a New England-based DFS writer who has spent the better part of a decade obsessing over MLB DFS. He got his start playing DFS recreationally before realizing he was spending more time building spreadsheets than actually watching games, and decided to make it official. At DFSBuild, Noah covers MLB DFS strategy with a focus on finding edges that casual players overlook. When he’s not staring at Statcast data, he’s somewhere on a hiking trail in Maine with his two dogs, Sandboy and Johnner, who are undefeated at ignoring his lineup advice, because they are dogs. They don’t have the cognitive or motor skills required to operate a computer, let alone process complex theories and information.
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