This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
August is the month of baseball that feels the most ephemeral, give or take a May perhaps. It can feel like you're just trying to get to September, which wraps up the regular season and gets us primed for the playoffs, which of course are exciting. That's why MLB DFS is so great for the month of August. There are nine games on the slate Monday. The first pitch is at 7:07 p.m. EDT. Here are my lineup recommendations.
Pitching
Seth Lugo, KC vs. LAA ($9,400): Lugo's last couple starts have been a struggle, but I'm not sweating it too much. He still has a 3.04 ERA, and on the year he's allowed a mere 0.79 homers per nine innings. The Angels are a fine team to get back on track against. They are in the bottom five in runs scored and missing their two best hitters in Mike Trout and Luis Rengifo.
Kyle Harrison, SF vs. CWS ($8,200): San Francisco's park tends to be kind to pitchers, and Harrison would concur with that. On the road he's posted a 4.94 ERA in his brief career, allowing 2.2 homers per nine innings as well. At home, Harrison has a 3.38 ERA and has given up a mere 0.8 home runs per nine. That heavy bay air is keeping the ball in the park! Oh, and the White Sox have an all-time bad MLB offense. There's that as well.
Gavin Stone, LAD vs. SEA ($8,000): The Dodgers don't want Stone to be part of the rotation in the playoffs, but due to injury after injury (after injury) this year, the young pitcher has made 22 starts already. He has a 3.63 ERA and has gotten his HR/9 rate down to 1.11, which is workable. The Mariners are 27th in runs scored, and 28th in team OPS. There's no punch here.
Top Targets
In his sophomore season, Elly De La Cruz ($4,000) has gone from fun player to good player. The switch hitter has improved from being terrible against lefties to, um, run-of-the-mill bad against lefties, but more to the point he's gone from being good against righties to smashing them to the tune of a .910 OPS. Once he gets on base, you know what he wants to do, as his 59 stolen bases indicate. Poor Kevin Gausman caught some bad luck here. He has a 2.47 ERA on the road, but a 5.91 ERA at home, and he has to pitch in Toronto on Monday.
He's still going to hit 30 homers, but Pete Alonso ($3,300) has admittedly seen a dip in his power. However, he's slugged .500 at home, and .549 against lefties. Trevor Rogers is a lefty, and since 2022 he's allowed righties to hit .283 against him. By the way, moving to Baltimore hasn't helped Rogers out. In three starts with the O's he has a 7.53 ERA.
Bargain Bats
In his first season with the Giants, Matt Chapman ($3,200) has hit 19 homers and stolen 12 bases. He's been hot recently as well, as he has a .934 OPS over the last three weeks. Rookie Jonathan Cannon has a 3.30 ERA at home, but a 5.05 ERA on the road. His fellow righties have hit .266 in matchups with him as well.
A first baseman with doubles power and the ability to hit for average is not the most enticing profile, but when a lefty is on the mound, Ryan Mountcastle ($3,000) takes on a different appearance. Since 2022 he's slashed .291/.347/.506 against southpaws, which does look like the profile of a power-hitting first baseman. David Peterson has a 3.04 ERA, but his FIP is up to 4.38. He doesn't allow a lot of homers, but maybe Mountcastle will rack up another double or two as he approached 30 of them on the season.
Stacks to Consider
Padres vs. Twins (Zebby Matthews): Jackson Merrill ($3,300), Jake Cronenworth ($3,000), Luis Arraez ($2,900)
In his MLB debut, Matthews went five innings and allowed five hits, two runs, and a homer against the Royals. He made said debut after only four starts at Triple-A, where he had a 5.68 ERA. For what it's worth, and the sample size is admittedly meager, four of the five hits he allowed in his first MLB start were to lefties. Thus, I decided to stack four southpaws as Matthews makes his first road start as a Twin.
As a rookie, Merrill has 19 homers, seven triples, and 13 stolen bases. He also has an .884 OPS against righties, as he has the issues common to rookie southpaws versus left-handed pitchers. Cronenworth has been worse than ever against lefties, and better than ever against righties. He has an .805 OPS versus right handers, but he also has an .831 OPS at home. Arraez is one of baseball's last remaining successful slap hitters. That's admittedly not exciting for DFS purposes, but he has a .312 average with the Padres, and that gets him on base to possibly be driven in. Since 2022, he does have an .832 OPS versus righties, showing a smidge of power to the tune of a .447 slugging percentage.
Rays at Athletics (Joe Boyle): Brandon Lowe ($3,300), Josh Lowe ($3,000), Jose Caballero ($2,800)
Boyle doesn't allow many home runs, and he has a 7.39 ERA. That speaks to a guy who is allowing opposing hitters to spray the ball all around the field. Indeed, his 27.3 line-drive percentage is eye popping in a bad way. Lefties have hit .292 against Boyle in his MLB career. I couldn't find three viable lefties from the Rays, but I found two and a righty to round things out.
Brandon Lowe is a second baseman who has slugged .516. That stands out to be sure. Now, Boyle has kept the ball in the park, but Lowe also has 15 doubles and two triples in 74 games. Josh Lowe has only played in 67 games, but he has 15 doubles and 16 stolen bases. In his career he has an .803 OPS versus righties and an .842 OPS on the road. Caballero is the righty. His standout stat? The 27-year-old has stolen 35 bases in 104 games. It tends to be a lot easier to steal on a right-handed pitcher, so Caballero makes sense as my righty hitter in this stack.
