This article is part of our Yahoo DFS Baseball series.
It's a busy Sunday of baseball, weather permitting. The threat of rain has already moved the Guardians-Astros game to 12:40 p.m. ET, and it's been removed from the DFS docket on Yahoo. However, you still have 13 games to pick your players from. Here are some recommendations to try to help you end your weekend on a high note.
Pitching
Bryce Elder, ATL vs. WAS ($44): Elder showed a lot of promise in 2022, and he's built on that promise in 2023. Ensconced in the rotation, the young pitcher has a 2.26 ERA. His 8.0 strikeouts per nine innings isn't great, but his 55.3 groundball percentage is. The Nationals rank 24th in runs scored, so I'm not sweating them as a matchup.
Lucas Giolito, CWS vs. MIA ($43): Giolito is coming off a great start at Yankee Stadium, and I also like his 2.70 ERA at home. However, what I like the best is this matchup. The Marlins are 26ths in terms of runs scored and have been a staple of the bottom five on that front for a few seasons.
Braxton Garrett, MIA at CWS ($40): I'm not expecting much offense in this one. Garrett had a terrible start at home against Atlanta — a decidedly tougher lineup than Chicago — but has otherwise been quite good. Since that Atlanta outing, the lefty has a 3.38 ERA and has struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings across six starts. The White Sox, meanwhile, have a sub-.300 on-base percentage as a team.
Top Targets
The Rays have a one-two punch as formidable as any team, but Sunday I'm leaning Randy Arozarena ($18) over Wander Franco. One, Arozarena is an outright righty, while Franco is a switch hitter (who does admittedly do better against lefties). Two, while both are power/speed dynamos, Arozarena does more damage with his bat than Franco, and stealing tends to be harder versus lefties. Since 2021, the Cuban slugger has a .939 OPS against southpaws, and he'll face a southpaw in Martin Perez who has a 4.71 FIP. Other than last season, Perez has not finished with a FIP lower than 4.45 since 2015.
Though Rafael Devers ($17) hits better at home, Yankee Stadium tends to be good to lefties, and Clarke Schmidt is definitely good to lefties. Since 2021, southpaws have hit .315 against him. Meanwhile, Devers has slugged .566 versus right-handed pitchers in that time.
Bargain Bats
It feels like a Joc Pederson ($16) kind of day. That is to say, the Giants are facing a right-handed pitcher who allows a lot of homers. Joc has slugged .488 versus righties since 2021. Hayden Wesneski, on the other hand, has a 5.64 FIP in part because he's allowed 2.08 home runs per nine innings.
Saturday, William Contreras ($15) came in to pinch hit and slugged a homer. Unsurprisingly, it was against a lefty. In his career he has a .925 OPS against southpaws. JP Sears, a lefty, has a 5.45 ERA on the road, where he's also allowed 2.0 home runs per nine innings.
Stacks to Consider
Padres at Rockies (Dinelson Lamet): Juan Soto ($20), Manny Machado ($17), Jake Cronenworth ($14)
It's one last chance to stack Padres at Coors Field. For now, at least. Not only that, but Lamet, a former Padre with a 12.42 ERA this season, is in line to start. Now, Lamet has not gone longer than three innings in any of his appearances this year, and I don't expect that to change. The Rockies have a few decent bullpen arms, but this is still Coors Field. Soto and Cronenworth could be in trouble if they catch a lefty out of the bullpen, but it's still worth it in Denver.
This is perfect for Soto, as even in this "down year" he has a .994 OPS versus righties and a .991 OPS on the road. Over the last three seasons he has a .776 OPS against lefties, so in a pinch he can hold his own there. Machado has weirdly been ice cold against his fellow righties this year, and it's odd because he had a .915 OPS in those matchups in 2022 and an .847 OPS in 2021. He should be fine, and he has four multi-hit games in his last five outings. Cronenworth has six home runs as well as four triples. Two years ago he had 21 homers and seven triples. Speed and trying for an extra base often pays off at Coors Field as well. It's not all about home runs.
Pirates vs. Mets (Carlos Carrasco): Bryan Reynolds ($17), Andrew McCutchen ($16), Ji Hwan Bae ($14)
Carrasco has looked more like the guy he was in 2021, his first season as a Met, when he had a 5.21 FIP and allowed 2.01 home runs per nine innings. While he's "only" allowed 1.73 homers per nine this year, his FIP is up to 6.08. Also, he's struck out a mere 5.7 batters per nine innings as well. Though he is a righty, right-handed hitters have batted .288 against him during his Mets tenure, so I have two guys who hit right-handed here.
The switch hitter Reynolds has an .870 OPS versus righties since 2021. After hitting 27 homers last year, he only has seven this year, so it would seem like he has exchanged some power for average, as he's hit .278 this season. However, his .470 slugging percentage is higher than his .461 number from 2022, as he already has 17 doubles and three triples. Back with the Pirates and leading off, McCutchen has a .379 OBP. He also has eight homers and seven stolen bases. Bae, meanwhile, is a base stealer extraordinaire, or at least he goes for it a lot, and that's key to DFS players. Sure, he's been caught five times, but he has 19 stolen bases to go with his .271 average.
Orioles vs. Royals (Carlos Hernandez): Anthony Santander ($17), Adley Rutschman ($16), Gunnar Henderson ($16)
Hernandez, a righty, is going to be the opener for the Royals. He has a career 4.99 ERA. Mike Mayers, a righty, is going to be the bulk pitcher. He has a career 5.06 ERA. Perhaps, at some point, these two switch hitters and this one lefty catch a southpaw out of the bullpen. By then, though, they could have done their damage.
Santander is coming off a big day where he hit two doubles and lifted his average to .264 and his slugging percentage to .476. He's a switch hitter who prefers to face a southpaw, but he hit 22 of his 33 home runs last year off right handers. Plus, since 2021 he's slugged .496 at home. Rutschman is a catcher with a .390 OBP and eight homers. The switch hitter has an .870 OPS versus righties in his career and a .903 OPS at home. Henderson, some evaluator's choice as the top prospect in baseball before he lost prospect eligibility, hasn't put it all together yet, but he has eight homers and four stolen bases this year. Like many young lefties, southpaws stymie him, but in his career he has an .838 OPS against righties.
