The last weekend before the All-Star break kicks off with a bang! To the best of my recollection, Friday is the first instance all season where there are 15 games on the DFS slate. That's right, every single MLB team in action and included on the docket! The first pitch is at 7:05 p.m. ET, so that's business as usual. Here are my MLB DFS lineup recommendations.
Pitching
Joe Ryan, MIN vs. PIT ($10,000): The fact the Pirates are starting Paul Skenes makes it less likely Ryan gets a win but certainly not impossible. After all, Skenes is 4-7 on the season. Ryan is also no slouch on the mound, as he has a 2.76 ERA and 5.52 K/BB rate. The Pirates, offensively speaking, are in fact slouches. They sit last in runs scored.
Gavin Williams, CLE at CWS ($7,900): Williams is coming off a strong start against the Tigers that dropped his ERA to 3.61. Now, he has a real issue with walks, but that may not be relevant in this matchup. The White Sox are battling the Pirates to avoid being last in runs scored, but the White Sox also have a sub-.300 OBP as a team.
Chase Burns, CIN vs. COL ($7,500): If you want to take a gamble Friday, I'd go with Burns. He debuted in late June as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. Burns has struck out 13.50 batters per nine innings across three starts. Of course, he also has an 8.10 ERA thanks largely to giving up five earned runs (seven total) while recording a single out against the Red Sox. However, this is the Rockies. They are 27th in runs scored and have a .671 OPS even though they play their home games at Coors Field. This will be, by a wide margin, Burns' easiest matchup yet. Perhaps this will be his opportunity to really flash on the mound.
Top Targets
He's already minted a 20/10 season and he has an 1.156 OPS over the last three weeks, but a slow-by-his-standards start means Juan Soto ($5,900) is not an all-star. The lefty with an OPS over .900 against righties and on the road has a few more opportunities to make that look silly. Michael Wacha, a righty, has been scuffling of late. Over his last eight starts he has a 5.08 ERA, and in four of those starts he's allowed two home runs.
Alas, Jose Ramirez ($5,600) has opted to skip the All-Star Game to rest. Perhaps he's tired from absolutely carrying the Guardians' offense. The switch-hitting third baseman has a .301 average with 17 homers and 25 swiped bags. Conversely, Shane Smith has allowed at least five runs in each of his last four starts.
Bargain Bats
We can really mark the improvement Addison Barger ($4,400) has made given that he's played in 69 games this year, the number he played in the course of his rookie season in 2024. Last year, the lefty had a .601 OPS with seven homers and 11 doubles. This year, he has an .828 OPS with 12 homers and 21 doubles. Maybe he's been a bit lucky, but he's also striking out less, walking more and mostly improved against righties, which feels more sustainable. Lefties have hit .286 against Luis Severino since 2023, and he joined the Athletics at just the wrong time. Having to pitch home games in Sacramento, he has a 7.04 ERA at home.
Over the last three weeks, Willy Adames ($4,000) has slugged .470 and hit three home runs. Now, that only gets him to 11 home runs on the campaign. However, he's had at least 20 homers in each of the last five full MLB seasons, including two with over 30. That's a lot of power for a shortstop. Dustin May is coming off a strong start, but it was at home against the White Sox. He has a 4.52 ERA this season and a 6.27 ERA on the road.
Stacks to Consider
Rangers at Astros (Lance McCullers): Corey Seager ($4,600), Wyatt Langford ($4,000), Kyle Higashioka ($2,800)
It's fair to tap the watch on McCullers now. He's made starts in 2025, more than he made from 2022 through 2024. Those starts have yielded poor results, though. He has a 5.82 ERA, including a woeful 11.37 ERA at home. McCullers still gets strikeouts, but he has a bleak 5.59 BB/9 rate and a less-bad-but-still-bad 1.86 HR/9 rate. Though he McCullers is right-handed, I have two righties in this stack, owing to the fact righties have hit .303 against him thus far.
Seager may be a lefty but he has a .983 OPS versus righties since 2023 so he's well worth rostering. The shortstop is also in excellent form, having managed an 1.085 OPS over the last three weeks. Langford had 16 homers and 19 stolen bases as a rookie, and he has 14 of the former and 13 of the latter in 72 games this year. Twenty-eight of his career stolen bases have come against righties, and this year he's improved to slugging to .432 versus righties for good measure. I'm recommending Higashioka because he's a low-salaried catcher, and that means anything he does is going to bring bang for your buck. He doesn't play every day – he's a non-elite catcher after all – but he's slugged .450 over the last three weeks. Last year with the Padres, Higashioka hit 17 homers in 84 games. There is a chance he goes yard against McCullers, which would pay off big time for your roster.
Athletics vs. Blue Jays (Max Scherzer): Brent Rooker ($5,000), Nick Kurtz ($4,900), Zack Gelof ($3,500)
Age-38 Scherzer had a 4.22 FIP and 1.65 HR/9 rate. Age-39 Scherzer had a 4.18 FIP and 1.45 HR/9 rate. Now, though it is only four starts, age-40 Scherzer has a 4.72 FIP and 1.59 HR/9 rate. Guys this age, even future Hall of Famers, aren't primed to turn things around. He's not who he used to be, and the Athletics' home ballpark is, literally, not what it used to be. I obviously don't have faith in Mad Max in a hitter-friendly park in the middle of July. Two of these A's are righties, because righties have hit .360 against Scherzer this season.
Rooker is going to be in the Home Run Derby, and he has 19 homers in 2025 after smacking at least 30 in each of the prior two campaigns. While he's been less productive against righties this year, since 2023 he's slugged .502 versus right-handed pitchers. Kurtz can mash at Rooker's level, but he's proven more context dependent as a rookie. He has a .950 OPS versus righties, and also an 1.016 OPS at home. Hey, that's what this matchup is all about! Gelof is just back in the lineup owing to injury, but this is about salary, position, and track record. He is a second baseman who had 17 homers and 25 stolen bases in 138 games last season. Gelof is also unusually bad against lefties, but he's slugged .454 against righties in his career.
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