Wesley Passinault 
These DFS MLB Picks are from Pro Wes Passinault, who recently won a seat in the 2019 World Fantasy Baseball Championship on FanDuel.
Welcome Back to MLB DFS! It was a long break and I don’t know about anyone else, but I always feel lost during the break. This year I tried to fill the time with NBA Summer League, Tennis, and WNBA. That being said, I learned a lot this week. In this article I will go over my top DFS MLB Picks of the day for both pitching and hitting on FanDuel. On the pitching side, I will pick my top end option along with my favorite salary saver on the board to help you get those expensive bats. On the hitting side, I will provide my favorite hitting stacks and value bats.
Pro MLB DFS Picks: Pitchers
Starting Pitcher
Top Overall Arm – Gerrit Cole ($11,400 FD). Cole has K rate of 36.7% in 2019 and the Texas lineup strikes out 23.8% of the time vs. righties. He’s actually better against Lefties with a 39.3% K rate and should see seven of them. The implied run total of 4.11 for Texas seems high but likely reflects the great hitting weather. This will only lower his ownership. There are only two bats in the Ranger’s lineup that scare me and that’s Choo and Gallo. However, Gallo also strikes out at 35.9% clip against Righties so this lessens my concern. The Rangers will likely score a few runs but Cole has massive K upside against this lineup to more than make up for it and he is again among the prime MLB DFS Picks.
Salary Saver – Yonny Chirinos ($6,800 FD). He gets Baltimore tonight which is a boost for any pitcher you are considering in MLB DFS Picks. He has a swinging strike rate of 10.3% and a walk rate of just 5.7%. This should allow him to pitch deeper into the game to provide a Quality Start and Win equity. His K rate is only 20.9% on the season, however, he has shown much higher strikeout upside lately registering 7, 7, 6, 7, 6, 3, 5, 5 Ks in his last eight starts. When I see this heading into the All-Star break I see a pitcher who was finding his stride and may have just sputtered a bit. He should be fully rested and I expect him to be the best points per dollar pitcher on the board. This will help us get to those more expensive bats tonight.
Pro MLB DFS Picks: Hitters
Top Stack – The Angels’ Trout, Ohtani, Upton, and Bour are my top MLB DFS Picks stack of the day. The ISOs for this group against Righties is .382, .301, .270, and .241, respectively. The best part of this stack is that once they knock Leake out of the game, one of the worst bullpens in MLB will take over in a decent hitter’s park. I may consider moving down from Ohtani to Calhoun if needed to get Hunter Renfroe in my lineups. He is one of the top plays on the slate.
Pro MLB DFS Picks: Top Value Bats – J.D Davis will likely bat 3rd against Caleb Smith at $2,200. He has a .200 ISO against left handed pitching. Victor Reyes has been hitting leadoff for Detroit and is only $2,500. He gets Danny Duffy, who has always been able to flash upside but not consistently enough to avoid. Kevin Kiermaier is my next favorite value hitter. He’s $2,800 with plenty of home run (.219 ISO) and stolen base upside with 17 thefts on the year. Also, I’m currently expecting him to bat 3rd in the lineup today for the Rays. Bundy has been better this year, but I’ll stay on the side of the larger sample size. Franklin Baretto ($2,200) and Ehire Adrianza ($2,200) round out my value plays for today.
Pro DFS MLB Picks: Closing Thoughts
I have a special place in my DFS heart for Ehire Adrianza and Yonny Chirinos since it was those two and bats from Coors that put me in the 2019 FanDuel WFBC on June 28. This slate matches up much of the same way. I believe it can be won the same way since there are plenty of other great spots to find hitters and that will reduce ownership at Coors. However, I took my DFS MLB Picks stand on the Angels bats because I believe in hitters against bad bullpens.
