This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
Summer weather is here and Thursday brings us a handful of MLB games in the evening. Some teams are traveling, but there are four games on the schedule at 7:40 p.m. ET or later. That gets you a little more time to get your MLB DFS lineups set. Here are my recommendations.
Pitching
Framber Valdez, HOU vs. CWS ($9,800): Valdez is an honest pitcher. He has a 3.07 ERA, and also a 3.07 FIP. However, that ERA includes a couple iffy starts early. Over his last nine starts he has a 2.43 ERA. The White Sox don't have an all-time bad offense again, but they are still terrible. They sit in the bottom five in runs scored and they are still last in team OPS.
Jameson Taillon, CHC vs. PIT ($8,200): Yeah, pitching decisions were easy today. For the second season in a row Taillon has an ERA over 4.00 on the road but an ERA under 3.00 at home. The Pirates, meanwhile, are 29th in runs scored and are lacking for power as any club in MLB.
Top Target
Over the last three weeks, Jeremy Pena ($4,600) has an 1.001 OPS. On the season, he has a .983 OPS at home. Now, if you are familiar with Pena's history, you might be thinking, "Sure, but he can't hit his fellow righties." Not the case this year! Pena has an .847 OPS versus right-handed pitchers in 2025. Meanwhile, Davis Martin has a 4.54 FIP, a 5.79 K/9 rate and he has allowed righties to hit .288 against him.
Bargain Bat
The Royals have needed somebody to step up to support Bobby Witt, and Vinnie Pasquantino ($4,000) has been the guy as of late. He has an 1.032 OPS over the last three weeks. The lefty still can't hit southpaws, but he has an .833 OPS versus righties. Will Warren is quite good at racking up strikeouts…and that's about the only positive for him. He has a career 6.75 ERA, and lefties have hit .282 against him.
Stack to Consider
Cubs vs. Pirates (Andrew Heaney): Seiya Suzuki ($5,300), Dansby Swanson ($4,300), Nico Hoerner ($4,100)
Don't take too much from Heaney's 3.24 ERA. It's not just that he has a 3.58 ERA on the road. The southpaw has a 4.37 FIP, and his K/9 rate is all the way down to 6.47. Interestingly, Heaney's fellow lefties have a higher average against him since 2023, but those seem to be mostly slap hits. The righties deliver all the power, and I'm stacking three right-handed hitters against him.
Suzuki is running less, but he's showing the most power of his career. He has 16 home runs and 18 doubles through 64 games. Additionally, he has an 1.145 OPS versus southpaws this season. Swanson's cool at the plate right now, but he has 12 home runs and seven stolen bases on the year. He's consistently been a low-OBP guy who delivers counting stats, and for a shortstop who works for me in the right DFS matchup. Hoerner hits for average, has doubles power and runs well. He's hit .288 with 16 doubles and 13 swiped bags. Since 2023, though, he's hit .320 against lefties, and this year he's slugged .491 against southpaws.
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