This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
Looking to give yourself a boost to make it through the rest of the work week? Some DFS success on Wednesday could make that happen. There are 10 games on Wednesday night starting at 7:05 p.m. EDT or later. Here are my DFS lineup recommendations.
Pitching
Logan Webb, SF at COL ($11,000): The location of this game makes Webb a gamble, but he has a profile that could get him through a start at Coors Field against a Rockies team without much talent in the lineup. He's allowed a mere 0.67 home runs per nine innings in his career, and this season Webb has a 60.4 groundball percentage. An elite groundball pitcher like Webb could tame Coors.
Jon Gray, TEX vs. STL ($9,500): Gray has been on a tear. He has a 0.79 ERA over his last five starts, all wins. It helps that he has baseball's best offense to support him. The Cardinals are above average offensively, but I'll still take Gray on a day with lackluster pitching options.
Kutter Crawford, BOS at CLE ($6,800): Three of the four teams in the bottom four in runs scored (Oakland, Detroit, and Kansas City) are not on the Wednesday night slate. That leaves the Guardians as the best team to target, especially given the fact they are last in home runs by a comfortable margin. Crawford is in line to start Wednesday, and if he goes five innings and is eligible for a win, he could pay off for DFS players big time.
Top Targets
In a down first season with the Rangers, Corey Seager ($4,500) still had 33 homers. This year, though, he's slashed .336/.389/.586. I wanted a lefty, as Jack Flaherty's 4.55 ERA is owed in a big way to the .293 average he's allowed to left handers.
Hey, turns out Shohei Ohtani ($3,800) has casually posted a .276/.352/.552 slash line with 16 homers and seven stolen bases. He's hitting better than he did in 2022, mostly by smashing righties to the tune of a .942 OPS. The righty Jameson Taillon may have a 4.11 FIP compared to his 7.05 ERA, but he's also allowed lefties to hit .313 against him.
Bargain Bats
In addition to hitting .300, Whit Merrifield ($3,000) has 16 stolen bases already. It's easier to steal against a right-handed pitcher, traditionally, and Ronel Blanco is a righty in line to start for the Astros. Mostly pitching out of the bullpen in his career, Blanco has also allowed right handers to hit .379 against him.
Jake Bauers ($2,500) has slugged his way into the Yankees' lineup. That is to say, he's posted a .500 slugging percentage. It also helps that Bauers gives the Yankees a second lefty to deploy, particularly at home. Lance Lynn has a 6.55 ERA and has allowed 2.00 home runs per nine innings, and southpaws have hit a whopping .357 against him.
Stacks to Consider
Diamondbacks at Nationals (Patrick Corbin): Lourdes Gurriel ($3,400), Ketel Marte ($3,300), Christian Walker ($3,100)
Corbin had a stretch where he was mediocre instead of bad, and that got his ERA down to 4.92 on the season. He has a 5.85 ERA over the last three seasons, so I am not buying it, especially given that he has struck out a mere 5.59 batters per nine innings in 2023. Given that righties have hit .306 against the southpaw, I have three guys who can hit right-handed in this stack.
Gurriel has excelled in his first season with the Diamondbacks, having slashed .310/.359/.550. While he's been better at home, he's hit .287 and slugged .476 in his career having spent most of his time not hitting in Arizona. Marte is a switch hitter, but he greatly prefers to face a southpaw. Since 2021 he has a .961 OPS in those matchups. Walker has 12 homers after he smashed 36 last season. Over the last three seasons he's slugged .455 against lefties, but also has slugged .477 on the road.
Giants at Rockies (Connor Seabold): J.D. Davis ($3,600), Joc Pederson ($3,500), LaMonte Wade ($3,400)
I risked Webb at Coors Field, but this is still Coors Field. Also, Seabold is not Webb. Seabold has a career 7.14 ERA, and one third of his career was spent with the Red Sox. Plus, he's allowed 1.86 home runs per nine innings for good measure. When a series is happening at Coors, it's always wise to try and grab a stack.
Seabold has allowed his fellow righties to hit .329 against him. Thus, I have Davis in the mix, and he also happens to have a .912 OPS on the road in 2023. Pederson is back from the IL, and he gets to walk right into a series at Coors. The southpaw slugger has a .489 slugging percentage with 42 homers against righties since 2021. Wade has a .429 OBP this year, and since 2021 he has a .839 OPS versus righties. Seabold, meanwhile, has allowed lefties to hit .317 against him in his career.
Dodgers at Reds (Brandon Williamson): Mookie Betts ($4,000), J.D. Martinez ($4,000), Chris Taylor ($2,700)
The Reds have been calling up guys left and right from the minors. That includes Williamson, who has made four MLB starts now. The problem for him is that they haven't gone well. He's posted a 5.13 FIP, and so it feels relevant to note he had a 6.13 FIP in Triple-A before he got the call. Since Williamson is a southpaw, I do have three righties in my stack. Also, since you don't need a catcher on FanDuel I decided to not include Will Smith, though he does hit as well as most first basemen.
Betts has a .366 OBP, which combined with him leading off (and hitting 15 homers) has yielded 47 runs for him in 2023. Additionally, since 2021 he has a .932 OPS against southpaws. Martinez has excelled in his first season with the Dodgers, though oddly he's struggled against lefties. Last year, though, he had a .998 OPS versus southpaws, and the year before his OPS in those matchups was .826. Thus, his struggles this year feel like a fluke. Also, if you want something to balance that out, Martinez has an 1.026 OPS on the road. With a lefty on the mound, I think Taylor will likely start somewhere in the lineup. The utility player has an .815 OPS against left-handed pitchers since 2021. He also has nine homers and six stolen bases in 2023.
