DraftKings fantasy baseball picks-July 23 lineups

While eight MLB teams are traveling on this Thursday, there are still plenty of fantasy baseball opportunities to get involved in if you’re playing daily fantasy sports. With four games in the afternoon window and seven more games tonight, you can play early only, all-day, or evening competitions on DraftKings or other daily fantasy sports sites.  To help you get your lineup locked in, check out my DraftKings fantasy baseball picks for all three primary time slots listed on the following slides. You can find each of my three lineups in this post with comments on why I’m picking those players.

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Similar picks could be used on any of the many options that offer daily fantasy baseball, but for the purposes of this post the salaries and roster structure are based on DraftKings typical setup. If you choose to play on FanDuel, Draftster, FantasyAces, or the new Yahoo daily fantasy site, my lineups would be similar with maybe some minor adjustments based on player pricing and scoring differences.

Whatever site you choose to play on, if you have a question about your DFS or season-long fantasy baseball team, you can find me @FansidedFantasy on Twitter throughout the day. I’ll also update you if I have to adjust my lineups based on weather or a team’s starting lineups as the day progresses. If you are looking for more of our fantasy baseball coverage, make sure to drop a bookmark on our fantasy baseball hub.

Let’s get right to my DraftKings fantasy baseball picks for this Thurdsday, July 23.

All-day Lineup

SP-Clayton Kershaw-Los Angeles Dodgers: Yes he’s expensive, but the way he has pitched lately and taking on the light-hitting Mets in Citi Field is too good a matchup to pass up. Make the rest of your lineup work around Kershaw since he has allowed just two earned runs total in his last four starts while striking out 39 and walking just two.

SP-Mike Fiers-Milwaukee Brewers: Since you’ll need to balance Kershaw’s salary a value option as your second starter is a good idea.  Fiers has been solid lately allowing two runs or fewer in four of his last five starts and picked up seven strikeouts in his last start against the Pirates.  He’s in a good matchup against the D-Backs tonight even though he does have to pitch at Chase Field which can cause be a hitters park. Arizona has scored three runs or fewer in each of their last four games.

C-Jonathan Lucroy-Milwaukee Brewers: Lucroy continues his recent surge with a 2-4 effort last night and is now 15-58 (.259) on the month with a pair of home runs and four doubles.  He’s a pretty cheap option at catcher for tonight and taking on D-Backs starter Zack Godley making his MLB debut.

1B-Adrian Gonzalez-Los Angeles Dodgers: Gonzalez is 10-24 (.417) to start the second half with three homers and five RBI. He faces Bartolo Colon tonight who he is 9-21 against in his career with two doubles, two homers, and three RBI.

2B-Robinson Cano-Seattle Mariners: Cano’s numbers on the year are still down, but lately he has picked it up going 9-23 (.391) over the last week with three home runs and a double. He has hit in three straight games against Detroit going 6-12 so far in the series.  He is 18-67 (.269) in his extended experience against David Price including three doubles, a triple, a home run, and 11 RBI.  Don’t be afraid of the lefty-lefty matchup since Cano has hit him well in the past, and make Cano an option since he’s still a bit under-priced.

3B-Josh Donaldson-Toronto Blue Jays: Donaldson has multiple hits in the first two games in his return to Oakland and is 17-63 (.270) on the month with five doubles and four homers. He is 3-6 with a home run against Scott Kazmir in the past, so look for him to be a good big bat to build around for tonight.

SS-Ruben Tejada-New York Mets: With all the big purchases, this is one place where I’ll look to save money going with the Mets shortstop who had been hitting well over the last week going 10-26 (.385) and is one of the few people in the league with a good track record against Clayton Kershaw (5-10, .500).  Tejada doesn’t collect many extra base hits, but at such a low price he can allow you to stock sluggers elsewhere.

OF-Yoenis Cespedes-Detroit Tigers: Cespedes is a slugger to take a look at as he and the Tigers take on Seattle and Hisashi Iwakuma.  Cespedes is 11-27 (.407) against Iwakuma in his career with five doubles and four home runs.  Due to his 4-23 start to the second half, Cespedes value has dropped a bit, making him a very nice play this afternoon.

OF-Carlos Beltran-New York Yankees: Beltran is just back off the DL and still a bit under-priced as a result.  He went 1-2 with a walk in each of his first two starts back, and will face Ubaldo Jimenez if he gets the start this afternoon.  Beltran is 7-18 (.389) against Jimenez in his career with two doubles and two homers.

OF-Michael Taylor-Washington Nationals: I’ll definitely go with a value play in this outfield spot, and right now I’m planning on going with Taylor who had a monster game yesterday for the Nats going 2-5 with three RBI, a stolen base, and a run scored for a total of 19 DraftKings points.  While he probably won’t duplicate that performance, he is a cheap leadoff hitter who offers some potential tonight against the Pirates.

Next: Afternoon Lineup