Another wonderful work week has come to a close, and now that the weekend is here, it’s time to have some fun. Enjoy the last few rays of Summer sun, and play some MLB DFS at DraftKings. If you don’t have an account, you can sign up here!

As always, below I’ve got a discussion on the pitching options for tonight’s slate of MLB games, accompanied by the best stacks to choose from as well as an individual set of player rankings.

Forecast

ALL CLEAR

Pitching Perspective

On a night packed to the brim with games, it’ll be important to nail down the right pitching options tonight. Johnny Cueto takes the mound with a sparkling defense and a solid ball park in his favor tonight against the Los Angeles Angels. Cueto has been fantastic since starting over with the Royals, and is coming off a complete game shutout. His xFIP suggests that he’s not pitched quite as well as his ERA might fool people into believing, but he’s been solid all year long. He’s striking out about eight hitters per nine innings and not walking anyone or giving up home runs. The Angels seem like they would be a really difficult matchup, but Cueto is the heavy favorite here, you can use him.

Jake Arrieta also gets to take to the mound today, but unfortunately he’ll be doing so at US Cellular Field. If you watched any of the game yesterday, the ball was flying out of there with anything squared up in the air. Lucky for us, Arrieta gets plenty of ground balls (51.3%) and strikes out over a batter an inning to keep from being driven out of the ball park. The White Sox have really improved offensively since the beginning of the second half, but they’re still near the top ten in the league in strikeout percentage as an offense (20.7%). Arrieta has a high price tag, but it’s one that I think you can try to take advantage of in tournaments.

Another top dollar arm in a good ball park today is Chris Archer. Archer has been awesome all season long, and has perhaps the best upside on the slate, but much like Arrieta, I think his salary keeps him as mainly a tournament option, especially if you’re looking to gain exposure to Coors Field. The Rangers are right in the middle of the pack in terms of strikeout percentage, and if you’re using Archer you’re using him on his upside and strikeouts – keep that in mind.

In order to gain exposure to Coors, you’re going to have to find value somewhere, and you can do that on the mound by using either John Lackey, Jimmy Nelson or Brett Anderson. All three of these options are taking advantage of bad opposing offenses, and accessible salaries. If you’re rostering a guy like this in a cash game, you can’t get too high or too low on the upside, but need to just hope for a decent floor.

Stack Options 

1. Coors Field – Both sides of this game should be the most popularly used stacks on tonight’s slate, and rightfully so. With both teams having implied run totals of over five runs, you’ll need some exposure to either side in cash games and GPPs tonight. You’ll have to wait for the lineups to come out to see where you can find the most successful value bats from this game, but doing so will go a long way.

2. The Milwaukee Brewers – Man, the Brewers are really bad, but that won’t stop me from using some of their bats tonight against the terrible Jerome Williams. Williams is a great opposing pitcher to stack against thanks to the nearly two home runs he’s allowing per nine innings this season. The Brewers potency has gone by the wayside with the loss of Carlos Gomez and the power outage of Jonathan Lucroy, but there will be value options here that will allow you to gain exposure to other top games.

3. Target Field – Again, this is another game where I wouldn’t mind having exposure to either one of the teams taking the field. The total on this game is currently sitting at nine, and I’d probably be betting the over. It’s still too early to make any judgements on Tyler Duffey, but I’ve seen enough Josh Tomlin to know that he’s a solid stack against candidate. Tomlin is a pretty extreme fly ball arm, and the Twins actually pack a solid power punch. Look for them to be an underowned, but valuable contrarian tournament stack tonight.

Player Rankings

Catcher

1. Derek Norris -$4,300 – San Diego Padres

2. Jonathan Lucroy -$3,300 – Milwaukee Brewers

3. Wellington Castillo -$3,700 – Arizona Diamondbacks

First Basemen

1. Ben Paulsen -$3,500 – Colorado Rockies

2. Yangervis Solarte -$4,200 – San Diego Padres

3. Adam Lind -$4,400 – Milwaukee Brewers

Second Basemen

1. Jedd Gyorko -$3,300 – San Diego Padres

2. Brian Dozier -$4,600 – Minnesota Twins

3. Ben Zobrist -$3,800 – Kansas City Royals

Shortstops

1. Jhonny Peralta -$3,700 – St. Louis Cardinals

2. Jose Reyes -$5,100 – Colorado Rockies

3. Clint Barmes -$2,600 – San Diego Padres

Third Basemen

1. Nolan Arenado -$4,900 – Colorado Rockies

2. Todd Frazier -$4,100 – Cincinnati Reds

3. Kris Bryant -$4,600 – Chicago Cubs

Outfield

1. Justin Upton -$5,600 – San Diego Padres

2. Matt Kemp -$5,200 – San Diego Padres

3. Charlie Blackmon -$5,000 – Colorado Rockies

4. Carlos Gonzalez -$5,500 – Colorado Rockies

Starting Pitchers

1. Johnny Cueto -$10,800 – Kansas City Royals

2. Jake Arrieta -$11,600 – Chicago Cubs

3. Chris Archer -$11,200 – Tampa Bay Rays

4. Jimmy Nelson -$8,500 – Milwaukee Brewers

5. John Lackey -$9,200 – St. Louis Cardinals