Best MLB DFS Picks Today: Top Value Plays for July 8
Wednesday’s MLB slate rolls out 15 games, and the salary boards are littered with cheap, high-upside plays across both DraftKings and FanDuel. Marquee arms like Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom headline the pricier tier, but the real difference-makers tonight sit in the middle and bottom of the pay scale, where a mix of a bounce-back left-hander, a strikeout-hungry righty, and a trio of San Diego and Cincinnati bats offer serious salary relief.
Our approach for today’s cash games and GPPs is straightforward: lock in two starting pitchers who can miss bats without breaking the bank, then build out the lineup with hitters who are trending hot right now, regardless of what their season-long batting average says. If you’re still shopping for a home for tonight’s action, check out the latest DFS promotions before you set your lineups. Here are the five plays we’re targeting.
MacKenzie Gore, SP — Texas Rangers ($8,300 DK)
Gore gets a plus matchup at home against the Los Angeles Angels, and the strikeout equity here is real. The left-hander carries a 4.31 ERA and 1.27 WHIP into the start, but the surface numbers undersell him — he’s racked up 104 strikeouts in 96 innings this season, a strong K-rate that plays well against an Angels lineup that has posted a .313 OBP and .390 slugging mark as a team.
Los Angeles has been one of the softer offenses in the league to attack this season, and Gore’s swing-and-miss stuff should hold up in a home start at Globe Life Field. At $8,300 on DraftKings, he’s priced below the top tier of arms on the slate despite ranking among the better strikeout bets available tonight, making him a strong anchor for cash lineups that need pitching floor without sacrificing the salary needed to build out a competitive lineup. If you’re building on DraftKings tonight, the DraftKings promo code is worth checking before you lock your roster.
Jared Jones, SP — Pittsburgh Pirates ($7,200 FD)
Jones is still working his way back into form after an injury-shortened start to the year, and the season-long 5.28 ERA and 1.38 WHIP won’t jump off the page. But his last time out against Philadelphia, he tossed four innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts, a sign the swing-and-miss stuff is trending in the right direction as he stretches out.
Tonight he draws Atlanta at home, a matchup that lines up as a clear buy-low spot given his recent strikeout surge. At $7,200 on FanDuel, Jones offers real ceiling for a discounted price relative to the top arms on the board, particularly in tournament formats where his swing-and-miss upside can pay off big if he builds on his last outing. New FanDuel users can also grab the current FanDuel promo code to get in on tonight’s contests.
Fernando Tatis Jr., OF — San Diego Padres ($3,000 FD)
Tatis at $3,000 on FanDuel is one of the best bargains on the entire slate. He’s hitting .282 with 5 home runs and 21 stolen bases on the season, and he’s been red-hot lately — over his last seven games he’s slashing .276/.323/.586 with two home runs, six RBI and six runs scored.
San Diego hosts Arizona tonight, and Tatis figures to see a favorable matchup at Petco Park in front of his home crowd. With his combination of power and speed still very much in play, getting him at a salary that low is the kind of value that lets you spend up elsewhere in your lineup without sacrificing a difference-maker at the top of the order. For more plays like this one, our DFS reviews hub breaks down which platforms are offering the best contests this week.
Eugenio Suarez, 3B — Cincinnati Reds ($2,700 FD)
Suarez’s overall season slash line (.209 average, .652 OPS) doesn’t tell the story of how he’s swinging the bat right now. Over his last seven games, he’s hitting .273 with a .407 on-base percentage and a .545 slugging mark, and he added his ninth home run of the season on Tuesday night with a 361-foot solo shot to left field against Philadelphia.
He carries eight home runs and 29 RBI into tonight’s game, and at Great American Ball Park — one of the more hitter-friendly parks in the league — his current power surge makes him a great value target at just $2,700 on FanDuel. Home run or extra-base hit upside at that price point is exactly what cash-game rosters are built on.
Jake Cronenworth, 2B — San Diego Padres ($2,300 DK)
Cronenworth has had a difficult season overall, hitting just .168 with a .512 OPS, but he’s shown signs of life recently, batting .273 with a .409 slugging percentage over his last seven games. San Diego’s home matchup against Arizona gives him a chance to keep that mini-surge going, and at just $2,300 on DraftKings, he’s about as cheap as it gets for a player in the middle of the Padres’ lineup.
The salary relief he provides is significant — rostering Cronenworth in that punt spot frees up meaningful cap space to get more expensive bats like Tatis into the same lineup without compromising the rest of the roster. Not sure how to allocate that extra cap space? Our betting calculator can help you work out payout scenarios before you submit.
Building Your Lineup
Tonight’s slate rewards paying up for one of the two pitchers above and pairing them with a stack of Padres bats — Tatis and Cronenworth both play into the same San Diego lineup against Arizona, giving cash-game players a correlated, cost-effective core to build around. Suarez adds a second stacking angle in Cincinnati’s home game against Philadelphia, where the ballpark factors favor extra-base hits.
For tournament lineups, consider pivoting off the popular chalk at the top of the pitcher pool and rostering Jones for his strikeout ceiling at a discount, which should keep your roster construction different from the field while still retaining swing-and-miss upside. Whichever direction you go, using the salary savings from Tatis, Suarez, and Cronenworth to get to one of the premium arms on the slate is the clearest path to a well-rounded, high-floor build for both cash games and GPP lineups tonight. Browse our full slate of DFS platforms if you’re looking to diversify where you enter tonight’s contests.
Aaron White
Sports Betting Contributor
Aaron White graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics. His industry experience includes projects for the Chicago Cubs, The Sporting News, and QL Gaming Group. At Hello Rookie, he covers the NFL and NBA from a betting and DFS perspective.
