Friday’s MLB slate is loaded with contrast, from a Cy Young-caliber pitching duel in the AL East to a couple of White Sox and Brewers bats that keep hammering their way into the middle of value lineups. With a full board of games and several offenses squaring off against shaky starters, there’s plenty to work with for both cash games and GPPs today.

The approach here is simple: lock in the arms that miss the most bats and have the safest floors, then build around bats in plus matchups who are priced below their actual production. That mix gives you a strong foundation for double-up cash lineups while still leaving upside on the bench for tournament stacks.

Dylan Cease, SP — Toronto Blue Jays ($10,300 DK / $10,900 FD)

Cease has been arguably the best strikeout arm in the American League all season, and he’s been on an absolute heater lately. Over his last seven starts, he’s posted a 1.96 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 46 innings, and in his most recent outing against the Yankees he worked 6.2 innings, allowed just one run on two hits, and struck out eight. On the year he’s sitting at 8-5 with a 2.37 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP, and an AL-leading 209 strikeouts across 144.1 innings.

What makes today especially appealing is the home/road split: Cease has been even better away from Rogers Centre this year, posting a 1.67 ERA on the road compared to 3.03 at home. He gets a Mariners lineup that has had its share of swing-and-miss issues against premium velocity, and Cease is averaging north of 97 mph on his four-seamer, one of the highest marks among starters in baseball. At a hair over $10,000, he’s priced like an ace, but his strikeout equity alone makes him worth rostering in cash and pivoting to in tournaments where the field is spread across cheaper arms.

Cam Schlittler, SP — New York Yankees ($9,500 est. DK)

Schlittler has quietly built the best ERA in the American League this season at 2.16, to go with an 11-6 record, a minuscule 0.96 WHIP, and 193 strikeouts. Since the start of July he’s been even nastier, running a 2.33 ERA and a 70:16 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his last nine outings. His Statcast profile backs it up — a .209 expected batting average against and a 30.8% strikeout rate that ranks near the top of the league.

The road splits are the story here: Schlittler has a 1.14 ERA away from Yankee Stadium this season, compared to 3.71 at home, and he draws a Patrick Sandoval-led opponent that has struggled to generate consistent offense. With Cease and Schlittler both going Friday, DFS players effectively get to choose between the AL’s top two ERA arms — a great problem to have for cash-game pitching, since either one gives you a legitimately safe floor with real strikeout upside baked in.

Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF — Chicago Cubs ($10,400 DK)

Crow-Armstrong has been one of the best all-around fantasy assets in baseball this season, hitting .276 with 33 home runs, 83 RBI, 93 runs scored, and 32 stolen bases — a .924 OPS that ranks him among the National League’s most complete hitters. He’s a five-category monster in a lineup spot that keeps him in scoring position and running situations all game long, and he’s shown a real home-field lift this year with a 1.007 OPS in Wrigley Field games.

Friday’s matchup is a green light: he faces Reds right-hander Rhett Lowder, who is 5-8 with a bloated 5.13 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP on the season. Crow-Armstrong gives you power, speed, and lineup-leading counting stats in one roster spot, and against a starter allowing this much traffic, he’s a strong GPP centerpiece as well as a stable cash play near the top of the Cubs’ order.

William Contreras, C — Milwaukee Brewers ($4,300 DK)

Catcher is often the thinnest position in DFS, and Contreras gives you a real bat at a discount price. He’s hitting .271 with 12 home runs, 66 RBI, and a .739 OPS on the season, and he’s shown he can go off in bunches — he had a three-hit game with two doubles against the Mets earlier this week. Batting fifth in Milwaukee’s lineup, he’s set up in a run-producing spot behind the Brewers’ top-of-the-order table-setters.

Friday he gets the Rangers on the road, and catcher remains a spot where paying up isn’t necessary to get production — Contreras gives you a legitimate power bat for barely over $4,000, which frees up salary to pay up at the pitcher or outfield spots. He’s one of the better cash-game floor plays at the position given his everyday role and recent contact quality.

Miguel Vargas, 3B/1B — Chicago White Sox ($5,300 DK)

Vargas has broken out in a major way in his first full season on the South Side, batting .251 with 29 home runs, 76 RBI, 91 runs scored, 13 steals, and an .861 OPS. He’s added serious over-the-fence pop compared to his career norms, and Baseball Savant’s expected stats back up the power gain rather than flag it as a fluke. He went 2-for-3 with two walks and a stolen base in his last outing, continuing a strong recent stretch of on-base production.

At $5,300, Vargas is priced more like a complementary piece than the near-.900 OPS bat he’s actually been all year, and today’s matchup with Minnesota keeps him in a lineup spot where he sees plenty of pitches to drive. He gives you power and speed at a mid-tier price, which is exactly the profile you want to pair with the two pitchers and Crow-Armstrong at the top of your salary allocation.

Building Your Lineup

With Cease and Schlittler both on the board, cash-game lineups can lean on either arm as a strikeout anchor without stretching the budget too thin, since both come in around the $10K range with elite floors. From there, Crow-Armstrong is worth paying up for in any format given the five-category profile and a soft opposing arm, while Contreras and Vargas let you fill out value at catcher and the infield without sacrificing upside.

For GPP builds, consider pairing Crow-Armstrong with another Cubs bat lower in the order to capture correlated scoring off Lowder, since that matchup profiles as one of the softer pitching spots on the slate. If you want to fade the popular Cease-Schlittler pitching pool in tournaments, Sandoval’s and Lowder’s opponents both offer stacking angles worth exploring, and shopping the sportsbooks’ live MLB odds before lock is a good habit for spotting the total and run-line movement that often lines up with where DFS ownership will concentrate. Rounding out your lineup with a mid-range bat or two from a lesser-owned game environment is usually the difference-maker between a solid cash score and a lineup that actually separates in the GPP field.