Sunday’s MLB slate rolls out a loaded 15-game card, and it’s the kind of afternoon-into-evening spread that gives DFS players real flexibility to build around elite arms and hot bats without blowing the salary cap. With Paul Skenes and Sonny Gray both on the mound and several lineups locked into favorable ballpark and handedness spots, there’s a clear path to stacking value at every price tier.
Today’s approach leans on trusting the two most dominant strikeout arms on the board, then filling out the rest of the lineup with hitters who are either red-hot right now or sitting in a matchup that plays directly to their strengths. Here are five MLB DFS picks worth building around for both cash games and GPP contests.
Sonny Gray, SP — Tampa Bay Rays ($9,800 DK)
Gray has been the most consistent strikeout arm in the league all season, and he’s somehow been even better lately. Through 17 starts he’s sitting on an 11-1 record with a 2.54 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP, but zoom into his last seven outings and the number drops to a video-game 1.97 ERA with 44 strikeouts across 45.2 innings. His most recent start against the Mets on July 10 was vintage Gray — six innings, one run, three strikeouts on a night he didn’t even need his best stuff to work.
What makes him a priority DraftKings play rather than just a nice piece is the swing-and-miss volume paired with an offense behind him that has kept him in position to rack up wins. At $9,800 he’s not cheap, but the strikeout floor alone justifies paying up, and there’s real GPP ceiling if he works into the seventh or eighth inning like he did in his last outing against the Yankees where he carried a scoreless bid deep into the game. If you’re weighing him against the field, it’s worth a glance at the MLB odds board to see how oddsmakers view Tampa Bay’s total on Sunday.
For lineup construction, Gray pairs well as the backbone of a pitcher-heavy cash build — his 44:10 K:BB ratio over his last seven starts is the kind of efficiency that limits big-inning risk against him going the other way, which matters just as much as his own point total when you’re building a safe cash game core.
Paul Skenes, SP — Pittsburgh Pirates ($9,500 DK) at Cleveland
Skenes’ sticker-shock ERA (3.57) undersells what’s actually happening underneath the hood. The reigning NL Cy Young winner ranks fourth in all of baseball in strikeout rate at 29.5 percent and second in xERA at 2.72, meaning the gap between his results and his actual stuff is almost entirely a product of Pittsburgh’s defense — the Pirates rank 25th in fielding run value and are tied for third-most throwing errors in the league. His WHIP still sits at an elite 1.02.
Sunday’s matchup against Cleveland is a get-right spot in the truest DFS sense: batted-ball luck and defensive miscues behind him are not systemic issues with his arm, and a strikeout-heavy Guardians lineup gives him a real path to another 8-9 K afternoon. In his last start against Milwaukee, Skenes went 5.1 innings with seven strikeouts and just two runs allowed, a line that reflects his actual power stuff far more than the season-long ERA does.
He’s a name plenty of casual players will fade off the ERA alone, which sets up a nice pivot for anyone building differentiated GPP lineups this weekend — the underlying performance indicators say he’s being underpriced relative to his true talent level.
Byron Buxton, CF — Minnesota Twins ($4,700 FD)
Buxton remains one of the most explosive power bats in the league when healthy, and he’s trending in exactly the right direction. He’s up to 25 home runs and a .903 OPS on the season — fifth-best in the AL — and over his last 30 games he’s gone deep nine times while slugging .569. His exit velocity and hard-hit metrics have stayed elite all year, which means even a quiet week on the surface (he’s been cooler over his last seven games) hasn’t reflected any real decline in his underlying quality of contact.
The appeal today is squarely about ballpark and lineup context — Minnesota’s offense has been leaning on him in the middle of the order, and pitchers working shorter starts against him have consistently given up loud contact even in games where the box score reads quiet. At $4,700 on FanDuel, that’s a discount for a player who ranks top-five in the American League in OPS and remains one of the few hitters on the slate with legitimate 40-homer pace upside if he stays on the field.
Buxton fits as a cash game anchor at the position — the raw power gives him a strong floor via extra-base hits even on nights the ball doesn’t clear the fence, and the ceiling is obviously a multi-homer game given his exit velocity readings.
Ronald Acuña Jr., RF — Atlanta Braves ($5,900 DK)
Acuña brings a rare combination to the player pool today: legitimate stolen-base equity paired with power upside in a Braves lineup that leans heavily on him for that kind of speed. He’s already swiped 15 bags to go with seven home runs and a .794 OPS this season, and the stolen-base equity alone gives him a scoring floor that a lot of $5,000-6,000 outfielders simply don’t have — DFS scoring rewards steals almost as much as extra-base hits, and Acuña’s combination of both is what separates him from a pure power bat at a similar price point.
Atlanta’s lineup construction has kept him near the top of the order, which means more plate appearances and more chances to either drive in runs or set the table depending on matchup context. His overall batted-ball profile has stayed strong — hard-hit rate and average exit velocity both remain in elite percentile range according to Statcast, suggesting the power numbers could tick up over the second half even if the average has been a touch below his career norms.
He slots in as a premium play today, and lineups that pair him with the top of the Atlanta order are betting on a soft matchup translating into a multi-run, multi-steal type of afternoon.
Isaac Paredes, 3B — Houston Astros ($4,100 DK)
Paredes is the value name on this list, and he’s been quietly steady all year even without a hot streak headline. He’s up to 12 home runs, 50 RBI and a .761 OPS on the season, and while his overall numbers won’t jump off the page, he’s been a consistent source of extra-base hits — 18 doubles to go with those 12 homers shows a hitter who squares up the ball far more often than his batting average alone suggests.
His recent form has ticked upward, hitting .271 with two homers over his last 15 games, and he’s shown a pattern this season of going deep in bursts — homering in three straight games during one stretch in June that included a 1.103 OPS window. At a modest $4,100 salary, that combination of a decent floor from doubles and a real home run ceiling makes him one of the better price-to-production plays on the board for cash game rosters trying to save salary at the corner infield spots.
Paredes won’t be the most-owned bat in tournaments today given the modest season-long triple-slash, but that’s exactly why he’s worth a look for anyone trying to differentiate a GPP roster without sacrificing a real shot at production.
Building Your Lineup
Today’s slate rewards a barbell approach: pay up for one of the two elite strikeout arms in Gray or Skenes, then use the salary saved on volume bats like Buxton and value plays like Paredes to fill out a complete build. If you’re deciding between the two starting pitchers for a single-SP build, Gray’s cleaner recent results make him the safer cash game anchor, while Skenes offers more GPP leverage given how much lower his public perception is relative to his actual strikeout stuff.
For stacking purposes, pairing Acuña with the top of the Atlanta order gives you exposure to both the stolen-base and power split of that lineup, while a Twins mini-stack around Buxton captures a lineup that’s been trending hot as a unit. Don’t be afraid to roster Paredes even in tournament lineups where ownership will likely be low — cheap sources of real power upside like this are exactly the type of DraftKings lineup pieces that create separation when the chalk plays go cold. Anyone still weighing which DFS app to build on today can check the current DraftKings promo code offer before locking in a roster. Always double-check confirmed lineups and lefty-righty spots closer to first pitch, since even a small last-minute lineup shuffle can change who’s hitting in premium run-producing spots for today’s MLB slate.
