Griffin Wong ranks the top starting pitching options for Thursday’s fantasy baseball slate on DraftKings.
A Thursday MLB game means that a team is either starting or finishing a four-game series, which usually doesn’t lead to excellent pitching matchups. That’s the case today: just the San Francisco Giants’ Robbie Ray ($10,000) is a traditional “star” with a DFS salary north of $9,000.
You still have to have two pitchers as part of tonight’s contest, though, so let me run you through my five favorite options.
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1. Seth Lugo, Kansas City Royals ($8,300)
Lugo has been a consistently solid pitcher all season, never allowing more than four earned runs in any start. The Cy Young runner-up from last season has actually accumulated more WAR per inning than he did in 2024, though the Royals’ offensive ineptitude may cost him another shot at the award, since he’s just 5-5. The Quarterrican has gotten exceptionally lucky — his FIP figure is 4.18 and his expected ERA is 4.63 — but Kansas City has had the league’s third-best defense this season, so his luck is sustainable.
Lugo has been slightly better on the road, averaging 18.8 points away from Kauffman Stadium and only 16.1 per game on friendly turf. He should be able to continue his hot form at the Seattle Mariners’ T-Mobile Park, which is easily the most pitcher-friendly venue in the majors. This season, the Mariners have posted just a .680 OPS at home, the sixth-worst mark in the league, and even Cal Raleigh ($6,300), Seattle’s most dangerous hitter, has an OPS 110 points worse there.
2. Robbie Ray, San Francisco Giants ($10,000)
Ray, like Lugo, has not allowed more than four runs in any start this season, and he’s only hit that number once. The 33-year-old is an out-getting machine, with a 90th-percentile expected batting average against and an 81st-percentile strikeout rate. That sort of efficiency allows him to go deep into games, since he’s completed six or more innings in 10 of his last 12 starts. Since every out is worth 0.75 FPTS, that sort of endurance can be a difference-maker.
Granted, the Arizona Diamondbacks, especially at home, are a fairly tough matchup. They’ve had the league’s third-highest OPS this season, are one of just three teams north of .800 in home games, and had the third-best offense in June. But it’s not a bad time to face such a dangerous offense: Corbin Carroll ($5,500) is on the IL after suffering a fracture in his left wrist and catcher Gabriel Moreno ($3,200) is also injured. Although Arizona has seen few ill effects to its offense since Carroll’s last game on June 18, I’d still rather face Randal Grichuk ($3,000) than Carroll.
3. José Soriano, Los Angeles Angels ($7,400)
Soriano has had two brutal starts in his last five, giving up eight hits and seven runs in 3.2 innings (-6.95 FPTS) on June 4 against the Boston Red Sox and eight runs and nine hits in four innings (-5.6 FPTS) on June 27 against the Washington Nationals. In between, he was spectacular, compiling 20.2 innings, two earned runs, and 28 strikeouts across three starts (30.8 FPTS per game). I’m going to back Soriano to bounce back, given that his 3.35 FIP figure is the best mark of his career.
The flamethrower is especially elite at inducing ground balls, ranking in the 99th percentile in that category, predominantly because he relies on a 97-mile-per-hour sinker. That should work in his favor against an Atlanta Braves team that hits grounders at the eighth-highest rate in the league and has struggled as of late, posting the league’s fourth-lowest OPS in June. Even Ronald Acuña Jr. ($6,200) has started to slow down somewhat, recording a single-digit fantasy output in each of his last six games.
4. Cade Horton, Chicago Cubs ($6,200)
I backed Horton as one of my favorite value options, given his cheap DFS salary and solid production. Like Soriano, he’s coming off a rough start — a four-inning, seven-run (-8.8-FPT) effort against the Houston Astros — and, like Soriano, his FIP figure is somewhat better than his actual ERA mark and he’s backed up by an above-average defense. The 23-year-old’s tools are clear: he induces plenty of chases and whiffs, he rarely walks anybody, and both his fastball velocity and spin rank near the league’s top quartile.
Though he’s yet to have a truly signature moment in his rookie season, that could come today against an ice-cold Cleveland Guardians offense. The Guardians had by far the league’s worst OPS last month and have scored only six runs in their first two games in July. Cleveland has also struggled to generate hard contact, ranking second-to-last in hard-hit percentage and third-to-last in average exit velocity, which is fitting of a team whose best hitter is noted contact king Steven Kwan ($4,500). In a matchup at pitcher-friendly Wrigley Field, where Horton averages 12.0 FPTS per game, the rookie has a chance to make some noise.
5. Dustin May, Los Angeles Dodgers ($7,800)
It hasn’t been a great season for May, who is attempting to come back from flexor tendon surgery and then an emergency esophagus operation that had kept him out for nearly two full seasons. He has been worth negative WAR for the first time in a full season, and his 4.68 ERA is a career-high, though at least he’s stayed healthy, which isn’t something that most Dodgers pitchers can say. There are a few bright spots; his fastball velocity and barrel rates are above-average, and his spin rates are once again elite.
I’d also pick any pitcher going against the worst offense in the league, which struggled to get anything going against Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday and was just okay against Clayton Kershaw last night. The Chicago White Sox have the worst OPS in the league by 18 points and the worst mark against right-handed pitchers by 40 points. They’ve also been the league’s least potent offense in night games. If May can’t figure it out tonight and blank the White Sox, I’m not sure he can blank anyone.
