Welcome to Wednesday #Family! That means there’s a split slate of MLB DFS and we focus on the main slate at night. The good news for those of you here looking for hitters is that there is a good amount of just trash starting pitching for us to target. That gives us a lot of options at all salary levels to help those lineups be green at the end of the night. Whatever your roster build targets are for the night, take a look at the following players and see if you can work them into your teams. 

Top Tier

Shohei Ohtani, 1B/OF, LAA – He has been a little quiet with the bat lately, but we know from this season that only lasts so long. He was hitless last night, and that was the first time since September 6th that he hadn’t recorded a hit. This rough patch ends tomorrow against Dallas Keuchel. The White Sox hurler has allowed 21 earned runs in his last four starts and has walked six and struck out just eight in 14.2 innings. Ohtani hits about the same average no matter which hand the pitcher throws with but homers about once every 11 at-bats against lefties while that number is nearly 14 at-bats against right-handed pitching. Keuchel’s ERA is dangerously close to 5.50 and he has allowed 24 home runs in just 27 starts. I like Ohtani to get back on track on Wednesday. 

Starling Marte, OF, OAK – He continues to produce for Oakland and Marte is on a nice roll again hitting .417 with a 1.170 OPS and two stolen bases in the last week including three multi-hit efforts. He will face Mike Minor who actually was solid his last time out, but his ERA is over 5.00 and he has allowed a whopping 26 home runs in 28 starts, including nine in his last seven trips to the mound. Marte has hit .300 against lefties, and is hitting .310 away from home, while Minor’s ERA is 5.18 at home. 

Bryce Harper, OF, PHI – He has been on a ridiculous tear lately with hits in ten straight games while hitting nearly .450 in the last week with four home runs and seven RBI with an OPS of 1.711. The game is in Philly where Harper is hitting .319 with a 1.089 OPS and eight stolen bases. The Cubs will throw Alec Mills who has been wildly inconsistent, and really bad when he is not on his game. Harper has hit .328 against righties with 29 of his 32 home runs and a 1.145 OPS in 2021. 

Mid-Tier

Kyle Tucker, OF, HOU – His hitless game last night was his first since September 5th and Tucker has been on fire with an average over .410 with a double, triple, and home run in the last week with four RBI. He has been solid all season long with a 40.8% hard hit rate and .383 wOBA. The Rangers are starting Kohei Arihara who has allowed 19 earned runs in his last five starts, seven home runs in his last four starts, and has an ERA near 6.00. They have not faced each other, but Tucker hits .301 against right-handed pitching with 16 of his 25 home runs and all 13 of his stolen bases against them. 

Josh Donaldson, 3B, MIN – His bat has been kind of quiet lately, but this one comes down to the matchup. Indians starter Cal Quantrill has looked solid in most starts lately. However, Donaldson does have six hits in 12 career at-bats against him including a home run. Quantrill has faced the Twins twice in the last month and Donaldson had three hits off of him in those two games. He isn’t the most consistent hitter in the game, but he sees the ball well from Quantrill and should be able to keep this streak going. 

Giancarlo Stanton, OF, NYY – I want some Yankee exposure against John Means tonight because although he has been a solid pitcher, he has a hell of a time trying to keep the ball in the park this year. Means has allowed 25 home runs in 22 starts, which is not where you want your pitcher to be. I’ll take Stanton who has four hits in eight at-bats against Means including a home run. He also has two home runs in the last three days including last night and has hit .320 in the last week. For his career, Stanton has hit .333 in 19 games at Camden Yards with three home runs. 

Alex Bregman, 3B, HOU – If you don’t like one Astro against the human launch pad of Kohei Arihara, let me give you another option. Bregman has a hit in every game but one since August 28th and has hit nearly .500 in the last week with two homers and six RBI. Bregman has hit .319 in Texas for his career with six home runs and 19 RBI in 31 career starts there. 

Value Tier

Frank Schwindel, 1B, CHI – He has been tearing it up in September with six multi-hit games, five home runs and 14 RBI. The Phillies will send Ranger Suárez to the mound who actually has been quite good and has an ERA under 1.50 but Schwindel has hit .370 with a 1.246 OPS against left-handed pitching. He also has five of his 12 home runs against lefties, despite only 54 plate appearances against them. Citizens Bank Park is also a great home run hitting stadium so if you want to save some money at first base here is your guy. 

Carson Kelly, C, ARI – It isn’t often that we target one of the higher priced pitchers on the slate. It is even less often that we do it with a catcher. Kelly also has been pretty abysmal lately but believe me I’m getting to the part where you can use him. The Dodgers are sending Julio Urías to the mound who has been solid all year long. However, Kelly has hit .323 against left-handed pitching with a 1.068 OPS as opposed to .197 and .604 against righties. He has also hit eight of his 11 home runs against southpaws despite 71 fewer plate appearances against them. He has three hits in six at-bats against Urias in his career with two home runs. Eight of his eleven home runs have also come on the road.