Covering The Bases: Sunday, April 14th
STLCardinals84, one of the best tournament players in the game, is here to cover the bases for the upcoming MLB DFS slate. Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Cards has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his MLB DFS picks.
Happy Sunday, Grinders! It’s great to be back with you for another season of MLB articles here on RotoGrinders! Thanks to Cheese for covering for me for a few weekends while I finished up tax season in my day job as a CPA. I appreciate his help with that. Normally, you will see me here on the weekends (and the occasional weekday when Cheese needs a breather).
My first baseball article of the year brings us a fun eleven-game slate on a Sunday, with plenty to like on all sides of the ledger. Weather doesn’t seem to be a major factor this afternoon, though Roth has given us a “yellow” that we need to monitor for the LAA/BOS contest. This should be a great day, so let’s break it down!
Sunday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
There are quite a few teams that are starting their fourth turns through the rotation this afternoon, so we have some top-tier aces on the mound. I really like this slate from a pitching perspective. Here’s what we have:
TOP TIER PITCHING
Zack Wheeler vs. Pirates
Corbin Burnes vs. Brewers (REVENGE!)
Blake Snell vs. Rays
Charlie Morton vs. Marlins
Nathan Eovaldi vs. Astros
Cole Ragans vs. Mets
Normally, I would also include Jesus Luzardo in this mix, but A) it’s a deep pitching slate, B) he looked terrible in his last start, and C) he’s facing the Braves. This play would qualify as “too cute” in my book today, so we’ll leave this tier at six arms.
Here’s a look at the numbers for these pitchers in their first three starts of 2024:
Wheeler – 1.89 ERA, 2.75 SIERA, 26% K, 2% BB
Burnes – 1.93 ERA, 2.78 SIERA, 29% K, 3% BB
Snell – Has only made one start – 3 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K
Morton – 3.18 ERA, 5.09 SIERA, 21% K, 14% BB
Eovaldi – 1.45 ERA, 3.22 SIERA, 28% K, 6% BB
Ragans – 2.60 ERA, 3.36 SIERA, 28% K, 8% BB
This tier comes together somewhat easily for me today. I have three “YES” answers and three “NO” answers.
Let’s start with the NO answers. I will be avoiding the trio of Blake Snell, Charlie Morton, and Nathan Eovaldi today. Snell got a later start to the season than most pitchers thanks to postponing his signing date, and as such has only made one start. He’s not quite at 100% full go yet, and Snell needs a 100% full go pitch count in order to be viable for DFS purposes because of how many walks he allows and strikeouts he gets. It’s not like the Rays are a “can’t miss” matchup, either.
Morton has been good for several years but is now on the later stages of his career. The walks have been a major problem so far, and the underlying data is concerning. Even against the Marlins, I’ll pass.
Eovaldi has better underlying data but has a tough matchup today against the Astros. You aren’t getting him at enough of a discount to prioritize him over the other arms. I’ll pass here too.
That leaves us with a trio of very strong options, and I will be significantly overweight on all three of them in GPP builds this afternoon.
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