CheeseIsGood's Million Dollar Musings - MLB DFS Strategy: Saturday, May 28th

Happy Saturday! As projected, Matt Carpenter hit his first Yankees home run last night, and you better get used to it, as this party is just getting started!!!

Cards is taking a few days off for vacation, so you are going to be stuck with me this weekend. We’ve got a wonky day with completely different slates between the sites. On DK, the main slate is a 6-gamer at 7:15pm ET, which is preceded by a 5-game afternoon slate at 4:07pm ET. On that early DK slate, note that it is listed as a 6-game slate, but the Rockies-Nationals game has been removed, leaving it with five games.

FanDuel is starting their main slate at that 4:07 timeslot, but adding in a couple of the evening games making it an 8-game main slate.

To start with, before breaking it into slates, I’m going to list the 2022 stats for all the pitchers to get a bird’s eye view of how the stats compare.

From there, I’m going to give you three separate groups of Cliff Notes with some lists for each different slate. We’ll look at the two DK slates and FD main slate.

Saturday Pitchers

Here are the three buckets I’ve got with all the pitchers going in all the various slates today:

The Aces

Gerrit Cole at Rays – 29.4% K, 5.7% BB, 3.31 ERA, 2.88 SIERA
Shane Bieber at Tigers – 24.1% K, 7.3% BB, 3.55 ERA, 3.63 SIERA
Joe Musgrove vs Pirates – 25.1% K, 4.4% BB, 1.90 ERA, 3.18 SIERA
Logan Gilbert vs Astros – 26.2% K, 8.6% BB, 2.60 ERA, 3.49 SIERA

Good In Real Life

Sandy Alcantara at Braves – 20.8% K, 9.3% BB, 2.11 ERA, 4.16 SIERA
Jose Urquidy at Mariners – 17.1% K, 2.9% BB, 4.24 ERA, 4.15 SIERA
Corey Kluber vs Yankees – 22.3% K, 4.8% BB, 4.42 ERA, 3.58 SIERA
Zach Eflin at Mets – 23% K, 4.6% BB, 3.65 ERA, 3.39 SIERA
Alex Wood at Reds – 23.2% K, 7.1% BB, 4.82 ERA, 3.44 SIERA
Taijuan Walker vs Phillies – 14.9% K, 7.4% BB, 2.70 ERA, 4.48 SIERA
Michael Lorenzen vs Blue Jays – 17.9% K, 8% BB, 3.05 ERA, 4.22 SIERA

Wildcards, Walks and Unknowns

Johnny Cueto vs Cubs – 2 starts, 26.1% K, 8.7% BB
Zach Logue vs Rangers – 20.4% K, 9.2% BB, 4.43 ERA, 4.65 SIERA
Taylor Hearn at A’s – 20.6% K, 11.3% BB, 5.77 ERA, 4.51 SIERA
Tony Gonsolin at Diamondbacks – 24.3% K, 10.5% BB, 1.62 ERA, 3.97 SIERA
Yusei Kikuchi at Angels – 25.8% K, 14.8% BB, 3.47 ERA, 4.44 SIERA
Taijuan Walker vs Phillies – 14.9% K, 7.4% BB, 2.70 ERA, 4.48 SIERA
Johnny Cueto vs Cubs – 2 starts, 26.1% K, 8.7% BB
Michael Lorenzen vs Blue Jays – 17.9% K, 8% BB, 3.05 ERA, 4.22 SIERA
J.T. Brubaker at Padres – 24.9% K, 11.1% BB, 4.64 ERA, 4.04 SIERA

The Main Takeaway

I’ll sort and rank for each slate momentarily, but the main thing that stands out from looking at all the skill sets and just glancing at the matchups is that we have a very clear top group of three pitchers that well ahead of the field today. After them, it gets incredibly jumbled and we’ll be able to find plenty of reason to spread out far and wide if not just spending up for the clear top options.

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About the Author

CheeseIsGood
Dave Potts (CheeseIsGood)

One of the preeminent baseball minds in all of fantasy, Dave Potts (aka CheeseIsGood) has won contests at the highest levels of both season-long and DFS. He is a 2x winner of a $1,000,000 1st-place prize in DFS, having won the 2014 FanDuel baseball Live Final and following that up by taking down a DraftKings Milly Maker Tournament in 2015. In addition, he’s won the Main Event championship in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship and the NFBC Platinum League, which is the highest buy-in entry league. His consistent success in the NFBC tournaments earned him a prestigious spot in their Hall of Fame. Dave can also strum a mean guitar while carrying a tune, and if you’re lucky, you’ll see him do so on one of his MLB Crunch Time appearances. Follow Dave on X – @DavePotts2