Covering the Bases: Friday, August 25
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 Friday, Grinders! Cheese is out for the weekend to attend his second live final in as many weeks, so I am going to cover for him today and Monday. Good luck to him for the weekend, and let’s hope he doesn’t run into a hurricane this time! If he wins, I’ll have to make a request for some free ice cream.
In any case, we have our usual large Friday slate on tap tonight, with 12 games on the main slate on both FanDuel and DraftKings. There’s plenty to discuss on all sides of the ledger, so let’s try to uncover some strong MLB DFS picks to get the weekend started right.
Friday Night Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
The Top Pitching Options
Spencer Strider vs. Giants
Brandon Woodruff vs. Padres
Kodai Senga vs. Angels
Dylan Cease vs. A’s
Yu Darvish vs. Brewers
This is a deep slate with a lot of secondary options that you could possibly consider, but these five have the highest ceilings of the bunch when you factor in tonight’s matchups. As usual, let’s start by taking a peek at the 2023 data:
Strider – 3.57 ERA, 2.86 xFIP, 38% K, 8% BB
Woodruff – 2.89 ERA, 3.93 xFIP, 28% K, 6% BB (28 innings)
Senga – 3.19 ERA, 3.81 xFIP, 28% K, 11% BB
Cease – 4.50 ERA, 4.18 xFIP, 27% K, 10% BB
Darvish – 4.35 ERA, 3.90 xFIP, 25% K, 8% BB
As is usually the case, Spencer Strider is almost in a tier of his own at the top of the pitching ledger. His strikeout rate is 10% higher than any other pitcher in this top tier, and his upside really can’t be matched if he brings his A+ stuff. It’s not the easiest matchup against the Giants, but Strider is as matchup-proof as they come. Ironically, he just pitched against this same Giants team last weekend, posting a final line of seven innings with no runs, one hit, one walk, and ten strikeouts for one of his more dominant performances of the year. The only question is whether or not it is optimal to pay all the way up to his premium salary tag. I’ll certainly have plenty of GPP exposure, and I think you almost have to play him for the block more than anything in cash game builds.
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