Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Saturday 8/23

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2025-08-23 18:11:08 Premium Content Part of the product MLB DFS

Long-time grinder, Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84), is here to cover the bases for the upcoming MLB DFS slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Cards has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his favorite MLB DFS picks.

Happy Saturday, Grinders! We have a surprising Saturday slate that is heavily skewed toward the night games, with DraftKings offering a small 2-game early slate that we can ignore from a content perspective. We will focus our attention on the 9-game evening slate that starts at the usual 7 PM Eastern time slot, and this looks to be an exciting slate at first glance with a nice mix of pitching and offense.

This looks to be a relatively quiet night on the MLB Weather front, so head over to our MLB Optimizer and let those lineups fly!

Let’s dig in and see what this evening has to offer!

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Saturday Night Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings

TOP TIER PITCHERS

Freddy Peralta vs. Giants
Logan Webb vs. Brewers
George Kirby vs. Athletics
Tyler Glasnow vs. Padres
Andrew Abbott vs. Diamondbacks

We have a strong group of top pitchers going tonight, highlighted by a head-to-head matchup between Logan Webb and Freddy Peralta in Milwaukee. As usual, let’s begin with a peek at the 2025 data for these pitchers:

Peralta – 2.78 ERA, 4.01 xFIP, 26.2% K, 9.0% BB
Webb – 3.19 ERA, 2.65 xFIP, 26.3% K, 5.3% BB
Kirby – 4.22 ERA, 3.33 xFIP, 25.4% K, 6.2% BB
Glasnow – 3.12 ERA, 3.42 xFIP, 30.6% K, 11.9% BB (57 innings)
Abbott – 2.28 ERA, 4.29 xFIP, 21.4% K, 6.7% BB

Let’s start with the head-to-head matchup that looks to be the most exciting game of the night with Freddy Peralta and Logan Webb facing off against each other. If we just look at the overall data, Logan Webb appears to be the clear choice. He has the much better xFIP and a lower walk rate. However, these teams are going in opposite directions. The Brewers have been the best team in baseball by a wide margin over the last 2 months, while the Giants have been one of the worst teams of late. They are 9-23 in total since the All-Star Break. It’s just a much better matchup for Peralta, who has become a much more consistent pitcher this season. Given the way these teams are trending, I’ll take Peralta over Webb as my SP1.

I don’t have as much interest in George Kirby against an A’s lineup that has quite a bit of power, especially since Kirby’s walk rate is no longer as elite as it was in previous seasons. I have even less interest in Andrew Abbott, a fly-ball pitcher who doesn’t strike a lot of hitters out and relies on BABIP fortune. The Diamondbacks aren’t the same lineup these days, but there’s just too much risk for little reward with him. I will not have much exposure to Kirby or Abbott.

The wild card option in this tier is Tyler Glasnow. Like last night’s starter Blake Snell, it’s sometimes tough to peg what we are going to get from Glasnow. There’s a high strikeout rate but also a high walk rate, and the Padres aren’t the easiest matchup. He is also projecting as the highest-owned arm as of early this morning. I understand the logic given his strikeout rate and the fact that he doesn’t seem to have a firm pitch count limit any longer, but I am not racing out to get him any more than I am Peralta or Webb. I’ll officially call Glasnow the SP2 behind Peralta, but it’s all really close.

I am ranking this tier as Peralta > Glasnow > Webb >>>> Kirby > Abbott. You can rearrange the first 3 however you see fit, as I do not have a super strong take among them.

SECONDARY ARMS

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