Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks for Saturday, August 24th
Long-time grinder, stlcardinals84, 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 favorite MLB DFS picks.
Happy Saturday, Grinders! We have a fun sports Saturday in store for us, with a full day of baseball plus the start of the college football season. I will be delivering both this MLB content plus hosting the live Saturday morning college football show today, so it is a busy one!
As for baseball, we have our usual split slate Saturday on tap. However, we once again have a Saturday that is skewed toward the evening slate. We have a small early docket of five games, with seven games on the main slate this evening. However, FanDuel is starting their afternoon slate a few hours earlier than DraftKings, allowing them to have a larger early slate of seven games. I will write up analysis for all seven games and denote the options that are only available on FD where necessary.
This looks to be another quiet weather day, so we shouldn’t have to worry about Mother Nature very much. Let’s dig in and see what this Saturday has to offer for MLB DFS picks!
Editor’s Note: Looking for more places to play? Check out our PrizePicks promo code and Sleeper promo code, two of the best DFS apps available today.
Saturday Afternoon Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
FOUR ACES AT THE TOP
Blake Snell vs. Mariners
Framber Valdez vs. Orioles
Shota Imanaga vs. Marlins
George Kirby vs. Giants
Even though this isn’t a very large slate, we have enough pitching options available to where I can split this into two tiers. We have four very strong pitchers at the top. Let’s start, as usual, with a look at their 2024 numbers:
Snell – 3.67 ERA, 3.16 xFIP, 33% K, 10% BB
Valdez – 3.20 ERA, 3.18 xFIP, 24% K, 8% BB
Imanaga – 3.11 ERA, 3.68 xFIP, 25% K, 4% BB
Kirby – 3.40 ERA, 3.45 xFIP, 24% K, 3% BB
Each of these pitchers has been great in their own way at some point during 2024. Both Blake Snell and Framber Valdez have been particularly good of late, with Snell posting a 1.03 ERA in his last eight starts and Valdez posting a 2.23 ERA in that same span. Snell has perhaps been the best pitcher in baseball since the beginning of July, and if you isolate his numbers before and after his last injury, the difference is night and day. The walks have come down, and he has been nearly unhittable. For those reasons, Snell is the clear SP1 choice for me. His strikeout rate dominates the other options, and we know Seattle is a high strikeout offense (even though they aren’t quite as poor against LHP). Valdez has a tougher matchup against the Orioles, and he’s overpriced for his more limited ceiling.
Shota Imanaga and George Kirby both draw solid matchups for run prevention and will be pitching in strong parks that suppress offense. I will keep both of them in my GPP pool and ahead of Valdez in my overall rankings. I slightly prefer Imanaga against the feeble Marlins offense, but it’s a close call between them.
I am ranking this tier as Snell > Imanaga > Kirby > Valdez, and I feel pretty comfortable with that setup.
SECONDARY AFTERNOON ARMS
Want to read more? Sign up for Premium!
