Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Saturday 6/14

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2025-06-14 13:17:21 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.

Welcome to the weekend, everyone! We have the usual split-slate Saturday on tap, but today is heavily weighted toward the afternoon games. In addition, we have another Saturday where the slates line up between FD and DK, with 8 early games starting at 4:05 PM ET and 4 late games starting at 7:15 PM ET.

Given the difference in slate sizes, I will be focusing today’s article on the 8-game afternoon docket. If you are looking for content on the evening slate, we will have you covered with some tags and analysis in our MLB DFS optimizer.

I must say that I’m in a bit of a bummer of a mood today. It’s my birthday (and it’s Flag Day!), but I have had an unfortunate week. My kids (accidentally) knocked out a window with a dimpled baseball a few days ago. We have had plans to go see the Cardinals/Brewers game for my birthday, which I have been looking forward to, but the Redbirds have lost 6 games in a row. With my birthday today and Father’s Day tomorrow, I’m hoping for some good karma. Maybe some DFS wins will come my way!

With my personal frustrations aside, it’s time to turn back to baseball. With today’s main slate, we have an afternoon that looks to be very heavily weighted toward the pitching side of the ledger. Let’s see what the day has to offer!

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Saturday Afternoon Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings

TOP TIER PITCHING

Hunter Brown vs. Twins
Joe Ryan vs. Astros
Jacob deGrom vs. White Sox
Spencer Strider vs. Rockies

This is a really interesting group of ace pitchers, and I am really intrigued to see where ownership flows given that there will be polarizing schools of thought here. As usual, we start with a peek at the 2025 data:

Brown – 1.82 ERA, 2.83 xFIP, 31.1% K, 8.4% BB
Ryan – 2.96 ERA, 3.72 xFIP, 28.3% K, 5.2% BB
deGrom – 2.12 ERA, 3.34 xFIP, 25.3% K, 5.8% BB
Strider – 5.40 ERA, 4.92 xFIP, 22.4% K, 10.3% BB (5 starts)

I want to talk about these pitchers in the reverse order in which I have them listed above. That’s because the absolute FIRST decision you need to make is how you want to handle Spencer Strider. He has looked like a shell of his former self since returning from injury, and he has lost all 5 of his starts. However, he did finally make it through 6 innings in his last outing, and he’s pitching at home against the Rockies. That’s basically the best matchup you can get, and he is the cheapest of these 4 aces on both FD and DK. If you think Strider is even 90% healthy, he is probably your guy at this salary tag given the opponent. The Rockies are essentially changing the game of DFS these days, and I don’t really care for it. It becomes quite old just stacking against the Rockies and playing pitchers against them every day. That qualm aside, I will be very curious to see where Strider lands for ownership. I have a hunch that I will be underweight on the field, as he just hasn’t looked sharp yet.

My favorite pivot for matchup purposes will be deGrom. I was concerned about him heading into his last start because of his recent dip in strikeouts, but he put those concerns to rest with 7 sparkling innings of 2-hit ball with 8 strikeouts against the Nationals last weekend. While the White Sox do walk a lot, they have the lowest team wOBA in the league against RHP, and deGrom should be able to dominate at home against this offense.

Meanwhile, we also have Hunter Brown and Joe Ryan pitching against each other in the marquee pitching matchup of the day. I have been playing Hunter Brown as an ace all year, but I have my concerns about him at his elevated salary. I don’t love the matchup, and the command has not been there over his last few starts. Brown has walked 9 batters over 11 1/3 innings in those last 2 starts, and the Twins have the 8th-lowest team strikeout rate against RHP in 2025. While I like Brown plenty, he doesn’t seem like the optimal choice on a loaded pitching slate when he is the most expensive option on both FD and DK. I actually prefer Ryan on the other side against that RH-heavy Houston lineup, as Ryan has a massive 35% strikeout rate with a .265 wOBA allowed to RHBs this year. Ryan is my SP2 behind deGrom overall, and he is my favorite GPP option should deGrom check in with high projected ownership.

I am ranking this tier as deGrom > Ryan > Strider > Brown, but they all have their merits, and someone could probably make a case to rank them in reverse order without being totally wrong. It’s a really interesting set of aces.

SECONDARY PITCHING OPTIONS

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