Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks for Saturday, September 14th
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 another split slate MLB Saturday on the docket today, but this is a day that is more heavily skewed toward eight night games. In fact, both FanDuel and DraftKings have split up the early games into two very small slates, so we will just ignore those in today’s article and focus on the evening slate.
We do have at least some weather to monitor today, with Roth giving an early “YELLOW” rating for CIN/MIN and “YELLOW/ORANGE” for the fun Jack Flaherty vs. Chris Sale duel in Atlanta. Keep a close eye on our MLB weather forecast for updates throughout the day. I will write the article as though every game plays without issue, but we do need to monitor those two spots.
Let’s see what this Saturday has in store for MLB DFS picks!
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Saturday Night Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
TWO ACES GOING HEAD TO HEAD AND ONE OTHER STANDOUT
Chris Sale vs. Dodgers
Jack Flaherty vs. Braves
Logan Gilbert vs. Rangers
This is a very strong slate for pitching, and it is headlined by an elite matchup between Jack Flaherty and Chris Sale in Atlanta. Before I dig in, let’s take a quick look at the 2023 numbers:
Sale – 2.38 ERA, 2.60 xFIP, 32% K, 5% BB
Flaherty – 2.86 ERA, 2.82 xFIP, 31% K, 5% BB
Gilbert – 3.15 ERA, 3.18 xFIP, 27% K, 5% BB
There is a lot to like about all three of these pitchers. I must offer a reminder that we do have an early YELLOW/ORANGE weather rating in Atlanta, so please keep an eye on that as the afternoon progresses. Assuming the game plays, the Chris Sale vs. Jack Flaherty head-to-head matchup should be a great one. Both teams still have plenty to play for, as the Braves are fighting for an NL Wild Card spot, while the Dodgers are fighting for the top overall seed and first round bye in the playoffs.
Both Sale and Flaherty have elite 30%+ strikeout rates and sub-3 ERA and xFIP marks for the season. They are two of the elite pitchers in baseball. I will absolutely keep both of them in my multi-entry GPP pool tonight. However, they are both quite expensive, and they obviously have tough matchups against the opposing lineups in this game. Earning a win is also in question given the fact that they are pitching against each other. For those reasons, I can’t call either Sale or Flaherty a “must” in cash game or single entry builds. If I had to pick one, it would be Sale.
Despite his slightly lower strikeouts, the logical SP1 starting point in cash games or single entry builds is Logan Gilbert. The Mariners have not shown any signs that they are going to start limiting his pitch counts, and the matchup is a great one against a Texas team that is starting to play their younger hitters, as a lost season winds down. Gilbert has strong metrics across the board with a low walk rate, and he has a nice blend of safety and ceiling in this spot.
I am ranking this tier as Gilbert > Sale > Flaherty, but all of them are strong options. I will try to build some DK lineups with two of them paired together.
ADDITIONAL PITCHING OPTIONS
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