Covering the Bases: Saturday, September 30
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 Saturday, Grinders! We have a healthy 11-game night slate on tap for this Saturday, so let’s end the season with a bang. This will be our final feature article of the year. Thank you so much for reading and following along throughout the 2023 MLB grind, and I hope that Cheese and I have been able to help you make some money along the way!
Let’s analyze the games that we have tonight in an attempt to uncover some strong MLB DFS picks to close out the season!
Saturday Motivation Angle
First, let’s take a look at the playoff picture with just two days remaining in the regular season. There are only eight teams that have anything to play for at this point, and two of them (TOR and MIA) are not on the night slate.
That leaves us with Texas, Houston, and Seattle in the American League. One of them will be the AL West winner. One of them will be a wild card. One of them will likely be left out of the playoffs assuming that Toronto doesn’t collapse. All three of these teams should go all out to win.
We have Arizona, Cincinnati, and Chicago in the National League with something to play for, though the Cubs are on life support, with four straight heartbreaking losses this week. The Cubs will be eliminated with one more win by the Marlins. Still, we can expect these three teams to go all out to win.
The remaining ten teams on the night slate have nothing to play for. I am most concerned about the teams that have locked in their playoff positioning. The Orioles, Braves, and Dodgers would be the three primary examples. I am very worried about pitchers from these teams, and I am a little lower on the bats as well.
With the housekeeping out of the way, let’s dig in!
Saturday Night Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
Four Top Tier Arms – But Some Caveats
I just had to work the word “caveat” into an article to end the year. Word of the day!
Spencer Strider vs. Nationals
Clayton Kershaw vs. Giants
Luis Castillo vs. Rangers
Justin Verlander vs. Diamondbacks
I am actually not going to go through my usual motion of listing everyone’s stats here. If we just do that, we obviously know that we’re going to see solid overall numbers from Clayton Kershaw and an elite strikeout rate from Spencer Strider. If all the pitchers on this slate were going at full strength, they would be elite options. However, Strider and Kershaw are virtually guaranteed to be on a pitch count tonight with both of them making their final tune-up starts before the postseason. The Braves and Dodgers have nothing to gain by pushing their aces at this point.
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