Covering the Bases: Sunday, May 14
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 Sunday, Grinders — and Happy Mother’s Day to any of you out there that may be reading. We have our usual Sunday main slate on tap, with an eight game slate available on FanDuel. DraftKings is adding Game 2 of the NYM/WSH doubleheader that starts at 4:30 PM ET, as they had the slate posted before yesterday’s game was suspended. This makes me long for the days where we had every Sunday game on the main slate, as we could have Coors Field, a thrilling SDP/LAD game, and a hitter-friendly Sunday night game on the slate.
In any case, we have the aforementioned eight games on FD and nine games on DK. Let’s dig in and find some top MLB DFS picks for this Mother’s Day!
Sunday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
The Top Options
Max Scherzer vs. Nationals (DK Only)
Logan Gilbert vs. Tigers
Mitch Keller vs. Orioles
We have a very underwhelming slate for top-end pitching today. I am including just three arms in the top tier, and Scherzer has to be removed if you are playing on FD. As usual, let’s peek at the 2023 numbers for these hurlers:
Scherzer – 5.56 ERA, 5.51 xFIP, 21% K, 10% BB (only 22 2/3 innings pitched)
Gilbert – 3.79 ERA, 2.86 xFIP, 31% K, 5% BB
Keller – 2.72 ERA, 3.41 xFIP, 28% K, 7% BB
Scherzer is obviously the pitcher with the longest track record in this group, but he’s simply impossible to trust right now. He has pitched just 6 1/3 innings since April 10, getting ejected in one start and leaving early due to injury in the other. This is a great matchup against the Nationals, and the Mets will likely need some innings with this being the second game of a doubleheader, but I can’t see them pushing Scherzer beyond five or six innings tops. I can’t endorse paying a $10,200 tag on DK for him at the moment, so he’s simply off my radar.
Gilbert and Keller are two up and coming pitchers that appear to be taking a leap forward in 2023. It has taken Keller a little longer to get there than Gilbert, but both have solid numbers to start the year. Gilbert’s are a little more polished with a lower xFIP, a lower walk rate, and more strikeouts. Gilbert also has the more favorable matchup this afternoon, as he gets to face the Tigers while Keller faces a dangerous Orioles team.
With how weak this pitching slate is, I am debating going with 100% exposure to Gilbert across all sites and game formats. He is the real deal, and he’s the clear SP1 for me on this Sunday slate.
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