Covering the Bases: Sunday, September 3
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! This will be our last Sunday feature article of the year with the NFL grind starting next week. Thank you so much for reading throughout the year, and hopefully this article has helped you out. I will continue to write on Saturdays through the end of the regular season.
As for today, we have our usual Sunday afternoon main slate, though it is a bit smaller than normal. There are just seven games available on on DraftKings, while FanDuel has made it an eight game docket by adding the TOR/COL game at Coors Field. Let’s dig in and see what this afternoon has in store for MLB DFS picks!
Sunday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
Really Just One Big Tier Of Pitching
George Kirby vs. Mets
Sandy Alcantara vs. Nationals
Jon Gray vs. Twins
Chris Sale vs. Royals
Tarik Skubal vs. White Sox
Kenta Maeda vs. Rangers
Kevin Gausman vs. Rockies (FD Only)
And maybe… a cheaper Michael Kopech vs. Tigers?
I attempted to do the usual task of splitting the pitching options into two tiers, but I really can’t do that today. It’s just one continuous “good but not great” tier of pitchers at the top. There isn’t a single pitcher priced above $9,600 on DK today. The only pitcher that I have listed that comes at any appreciable discount is Michael Kopech (and also Kenta Maeda on FD). There’s no reason to go dumpster diving at pitcher on this slate simply because even the expensive options that I like won’t break your salary bank.
In any case, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s look at the numbers for 2023 first:
Kirby – 3.28 ERA, 3.55 xFIP, 23% K, 2% BB
Alcantara – 4.23 ERA, 3.96 xFIP, 20% K, 6% BB
Gray – 3.79 ERA, 4.32 xFIP, 21% K, 8% BB
Sale – 4.75 ERA, 3.70 xFIP, 29% K, 6% BB
Skubal – 3.93 ERA, 2.81 xFIP, 29% K, 5% BB
Maeda – 4.69 ERA, 3.93 xFIP, 28% K, 7% BB
Gausman – 3.30 ERA, 3.06 xFIP, 32% K, 6% BB
Kopech – 5.08 ERA, 5.62 xFIP, 23% K, 15% BB
The one striking thing about these stats are the strikeout rates.
George Kirby and Sandy Alcantara are the two most expensive pitchers on DK today, and they are priced only below Kevin Gausman on FD. However, they both have league-average (or worse) strikeout rates. They are solid real life pitchers, but they aren’t appreciably better fantasy pitchers than the other options that I have listed here. If choosing between the two, I’ll give a slight edge to Kirby given his impeccable command, but it’s largely splitting hairs. Both have decent matchups.
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