Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks for Tuesday, May 28th
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 Tuesday, Grinders! If you don’t play MLB DFS on the weekends, you may not be familiar with my writing. If you are new to my articles, welcome! I will be filling in today, tomorrow, and Friday this week while Cheese takes some much deserved time away. I’m not quite as witty as Cheese with my style, but I format the article basically the same way. Hopefully, you won’t miss a beat on the days he is gone!
We do need to monitor the weather today, though there are no games that are in imminent danger of being postponed. As such, I am going to write this article as though every game plays. Be sure to keep an eye on our MLB Weather page that Roth updates throughout the day.
Let’s dig in and see what this Tuesday slate has to offer for MLB DFS picks!
Tuesday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
There are quite a few viable pitchers both on the high end and in the middle tier. It is also worth noting that the salary cap will definitely be a “thing” today, so we need to consider that as we go through the analysis.
A QUARTET AT THE TOP
Zack Wheeler vs. Giants
Freddy Peralta vs. Cubs
Cole Ragans vs. Twins
Kevin Gausman vs. White Sox
These four pitchers can all be classified as aces for both DFS and real-life purposes when they bring their “A” stuff to the table. Here’s a look at the 2024 data to date for all of them:
Wheeler – 2.53 ERA, 3.26 xFIP, 28% K, 8% BB
Peralta – 3.81 ERA, 3.26 xFIP, 31% K, 8% BB
Ragans – 3.34 ERA, 3.04 xFIP, 30% K, 8% BB
Gausman – 4.47 ERA, 3.21 xFIP, 25% K, 6% BB
All four of these pitchers have xFIP marks between 3.00 and 3.30, so there really isn’t a lot separating them. I think you would get pretty good consensus that Wheeler, Peralta, and Ragans belong in this tier, while the most discussion would be had about Gausman. I’ll save his discussion for just a moment, and I will start with Zack Wheeler. If you are seeking a combination of safety and upside, it’s hard to choose anyone other than Wheeler as the SP1. We can at least find some faults with all the other arms, but that doesn’t really exist with Wheeler. Even without his best stuff in his last start, he still put up 40 FanDuel points and 22 DraftKings points. Now, he gets a massive park upgrade pitching in San Francisco against an average offensive unit. If I am spending up at pitcher, he’s the first choice on the board.
Freddy Peralta and Cole Ragans are certainly up there in the same category, but they aren’t quite as “safe” as Wheeler. They tend to have more upside with their “A” games and a little more downside when their command is not at its best. If choosing between those two for GPP builds, I’ll give Peralta the edge against a Cubs offense that has been struggling mightily of late. Over the last 14 days, the Cubs have a .247 wOBA and .093 ISO, both of which rank dead last in the league.
Gausman is the more interesting conversation…
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