MLB DFS Expert Survey: Saturday, June 10

Our panel of experts is here to give you their MLB DFS picks for today’s main slate contests by answering a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup-building decisions. Want to know CheeseIsGood’s favorite sneaky stack? Or STLCards’ top overall pitcher? Find out below!

MLB DFS Picks – DraftKings Expert Survey: Saturday, June 10

Who is your favorite hitter to spend up for in optimal lineups?

STLCardinals84: Fernando Tatis
Krayton: Fernando Tatis
TJ Zwarych: Fernando Tatis
TastefulTides: Fernando Tatis

Who is your favorite hitter to spend up for in large-field tournaments?

STLCardinals84: Brandon Nimmo
Krayton: Corbin Carroll
TJ Zwarych: Ronald Acuna
TastefulTides: Paul Goldschmidt

Who is your favorite pitcher for optimal lineups?

STLCardinals84: Nathan Eovaldi
Krayton: Nathan Eovaldi
TJ Zwarych: Nathan Eovaldi
TastefulTides: Sandy Alcantara

Who is your favorite pitcher for large-field tournaments?

STLCardinals84: Bobby Miller
Krayton: Bobby Miller
TJ Zwarych: Taj Bradley
TastefulTides: Kodai Senga

Who is your favorite salary saver for optimal lineups?

STLCardinals84: Ryan Noda
Krayton: Seth Brown
TJ Zwarych: Seth Brown
TastefulTides: Seth Brown

Who is your favorite salary saver for large-field tournaments?

STLCardinals84: Seth Brown
Krayton: Ryan Noda
TJ Zwarych: Esteury Ruiz
TastefulTides: Brenton Doyle

Which player are you most afraid of being underweight on compared to the field?

STLCardinals84: Matt Olson
Krayton: Sandy Alcantara
TJ Zwarych: Sandy Alcantara
TastefulTides: Ronald Acuna

What’s your under-the-radar home run call of the day?

STLCardinals84: Carlos Correa
Krayton: Christian Walker
TJ Zwarych: Ramon Laureano
TastefulTides: Brett Baty

Who is your favorite overall stack?

STLCardinals84: SDP
Krayton: SDP
TJ Zwarych: SDP
TastefulTides: SDP

Which chalky stack will you be underweight on compared to the field?

STLCardinals84: ATL
Krayton: NYM
TJ Zwarych: NYM
TastefulTides: ATL

How do you plan to beat the field of opponents? What tactic or strategy will set you apart?

STLCardinals84: This slate will be won with the bats. I don’t expect a lot of top-end pitching performances, as all the top arms have to face difficult opponents. This will lead me to taking some shots on cheaper arms like Mikolas and Miller, while loading up on top-end bats. I will look for a few contrarian stacks with upside, with the Orioles being my favorite upon first glance.

Krayton: I am having a tough time narrowing down my pitching pool, so I will be looking at building my favorite stacks first and then seeing where I land at pitching. I do like Eovaldi even though he gets a tough matchup against TB and is very expensive. My favorite pitcher on the slate today is Bobby Miller, and he is going to be a guy I am overweight on. He is a high-end prospect who has picked up two wins in his first three starts and had an impressive start against the Yankees a week ago. He’s just $7K on DK and will be a staple SP2 play for me. I like the spot again for the Padres, but I also love some of the cheaper stacks such as the A’s and the Royals. The Diamondbacks are a lower-owned team I like.

TJ Zwarych: I’m going to spend up at pitching while looking to differentiate with my bats by going with some cheaper stacks. The Padres will be the mega chalk, but I’ll be underweight on them while prioritizing Eovaldi and going with some cheaper stacks like Oakland, Baltimore, and Kansas City.

TastefulTides: Pitching is very uncomfortable on today’s slate. There isn’t a simple top 3 or 4 pitchers that we would usually see on a slate this size. My personal ranking would put Sandy Alcantara as my SP1 followed by Kodai Senga as my SP2. That isn’t to say you can’t pay up for players like Eovaldi and Nola; I just don’t like the matchups they have. For bats, we once again have San Diego as the clear chalk, and if you do play them, lean into lower pOWN% with your pitchers and secondary stacks.

Who is your top overall pitcher (when considering price, matchup, projected ownership, etc.) on the board and why?

STLCardinals84: Nathan Eovaldi – Being totally honest, I really don’t have a strong take on this question today. No pitcher projects as massive chalk on this slate, and the top arms have tough matchups. I’ll give Eovaldi the nod for safety given his 2.24 ERA and sparkling K/BB ratio, but he’s not at “must play” status in a matchup against the Rays. If you have the money to spend, he’s just fine as an SP1, but you could just as easily pivot to a cheaper arm and hope that pitcher gets within a few points of Eovaldi.

Krayton: Bobby Miller – I do like Nathan Eovaldi quite a bit; however, he is expensive and gets a tough matchup against TB. I would rather take a stance on Bobby Miller, and I am going to be locking him into my DK lineups. He is a top prospect who has pitched very well in his first three starts, picking up two wins and allowing only one hit in his matchup against the Yankees a week ago. I am going to take advantage of his $7K price, and I am not scared of his matchup against the Phillies, who have really struggled putting together some big games given their talent. It’s a very small sample size, but Miller has a 25% K rate and 6% walk rate in his first few starts.

TJ Zwarych: Nathan Eovaldi – He’s kind of tough to get up to if you’re trying to play a ton of Padres, but I’m going to prioritize the expensive pitcher over the expensive bats in tournaments. Although the matchup is tough against the Rays, Eovaldi has been the picture of consistency, with his last game under 15 DK points being in April. The Rangers pitcher has bumped his strikeout rate against right-handed bats from 20% last year to 27% this year, and the Rays are projected to have five righties in their lineup.

TastefulTides: Sandy Alcantara – This is a very difficult answer today. I really like Alcantara’s matchup and salary combination, so that will make him my SP1 today for both cash and single-entry contests. He is projected to face five batters with over a 25% K rate and should only be facing three left-handed batters. Alcantara hasn’t been his usual consistent self as he was in previous seasons, but I’m just not seeing a reason to assume he can’t return to an ace-level starter. Ownership should be spread out today, so I don’t think you will have to worry about him being too chalky.

Who is your top overall hitter (when considering price, matchup, projected ownership, etc.) on the board and why?

STLCardinals84: Ryan Noda – Yes, Ryan Noda. I know the A’s are awful, but they have actually won three in a row for the first time all year. Things are looking up! In all seriousness, I don’t mind some cheap Oakland bats today in a matchup against Julio Teheran. While Teheran has strong surface numbers, it is a complete mirage. His strikeout rate sits at 15%, and he has a 4.85 xFIP. That .235 BABIP won’t last forever. Noda has the best numbers on the A’s against RHP with a .390 wOBA on the year, and he’s an elite value in this matchup.

Krayton: Gary Sanchez – Sanchez’s price has barely moved since he joined the Padres, and he has been on an absolutely incredible run. He has hit 3 home runs in the last four games, including one hit last night in Coors Field. He has a great matchup once again today going against Freeland, and in an always tough-to-fill catcher spot, I will be building around Sanchez today.

TJ Zwarych: Gary Sanchez – Although Tatis projects by far as the top hitter on the slate, Sanchez is going to be my priority due to the weak nature of the position. He’s been absolutely ridiculous since entering the lineup this season, with 5 homers in the last nine games. A low-strikeout, left-handed pitcher is the best case scenario for Sanchez. While I am planning on being underweight on the Padres as a stack, I do really like getting to Sanchez as a one-off.

TastefulTides: Brenton Doyle – Fernando Tatis is the obvious top bat on the day, and it’s not close, but for the sake of conversation, let’s look at some other players. Normally, I like to shy away from the Rockies because they just aren’t a very good team. That being said, they get to face Ryan Weathers, who is one of the worst pitchers in baseball. I love getting to some of these Colorado right-handed batters. Doyle is a big-time prospect that offers both speed and power and may be a little under-owned since the masses will be flocking to the Padres.

Who is your favorite sneaky stack on the board and why?

STLCardinals84: A’s – Okay, so we’re flag-planting the A’s today. What could go wrong? As I mentioned in my answer above, Julio Teheran is not going to survive forever with a 15% strikeout rate and .235 opposing BABIP. The luck will turn at some point. While people will play Noda and Brown as value bats today, the full Oakland stack will definitely not be chalky on a slate with a lot of good bats elsewhere. You can easily stack the A’s with one top-end SP and some elite one-off bats too, as every Oakland bat is priced at $3,400 or less on DK. Teheran is going to get shelled in the near future, and while Oakland might not be a team that can put up 15 runs, I’m hoping that they can provide a ceiling game of 8-10 today.

Krayton: Diamondbacks – I really like Arizona as a sneaky stack, and I fully expect them to go overlooked on an 11-game slate. The right-handed bats profile very well against Matt Boyd, and even though Corbin Carroll is a lefty, he is one of my favorite tournament plays on the slate at very low pOWN%. Christian Walker, Evan Longoria, Ketel Marte, and Corbin Carroll make a great stack, and we’ve seen them put up some huge numbers recently. Christian Walker has a .375 ISO and .417 wOBA and is one of my favorite plays batting 4th for Arizona today.

TJ Zwarych: Athletics – Julio Teheran has had some pretty lucky performances since returning from his long break from baseball. However, there’s no way this can continue forever, as he’s nowhere close to the pitcher that he used to be. It feels worrisome to be overweight on the A’s, but I’ll be playing a lot of Noda, Brown, Laureano, and the rest of the crew.

TastefulTides: Orioles – I’ve been surprised how badly Brady Singer has struggled this year. He has given up a ton of hard hits to both sides of the plate, and his strikeout rate hovers around a mediocre 20%. We also have some great hitting weather conditions that are backed up by Kevin Roth’s WeatherEdge tool. It will be close to 90 degrees with the wind blowing out. Look to the Baltimore lefties to have sneaky upside, but in reality, I think players from both sides are in play.

What is your hot take of the day?

STLCardinals84: The A’s hit four homers off Julio Teheran in the first four innings.

Krayton: Bobby Miller strikes out 10 today and gets the win against the Phillies.

TJ Zwarych: Kyle Freeland lucks into a great start against the Padres, limiting them to under 3 runs.

TastefulTides: Sandy Alcantara finally throws a gem, recording the win while racking up 9 strikeouts.

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