Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks Today for Friday 4/3

by Dave Potts (CheeseIsGood) Last Updated 2026-04-03 15:32:14 Premium Content Part of the product MLB DFS

Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Dave Potts (aka CheeseIsGood) has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his MLB DFS picks today. Cheese, one of the preeminent baseball minds in all of fantasy sports and a winner of a $1,000,000 1st-place prize on both DraftKings and FanDuel, is here to give you his musings on the April 3, 2026 MLB DFS slate.

Happy Friday! We have another unusual day, with a very early start on DK and different slates between the sites. We also have our first Coors Field game of the season as part of the DK slate. To get things started, I’m going to focus on the 10-game DK slate that starts at 1:05 PM ET. I’ll pop back in later with a brief look at the 5-game FD main slate, which starts much later at 7:45 PM ET.

Wednesday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings

There is only one pitcher priced above $9,000, as DK continues to keep the pricing fairly condensed. There is not much of a salary line separating the tiers, but using $8,000 as the cut-off keeps things nice and tidy.

TOP TIER PITCHING

• Dylan Cease at White Sox – 29.8% K, 9.8% BB, 4.55 ERA, 3.58 SIERA
• Framber Valdez vs. Cardinals – 23.3% K, 8.5% BB, 3.66 ERA, 3.66 SIERA
• Sonny Gray vs. Padres – 26.7% K, 5% BB, 4.28 ERA, 3.29 SIERA
• Michael King at Red Sox – 24.7% K, 8.4% BB, 3.44 ERA, 3.99 SIERA
• MacKenzie Gore vs. Reds – 27.2% K, 9.4% BB, 4.17 ERA, 3.80 SIERA
• Kyle Bradish at Pirates – 32 IP in 2026 (37.3% K, 7.9% BB)
• Aaron Nola at Rockies – 24% K, 6.9% BB, 6.01 ERA, 3.81 SIERA
• Cade Horton at Guardians – 20.4% K, 6.9% BB, 2.67 ERA, 4.26 SIERA
• Eury Perez at Yankees – 27.3% K, 8.3% BB, 4.25 ERA, 3.80 SIERA

Dylan Cease came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, with 12 strikeouts in his opening start. He’s always had that kind of upside, though he hadn’t reached the 12-strikeout mark since early 2024. Who knows what to make of it after one start, but his velocity was at a career high in that start, with an average fastball at 98.7 mph. He’s generally around 97 mph, and really, I’m not sure it matters, since he has 30% K upside anyway, but at least we can say there’s some chance he hits a new level this season. For now, I’m just viewing him the same as ever, which is to say he has upside but the control is never a sure thing. Unless we count the small sample sizes from Kyle Bradish and Emmet Sheehan, Cease is the highest-strikeout pitcher on this slate, and he’s certainly the one where I’m most certain of his upside. The White Sox are not a pushover, but they are still one of the better matchups for top pitchers today, so for me, Cease is the SP1. Because he’s the only pitcher priced up – and we do have bats to spend on – this is nothing like an all-in spot, but anywhere I have the salary, I’m going to play him.

Framber Valdez was fine in his first start, but it was nothing that makes me think we’re looking at anything more than the 24% K pitcher of the last few seasons. Combined with his ground balls, that leaves him as a completely fine option, and he is usually playable in almost any matchup on any slate. When I look at the Cardinals against LHP, this looks like a pretty big boost for Valdez. There are only 2 righties with any semblance of power and 5 high-strikeout bats at the bottom of the lineup. I like Valdez, but let’s see what else we find before deciding where he fits in.

Want to read more? Sign up for MLB Premium!

-

-

-