Million Dollar Musings: Friday, June 9
CheeseIsGood, a two-time winner of a $1,000,000 first-place prize in DFS, is here to give you his musings on the upcoming MLB DFS slate. Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Cheese has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his MLB DFS picks.
Happy Friday! It’s going to be a fun slate, with 13 games filled with aces, solid mid-tier pitching, Coors Field, and a few other top tier offenses with endless upside. The Padres in the Mile High City will probably steal the show, but there are a lot of ways to get different tonight if chalk is not on your menu.
I’ve got some KFC standing by for lunch, so no dilly-dallying around. Let’s jump right in and sort through some of these MLB DFS picks for this busy Friday night.
Friday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
We are absolutely loaded with strong pitching options up and down this slate. I’m going to narrow things down pretty quickly and just cross a bunch of good pitchers off my primary list, but you could absolutely make a case for almost anybody if you want to go with a spread-out pool tonight. I’m going to split things up into two tiers, based loosely on DK pricing.
A BUNCH OF ACES AND SOMETHING LIKE ACES
Gerrit Cole vs. Red Sox – 25.9% K, 8.6% BB, 2.82 ERA, 3.97 SIERA
Shohei Ohtani vs. Mariners – 33.8% K, 10.2% BB, 3.30 ERA, 3.31 SIERA
Luis Castillo at Angels – 29.2% K, 5.7% BB, 2.55 ERA, 3.28 SIERA
Cristian Javier at Guardians – 26.4% K, 5.9% BB, 2.84 ERA, 3.88 SIERA
Dylan Cease vs. Marlins – 24.6% K, 10.6% BB, 4.63 ERA, 4.35 SIERA
Eury Perez at White Sox – 24.2% K, 11.1% BB, 2.25 ERA,4.60 SIERA
Sonny Gray at Blue Jays – 25.4% K, 8.6% BB, 2.15 ERA, 3.89 SIERA
Tyler Wells vs. Royals – 26.6% K, 5.3% BB, 3.29 ERA, 3.66 SIERA
Marcus Stroman at Giants – 22% K, 8.7% BB, 2.39 ERA, 3.91 SIERA
Yu Darvish at Rockies – 26.4% K, 7% BB, 4.10 ERA, 3.69 SIERA
SOLID CHEAPER OPTIONS
Jordan Montgomery vs. Reds – 20.8% K, 6.2% BB, 4.23 ERA, 4.17 SIERA
Yusei Kikuchi vs. Twins – 22.9% K, 7.6% BB, 4.40 ERA, 4.25 SIERA
Logan Allen vs. Astros – 23.9% K, 6.6% BB, 2.76 ERA, 3.93 SIERA
Anthony Desclafani vs. Cubs – 17.6% K, 4.1% BB, 3.97 ERA, 4.31 SIERA
AJ Smith-Shawver – First career start
SORTING THROUGH TOO MANY ACES
With this many good pitchers, I’m looking to make cuts anywhere I can, and some of them are a little uncomfortable. But here we go:
13 starts into the season, Gerrit Cole simply doesn’t belong as the highest-priced pitcher on DK or in the middle of the top tier on FD. Yes, he will still pop some big starts, but his skills are not at an elite level, this matchup is not great, and on top of that, there is at least moderate concern after he left his last start with cramping. Of course you’re allowed to play him, but he misses my primary pool.
Cristian Javier is the most expensive pitcher on FD and second most expensive on DK. His strikeouts have really fallen off a cliff, with only three starts all season above 6 strikeouts. The upside is still in there, but a low-strikeout matchup does not make it likely that it happens tonight.
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