Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks for Monday, August 12th
CheeseIsGood, a winner of a $1,000,000 1st-place prize on both DraftKings and FanDuel, 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 Monday! We kick off the new week with a great 8-game slate that has some pretty clear dividing lines on both sides. There is a strong top tier of pitchers, as well as another group of quality arms in the mid-tier, which helps to easily spot the top offenses as well.
It doesn’t look like we’ll have any MLB Weather concerns to deal with, so let’s dive right in and see what we find.
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Monday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
We have a big group of high-upside aces, led by a late-night pitchers duel in San Francisco. These six pitchers are the six highest-priced options on both sites, priced from $9,000 up on FD and between $8,600 – $10,500 on DK:
TOP TIER ACES
Chris Sale at Giants – 32.6% K, 5.9% BB, 2.75 ERA, 2.77 SIERA
Blake Snell vs. Braves – 31.4% K, 9.8% BB, 4.31 ERA, 3.40 SIERA
Freddy Peralta vs. Dodgers – 29.4% K, 8.9% BB, 4.02 ERA, 3.51 SIERA
Pablo Lopez vs. Royals – 27.1% K, 5.5% BB, 4.74 ERA, 3.36 SIERA
Luis Gil at White Sox – 28.5% K, 12% BB, 3.06 ERA, 4.01 SIERA
Brandon Pfaadt vs. Rockies – 22.2% K, 5.2% BB, 3.92 ERA, 3.85 SIERA
This slate is highlighted by two upside lefties squaring off in San Francisco.
Chris Sale has been an elite ace all season, allowing more than 2 runs just three times in 21 starts. Meanwhile, we’ve seen 3 straight starts of the big upside of Blake Snell with 34 strikeouts over his last 21 innings. Both of these guys can get 100+ pitches if things are going well, and even on a slate with other aces, no one touches their best-case scenario upside. In addition to the raw talent here, they are squaring off in a pitcher-friendly park, which helps to mute the power of the offenses. Both of these offenses are very similar, with above-average strikeouts and a fair amount of right-handed power.
Before considering the salary gap, Chris Sale looks like the easy choice as SP1 based on his consistency, while I would call Blake Snell the SP2 on this slate. However, we do have a $1,000 gap between them on FD and a $1,200 gap on DK. Most likely, that salary gap makes the ownership a little more even between them. Even with the higher salary, I am prioritizing Sale, but I’ll play both of them early and often in my builds.
After those two aces, we find two more very good pitchers in tougher matchups with Freddy Peralta and Pablo Lopez, and then two easier matchups for Luis Gil and Brandon Pfaadt.
Out of those four, the one who just doesn’t fit in the primary pool is…
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