Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks for Tuesday, April 9th
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 Tuesday! We’ve got a good-looking 11-game slate tonight with a lot of quality pitchers and at least a few high-end pivots off of more Arizona chalk in Coors Field.
Usually, I write this little intro before I dig into the slate, but this time, I’m coming to you from the future, having finished the article and then realizing I didn’t write an intro. I can tell you that I ended up on a much more condensed primary pool than I expected to, particularly on the pitching side, and I can also tell you that, just as you expected, there are a lot more robots here in the future.
Tuesday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
I’m going to start with 9 of the 10 pitchers priced at $8,100 and above on DK as my top tier. I’m excluding Sonny Gray, as this is his first start of the season, and he is expected to be limited to the 65-pitch range.
TOP-TIER PITCHING
Tyler Glasnow at Twins – 33.4% K, 7.6% BB, 3.53 ERA, 3.08 SIERA
Zack Wheeler at Cardinals – 26.9% K, 5% BB, 3.61 ERA, 3.53 SIERA
Nathan Eovaldi vs. A’s – 22.9% K, 8.2% BB, 3.63 ERA, 4.18 SIERA
George Kirby at Blue Jays – 22.7% K, 2.5% BB, 3.35 ERA, 3.71 SIERA
Cole Ragans vs. Astros – 28.8% K, 10.5% BB, 3.47 ERA, 3.85 SIERA
Cristian Javier at Royals – 23.1% K, 9% BB, 4.56 ERA, 4.76 SIERA
Chris Bassitt vs. Mariners – 22.5% K, 7.1% BB, 3.60 ERA, 4.25 SIERA
Joe Musgrove vs. Cubs – 24.3% K, 5.3% BB, 3.05 ERA, 3.77 SIERA
Merrill Kelly at Rockies – 25.9% K, 9.6% BB, 3.29 ERA, 4.12 SIERA
I’m completely in on Tyler Glasnow. He has not been elite yet this season, and while it may sound strange, that’s exactly why I’m in. The guy is completely surviving, despite nothing quite going right. His first start in Korea gets a full pass from me, as that was essentially still Spring Training. In his last 2 starts, we’ve seen 81 pitches, then up to 100 pitches, with a 12:3 K:BB ratio and just 6 hits allowed. In looking at his history, seeing the exact same velocity and pitch type tells me the strikeouts are coming. A matchup with the Twins is a perfect place to see them, and that’s what I’m expecting. It’s a deep enough pitching slate that I’m nothing close to all-in here, but he is my SP1 in all formats.
Nathan Eovaldi gets the big matchup boost against Oakland, with all their strikeouts. He also appeared to be in mid-season form in his last outing, with 7 scoreless innings and 8 strikeouts in Tampa. His discount on DK from Glasnow is enough to put them in a virtual tie for the top spot. If I don’t have any salary constraints, I’ll just play Glasnow/Eovaldi and move along with my day.
The third ace in the discussion is Zack Wheeler. He is a better pitcher than Eovaldi, and he also appeared in mid-season form last week with a 10-K outing. His matchup is decent but just far enough below Eovaldi to leave Eovaldi ahead of him. This is partly due to salary as well, with Wheeler being $800 more on DK and $1,100 more on FD. They are very close, and while I might ever so slightly prefer Wheeler, those few dollars are enough for Wheeler to be stuck in the SP3 spot.
There are more good pitchers coming up, but I’ve got a little dividing line here after those top three of Wheeler, Eovaldi, and Wheeler.
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