Million Dollar Musings: Tuesday, June 20
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 Tuesday! We’ve got an 11-game slate that is packed with high-end pitching as well as plenty of quality options in the mid-tier. Meanwhile, the hitting side lacks clarity and excitement with most of the best teams facing quality opponents. My initial instinct is that outside of just handful of batters in Ohio, ownership should end up spread out enough to make it a Play Whoever You Want kind of slate.
I hope you’ve had some coffee, because there is about to be a lot of words coming at you trying to sort through all of these MLB DFS picks for this loaded, jumbled slate.
Tuesday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
This is a loaded pitching slate in various pricing tiers. It’s all extremely jumbled, but we’ll start with these four buckets:
THE FOUR ACES
Gerrit Cole vs. Mariners – 26.4% K, 7.8% BB, 2.75 ERA, 3.83 SIERA
Clayton Kershaw at Angels – 29.3% K, 6.3% BB, 2.95 ERA, 3.26 SIERA
Framber Valdez vs. Mets – 26.2% K, 5.5% BB, 2.27 ERA, 3.16 SIERA
Nathan Eovaldi at White Sox – 25.5% K, 5.3% BB, 2.59 ERA, 3.47 SIERA
MAYBE ACES ON SOME OTHER DAY
George Kirby at Yankees – 22% K, 1.9% BB, 3.24 ERA, 3.62 SIERA
MacKenzie Gore vs. Cardinals– 27.5% K, 10.1% BB, 3.74 ERA, 3.95 SIERA
Reid Detmers vs. Dodgers – 27.7% K, 9.5% BB, 4.48 ERA, 3.91 SIERA
Dylan Cease vs. Rangers – 26.2% K, 10.7% BB, 4.31 ERA, 4.18 SIERA
Bailey Ober vs. Red Sox – 24.2% K, 6.3% BB, 2.65 ERA, 4.10 SIERA
Marcus Stroman at Pirates – 21.6% K, 9.1% BB, 2.45 ERA, 3.96 SIERA
CHEAP ENOUGH TO MATTER
Justin Verlander at Astros – 21% K, 7% BB, 4.40 ERA, 4.37 SIERA
Aaron Civale vs. A’s – 19.5% K, 8.8% BB, 2.67 ERA, 4.69 SIERA
Ben Lively vs. Rockies – 23.3% K, 5.1% BB, 4.07 ERA, 3.83 SIERA
Jordan Montgomery at Nationals – 24.6% K, 6.2% BB, 3.91 ERA, 4.08 SIERA
CHEAP NON-NONSENSE
Kutter Crawford at Twins – 24.6% K, 5.4% BB, 4.20 ERA, 3.61 SIERA
SORTING THE ACES
Gerrit Cole vs. Mariners – 26.4% K, 7.8% BB, 2.75 ERA, 3.83 SIERA
Clayton Kershaw at Angels – 29.3% K, 6.3% BB, 2.95 ERA, 3.26 SIERA
Framber Valdez vs. Mets – 26.2% K, 5.5% BB, 2.27 ERA, 3.16 SIERA
Nathan Eovaldi at White Sox – 25.5% K, 5.3% BB, 2.59 ERA, 3.47 SIERA
Gerrit Cole still doesn’t look like vintage Gerrit Cole, but he’s still very good and certainly has upside hiding in there. He’s only hit double-digit strikeouts once this season, but has still been at 8-9 in two of his last four starts and a 2.75 ERA shows that he is still very much getting the job done. The Mariners have power, but also come with a lot of strikeouts, and with Cole’s power issues still being against lefties, it’s a plus matchup all the way around. I’m going to say that Cole is my SP1 if salary is no issue. He’s not far ahead of the pack, if ahead of it at all, but as far as a mixture of floor and ceiling, I’ll start with him where salary allows.
Nathan Eovaldi has very similar numbers to Cole this season, probably even a bit better with the control added in. He’s been able to pitch deeper into games than Cole with that control, giving him essentially the same strikeouts for DFS purposes. The matchups are pretty similar, with Eovaldi also having a nice edge over the White Sox right-handed power bats. I ever so slightly lean to Cole, but it’s basically more of the same where I’ll say he’s great if you have the salary, but it’s not some kind of must play at $11k.
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