Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks Today for Wednesday 4/2

by Dave Potts (CheeseIsGood) Last Updated 2025-04-02 14:00:51 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. 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 upcoming MLB DFS slate.

Happy Wednesday! We’ve got an early start today with a big 10-game slate on DK starting at 1:05 p.m. ET. FD has goofed around and split the early games up into two different slates with a 5-gamer starting even earlier at 12:40 p.m. ET and then a 6-gamer at the magical start time of 3:07 p.m. ET. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to talk about the DK slate, but I will add my thoughts for the two FD slates in the Cliff Notes.

We then have a smaller late slate with just 4 games beginning at 6:35 p.m. ET. We will have Expert Tags in LineupHQ for both sites for that evening slate here – MLB DFS optimizer .

I will also note that there is some very dicey weather in the LAA/STL game and some concern with the MIN/CWS game. Be sure to check the weather and tune into our early Crunch Time show with Kevin Roth before locking anyone in those games. With that, let’s grab a cup of coffee and look at some MLB DFS picks for this big, pitching-heavy early slate.

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Wednesday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings

We are back to the top of the rotation for the majority of these teams, which gives an ace-filled slate that is tough to sort through. Much like on Opening Day, you can play any and all of these aces, as well as a few of the cheaper options. I’ll try to pick out some favorites and rank them as best I can, but feel free to come to your own conclusions or just spread out all over the place.

A SLEW OF ACES

• Paul Skenes at Rays – 33.1% K, 6.2% BB, 1.96 ERA, 2.71 SIERA
• Tarik Skubal at Mariners – 30.3% K, 4.6% BB, 2.39 ERA, 2.89 SIERA
• Luis Castillo vs. Tigers – 24.3% K, 6.5% BB, 3.64 ERA, 3.79 SIERA
• Dylan Cease vs. Guardians – 29.4% K, 8.5% BB, 3.47 ERA, 3.46 SIERA
• Cole Ragans at Brewers – 29.3% K, 8.8% BB, 3.14 ERA, 3.49 SIERA
• Sonny Gray vs. Angels – 30.3% K, 5.8% BB, 3.84 ERA, 3.03 SIERA
• Freddy Peralta vs. Royals – 27.6% K, 9.4% BB, 3.68 ERA, 3.78 SIERA
• Framber Valdez vs. Giants – 24% K, 7.8% BB, 2.91 ERA, 3.41 SIERA
• Pablo Lopez at White Sox – 25.6% K, 5.3% BB, 4.08 ERA, 3.46 SIERA
• MacKenzie Gore at Blue Jays – 24.8% K, 8.9% BB, 3.90 ERA, 3.98 SIERA
• Ryan Pepiot vs. Pirates – 26.3% K, 8.9% BB, 3.60 ERA, 3.88 SIERA
• Jeffrey Springs vs. Cubs – 26.1% K, 7.7% BB, 3.27 ERA, 3.74 SIERA

While these guys are all fantastic, I would say that Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal are the standouts. They have the best combination of high strikeouts plus control, and they also both have solid matchups today.

Paul Skenes looks to be basically in mid-season form already, throwing 94 pitches with 7 strikeouts in his opening start. Tarik Skubal had a rougher time in his opener, but he also faced the Dodgers, so I’ll give him a bit of a pass there. We can’t learn much from 5 innings, but on the plus side, Skubal’s fastball velocity was at a career high, so unless he has further struggles in better matchups, I’m just not going to worry about that first start at all. Assuming I can’t afford them both, I’m going to lean on those opening starts and go with Skenes as the SP1, but I have no argument if you prefer Skubal.

After Skenes and Skubal, I want to keep chasing strikeout upside as much as possible, which puts Dylan Cease next in line. He allowed three runs in the opener but also posted 7 strikeouts and 93 pitches against Atlanta. I am considering him to be in mid-season form, and as we’ve seen already this season, Cleveland is not going to be as low of a strikeout team as they were last season. Cease is my SP3.

After those three, things get trickier. Cole Ragans also had a sketchy first start, striking out just 3 batters in 5 innings. Like with Skubal, he’s almost certainly fine, and I’m still viewing him like the same pitcher as last season. The matchup is OK, but not amazing. I like the salary being down at $8,100, but he’s not really standing out either. Let me look at these next few options and then figure out where to slot him in.

Freddy Peralta has the toughest matchup of any of the strikeout aces, but he sailed through a tough matchup on Opening Day with 8 strikeouts and 93 pitches against the Yankees. On a lot of slates, Peralta would be a primary play, but for today, because he’s facing a lower strikeout team with power, it’s easier to just play similarly skilled pitchers in better matchups. He’s in the MME pool, but I just can’t prioritize him with everything else we have in better matchups here.

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