Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks Today for Wednesday 8/12

by Dave Potts (CheeseIsGood) Last Updated 2026-08-12 16:13:33 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 today. 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 muse about the August 12, 2026 MLB DFS slate.

Happy Wednesday! We have another split slate Wednesday where things are different between the sites. I’m going to start with a quick peek at the early 6-game DK slate that starts at 1:40 PM ET. Then we’ll be back for an evening slate that is another 6-gamer on DK at the usual 7:05 PM ET start time, while FD begins at 6:40 PM ET with a 9-game slate. All of these slates look pretty tricky and tangled, so let’s dive right in and see what happens.

And be sure to check out our MLB DFS optimizer, LineupHQ, for some Expert Tags and more analysis for the early slate.

Wednesday Early Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings

We have one clear ace who is priced $2,000 above the next-closest pitcher on DK, and then everything else is bunched up enough that I am just going to lump everyone together into this one big group:

• Zack Wheeler at Cardinals – 30.6% K, 6.5% BB, 2.69 ERA, 2.99 SIERA
• Drew Rasmussen at A’s – 26.8% K, 4.5% BB, 2.75 ERA, 3.17 SIERA
• Shane Baz at Twins – 20.7% K, 7.9% BB, 3.76 ERA, 4.28 SIERA
• Robbie Ray vs. Brewers – 20.3% K, 11.5% BB, 3.24 ERA, 4.87 SIERA
• Kyle Leahy vs. Phillies – 20.7% K, 7.3% BB, 3.45 ERA, 4.09 SIERA
• Dustin May at Padres – 23% K, 7.9% BB, 4.30 ERA, 3.98 SIERA
• Zebby Matthews vs. Orioles – 20% K, 7.7% BB, 5.23 ERA, 4.23 SIERA
• Merrill Kelly vs. Rockies – 15.4% K, 9.6% BB, 4.88 ERA, 5.14 SIERA
• Ronel Blanco at Giants – 21% K, 13.6% BB, 6.98 ERA, 4.99 SIERA
• Jack Perkins vs. Rays – 26.4% K, 8.9% BB, 7.04 ERA, 3.67 SIERA

Zack Wheeler is kind of all alone up top, although I would point out that Drew Rasmussen is actually remarkably close to him in skill set this season. If we had this same salary gap with different ballparks, I would almost certainly prefer Rasmussen over Wheeler at a $2,000 discount, and I’m still quite willing to consider Rasmussen as my SP1 here. I love seeing that Tampa is finally treating him like an actual starter, going over 90 pitches in 3 of his last 4 games while racking up 8+ strikeouts in 3 straight. To me, the lacklusterness of the A’s lineup outweighs the ballpark, so with lacklusterness very much being a real word, I love Rasmussen today.

I would still say I’ll play Wheeler ahead of him if salary allows. We do still have a higher strikeout rate and a longer leash for Wheeler, and the hitting environment helps even out the difference in matchups. With how shaky the rest of the slate gets, my goal is to play both Wheeler and Rasmussen, but if I can’t afford them both, I’ll only play…

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