Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks for Wednesday, June 19th
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 Wednesday! We’ve got the usual split slate today, with the main focus being on the 8-gamer starting at 7:05 PM ET. Before we dive into that, I’ll take a quick peek at the early 5-gamer, which begins at 12:20 PM ET.
Wednesday Early Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings
We’ve got one standout ace, Tarik Skubal, followed by a closely-bunched group after him. I’ll sort the tiers by DK pricing, using $8,000 as the cutoff.
FIVE GUYS FOR THE LUNCHTIME SLATE!
Tarik Skubal at Braves – 29.2% K, 4.8% BB, 2.20 ERA, 2.86 SIERA
Ranger Suarez vs. Padres – 27.5% K, 5.7% BB, 1.77 ERA, 2.96 SIERA
Hunter Greene at Pirates – 25.8% K, 10.7% BB, 3.61 ERA, 4.04 SIERA
Reynaldo Lopez vs. Tigers – 25.8% K, 8.1% BB, 1.69 ERA, 3.66 SIERA
Mitch Keller vs. Reds – 21.4% K, 6% BB, 3.36 ERA, 3.90 SIERA
Tarik Skubal had his worst start of the season last week in a tough matchup in Houston, but by the definition of what words mean, everyone has to have their worst start sometime. I have zero concerns, and this elite skill set easily tops today’s early slate. The matchup has some power risk, but the Braves current lineup is no longer a low-strikeout team against LHP, with 6 of the 9 projected batters over a 23% K% this season. Skubal looks to me like the very clear SP1 at his reasonable price tag on DK, and he’ll be in the majority of my lineups there. I will say that the more extreme $11,200 salary on FD makes him less of a necessity when adding in his lack of pitch-count ceiling.
Ranger Suarez has been absolutely fantastic this season, and while the ERA is a little on the fluky low side, even at his 2.96 SIERA, this guy is an ace. The problem here is simply his salary in a low-strikeout matchup. To spend $10,000 on DK and $11,000 on FD, I’d want a clearer path to a ceiling game, so he’s just a deep MME flier against San Diego.
Reynaldo Lopez has been as good in real life as Suarez, having allowed more than 2 runs just once all season in 12 starts. There’s a ton of good fortune in his silly-low BABIP and HR/FB%, but this is still a solid skill set with well-above-average strikeouts and a clear path to another quality start. There’s no reason to expect all the regression to hit him at once, and if salary were no issue at all, I’d call him my SP2 behind Skubal. But he’s very close with these next couple options, and since salary is an issue, he does not end up in my primary pool.