Million Dollar Musings: MLB DFS Picks for Wednesday, June 19th

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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.

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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

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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.

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About the Author

CheeseIsGood
Dave Potts (CheeseIsGood)

One of the preeminent baseball minds in all of fantasy, Dave Potts (aka CheeseIsGood) has won contests at the highest levels of both season-long and DFS. He is a 2x winner of a $1,000,000 1st-place prize in DFS, having won the 2014 FanDuel baseball Live Final and following that up by taking down a DraftKings Milly Maker Tournament in 2015. In addition, he’s won the Main Event championship in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship and the NFBC Platinum League, which is the highest buy-in entry league. His consistent success in the NFBC tournaments earned him a prestigious spot in their Hall of Fame. Dave can also strum a mean guitar while carrying a tune, and if you’re lucky, you’ll see him do so on one of his MLB Crunch Time appearances. Follow Dave on Twitter – @DavePotts2