DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Monday, 5/3/21 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, and NFL optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW!   Pitchers Walker Buehler FD - P 10200 DK - SP 9600 Opponent - CHC (Kyle Hendricks) Park - CHC FD - 39.49 DK - 21.78 It's a day without a lot of fantastic pitching options, and I think you could do a lot worse than Walker Buehler. The strikeouts have gone down a tic this year, but his incredible command (.57 BB/9!) has more than made up the difference in terms of his overall effectiveness. The Cubs are not a conventionally fantastic match-up, with a lot of household names in their lineup. They have been about league average in terms of wOBA this season, but importantly, their 27% K rate is the third-highest in the Majors. Buehler and the Dodgers are almost -200 favorites, as well. On a day without many headliners, Buehler should see significant cash game ownership. Kenta Maeda FD - P 6900 DK - SP 7800 Opponent - TEX (Dane Dunning) Park - MIN FD - 39.19 DK - 21.08 Maeda has, quite simply, been really bad his year. Basically every available metric paints the picture of an aging pitcher declining. So why would we consider him for cash games? There are a couple of reasons. First of all, while Maeda has declined, he hasn't turned into a true-talent 6.56 ERA guy overnight. He might not be the Cy Young candidate he was last year, but even in this diminished state he's probably league average. With career high BABIP allowed and HR/FB rate, he's due for some positive regression soon. Then there's the match-up. The Rangers have struck out at the 2nd highest rate in the Majors while posting a below-league-average .303 wOBA. It's not without risk, but at these prices we can afford a little risk in our lives. Also considered: Frankie Montas. Catcher/First Base J.T. Realmuto FD - C 3300 DK - C 5300 Opponent - MIL (Adrian Houser) Park - PHI FD - 10.9 DK - 8.25 I'll often write up a catcher with a caveat like, "If you have to play a catcher, think about this guy." In the case of Realmuto, this is an unqualified recommendation, at least on FanDuel. Realmuto is an on-base machine with more power than you think, and he's going up against a pitcher in Adrian Houser who gives opposing batters a lot of chance to get on base with his low K rate and relatively high walk...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Sunday 5/2/21 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, and NFL optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Pitchers Max Scherzer FD - P 12000 DK - SP 9700 Opponent - MIA (Trevor Rogers) Park - WSHFD - 43.48 DK - 24.33 Scherzer has started this season as his usual, dominant self. He’s striking out 11.4 batters per nine and has a better than 6:1 K:BB ratio. He’s facing a weaker Miami offense on Sunday though the money line isn’t all that great (-121) because Rogers is taking the mound for the Marlins. This is still a spot to spend up for Scherzer who is the best arm on the slate. It will cost you on FanDuel, but the floor is just so high for what he provides. The DraftKings price is simply too low at sub-$10K and I think the call is pretty easy over there. José Berríos FD - P 8800 DK - SP 8500 Opponent - KC (Brad Keller) Park - MINFD - 34.72 DK - 18.36 Berrios has come out of the gate firing to start the season with a 32% K-rate that’s the highest of his career so far. The 2.96 xFIP is elite and he’s just rounding into one of the best pitchers in the game. The Royals are a below-average offense to start the season and it’s hard to imagine them improving much as the year wears on. Berrios at a -171 home favorite looks like a great cash game play. Catcher/First Base Freddie Freeman FD - 1B 4100 DK - 1B 5400 Opponent - TOR (Undecided) Park - TORFD - 11.89 DK - 8.89 Toronto is once again not exactly sure who their starter is about 12 hours before the game starts which always bodes well for the opposing hitters. Like Saturday, it’s going to be some scrub that’s in line to get lit up. We are going to be able to safely stack the Braves bats once again without much hesitation. Guys like Freeman will cost, but man the floor is just so high considering he walks more than he strikes out and hits for tremendous power. Joey Votto FD - 1B 2800 DK - 1B 5300 Opponent - CHC (Trevor Williams) Park - CINFD - 10.72 DK - 8.04 Votto is starting to find some of the power that had eluded him a couple of years ago. But over his last 300 or so plate appearances dating back to last season, he’s cranked 16 home runs and improved his...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Saturday 5/1/21 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, and NFL optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOåW! Pitchers Zac Gallen FD - P 9000 DK - SP 8900 Opponent - COL (Austin Gomber) Park - ARIFD - 38.2 DK - 20.7 It’s a lighter Saturday when it comes to the afternoon games so we will focus a little more on the evening games. Gallen comes in as a -183 home favorite against the Rockies on Saturday. The 2.16 ERA is a little run hot considering the xFIP is about two runs higher, but this is still a good spot against the Rockies. Gallen is striking out close to 11 batters per nine but does need to get the walks under control some. The Rockies are a middling wOBA team on the season and that’s not even adjusted for park. I like Gallen here. Blake Snell FD - P 8800 DK - SP 9500 Opponent - SF (Anthony DeSclafani) Park - SDFD - 37.78 DK - 20.73 Snell is a -161 home favorite going into this game against the San Francisco Giants and this one only has a 7 over/under. Snell is striking out batters at a career-high 13.5 K/9 this season with a walk rate you’d like to see a little lower. But he’s still got a 3.15 xFIP which is about .75 runs lower than than the ERA. He’s a great price on both sites and has some serious K upside if he can command his pitches a little better. The Giants are a middle-of-the-pack offense on the season and not a group of bats we need to avoid. On the afternoon slate, don’t get worried about the ERA on Jameson Taillon (FD $7000 DK $7700). His xFIP is excellent and his peripherals have been great. Catcher/First Base Freddie Freeman FD - 1B 4100 DK - 1B 5700 Opponent - TOR (Undecided) Park - TORFD - 11.89 DK - 8.89 The Blue Jays haven’t announced their starter yet for Saturday, but we can trust it isn’t going to be an ace or anything. In fact, it will likely be quite the opposite. Freeman has started the season basically mashing like always with an OPS in the high .800’s and the 17% walk rate higher than the 14% K-rate. He’s one of the hardest outs in the game and that should continue to be the case on Saturday. Matt Olson FD - 1B 3800 DK - 1B 4900 Opponent - BAL (Matt Harvey) Park - OAKFD - 11.65...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Friday 4/30/21 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, and NFL optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Pitchers Gerrit Cole FD - P 12200 DK - SP 10500 Opponent - DET (Tarik Skubal) Park - NYY FD - 51.91 DK - 29.12 We have three aces up top tonight but it's Gerrit Cole that stands out as the top play as he checks every box starting with the fact the Yankees are huge -340 favorites. He also comes into tonight with a better ERA(1.71), xFIP(2.07), WHIP(.73), and K rate(42%) than Shane Bieber who is also having a great start to the season. The kicker here for me is that he gets a much better matchup against the Tigers who rank 29th in wRC+(79) on the season while striking out 29% of the time, 31% over the last seven days. Cole is my top pitcher in all formats. Brady Singer FD - P 8400 DK - SP 7000 Opponent - MIN (Michael Pineda) Park - MIN FD - 31.11 DK - 15.89 To fit Cole or Bieber no DraftKings without sacrificing a ton of bats we have to take some risks with a value arm. For me, that arm is Brady Singer of the Royals who has massively out-performed this price tag since that dud against to start the year. In three starts since he has allowed just 12 hits and two earned in 18 innings while striking out 20(29%) and walking just three. The matchup may seem a bit scary but the Twins are just league average overall, against righties, and have lost eight of their last 10 games while scoring just 3.6 runs per game. All things considered, Singer is my top PTS/$ value play on DraftKings and paired with Cole leaves you a comfortable average salary of just over $4K. Also Consider: Andrew Heaney(LAA) as a top value SP2 on DraftKings under $7K and has been great lately allowing just seven hits and three earned runs over his last three starts with 25 strikeouts.  Catcher/First Base Nate Lowe FD - 1B 3200 DK - 1B 3900 Opponent - BOS (Nathan Eovaldi) Park - TEX FD - 8.89 DK - 6.73 With matchups and some of the prices of the top-tier players, I will be taking a bit more of a value approach to the first base position tonight. It starts with Nate Lowe who has been red-hot lately with hits in five straight and nine of his last 11 games with five multi-hit efforts and he...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Thursday, 4/29/21 These Thursday slates always tend to be lighter because it's a travel day for many of these clubs, and this honestly might be one of the smallest ledgers we see all year. Only five games make up this night slate that commences at 7ET, so that means the pickings are slim. What's really clear about this slate is that we have some bad pitchers toeing the rubber. There is a Cy Young winner in the bunch, though, so let's kick things off with him. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB and NBA optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Pitchers Trevor Bauer FD - P 11000 DK - SP 11300 Opponent - MIL (Eric Lauer) Park - MIL FD - 42.56 DK - 23.38 It's hard to like Bauer as a person with some of the things he says but this dude can downright pitch. In 2020, the right-hander provided a 1.73 ERA and 0.79 WIHP en route to that Cy Young that we mentioned before. Joining the Dodgers hasn't slowed down those numbers one bit, winning three of his five starts while providing a 2.53 ERA and 0.66 WHIP. Those are truly ridiculous numbers, and it looks even crazier when you see that he has 145 strikeouts in those 105 innings. That makes him hard to fade against Milwaukee, with the Brewers sitting 29th in K rate and 22nd in wOBA. Luke Weaver FD - P 7600 DK - SP 7700 Opponent - COL (Antonio Senzatela) Park - ARI FD - 33.47 DK - 17.77 Weaver was horrible in the shortened 2020 season, but he's shown the ability to be a stopper in the past. In the year prior, Weaver posted an impressive 2.94 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. That had him in the All-Star discussion, and he's looked more like that guy this year than the one we saw in 2020. In fact, Weaver has a 1.11 WHIP through his four starts this season, allowing four runs or fewer in all of them. The best part of this play is the matchup, though. Dating back to last season, Colorado ranks dead-last in runs scored, OPS, and xwOBA on the road. That's really scary since they lost their best hitter in the offseason. All of those factors have Weaver entering this game as a -155 favorite as well. Catcher/First Base José Abreu FD - 1B 3700 DK - 1B 4800 Opponent - DET (Matthew Boyd) Park - CHW FD - 11.23 DK - 8.5 It's tough to pick guys...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Wednesday 4/28/21 Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, and NFL optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Happy Hump Day baseball fans. We have games scattered throughout the day but for this article, I will be looking at my top picks at each position for the 10-game main slate on FanDuel and DraftKings. Let's get started. Pitchers Tyler Glasnow FD - P 10800 DK - SP 10300 Opponent - OAK (Cole Irvin) Park - TB FD - 37.73 DK - 20.91 Carlos Rodón FD - P 11000 DK - SP 9800 Opponent - DET (Casey Mize) Park - CHW FD - 41.13 DK - 22.21 A very strong case can be made for both ace pitchers tonight and on DraftKings, there are enough value bats to pair them together which gets us just $100 over my SP budget. Let's start with Glasnow who is coming off a rough start vs. the Jays giving up five earned runs but the good news is that he ended up striking out 10 pushing his K rate up to 39.7% for the season backed up by a 16% swinging-strike rate. The matchup is not ideal against the A's who are a Top 10 offense but getting an elite pitcher under $11K on either site always feels like a buy-low opportunity. For Rodon, he followed up that amazing no-hitter with a three-hit performance against Cleveland and while he walked five he was able to get out of trouble striking out eight and giving up just one earned run. There is most definitely some regression coming as he has a very low .105 BABIP against but hard to argue the matchup tonight as he faces a Tigers team that ranks dead last against lefties with a .225 wOBA, 42 wRC+ and 34% K rate. Huascar Ynoa FD - P 7900 DK - SP 7800 Opponent - CHC (Kyle Hendricks) Park - ATL FD - 34.5 DK - 18.5 This is a very interesting play in that all the numbers tell us Ynoa has been good with a 3.68 ERA and even better 2.86 xFIP but got lit up by these Cubs just 10 days ago. I am not overall concerned for a couple of reasons starting with the price and the fact he has limited teams to just three earned runs over his other three starts. If you are not paying gup for both pitchers on DraftKings tonight, Ynoa is my top value SP2 option. Catcher/First Base Freddie Freeman FD - 1B 3900 DK...