DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Tuesday 5/17/22 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 Jameson Taillon FD 8300 DK 9100 Opponent - BAL (Spenser Watkins) Park - BALFD - 32.78 DK - 17.15 Pitching on the main slate is a bit rough for Tuesday so we are going to need to make the best of what we are given. Taillon comes in as the biggest money line favorite for the evening with the Yankees at -230 on the road against the Orioles. Baltimore strikes out the 7th most in the league and they rank 22nd in team wOBA. They are a below-average squad all the way around. Meanwhile, Taillon’s 2.93 ERA masks the 3.65 xFIP, but both are pretty good all things considered. He doesn’t strike out a ton of batters, but he really doesn’t walk anyone either. For this slate, he seems like the safest play, which might not be saying all that much. Dylan Bundy FD 7000 DK 8500 Opponent - OAK (James Kaprielian) Park - OAKFD - 33.46 DK - 17.01 Bundy is coming off an IL stint so it will be interesting to see just how far he goes in this game. That, in and of itself, makes him a riskier proposition for this main slate of games. But again, the options aren’t all that great and even some of the other decent arms are up against tough opponents. The Oakland A’s aren’t that. For the season, they rank dead last in team wOBA and it really isn’t all that close seeing as how they are 14 whole points behind the next closest team. Plus they strike out the fifth-most in the league. So Bundy has the best matchup on the board. It’s just a matter of how long he can last in the game. Catcher/First Base Brandon Belt FD 3800 DK 4500 Opponent - COL (Chad Kuhl) Park - COLFD - 16.45 DK - 12.25 The Giants could be popular plays once again facing off against the Rockies in the thin air of Colorado. Their 6.5 implied run line is easily the highest of the slate and really one of the higher ones you will ever see in the majors. It speaks to Chad Kuhl on the mound against them and their ability to hit pretty well around the top of the order especially. Belt should be in the cleanup slot on Tuesday against the righty and is coming off a 29-home run season. He has four already this...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Monday 5/16/22 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 Freddy Peralta FD - P 9700 DK - SP 10500 Opponent - ATL (Ian Anderson) Park - MIL FD - 37.39 DK - 20.12 All of the ace pitchers were on the mound over the weekend but good news for the Brewers as they seemingly have three of them in one of the best rotations in baseball. Peralta takes the mound on Monday and has been terrific lately holding opponents to just 15 hits and five earned runs(2.08 ERA) over his last four starts with 28 strikeouts(32.2%) and five walks(5.7%). While the matchup against the world champs doesn't appear great at first they are just league average in terms of wRC+(100) on the season and have seen their strikeouts go up recently(26%), as well. Peralta is our top projected pitcher and in play in all formats. Yusei Kikuchi FD - P 7500 DK - SP 6300 Opponent - SEA (Chris Flexen) Park - TOR FD - 31.33 DK - 16.25 One thing that was a nice mix with all the elite pitching over the weekend was all the cheap SP2 options and we get more cheap options on Monday. My favorite of the bunch is Kikuchi who opens as a -165 favorite against his former team who have been trending down in the short term with an 87 wRC+ and 27% K rate over the last week. For Kikuchi, it has been the opposite trend as he started the season slow but comes in red-hot having given up just five hits and three earned runs over his last two starts, both against the Yankees, while striking out 14(33%). All things considered, Kikuchi is my favorite SP2 on DraftKings allowing us to stack some big bats. Catcher/First Base Brandon Belt FD - 1B 3800 DK - 1B 4500 Opponent - COL (Antonio Senzatela) Park - COL FD - 15.89 DK - 11.84 Let's get the bats started with a matchup in Coors which checks all the boxes from a Giants perspective. It starts with the matchup as they face Senzatela who has given up at least seven hits in all six of his starts while tallying just eight total strikeouts. This means a ton of hard bit balls(7+ in five of six starts) and when looking at the splits, we can attack from both sides as he has given up a .400+ wOBA to lefties and righties. For Belt, he hasn't...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Saturday 5/14/22 - Main Slate 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 Chris Bassitt FD 10100 DK 10300 Opponent - SEA (George Kirby) Park - SEAFD - 39.75 DK - 21.86 Bassitt is sitting at a -167 home favorite against the Mariners on Saturday, some of the best win odds on the slate. He’s having an excellent season, striking out more than a batter per inning with an ERA in the low 2’s. The xFIP is trailing by about a run, so there could be some regression in his future. But Seattle is a below-average offense on the season and don’t get you all that worried. There aren’t a lot of stud arms on this slate, but there are some good ones. At this point, Bassitt sits a bit above the rest and has been going about six innings per start on the season. Zac Gallen FD 9900 DK 9800 Opponent - CHC (Kyle Hendricks) Park - CHCFD - 36.59 DK - 19.2 Think Gallen will be a popular play on this slate, and it looks like you can easily pair him and Bassitt together on DraftKings. Gallen brings in a 0.95 ERA to this game, though I’d caution you about getting overexcited about that kind of elite number seeing as how the 3.66 xFIP is almost three runs behind it. Regardless, he’s facing a Cubs team that sits 20th in team wOBA this season and strikes at a 24% clip, 7th most in the league. This is a good spot and Chicago has a low run line. Catcher/First Base Salvador Perez FD 3200 DK 5100 Opponent - COL (Germán Márquez) Park - COLFD - 12.79 DK - 9.65 Carlos Santana FD 3000 DK 2400 Opponent - COL (Germán Márquez) Park - COLFD - 9.8 DK - 7.36 Get ready for a lot of guys from this game in Coors to show up on the picks list for Saturday. There just really isn’t any way around it. It’s looking like these two will hit three and four against the righty Marquez and these two teams are coming off putting up a combined 24 runs on Friday evening. Perez has five home runs on the season, though almost nothing else with an OPS sitting in the low 600s. His BABIP, hard contact rate, and Hr/FB rates are all down this season, though Coors is just the kind of place to have some of those start turning around. And then there...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Friday 5/13/22 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 Clayton Kershaw FD 10200 DK 10200 Opponent - PHI (Kyle Gibson) Park - PHIFD - 40.08 DK - 21.7 I’m putting these two guys together here because, for the purposes of this slate, they are very similar. Both are the best money line favorites coming in with each sitting around -220 at home. Both are striking out more than a batter per nine on the season and each are averaging around six innings per start. Kershaw’s slight advantage is that he is walking almost no one this season (less than a batter per nine) while Bassitt doesn’t have quite the same elite control. But man, distinguishing between them is pretty tough. There are three very good arms on this slate and choosing among them for cash games (or pairing them on DK) will be one of the bigger questions of the night. **Update - Kershaw has hit the IL and Walker Buehler will be taking his place on the mound. He is also a good option here but you can also pivot to Kevin Gausman who gets a better matchup Gerrit Cole FD 10000 DK 9600 Opponent - CHW (Dallas Keuchel) Park - CHWFD - 44.29 DK - 25.27 Cole hasn’t gotten the K’s quite in line with where he’s been in some previous seasons, but he remains one of the best pitchers in baseball regardless. He’s sporting an xFIP in the low 3’s and is still striking out batters at a rate of more than 10 per nine. The K% has dipped some and the BB% is up, but not at alarming rates. He’s a -170 road favorite heading in to face the White Sox on Friday and should be a major consideration in all cash games for the main slate. Catcher/First Base Max Muncy FD 2900 DK 4200 Opponent - PHI (Kyle Gibson) Park - PHIFD - 12.85 DK - 9.49 Will Smith FD 3300 DK 3900 Opponent - PHI (Kyle Gibson) Park - PHIFD - 11.95 DK - 8.89 I know we’ve written this guy up quite a bit and he’s underperformed, but sometimes that’s the nature of DFS baseball, trying to maintain patience when there’s reason to, and to not overreact to smaller sample sizes. The simple piece is Muncy remains a very patient hitter, walking at an elite 23% rate which is more than he strikes out (20%). Few hitters can do that. He’s just...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Thursday 5/12/22 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 Early James Kaprielian FD - P 7700 DK - SP 7500 Opponent - DET (Beau Brieske) Park - DET FD - 29.7 DK - 15.5 This early slate is an interesting one and a case can be made for both pitchers in the Astros and Twins game so instead, I will go ahead and give you my favorite SP2, James Kaprielian. He was a first-round pick of the Yankees back in 2015 and has had cups of coffee in the majors with the A's but due to injuries has never really become reliable. We are only interested in one start for DFS and the good news is that he is coming off a fantastic start against the Twins in which he hit 99 pitches, struck out seven, and tallied 21.8 DK/35 FD points. He now faces a Tigers team that ranks dead last in runs scored and wOBA over the last two weeks while striking out 25% of the time. Kaprielian is my top value pitcher on this early slate. Main Zack Wheeler FD 8100 DK 8000 Opponent - LAD (Tyler Anderson) Park - LAD FD - 31.78 DK - 16.85 Wheeler is back from the protocol list which does present some risk as he hasn't pitched in eight days but looking at the options on this small slate, the system and myself are loading up tonight. The good news is that his last two starts have been terrific as he allowed no earned runs while striking out 14 and tallying 27+ DK/48+ FD points in each game. The other risk here is the matchup against the Dodgers' loaded lineup but the good news is that they have been a slightly below-average offense over the last two weeks so Wheeler is getting them at the right time. All things considered tonight, Wheeler is my top pitcher on the main slate. Catcher/First Base Early Pete Alonso FD - 1B 4200 DK - 1B 5100 Opponent - WSH (Joan Adon) Park - WSH FD - 13.18 DK - 9.85 The price for doing business with Pete Alonso is going up and it's driven off his current play. The polar bear enters Thursday's game with hits in seven of his last eight games which includes five multi-hit efforts, two doubles, and four home runs. He and the Mets now get the best matchup on the slate as they face Joan Adon who has...

DraftKings and FanDuel MLB Picks for Tuesday 5/10/22 - All Day 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 Justin Verlander FD - P 10800 DK - SP 10400 Opponent - MIN (Joe Ryan) Park - MINFD - 41.41 DK - 23.04 Verlander hasn’t quite dialed up the K stuff this season, sitting at 8.5 K’s per nine through his first 32 innings. But he’s going longer into games than most pitchers at this point and is facing a Twins team that goes down on strikes at a well-above-average rate so far this season. Minnesota’s 3.1 implied run line is among the lowest on the slate and I don’t think Verlander is quite priced for what his floor is in this matchup. The K’s got dinged last game against Seattle, but he should be in line for more than a punch out an inning. Freddy Peralta FD 9400 DK 9300 Opponent - CIN (Hunter Greene) Park - CINFD - 39.05 DK - 21.34 The Reds have shown some signs of life lately, getting out of the basement on offense thanks to some decent games in the last week or so. But I’m not totally buying the long-term viability of this squad and think Peralta is in a tremendous spot. He’s not quite the right price because he’s been unlucky on the ERA side of things. But his 3.05 xFIP is two runs behind it and he’s striking out more than 11 batters per nine on the season. And at a -195 road favorite, he’s got some of the best win odds on the day. Lucas Giolito (FD $10300 DK $9700) is in a good spot against the Guardians today as money line favorite with a very low implied total. Catcher/First Base Brad Miller FD 2400 DK 2700 Opponent - KC (Brad Keller) Park - KCFD - 10.52 DK - 7.88 Miller should be in the leadoff slot for the Rangers on Tuesday when they face off against the righty Brad Keller. Don’t let the latter’s ERA fool you, he’s much more of an average pitcher who, though he keeps the ball on the ground, doesn’t generate anything in the way of strikeouts. Miller’s biggest issue is the swing and miss, something that’s greatly mitigated in this matchup. He’s coming off of a 20 home run season and is much better against righties for his career with a .773 OPS and 111 wRC+ in that split. Oh, and he’s coming very cheap on both sites which works...