Jared Levitt 
Happy Hump Day! It’s Wednesday and that means a split-slate. I’ll be focused on the 8-game slate of MLB DFS starting at 12:30 EST. This slate brings us a bit of everything. It brings us aces, it brings us duds, and it also brings us plenty of options for offense as some of the best offenses in the game have great matchups.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Dylan Cease ($10k on DK) vs. Chicago Cubs
Outside of one start against the Phillies, Dylan Cease has been tremendous this season. He’s coming into this one off of a gem in his last outing against the reigning NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. In that game, Cease went 6.2 innings and struck out 8, while only allowing 1 run to score. That is very much in line with his season numbers. In his 7 starts this season, he’s allowed 2 runs or fewer in 6 of them.
His numbers are finally getting back to the pitcher we all came to love back in 2022. Although the Cubs are a formidable offense, they also strike out at a decent pace vs. righties. On the year, they are striking out 24% of the time vs. righties. There’s definitely some upside today with Dylan Cease.
JP Sears ($6.8k on DK) vs. Texas Rangers
I need to preface this by saying that this pick is very risky. Texas is a solid offense that showed their firepower yesterday. That said, I want to load up on bats today and the only way to do that is to find a cheap pitcher that has upside. JP Sears does that for me. He’s the epitome of a GPP play. He’s had multiple starts this season in the upper 20 DK point. In 3 of his last 5 outings, he’s he had at least 25 DK points.
Even in an outing that saw him give up 7 ER, he still managed to get 10 DK points because of his strikeout ability. The Rangers’ numbers vs. lefties this season have not been good as they have a 25% K rate and a wOBA under .300. Yes, this pick is risky, but I think he outperforms his salary today and allows us to pick up some really good bats.
Other pitchers that will be in my pool today will be Sonny Gray vs. Mets (His ceiling is lower today as the Mets don’t K too much vs. righties) and Brady Singer vs. Milwaukee.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
The Dodgers are going to be one of the clear-cut favorite offenses today. You don’t need me to tell you to play them. Ryan Weathers isn’t good and the Dodgers should score a ton of runs today. They’re going to be chalk. You’ll need to make the decision to eat the chalk or fade the chalk. I’ll give you a couple of different options to help with your decision.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Chris Bassitt
The Philadelphia Phillies have been smoking hot of late. They’re coming into this one with a 7 game winning streak and winners of 9 of their last 10 games. I see few scenarios where they don’t get to Chris Bassitt today. Bassitt has given up at least 3 ER in all but 3 of his starts this season and has given up at least 4 in 3 of his starts. He’s just giving up too much contact to be consistently successful. He has a nearly 85% contact rate on the season and against a powerful lineup like the Phillies, that’s not going to play well.
He’s also fooling almost no one as hitters are swinging at just 25% of his pitches out of the zone. Again, against a powerful lineup like the Phillies, if you aren’t fooling them at all you’re going to fail. We’re going to want to prioritize lefties as here. Lefties have .472 wOBA vs. him this season compared to just .283 for righties. Bassitt has been especially brutal on the road as lefties have a .597 wOBA vs. him away from Toronto.
Core Bats: Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Bryson Stott
Secondary Bats: JT Realmuto, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh
Value Bats: Edmundo Sosa, Johan Rojas (both of these guys would make a nice part of a wrap-around stack)
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Jose Quintana
It pains me to do this, but I’m stacking against my team, the New York Mets. Jose Quintana has not pitched well this season. Although he’s only had 2 starts where he’s given up more than 3 ER on the year, every single one of his starts this season has come with an xFIP over 4. It’s been a struggle and it’s going to continue to be a struggle for him today. Of all the pitchers on the hill today, no one has a lower chase rate than Quintana. He isn’t fooling a sole, and he will continue to not fool anyone today.
Hitters see him well and it’s evidenced by the 36% hard-hit rate he’s given up over the last month. That’s higher than everyone today except for Dylan Cease. The difference between the two pitchers though is that Cease has a nearly 30% K rate while Quintana has just a 14.7% K rate. We just need to keep an eye on the weather here as there may be storms. If the game gets called, I’ll pivot to the Angels vs. Martin Perez
Core Bats: Francisco Lindor, Nolan Arenado, Lars Nootbar
Secondary Bats: Paul Goldschmidt
Value Bats: Jose Fermin, Ivan Herrara, Masyn Winn.
Other stacks I like tonight will be the Angels vs. Martin Perez, the A’s vs. Michael Lorenzen, and the Royals vs. Joe Ross
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