Jared Levitt 
Happy Saturday Y’all! We finally made it to the weekend and we have ourselves a nice-looking 7-game slate of MLB DFS tonight. This is a slate that at first glance, really underwhelms in terms of pitching. There isn’t a single pitcher over $10k and just 2 over $9k on DK this evening. It means that pitching will be truck because it lacks any true aces. What this should mean though is that we’ll be able to spend up for bats tonight and there will be some bats in really strong positions
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Carlos Rodon ($9.3k on DK/$10.4k on FD) vs. Oakland Athletics
I’m way more interested in Rodon on DK than I am on FD this evening. That price on FD is a little steep for my liking for a pitcher that for all intents and purposes this season, has been inconsistent. That said, Rodon has been mostly better over the last month or so. Over the previous month, Rodon has pitched to an ERA 3.10 and an xFIP/SIERA that is actually lower than that. He’s also been K’ing guys at a decent pace. His K rate of 31.70% is the second-highest of all the pitchers on the hill this evening.
The matchup is there for the taking for Rodon. While the A’s have been much improved this season, they still struggle at times, especially against the lefties. The projected lineup for the A’s tonight has a 27% K rate vs. lefties over the last month and just a .276 wOBA. Rodon will need to navigate guys like Rook and Langeliers, but if he can, he should have a monster game.
Martin Perez ($7.6k on DK/$7.7k on FD) vs. Chicago White Sox
This is how barren pitching is this evening. I’m not normally one to use a low strikeout pitcher, at least as low as Martin Perez. Over the last month, Perez has just a 14% K rate. Not ideal for fantasy. That said, he’s cheap enough and in a good enough matchup where he should at least provide us some with value. We’ve seen him at times get into the 20’s in terms of points so he definitely has the potential.
The matchup couldn’t be any better as Perez takes on the White Sox this evening. They are fighting to be the worst team in the history of baseball. They have a week left to get there and they definitely can do it. This lineup has been terrible vs. lefties, with a 25% K rate, a .278 wOBA, and a .096 ISO over the last month. Anything can happen, but I like this spot for Perez to be one of the safer spots today.
Other pitchers that I do like tonight will be Ronel Blanco vs. LA, Matthew Boyd vs. St. Louis, and maybe Walker Buehler vs. Colorado. Again, this is a pretty bad slate for pitching.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
Before we dive into stacks, I should say that the Dodgers are by far and away the best spot for offense tonight. Cal Quantrill has really struggled over the last month and this season. They are just extremely expensive. Shohei is $7.3k, He’s always in play, just nearly impossible to build a lineup as them as a main stack. The best bet here may be to just use the power here, and that’s Shohei as a one off.
Cleveland Guardians vs. Miles Mikolas
Miles Mikolas is having a career-worst season in 2024. His 5.49 ERA is the highest that it’s been since all the way back in 2014. He’s been especially bad of late as his ERA over the last month is 5.96. He’s a low-strikeout pitcher who relies on BABIP to be in his favor. When it’s not, he’s going to struggle mightily. His only saving grace is that he really hasn’t been giving up too much in the way of hard-contact or flyballs.
That said, he has given up 4 homers over the last month and 7 barrels. So hitters can take him deep and get some good wood on it. With this matchup vs. Mikolas today, I’m not going to be overly concerned about splits as both sides are pretty even in terms of production.
Core Plays: Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Lane Thomas, Andres Gimenez
Value Plays: Angel Martinez, Kyle Manzardo
Seattle Mariners vs. Max Scherzer
You have to wonder how many more innings Max Scherzer will put up for the rest of his career. The last couple of seasons have been marred by injury after injury and when he’s been healthy, he just hasn’t been that good. He faced this Mariners team a week ago and gave up 2 ER in 4 innings of work while striking out just 2. He no longer has swing and miss stuff and that’s going to cause issues against a Mariners lineup that has been much improved recently.
While still striking out a bunch, it’s way better than it was a couple of months ago and they’re starting to hit for more power. Of the teams playing today, they have the second most homers over the last week, trailing only the Dodgers and Shohei. I think they can get to Max here tonight and they are all reasonably priced.
Core Bats: Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh
Value Bats: Randy Arozarena, Luke Raley, Justin Turner, Victor Robles
Other bats I like tonight will be the Astros vs. Reid Detmers, Rangers vs. Emerson Hancock, and Brewers vs. Merrill Kelly.
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