The MLB schedule is trying to throw us a Zach Greinke eephus pitch today, but I am totally prepared to handle this. Let’s first walk through what the challenge is on this fine Thursday of Major League Baseball DFS. We have a total of eight games being played in the Majors today and they are as follows
| Game | Time | FD EARLY | FD MAIN | DK MAIN |
| Cubs vs Pirates | 1:05 | YES | ||
| Rangers vs Astros | 2:10 | YES | ||
| Nationals vs Phillies | 4:05 | YES | YES | |
| Yankees vs Mets | 4:10 | YES | YES | |
| Padres vs Angels | 7:10 | YES | YES | |
| Blue Jays vs Red Sox | 7:30 | YES | YES | |
| White Sox vs Royals | 8:05 | YES | YES | |
| D’Backs vs Dodgers | 9:40 | YES | YES |
So we can technically play every game today, including the Pittsburgh Pirates against Alec Mills. Why do I highlight the Pirates, because it’s J.T. Brubaker … 877-CASH-NOW…. 877-CASH-NOW day….
If you get stuck in a rut and need a slump buster, Call J.T. Bru-baker…. 877-PIE-RATS…. 877-PIE-RATS… 877-PIE RATS
I am going to break down the 6 games on the DraftKings main slate for this article.
WEATHER NOTES
- Cubs/Pirates on FD early is the only game with some light rain.
Clayton Kershaw
Arizona is a bad offense right now and Kershaw is about as steady/safe as they come in this spot today.
Mike Clevinger
The main reason I like Sunshine today is the location and the game time. These mid day games in Anaheim have historically been beneficial for pitchers and we saw that already once this year with Greinke — and I expect it to benefit both Clevinger and Heaney today. Otherwise I really wouldn’t want Sunshine making his first appearance with the Padres against a team that isn’t a horrible strikeout lineup — but then they have virtually no LH bats and Clevinger probably does want to make a nice first impression.
Taijuan Walker (DK Only)
I am not a Taijuan Walker believer (anymore). I mean, I was a big fan of his back in the day in Arizona but that was long ago and I long wrote him off as you all know — because we stacked against him earlier this year and he was very good. But he’s started to decline and now going to Toronto he’s getting to face a bad Boston lineup even though it’s in a decent hitters park right now. But um. Why in the world is he only $4,800 on DraftKings tonight? I don’t love him here, but I was also projecting him to be around $8,000 on DraftKings. The Blue Jays should win this game and there’s no reason to think Walker doesn’t have a full pitch count tonight sooo either play him or stack Boston.
Dylan Cease
While Danny Duffy has been good against the White Sox, a lot of that has come in Chicago for whatever reason and I greatly trust the White Sox bats over the Royals bats right now.
Outside The Box
Your pivot on DraftKings today has to be looking at coming off Kershaw or Walker because that is the likely 80%-80% combination today due to the way they are both priced. I would pivot one but not both in a lineup because both are in really good spots today.
If you are pivoting off Kershaw you are doing it with not Arizona hitters but more with another SP1.
If you are pivoting off Walker you are doing it thinking he gets lit up by Boston and should immediately plug in Raffy Devers.
Toronto Blue Jays
Vlad Jr, Teoscar Hernandez
It’s impossible to write off Toronto going into Boston against the Red Sox terrible pitching staff. While Martin Perez might be the best pitcher Boston has left to roll out there consistently he’s not someone that should be facing the Toronto Blue Jays with any confidence. Teoscar Hernandez has been a Fenway masher and is one Jay we know for certain will be in the lineup and not swapped out. Toronto has added lots of bats like Vogelbach and Villar to their lineup which give them flexibility to swap guys in and out like Tampa does — but Vlad Jr and Teoscar Hernandez are locked in for me today.
Philadelphia vs Washington
Jay Bruce, Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Juan Soto
Quick, without looking when is the last time that Bryce Harper homered? August 22nd. He has not homered at home since August 11th. I expect both things to change today in his first AB. The Nationals side is the really hard one to figure out because I have been dead convinced that Trea Turner was going to hit a 2 run HR this week in Philadelphia and after his 4 hit game on Monday he has gone 0-7 in the last two games as the Nationals offense went ice cold scoring 0 runs the last two days. They’re good enough to hit Eflin and I think you gotta look at this as a nice game stack spot.
LA Dodgers
Corey Seager, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts
Oh look, another shortstop that I am in love with today. At this rate the Mets are going to start Billy Hamilton at shortstop and he’s going to go 3-5 with 6 stolen bases on this slate. Back to the Dodgers though, they’re facing Luke Weaver who has completely ran out of his time as a relevant Major League pitcher and I’ll take the Dodgers here to go off against the Arizona Diamondbacks depleted bullpen now. This is a better spot than the Padres-Angels game IMO.
Teams I am not on …
- White Sox / Royals … 5-3 type game
- Padres / Angles … I don’t like offense in 4PM Anaheim games.
CATCHER
You are only using catchers on DK, so outside of Realmuto you’ll likely wanna just pay down.
- Wilson Ramos
- Danny Jansen
FIRST BASE
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- Luke Voit
SECOND BASE
- Jonathan Villar
- Jurickson Profar
THIRD BASE
- Asdrubal Cabrera
- Rafael Devers
SHORTSTOP
Who needs a shortstop today? Come get your shortstops today.
- Trea Turner
- Tim Anderson
- Didi Gregorious
- Corey Seager
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Bruce, Jay
- Teoscar Hernandez
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr
- Harper, Bryce
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Juan Soto
- Randal Grichuk
- Eloy Jimenez
OUTFIELD – Value
- Aaron Hicks
- AJ Pollock
- Jake Marisnick
- Jay Bruce – OF – Philadelphia Phillies – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Tim Anderson – SS – White Sox
- Teoscar Hernandez – OF – Blue Jays
- Wilson Ramos – C – Mets
- Luke Voit – 1B – Yankees
- Jonathan Villar – 2B – Blue Jays
- AJ Pollock – OF – Dodgers
- Rafael Devers – 3B – Red Sox
- BONUS ……………. Trea Turner – SS – Nationals