Saturday, May 28, kicks off the holiday weekend with plenty of afternoon baseball as well as a featured six-game slate starting at 7:15 p.m. ET. There are also a pair of doubleheaders, so make sure you adjust your player pool accordingly. Let’s get into the top MLB DFS picks today for pitchers and stacks for DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy baseball lineups.
DraftKings & FanDuel MLB DFS Picks Today (5/28)
Top MLB DFS Stack of the Day: New York Metropolitans vs. RHP Zach Eflin — 4.5 implied runs
DraftKings is making things interesting as it has boosted the salaries for the top five batters in the New York order to $4,900 or higher. Ideally, this will help keep the popularity of this stack in check for the large-field tournaments. FanDuel continues to keep their salaries suppressed, which means we can pretty much stack any two teams along with a top pitcher and never break a sweat.
Zach Eflin is a decent pitcher, but like most pitchers, he tends to struggle the third time through the order. Lefties are the primary targets today starting with Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and including switch-hitters Francisco Lindor and Eduardo Escobar. Pete Alonso has light-tower power and is always a key component when stacking New York or as a one-off. Finally, Dominic Smith is a solid discount dandy who can help average down the salary cap impact of this group on DraftKings.
Late Slate: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi — 4.4 implied runs
The Angles are not strangers when it comes to facing lefty Yusei Kikuchi, who spent the first three seasons of his MLB career in Seattle. After finding success in the Mariners rotation in his second and third seasons by relying on a cutter (36%) nearly as often as his fastball (37%), he has reversed that mix this year, throwing the fastball 53% of the time and the cutter only 11%. This has helped reduce his home run rate, but his walk rate is at a career-high 5.7 per nine innings.
Shohei Ohtani is expected to be in the lineup after tweaking his back on Thursday. Last night, he was used as a pinch-hitter, so this does not seem like a serious issue. Mike Trout as one of the best hitters ever against southpaws and Taylor Ward has success against Kikuchi’s pitch types as well. Anthony Rendon (wrist) was placed on the injured list today, so that means Matt Duffy or Luis Rengifo will be in the heart of the order; and while neither has any power, they can get on base and are likely to see good pitches considering the talent around them. Lastly, Kurt Suzuki has above-average pop against opposite-handed pitchers and he is a fine way to close out that pesky catcher requirement on DraftKings.
Afternoon Slate: San Francisco Giants at RHP Vladimir Gutierrez — 5.9 implied runs
The Giants get a major park upgrade today and they have also received the highest implied run total of any team in action. Vladimir Gutierrez has been knocked around this season, allowing seven home runs in only 30 innings on his way to an 8.70 ERA. Righties have tallied a .207 ISO against him this season while opposite-handed batsmen have an otherworldly .424 ISO. Even with Brandon Belt on the injured list, San Francisco is still loaded with batters swinging the stick from the left side of the plate. Look to Joc Pederson, Mike Yastrzemski and Brandon Crawford as the trio to target in all formats this afternoon. Tommy La Stella is also in play if he is at the top of the order.
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Best MLB DFS Pitchers Today
Top MLB DFS Target: RHP Joe Musgrove vs. Pittsburgh Pirates — 2.8 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $9,900 | FanDuel $10,800
Joe Musgrove gets a tasty matchup tonight against the Pirates, who have struggled to get runners across the plate. Their projected lineup has a whopping 26.9% strikeout rate against righties over the last season and change, and their .110 ISO in that timeframe is abysmal. They will try to put as many lefties in the order as possible, but aside from Ben Gamel and Bryan Reynolds, most are barely replacement-level hitters.
Secondary MLB DFS Target: RHP Tony Gonsolin at Arizona Diamondbacks — 4.0 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $9,100 | FanDuel $9,800
The Chase Field roof will be closed for this afternoon game, which has a local time first pitch of 4:15 p.m. That is a boost to Tony Gonsolin in addition to facing an Arizona squad that barely goes five deep in its batting order. Gonsolin has recorded at least five strikeouts in each of his last five starts and has done an excellent job of limiting baserunners with a 0.97 WHIP.
Afternoon MLB DFS Target: RHP Gerrit Cole at Tampa Bay Rays — 3.1 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $10,500 | FanDuel $10,500
Through nine starts this season, Gerrit Cole has been collecting strikeouts at an impressive rate with 62 in 51.2 innings. This is good enough for 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranks fifth in the league among qualified starters. The projected lineup today for Tampa Bay is a disciplined group that has collectively struck out at an impressively low 18.7% against right-handed pitching since the start of last year. However, to say its .116 ISO is anemic would be an egregious understatement.
Bonus Afternoon MLB DFS Target: RHP Shane Bieber at Detroit Tigers — 3.4 implied runs
- DFS Salary: DraftKings $9,200 | FanDuel $8,600
This is the analysis from yesterday, Shane Bieber is only available on DraftKings. There are also some concerns with Bieber, who has seen his fastball velocity averaging just over 90 mph, which is a far cry from the 94 mph average during his 2020 Cy Young campaign. If his opponent was any team other than the Tigers, we would want to look elsewhere. However, he just struck out 10 Detroit batsmen in his last start, and it is not like the team has improved since Sunday. If you have any worries about Bieber, we have plenty of other pitching options. Also, keep in mind this major decrease in velocity is likely attributed to the shoulder injury that knocked him out last June.
Additional Opportunities:
Tucker Davidson gets a matchup with the whiff-happy Marlins this afternoon, however, he is anything but a strikeout artist himself. Currently in the MLB player props market, he has an over/under on his strikeout prop of 4.5 while the Awesemo player projections have him with only 3.7 for this matchup. That gives him a 70% probability of staying under that benchmark. In his three major league appearances this season, Davidson is averaging 68 pitches, though he has struggled with his control allowing nine walks across these 10.1 innings with only seven strikeouts,
Other Pitching Options:
- Adrian Houser at St. Louis Cardinals (early)
- Alex Wood at Cincinnati Reds (afternoon)
- Jose Urquidy at Seattle Mariners (late)
One-Off Hitters:
- Andrew McCutchen at LHP Matthew Liberatore (early)
- Jesus Aguilar at LHP Tucker Davidson (afternoon)
- Matt Olson vs. RHP Sandy Alcantara (afternoon)
- Kyle Schwarber at RHP Taijuan Walker (main)
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at RHP Michael Lorenzen (late)
Final MLB DFS Thoughts &Â MLB Weather Notes
Boston and New York have rain in the forecast, though it should not impact either game with anything more than a delay.
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