MLB DFS Picks: Draftkings, FanDuel August 15

Sunday, Aug. 16, keep an eye on the weather in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Buffalo (Blue Jays), which is going to introduce shifting variables. Before you lock in your MLB DFS lineups and MLB DFS picks, make sure to check out check out Awesemo’s DFS baseball MLB rankings and projections.

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Greetings, Gamers! We are back to divergent slates with DraftKings, SuperDraft and FantasyDraft eschewing the two 3 o’clock games while FanDuel is including them for a ten game main slate. Yahoo of course is going with the full schedule through Sunday Night Baseball.

Similar to last year, I will be providing a review of one stack for each of the day’s slates. Some of these short-slate options will be good for the full-game set, others will be more contrarian and better suited for the mini-game sets.

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MLB DFS Early Slate Picks

Miami Marlins vs. LHP Robbie Erlin – 4.6 implied runs

Atlanta is going with a “bullpen” approach on Sunday with LHP Robbie Erlin taking the mound. It sounds like he will be in the mix for 40-50 pitches. Wait, doesn’t Erlin play for the Pirates? Nope, he was claimed off waivers by the Bravos a week ago. Throughout his career, despite 313.0 of his 319.0 innings with Petco Park as his home stadium, Erlin has a mediocre 4.66 ERA and 1.28 WHIP for his career working as a starter and reliever. In his first Atlanta appearance he allowed three home runs, though he did have five strikeouts which was the third highest mark since 2016.

While the Marlins really do not have any recognizable names outside of Jonathan Villar, they are actually not completely horrible. In addition to their leadoff man we can turn to Jesus Aguilar, Brian Anderson and where required, catcher Francisco Cervelli who are all above average when receiving the platoon advantage.

Part of this recommendation is weather related since we have a few trouble spots and it will come with a discounted price and suppressed popularity. We do not need to full-stack the Marlins, but they are fine as a secondary two or three man stack on Sunday.

MLB DFS Afteroon-Slate Picks

Houston Astros vs. LHP Justus Sheffield – 5.9 implied runs

Sunday marks the seventh and final game the Mariner will be playing in Houston this season. This is a horrible matchup for a team with a left-heavy rotation. Through the first half dozen matchups Seattle is allowing seven runs per game. Southpaw Justus Sheffield has been mostly mediocre since being acquired in the James Paxton trade. Though he has a 6.86 ERA against his last 180 right-handed hitters faced, he actually has been unlucky as noted by his 4.15 xFIP. Regardless this is an incredibly daunting matchup today.

Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez have isolated power marks above .300 over the last two plus seasons. We can augment their services with Jose Altuve, George Springer and Yuli Gurriel who all have .200+ ISOs in the same time frame.

MLB DFS Late-Slate Picks

Oakland Athletics at RHP Logan Webb – 4.4 implied runs

San Francisco Giants vs. RHP Mike Fiers – 4.3 implied runs

Pop quiz, what do these numbers reference: 8, 13, 19, 11, 10, 14, 15 and 13? Well dear reader, those are the run totals for the first eight games in the remodeled Oracle Park. You can reference my last two articles for more details on the changes. While I do not believe that these changes have turned the stadium by the bay into a hitter’s paradise, this is not a place I feel good about “jamming in crummy pitchers” until we have more data.

Today we have a couple of mediocre righties taking the mound for their respective teams and some intriguing batters on both sides. RHP Mike Fiers has allowed 68 home runs since the beginning of the 2018 season which is the third most in the league. Fun fact, Fiers also has two no-hitters to his credit out of the 303 in the history of baseball. Focus on Mike Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson and if he is in the lineup, Brandon Belt.

Fellow righty Logan Webb is a pedestrian pitcher without any above average skills. Matt Olson has homered in three straight games and he is our top priority. With Ramon Laureano serving his suspension, we should see switch-hitting Robbie Grossman in the lineup as a nice salary saving option. Matt Chapman, Mark Canha, Marcus Semien, Khris Davis and Stephen Piscotty all have above average power in righty/righty matchups and we can mix and match from this group to form a full-stack of the Athletics.

As always, you can reach out to me in Awesemo.com Premium Slack or on Twitter @EMacDFS if you have any questions or want to discuss anything MLB DFS related.

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Author

Eric MacPherson

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].