Happy Friday! After a smaller slate yesterday, we are back to a full baseball slate today with plenty of excitement. It is also Jacob deGrom Day! He will still be on a low pitch count, so his upside for DFS will be minimal, but it is always a good day when we get to watch deGrom pitch for however long it lasts. 

Plenty of other great pitchers are also on the mound, and there are many ways we can construct some winning MLB DFS picks and lineups today! 

 

 

 

We have a nice big 11-game slate this evening that will be getting started at 7:05 PM ET on both DraftKings and FanDuel. Coors Field returns to the slate with the Chicago Cubs heading to Colorado. We also have a minimum-priced pitcher facing the White Sox today. There's plenty to talk about, so let’s dive into today’s playbook and all of my favorite MLB DFS picks for the day!

MLB DFS Picks & Daily Fantasy Playbook Today, September 13

While seeing deGrom is always exciting, his pitch count will likely be too low, and the upside is too limited to try to play him today. The top end of pitching of MLB DFS projections is also a bit scary today, with a mix of volatility and tough matchups for Peralta, Cease, Kikuchi, and Schwellenbach. 

All four of them have good upside and arguments in their favor, but I find myself skipping over them all for Bailey Ober and Tanner Bibee or taking a shot on Brady Basso. 

On the offensive side, some of my favorite lineups to target today include the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, Cleveland Guardians, Toronto Blue Jays, and Atlanta Braves.

 

 

 

MLB Weather Today, 9/13

There are some thunderstorms this afternoon and more rain late tonight, but everything is supposed to be clear for the game. 

MLB DFS Optimizer & Lineup Generator Today

This Playbook is your ultimate resource for crafting amazing MLB DFS picks. Dive into our expert advice and recommendations, and don’t forget to check out today’s MLB DFS projections, MLB DFS ownership projections and our special MLB lineups page! 

You can easily mix all this info with the MLB DFS Lineup Generator, helping you lock in your Core Plays and create winning lineups quickly! Here’s a sample lineup for today’s games:

 

 

 

MLB DFS Lineup Picks: Starting Pitchers

Top Options For Strikeouts

Best Odds For A Win

MLB DFS Lineups: Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Bailey Ober, Minnesota Twins

With so many concerns about the top-tier pitchers on this slate, I am very happy to bypass all of them and go straight to Bailey Ober. Even if Bailey Ober were the same price as every other pitcher, he would still be my #1 pitcher today. Bailey Ober has been better than the rest of these pitchers this season by about every metric. 

He also gets one of the better matchups of the day, facing the Cincinnati Reds, who have a 25.9% strikeout rate vs. right-handed pitchers over the last month. At this price, Bailey Ober is an absolute lock for me today, and nobody else is particularly close.  

Tanner Bibee, Cleveland Guardians

Here is another guy who arguably has better results and a better matchup than the top-priced pitchers. Bibee has a 3.56 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 26.3% strikeout rate through a career-high 154 innings this season. The results have been more mixed recently, but he has had a stretch of tough matchups and will face the Rays today.

If he can strike out 6 in back-to-back games against the Royals, he should have no issues pushing even higher than 6 against this Rays team, which has a 26% strikeout rate and is batting .220 vs. righties over the last month. 

Brady Basso, Oakland Athletics

Anyone facing the Chicago White Sox has been a good target for a long time now, but the issue has been that mediocre pitchers have been priced too high just because they are facing the White Sox. In today's MLB DFS picks, you get a pitcher facing them at the minimum price. 

Not only is he the minimum price, but he is coming off a great outing where he threw 6 shutout innings against the Tigers with 6 strikeouts. You would probably be considering Basso today even if he was priced with the rest of the bottom tier, but with a day where I want to pay up for some hitting, getting Basso at the minimum is a gift. 

 

 

 

MLB DFS Lineup Picks: Hitters

Highest Expected Run Totals 

MLB DFS Lineups: Core MLB DFS Hitters

Spencer Horwitz, 1B Toronto Blue Jays

Erick Fedde is having a great season. However, one of his biggest struggles has been power against lefties, where they have a 1.49 HR/9 against him this season. Spencer Horwitz is crushing the ball right now. He is slashing .424/.472/.909 over his last 10 games with 4 homers.

The biggest downside of Spencer Horwitz today is that you can’t stack him with Vladimir Guerrero (figure out your position eligibility, DraftKings), but he is still a great play at this price and matchup. 

Ryan McMahon, 3B Colorado Rockies

For the most part, today, I prefer the Cubs hitters to the Rockies, but that is mostly because I think a lot of the Rockies hitters are overpriced. I don’t think this with Ryan McMahon. I think he is the best deal of anyone on this team, as he is one of their best hitters and not priced above his performance levels (which I think many of the others are).

He has 2 homers over his last 5 games on a road trip, so hopefully, his production will continue today after he returns to Colorado. 

Dansby Swanson, SS Chicago Cubs

One of the main reasons I think Ezequiel Tovar is overpriced in MLB DFS projections today is that why would I pay up for him when I can get who I think is a better-hitting shortstop, also in Coors, for quite a bit cheaper? 

Swanson isn’t having the best season, but he is still a solid hitter. He has been in a bit of a cold stretch over the last few games, but he started September with 10 games in 4 games, including 2 homers, so we have seen great production recently, and I’ll bet on that returning against Austin Gomber in Coors. 

Chicago Cubs Outfield

This is where my focus is for the bulk of any Cubs stack in Coors today. You can go for any of these Cubs outfielders today, and I don’t think they are too overpriced for this matchup. I would rank my preference today as the following:

  1. Ian Happ
  2. Seiya Suzuki
  3. Cody Bellinger
  4. Pete Crow-Armstrong

The difference in my liking across all of them is minimal, so choose your favorite for MLB DFS picks today, or you could even make an entire outfield of Cubs. 

Taylor Ward, OF Los Angeles Angels

Once again, we have a solid pitcher in Kikuchi, but one of his biggest struggles is power against righties. Taylor Ward has been an absolute monster recently and is one of the biggest reasons I am worried about starting Kikuchi today. 

Since August 20th, Taylor Ward has had hits in all but one game. Over that stretch, he has slashed .325/.389/.688 and is fourth in OPS at (1.076) behind Lawrence Butler, Spencer Horwitz, and Eugenio Suarez (who are all also under-priced still, and you could put all four of them in a lineup if you wanted). 

 

 

 

Player Pool

$ Tier {{pos.alias}}

Stacks

{{stack.team.name}} {{player.name}}
DraftKings {{player.fantasy.price.value[8]}}-
Fanduel {{player.fantasy.price.value[6]}}-