Early DraftKings MLB Picks April 20: Which Killer B?

SAN DIEGO, CA – MAY 28: Caleb Smith #31 of the Miami Marlins pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on May 28, 2018 in San Diego, California. MLB players across the league are wearing special uniforms to commemorate Memorial Day. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images) /

Early DraftKings MLB Picks April 20: Which Killer B?

We have the trademark Ginsued Saturday slate for our DraftKings MLB tournaments. The early slate is fairly cut and dried since there are eight games. After that things get tricky. So let’s just focus on the early ones!

DraftKings MLB Early Pitcher Plays:

Top Tier:

Jose Berrios ($10,800): Berrios is the highest priced player on the slate, and you really can’t say he hasn’t earned it. Berrios has four straight quality starts and a 2.31 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 27.1 innings. Only three Baltimore players have ever faced Berrios. They are a combined 4-19. No matter how you dissect this, Berrios is the elite play on a pretty good slate. There’s no one that stands out above him here.

Trevor Bauer ($10,600): Bauer has been dialed in this year, going 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 26.1 innings pitched. There are a couple of dangerous pieces in the Atlanta lineup, but none that I’m really worried about. Bauer should dominate here. I almost like him more than Berrios!

Jameson Taillon ($9,100): Taillon has been solid so far, but that hasn’t amounted to a win or even any numbers that stand out. This Giants offense is not a really good one, but they don’t strike out a lot. That is going to limit Taillon’s value, and honestly, it makes this price a little hard to wrap my head around. With Tanaka you get the inconsistency and the strikeouts. With Taillon you get more consistency, but not the strikeouts. That’s the choice for this afternoon.

Middle Tier:

Matt Shoemaker ($8,300): Shoemaker hasn’t just been good, he has been dominant in his first four starts for the Blue Jays. Shoemaker is 3-0 with a 1.75 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. Not only that, he has managed to rack up 23 strikeouts in 25.2 innings pitched. There’s risk against the A’s, but that offense mostly smokes lefties. They were shut down by Stroman last night. Expect more of the same here.

Mike Fiers ($7,700): The Blue Jays are hitting ..217 in 23 at bats against Fiers with just one run and ten strikeouts. It’s a small sample size, but those numbers are dominant enough to take notice of. Now the bad news: Fiers has been smoked for a 7.06 ERA this year. I guess the silver lining is that Fiers has been solid in the massive coliseum. You can do worse in the mid range today.

Bargain Pitchers:

Daniel Norris ($7,000): The White Sox are only hitting .192 against Norris in 26 at bats, but they do have three runs to go with the eight strikeouts. Most of the hot White Sox hitters are lefties, so Norris could be a serviceable punt here. There is heavy risk involved with anyone in this tier on the afternoon slate. At least with Norris you get some strikeout upside.

Derek Holland ($6,800): If I trusted the Pirates at all I would attack this, but I am strangely apathetic to this spot on both sides of the ball. Pittsburgh is hitting a solid .308 against Holland, but they only have three runs in 52 at bats. Holland has essentially pitched like me in life this year: ugly but effective. The 4.09 ERA doesn’t do much for us, but at some point, Holland figured out how to rack up the strikeouts. He has put up 27 in just 22 innings. The more I look at this, the more I like it.

Alex Cobb ($6,000): We are going to need value somewhere, and this could be a solid place to look. Cobb picked up a respectable 13.2 DraftKings points against the Yankees in his only start this year. Cobb doesn’t strike out a lot of batters though, so there is risk using him. He did give up two homers to the Yankees in that game, and he has given up four to the Twins in 91 at bats. They are still only hitting .242 off of him with 17 strikeouts. Cobb is a solid low tier play.

My picks: Bauer, Holland; Berrios, Holland

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 04: Stephen Piscotty #25 of the Oakland Athletics bats against the Boston Red Sox at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on April 04, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

DraftKings MLB Early Notes:

This is a spot where Heath Fillmyer could get crushed. He has a 9.00 ERA over two starts anyway, so it’s not like he has pitched well to begin with. And the wind is blowing out. I want Brett Gardner, Judge, and Gleyber Torres for sure. The red hot Clint Frazier is worth a look too.

More from FanSided

Lucas Duda is 2-2 with two solo homers against Masahiro Tanaka. If you’re ever going to play him, it should probably be here.

You could definitely stack against Ervin Santana here. The Tigers are hitting .252 with six homer and 17 runs in 107 at bats. Gordon Beckham has three of those homers. Niko Goodrum, Nick Castellanos, and Miggy have the others.

The Mets have not named a replacement for deGrom. What does that say? Stack Cardinals! Maybe. Vargas was much better than he should have been against them. I want some more information about how the Mets are going to handle this before I just throw random Cardinals out there. I’ll take Matt Carpenter and Ozuna either way. The rest I will play be ear.

Miles Mikolas has come back to earth this year, and the Mets offense is pretty good. Except for Pete Alonso. He’s really good. give me all the Alonso here with a side of Cano and Nimmo. Forget who’s pitching. There’s some nice value in the Mets offense.

The wind may be blowing in at Wrigley, but I’m taking shots at Zack Greinke. Lots of them. Greinke is 0-2 with a 8.31 ERA in five career starts in the not-so-friendly confines. Willson Contreras has smacked two homers off of him already. Javy Baez, Ben Zobrist, and Rizzo are all hitting better than .320 against Greinke. This will not be a popular stack, but it certainly could pay off.

Yu Darvish has not pitched well at Wrigley either. He has a 5.47 ERA there in five career starts. I do think that wind is going to keep a few more balls in the park, but this could still be a high scoring game. Adam Jones, David Peralta, and the speedy Jarrod Dyson are my favorite targets here.

Stephen Piscotty and Khris Davis have both homered twice against Shoemaker in his career. If you are going to go after Shoemaker, do it with those two.

Now matter how I look at this, I kind of want to go after Alex Cobb. Nelson Cruz, Mitch Garver, C.J. Cron, and Jonathan Schoop have all homered against Alex Cobb before. I have no issue taking a shot or two here, but keep in mind that only Cruz is the only one of the four hitting .250 or better (.286) against Cobb.

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