Early DraftKings MLB Picks June 26: Trust the lefties

We have a pretty nice split for our DraftKings MLB tournaments today. There are six early games and nine main slate games. Close to an even split. No one is exiled to their own showdown slate. This looks nice! Now the only question is the weather. The early slate is the smaller DraftKings MLB slate with six of the 15 games.

DraftKings MLB Pitcher Plays:

Top Tier:

Chris Sale ($11,600): Sale dominated his former team, holding them to just three hits in six shutout innings while striking out ten earlier this year. Don’t overthink this one. There is no one that can touch Sale’s strikeout upside, ceiling, or revenge factor on this slate. The White Sox are only hitting .193 against Sale in 83 at bats with four runs and a whopping 29 strikeouts.

Trevor Bauer ($10,600): The Royals are only hitting .208 with two homers and five runs in 72 at bats with 19 strikeouts against Bauer. Those numbers are up there with the elites when it comes to BvP. The cautionary tale here is that Bauer has a 5.40 ERA at home this year. I think he has a strong game here, but how strong? Stronger than Paxton? $1,600 better than Paxton? I have my doubts.

Middle Tier:

German Marquez ($10,000): Marquez one hit the Giants, racking up 46 DraftKings points in the process, in his first game against them this year at AT&T Park. Marquez’s 3.02 ERA on the road highlights how good of a pitcher he is. That first game against the Giants highlights how he can dominate a below average offense. Marquez should dominate them again.

James Paxton ($9,000): Paxton wasn’t all that good back in his homeland against the Jays, but he’s a different pitcher in Yankee Stadium for some reason. Paxton has a 2.10 ERA in seven home starts this year. The Jays offense is hitting pretty well right now, but the pitching options are severely limited on this slate. The strikeout upside and his home splits put Paxton as a great option today.

Bargain Pitchers:

Dylan Bundy ($8,100): Bundy’s numbers aren’t that great, but he has been serviceable lately. This is about strong strikeout potential on a short slate. Sure, Bundy will likely give up a couple of runs. He hasn’t had a clean outing since May 4th. He has only allowed more than three runs in a game once since then as well. I’m okay taking that chance here.

Matt Strahm ($6,000): Yeah, I feel a little dirty for writing up Strahm, but it makes sense. The Orioles strike out a lot. Strahm’s ERA is nearly two runs better on the road than at home. Baltimore may get a homer or three here, but I still think Strahm has a great shot at his first quality start in a month.

My picks: Sale, Paxton; Sale, Strahm; Marquez, Bundy

DraftKings MLB stack options:

Boston Red Sox vs. Reynaldo Lopez:

It’s not often that we have multiple stack options on this short of a slate, but we do here. The first is Boston. They are hitting .366 in 41 at bats against Lopez with two homers and eight RBI. Lopez’s 6.94 road ERA and six runs allowed in the first game against the Red Sox this year does nothing to inspire confidence this time around either.

Michael Chavis and Rafael Devers have the homers, and Devers has four of the eight RBI. We want to start there. J.D. Martinez and Eduardo Nunez have also hit Lopez well. For the fifth part of the stack, we can save some money by punting catcher or dropping down to Jackie Bradley Jr.

Cleveland Indians vs. Jake Junis:

The Tribe are hitting .350 against Junis in 60 at bats with three homers and 13 runs already. Lindor has all three homers and nine of the RBI. He can’t handle Lindor, but Roberto Perez, Carlos Santana, Jose Ramirez, Bauers, and Tyler Naquin have hit Junis hard as well. And don’t forget about the new infusion of power from Bobby Bradley. This could be a huge day for the Cleveland offense.

San Diego Padres vs. Dylan Bundy:

Okay, this isn’t so much an attack on Bundy. It’s an attack on the three innings after Bundy leaves. Bundy could very well put up six strong innings, but the Padres could still score ten runs on this bullpen with the power they have.

Colorado Rockies vs. Jeff Samardzija:

The Rockies are hitting .309 against Shark in 188 at bats with five homers and 24 runs. Sure, the Rockies don’t hit as well on the road, but they are still pretty hot right now. Ian Desmond has two of those homers. Iannetta, Daniel Murphy, and Charlie Blackmon have the others. Arenado hasn’t homered off of Shark yet, but he is 13-35(.371) with seven RBI. The homer can’t be far off.

DraftKings MLB early notes:

I suppose you could take a shot with Eloy to see if he goes deep off of Sale, but I’m completely off the White Sox today. No homers in 83 at bats is pretty telling to the dominance of Sale against them. I’m also off of Giants against Marquez as well.

More from FanSided

While Trent Thornton didn’t pitch all that well against the Yankees the first time around, he wasn’t bad enough to stack on either. He also has severe home/road splits. Thornton’s ERA is 3.5 runs better on the road. I do think they Yankees get a few runs off of him, but not as many as the stack options above. This is a place where we can fade some of the Yankees chalk. I do love the price on Gregorius, Stanton, and Judge though. They are all worth a look.

Randal Grichuk is 3-5 with a homer and two RBI against James Paxton. I could get on board with a Vlad Jr one off hoping for a homer, but there are many better pitchers to go after than Paxton today.

Lucas Duda and Alex Gordon have the homers against Bauer so far. Whit Merrifield is also 6-20 with a pair of RBI. I don’t know that I would trust anyone aside from Gordon and Merrifield though. The Royals aren’t really hitting right now.

As far as the Orioles go, most of them have enough power to take Strahm out on any given pitch. Most of them wont make contact though. I like Chance Sisco as a money saving measure. Renato Nunez, Trey Mancini, and Santander are my next favorite plays, but I don’t want overexposure here. There are better places to stack.

The Dodgers have stated that Tony Gonsolin will be making a “short start” for his major league debut. Indeed, Gonsolin has gone no more than five innings at AAA in any start this year. He could do well enough in five innings to end up worth his price, but the wording has me nervous. So does David Peralta, Eduardo Escobar, and Ketel Marte.

Taylor Clarke’s best start in the last month came against the Dodgers. It still wasn’t that good. Judging by the other results in that span, I would say that Clarke isn’t going to duplicate that feat even if the Dodgers rest most of their starters. Since Will Smith started last night and they are facing a righty, the nice value plays from the Dodgers are probably gone. However, Verdugo and Matt Beaty still count as bargains so we can afford Bellinger and Muncy.

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