Saturday brings twin featured slates, the first beginning at 4:05 p.m. ET with nine games and the second at 7:15 p.m. at DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo with the rest. Before we get to our MLB DFS picks, as always, we will use Stokastic’s tools to help identify today’s MLB DFS stacks, key pitchers and daily fantasy baseball lineups. Look to Yoshinobu Yamamoto is looking like the ace of the day, while the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are the teams to target for stacks.
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MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Pitchers and Top Stacks | June 1
MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Pitchers
Main Slate Primary Pitching Target: RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD vs. COL)
Dodgers vs. Rockies – 3.0 implied runs
First Pitch: 10:10 p.m. ET
$9,600 at DraftKings
$9,400 at FanDuel
$53 at Yahoo
Credit to RHP Walker Buehler for hanging tough with a season-high 92 pitches and six innings against the Rockies through four walks and four runs. Keep in mind Buehler missed half of 2022 and all of 2023 after surgery for bone spurs in his elbow ended up with him also getting a second Tommy John surgery, as well as work done on his flexor tendon.
Rookie RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been impressive this season with a minuscule 1.98 walks per nine innings while also striking out 10.53 per nine along with a 46.5% groundball rate. This has led to a 3.51 ERA, higher than his 3.41 xERA and 2.83 FIP. Granting him a mulligan for his five earned runs, in one inning during the Seoul Series results in an even more impeccable line: a 2.79 ERA, a 2.79 FIP and a .217/.256/.358 triple-slash line.
Colorado continues to be bad against right-handed pitching, with an 83 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus is an advanced metric that neutralizes various variables, including park factors, creating a league-wide scoring efficiency baseline of 100), which means they are creating runs 17% less efficiently than the league average. This is a bottom-five mark in the league that they pair with a 25.8% strikeout rate and .136 ISO. Keep in mind that ISO gives the Rockies credit for all of their Coors Field production.
Even reaching back to the start of last year, the projected lineup has a 26.3% strikeout rate against right-handed pitching, with a .137 ISO and a paltry 6.3% walk rate. Advantage Yamamoto.
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Early Slate Primary Pitching Target: LHP Chris Sale (ATL vs. OAK)
Braves vs. Athletics – 3.0 implied runs
First Pitch: 4:10 p.m. ET
$11,000 at DraftKings
$11,600 at FanDuel
$66 at Yahoo
On Friday, RHP Reynaldo Lopez took care of business against Oakland, spinning six innings of one-run ball, with eight strikeouts. Now the Athletics get to see LHP Chris Sale in a dramatic dichotomy of pitching styles. Sale is in rare air on Yahoo, with a $66 salary that is the highest for a pitcher in the last five seasons.
In five May starts, Sale logged 32 innings with two earned runs and two walks. He also had an eye-popping 45 strikeouts. After several injury-plagued seasons in Boston, the now 35-year-old is at the top of his game, with his best numbers since 2018. Yes, the salary is imposing, which also means gamers are going to have to make some tough decisions to work him into rosters.
In Houston, RHP Joe Ryan is taking the mound for the visitors, while LHP Framber Valdez is toeing the rubber for the Astros. This duo does not have anything close to the matchup of Sale, but they do offer salary savings and frontline talent. Another option would be RHP Kyle Bradish, who is taking on a scuffling Tampa Bay squad, who get the park boost in Camden Yards along with good hitting weather.
Early Slate Secondary Pitching Target: LHP Garrett Crochet (CHW at MIL)
White Sox at Brewers – 4.2 implied runs
First Pitch: 4:10 p.m. ET
$9,000 at DraftKings
$10,100 at FanDuel
$55 at Yahoo
After getting sporadic work as a reliever, totaling 73 innings over three seasons, LHP Garrett Crochet has definitely announced his presence with authority this year. Currently, the 25-year-old leads the league with 12 strikeouts per nine innings, accompanied by a 3.68 ERA, 0.927 WHIP and six quality starts in 12 appearances.
Milwaukee does a decent job of limiting strikeouts against southpaws, with the projected lineup having a 19.2% rate this season, while also bringing the lumber with a .177 ISO. However, Crochet can bring his own magic, and this iteration of the Brewers has some serious holes at the back of their order. Blake Perkins, Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang are candidates for a three-up, three-down inning at the bottom of the lineup.
Rhys Hoskins is dinged up after missing last season, so his production has been inconsistent at best, and that has the team leaning heavily on MLB nomad Gary Sanchez, who seems to be back on track despite dancing on the edge of disaster for the last few seasons. Since being traded to the Twins in 2022 as part of the deal for Josh Donaldson, Sanchez has also played for the Giants, Mets, Padres and now the Brewers.
Looking to the home team, LHP Robert Gasser is a fine discount dandy on the early slate, though he could be overleveraged in tournaments.
MLB DFS Picks: Top Stacks
Main Slate Target: Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodgers vs. Rockies – 5.4 implied runs
First Pitch: 10:10 p.m. ET
Opposing Starter: RHP Cal Quantrill
DK Top Stack %: 18.1%
FD Top Stack %: 18.6%
The Stokastic Top Stacks Tool has the Dodgers as the most likely offense to top the leaderboard for the second-consecutive day.
In a baseball being baseball moment, Friday saw the boys in blue manage to plate just one runner against RHP Dakota Hudson and a pair of shaky relievers.
To his credit, RHP Cal Quantrill has been strong in May, allowing just six earned runs in five starts. Yes, three of his games were on the road, but a 1.71 ERA, sub-1.00 WHIP and a strikeout per inning are strong results.
So why pick on the surging strikeout artist? Well, precisely for that reason, he has a career 6.75 strikeouts per nine innings, so regression is likely around the corner on that front, while his 48.4% groundball rate is a significant increase over his 41.6% for the prior two seasons. The biggest change is that he is throwing a split-finger fastball (86.4 mph) nearly one-third of the time, which he has been using as a counterbalance for his 93.5 mph fastball. This is his age-29 season and while he is a second-generation MLB pitcher, we need to focus more on his track record than one stellar month.
The Dodgers have just 30 runs in their last nine games, but 10 came on Wednesday in New York against the Mets and the team had won three straight heading into Friday’s action after a five-game slide. Even with the recent struggles, Los Angeles has the fifth most runs in the league, and the team is only 14 behind the Philadelphia Phillies, who sit atop the leaderboard.
it has been the back of the lineup that is dragging down this top-heavy team, with it’s trio of former MVPs (Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani), and All-Star catcher Will Smith and two-time Silver Slugger, Teoscar Hernandez having to do it all. Manager Dave Roberts has been hesitant to play veterans Enrique “Kike” Hernandez and Chris Taylor, even against lefties as they have been so bad this season. Rookie Andy Pages has been m-e-h, MEH and “forever” prospect Gavin Lux is just not consistent after missing all of last season with an injury.
We know who to target, but so does everyone else, so thankfully DraftKings and Yahoo did a good job with the salaries for the fearsome fivesome.
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Main Slate Target: San Francisco Giants
Giants vs. Yankees – 4.0 implied runs
First Pitch: 10:10 p.m. ET
Opposing Starter: RHP Cody Poteet
DK Top Stack %: 9.3%
FD Top Stack %: 9.4%
The Stokastic Top Stacks Tool knows that gamers will be going after LHP Reid Detmers with the Seattle Mariners, which means the San Francisco Giants are looking a little underrepresented in tournaments. They will be hosting RHP Cody Poteet who is making just his second start of the season.
Poteet missed most of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in the fall of 2022. The soon-to-be 30-year-old has been a baseball lifer, being selected in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB Draft by Miami after three years at UCLA. He toiled in the minors for nearly six years, before getting tabbed for seven starts with the Marlins in 2021, but after 11 seasons with the pros, Poteet has just 64.2 innings in The Show.
New York signed him to a one-year, $750,000 deal, so they have hardly anything invested in him. He really should not be a starter, but as cannon fodder, the Yankees can run him out as a stopgap member of the rotation as the team tries to cover for injuries to Clarke Schmidt and Gerrit Cole.
The limited time in The Show for Poteet makes it harder to profile him, but he would be better as a reliever. Of course, there is also a reason he has barely pitched above the MiLB level, which is why we can focus on the top of the San Francisco lineup tonight for some differentiation. Mike Yastrzemski, Thairo Estrada, Matt Chapman and catcher Patrick Bailey would be the core four, though sticking with a three-man is fine for this situation. Depending on where he is in the lineup, Jorge Soler is also an option for his cheap power upside.
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Early Slate Target: New York Mets
Mets vs. Diamondbacks – 4.3 implied runs
First Pitch: 4:10 p.m. ET
Opposing Starter: RHP Slade Cecconi
DK Top Stack %: 7.3%
FD Top Stack %: 7.4%
The Stokastic Top Stacks Tool has Atlanta as a strong option against RHP Aaron Brooks, though that is also going to be where The Masses gather. If the Mets end up being uber-popular, then the Motor City Kitties are an alternate option as RHP Cooper Criswell has been uneven in his performances this season.
Turning back to New York, the matchup against RHP Slade Cecconi is a strong one as the rookie has ceded six earned runs in three of his last four starts. Cecconi is the fifth-ranked prospect in the Arizona system, though he is not on any industry top-100 lists. He will be 25 years old in a few weeks, and after strong showings at Triple-A, the Diamondbacks may just let him take his lumps as he learns to handle top-level hitters.
Power has been an issue for Cecconi, with a .262 ISO to lefties and a .200 ISO to righties in his limited time in The Show. He needs to learn that his strikeout stuff in the minors will not play against the highest level of competition as great fastballs are a dime a dozen. Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and switch-hitter extraordinaire Francisco Lindor are the trio to target, along with veterans J.D. Martinez, Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte, depending on where they land in the lineup.
Featured MLB Bet of the Day | MLB DFS Picks Today
Bryson Stott is demonstrating how math is a funny thing, with the OddsShopper model highlighting the under on his 1.5 total base prop. The -180 wager is currently available at PointsBet and while this is far from a sexy wager, the math indicates it is a highly-profitable, long-term value at the current numbers
OddsShopper shows this bet has -234 “true odds,” so the -190 line brings a strong 7.0% expected ROI. We can also see how crucial it is to shop the odds, as sportsbooks tend to vary wildly with their offerings. This can be seen with books like BetRiversand Unibet offering -278 lines, while DraftKings, HardRock and BetMGM have lowered the threshold to 0.5 total bases, but giving a significantly positive line, which is still in their favor. Be a savvy shopper!
Stott has been in a slump over the last 10 games, with 38 plate appearances turning into just four hits, none of which went for extra bases. That gives Stott a .111/.132/.111 triple-slash line, reminiscent of when pitchers used to hit. He is a solid player, but there is still room for improvement on his season-long numbers of .244/.345/.384.
Stott does have 14 steals and 26 walks, but neither of those categories count toward total bases. RHP Sonny Gray is in good form right now and while Stott could crush this wager with one swing of the bat, all the numbers indicate it is still one of the best available on the board.
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Final MLB DFS Picks & Thoughts for Saturday, June 1
Chicago has rain in the forecast, which is worth monitoring as it is one of the five games on the second featured-slate. Be sure to check in with your favorite MLB Weather Report page closer to first pitch for updates.
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