Thursday, Sept. 3, has a variety of main slate start times for DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo and SuperDraft. 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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Early-Slate MLB DFS Picks
Chicago Cubs at RHP J.T. Brubaker – 5.3 implied runs
There is a decent chance that this game will be dealing with some precipitation. Fortunately it is only on a few of Thursday’s slates with the early start time. This will be the seventh appearance and fifth start for the 26-year old Brubaker. He has been relatively solid this season with his first action in The Show. That said, the Cubs are a fierce lineup and are coming in with one of the highest implied run totals for the entire day.
Ian Happ should be at the top of the order, and there is a good chance Kris Bryant will be in the lineup behind him. Bryant returned from a sprained finger injury on Tuesday, so barring any setbacks he should be back to his usual role. Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber round out the full stack du jour of the early slate.
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Main-Slate MLB DFS Picks
Philadelphia Phillies vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez – 6.0 implied runs
This could be the end of the line for Sanchez, who is in his 15th MLB season. This year he has been hammered with a 2.40 HR/9 while posting a 6.6% strikeout rate, which is his lowest in over a decade. Nothing in his underlying metrics portend much of a turnaround with his highest FIP 6.08, xFIP 5.37 and ERA 6.90 since 2008.
The Phillies are getting it done against right-handed hurlers this season with a top-10 offense. Bryce Harper, Jay Bruce and Didi Gregorius all have a .220+ ISO in lefty/righty matchups since the beginning of 2018. Rhys Hoskins is on a tear with 10 extra base hits in his last 40 at bats and a .375/.468/.875 triple slash. Alec Bohm and Roman Quinn will provide some bottom of the order differentiation.
The Nationals bullpen has been atrocious once again, and the defending World Series Champions are in trouble. Jean Segura, Andrew McCutchen and J.T. Realmuto are all in play too.
Late-Slate MLB DFS Picks
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. RHP Luke Weaver – 5.4 implied runs
Even with Justin Turner (hamstring) on the IL and Cody Bellinger dealing with a sore lat/oblique, the Dodgers have a fierce offense. Weaver has been a disaster this season allowing eight home runs in just 27.1 innings. Six have been to lefties and two crushed by same-handed batsmen. It should be no surprise, but it is still shocking that Weaver has a 51.2% hard hit rate this season. Opposing hitters are either striking out 11.2 K/9 or crushing the ball.
If Bellinger is in the lineup, consider him fully healthy as there is no reason for Los Angeles to risk him. Max Muncy, Corey Seager and Joc Pederson are the next trio to target as the batters swinging the stick from the left side of the plate. After that we can mix and match with Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Chris Taylor and A.J. Pollock. For the late slate, Edwin Rios Gavin Lux and Matt Beaty are the differentiation plays should they crack the lineup.
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