MLB DFS Picks, Top Stacks & Pitchers: Angels Bats Project Well vs. Cole Ragans & Rangers (October 1)

Saturday, October 1, begins a new month and marks the start of a five game sprint to the finish of the regular season. The DFS action starts at 1:05 P.M. ET and coalesces into a seven-game featured slate starting at 7:05 p.m. ET. Let’s get into the top MLB DFS picks today for pitchers and stacks for DraftKings and FanDuel daily fantasy baseball lineups.

DraftKings & FanDuel MLB DFS Picks Today (10/1)

Main Slate Stacks:

Los Angeles Angels vs. LHP Cole Ragans — 4.5 implied runs

The Stokastic Top Stack Tool senses weakness with Cole Ragans who has struggled in four September appearances. Over the last month, the rookie southpaw has been saddled with a 6.48 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP over 16.2 innings. Ragans was the 30th overall selection in the 2016 MLB Draft and he received a $2 million dollar signing bonus from Texas right out of high school. A pair of Tommy John surgeries and the 2020 MiLB pandemic shutdown derailed his chances to gain experience. Considering the adversity he has faced, he should be much better next season, but at this point he just does not have enough high-level reps under his belt.

We can target the top-heavy Anaheim lineup with Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Luis Rengifo and Taylor Ward all having sustained excellence against southpaws. Jo Adell is the punt du jour and differentiation can be found courtesy whichever catcher lands in the lineup tonight.

Chicago White Sox at RHP Mike Clevinger — 4.2 implied runs

Though we prefer the White Sox against lefties, Mike Clevinger has been in a downward spiral for the last month. Over five September starts, the 31-year-old has suffered a 7.83 ERA, and seven home runs against a paltry 15 strikeouts across 23 innings. Injuries limited the former Cleveland standout to just eight starts between the 2019 season and this year.

Perpetual discount dandy, Gavin Sheets and journeyman Mark Payton are the main lefties to target in the top half of the Chicago lineup. Fortunately the ChiSox have Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez swinging the stick from the right-side of the plate bringing some light-tower power and extra-base hit upside. This group should be tightly bunched which will help increase their potential synergy.

Other Hitting Options

  1. Philadelphia Phillies at RHP Anibal Sanchez (Early)
  2. Toronto Blue Jays vs. RHP Brayan Bello (Early)
  3. Aristides Aquino at LHP Drew Smyly (Early)
  4. Mike Yastrzemski vs. RHP Drey Jameson (Afternoon)
  5. Seth Brown at RHP Luis Castillo (Afternoon)

Best MLB DFS Pitchers

Primary Pitching Target:

RHP Dylan Cease at San Diego Padres — 3.6 implied runs
  • DFS Salary: DraftKings $10,100 | FanDuel $10,300

Dylan Cease looks like a solid option tonight in the Stokastic Top Pitchers Tool. Chicago has been out of the playoff picture for a couple of weeks, but they can still play spoiler to the Padres who are battling with the Phillies and Brewers for the final Wild Card berth. This has been an outstanding season for Cease, who is behind only odds-on favorite Justin Verlander in the American League Cy Young Award race.

On the year, the 26-year-old right-handed hurler ranks second with a 2.06 ERA, fifth with 222 strikeouts and 18th with a 1.09 ERA. Tonight will likely be the final appearance for Cease who needs only five strikeouts to set career highs across the board. The Padres are once again scuffling down the stretch and despite bringing in Juan Soto, Josh Bell and Brandon Drury, they have lost three straight and five of their last eight games. While this is not an easy matchup, Cease is a true ace and it seems most of the other main slate options have tough matchups or potential pitch count scenarios.

Other Main Slate Pitching Options

Jordan Montgomery has a a tremendous matchup with a Pittsburgh squad that has struggled against southpaws all season. The $7,600 salary on DraftKings is forgiving, though his $8.700 tag on FanDuel is a tough sell. St. Louis is all but locked into their playoff seeding as they will not be able to catch the winner of the National League East. One more victory down the stretch and they should lock in a better record than any of the National League wild card teams. That leaves some question marks of how much of a workload headed Montgomery’s way tonight. Likely he will see between 75 and 80 pitches or the end of the fifth inning. This means he should be in the mix for a win if the Cardinals put some runs on the board, but anything more than 20 DraftKings points would take a very efficient night.

Max Scherzer and Kyle Wright are squaring off tonight as New York and Atlanta are all knotted up atop the National League East. The main MLB DFS sites are charging full freight for Scherzer who has tossed 68 and 91 pitches after missing two weeks with soreness on the left-side of his torso. While this is a crucial game and he likely will get at least 90 pitches tonight, it is also a very tough matchup. Wright is the only 20-game winner this season and while he is a fantastic pitcher, he is not quite at that elite ace caliber who would be considered matchup proof. The Mets have a very deep lineup and have already roughed up Wright twice this season.

Edward Cabrera faces a Milwaukee squad that is clawing for the last Wild Card ticket. The rookie left his last start early after tweaking his ankle while covering a bunt, though he is expected to be a full-go tonight. There is no reason to push the youngster more than five innings tonight as he has already logged a career-high workload. He can be in the mix as an SP2 on the two-pitcher sites, but is unlikely to get a quality start or win, which curbs his upside in the FanDuel scoring system.

Cristian Javier will be drawing the start for Houston in a matchup against Tampa Bay. The Rays are half a game behind Seattle in the Wild Card standings and they are two behind Toronto. The Astros are locked into the best record in the American League and cannot catch the Dodgers for overall home field advantage. Javier will likely be working out of the bullpen in the postseason, depending on the health of Lance McCullers Jr. Something in the six innings or 90-pitch range is likely.

Michael Grove has a terrific $5,300 salary on DraftKings and he is the perfect SP2 who should get five innings against the dreadful Rockies who struggle on the road. The Dodgers are -250 moneyline favorites to garner the victory tonight and if they can get some early-inning offense against Kyle Freeland, Grove could be in line for the win bonus.

Jose Suarez will be tackling a Texas squad that has lost three consecutive games and 23 of 31 since starting a late-August swoon. Though this is not a gimme matchup, the Rangers are a disaster after their top five batsmen and Suarez should be in line for his standard workload. Look to him as an SP2 on the main slate and as a lotter ticket against the Cease crowd on the late-slate.


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Early Slate Pitching Options

  1. RHP Kyle Gibson at Washington Nationals (Early)
  2. LHP Nick Lodolo at Chicago Cubs (Early)
  3. RHP Drey Jameson at San Francisco Giants (Early, Afternoon)
  4. RHP Luis Castillo vs. Oakland Athletics (Early, Afternoon)

Additional Opportunities

On the afternoon slate, Nick Lodolo is an intriguing option in both the DFS and player prop markets. Currently, he has a 6.5 over/under on his strikeout prop while the Stokastic MLB DFS projections are forecasting 7.6 strikeouts and a 61% that he surpasses this milestone. The matchup against the Cubs is a favorable one as they have put a big stamp on the season and have mailed it in since the trade deadline. Yes they have won nine of their last 10 games, but that has been on the strength of their pitching staff against fellow cellar dwellers Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. In this stretch they have four or fewer runs in seven tilts. The projected lineup has a 25.2% strikeout rate against southpaws over the last two seasons, which plays into the strength of Lodolo.

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Final MLB DFS Thoughts & MLB Weather Notes

There is a lot of rain in the DC Metro forecast through Sunday, though it is likely that the Phillies and Nationals will get in at least one, if not both of their games today. While Washington was eliminated from the postseason long ago, Philadelphia is 1.5 games behind San Diego for the final Wild Card berth and MLB will do whatever they can to get their games played this weekend.

The remnants of Hurricane Ian that have been moving through our nation’s capital have also reached New York and while the storm has lessened, there is going to be rain in the Big Apple today and tomorrow. Windows are available for that game to play, so it likely will at some point, though Baltimore was eliminated from the playoffs by Seattle who won with a walk off homer.

Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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