This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
We kick off the third weekend of the MLB season with a heavy schedule of day games. As a result, the main slate kicks off at 1:05 pm EDT with 11 matchups to work with. It's a weak day of pitching, though it's made more interesting by some seemingly misvalued options. And there's a lot of interesting stacking options, providing us plenty to discuss in our Saturday review.
Pitchers
The introductory paragraph may not have done justice to just how poor the pitching options are Saturday. Rather than highlighting the aces – spoiler alert, there are none – we'll immediately jump to the top value. Steven Matz ($6,900) has a home run problem, but he's also one of only six pitchers on Saturday who's posted a strikeout rate over 25 percent since the start of 2022. In a matchup against the Pirates at pitcher-friendly Busch Stadium, he's a solid option – particularly because the opportunity cost of playing him might be at its lowest point of the year.
Seth Lugo ($7,400) has looked surprisingly excellent shifting to a starting role this season in San Diego. He's worked six and seven innings in his two starts while maintaining a 12:3 K:BB and inducing 23 groundball outs. The Brewers have definitely been capable of making opposing pitchers pay early this season, but Lugo survived a start at Atlanta his last time out and posted 20.1 DK points.
While we're discussing the San Diego-Milwaukee matchup, it's worth jumping to the top of the pool to discuss Freddy Peralta ($10,700). He offers the highest strikeout rate of the available pitchers and has turned in two ace-like performances to begin 2023. The Padres lineup hasn't performed as expected early on, but there's a lot of talent up and down the order. Peralta's salary also spiked since his last start, but there's not much doubt he's the most talented pitcher on the mound Saturday afternoon.
Top Hitters
Isaac Paredes ($3,800) falls into an in-between price range, but we'll cite him as a top potential hitter on this slate. In 2022, he smashed lefties to the tune of a .286 ISO, and he'll draw Yusei Kikuchi Saturday. Since the beginning of last year, Kikuchi is serving up 2.2 HR/9. To top things off, Paredes has hit third in the Rays' lineup with lefties on the mound to begin the season.
It's hard to question much that the Rays have done to start the new campaign, but they'll be rolling out an uninspiring pitching duo of Calvin Faucher and Josh Fleming on Saturday. In short, the duo gives up a lot of contact and will face a lineup in Toronto that is capable of making a lot of hard contact. There are a lot of good options to choose from in the Blue Jays lineup, but Vladimir Guerrero ($5,800) represents a strong choice with the likelihood the team will face a lefty (Fleming) for a couple times through the order.
Value Hitters
Edouard Julien ($2,800) has hit first and eighth in the Twins' lineup since being recalled. He's a more interesting option from the leadoff spot, though he's worth at least considering regardless of where he slots in the order. In a tiny 11-plate appearance sample, Julien has struck out only once so he doesn't appear to be overwhelmed by big-league pitching. The matchup also works in his favor, as Domingo German carries a low strikeout rate (19.8 percent) and high HR/9 (1.5) since the start of 2022.
Stacks to Consider
Mets at Athletics (Shintaro Fujinami): Brandon Nimmo ($4,100), Starling Marte ($5,000), Francisco Lindor ($4,800)
The Mets were the key to having a profitable Friday night, and that's likely to remain the case Saturday. Fujinami has had a rude welcome to his first taste of baseball stateside by surrendering 13 earned runs across only 6.2 innings. The Mets offer a nice mix of players to stack atop their order, highlighted by an on-base machine in Nimmo, a speedster in Marte, and more power-based bats in Lindor and Pete Alonso ($5,200). There are two potential issues with this stack today, which include a very pitcher-friendly park and the likely popularity of the team after their big performance Friday and excellent matchup Saturday.
Guardians at Nationals (Chad Kuhl): Amed Rosario ($4,400), Jose Ramirez ($5,900), Josh Naylor ($4,100)
A move out of Colorado and away from Coors Field hasn't helped Chad Kuhl much. Through two starts with the Nationals, he's only produced a 7:5 K:BB while allowing nine earned runs across 10 innings pitched. The Guardians don't have the most imposing lineup, but they make a lot of contact and get on base, which will help the potential volume for players atop the order. And besides Jose Ramirez, the stack is quite affordable. That should help the overall build of the lineup to either go to top-end pitching or a more elite secondary stack.
