{"id":645486,"date":"2026-05-02T19:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645486\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T19:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:24:13","slug":"covering-the-bases-with-stlcardinals84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645486\/","title":{"rendered":"Covering The Bases with stlcardinals84"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n

\"Covering<\/p>\n

Long-time grinder Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is here to cover the bases for the upcoming MLB DFS<\/a> slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Justin has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his favorite MLB DFS picks today on May 2, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"ComboProRGMLB2026.1000x400\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Saturday, Grinders! We have the usual Saturday schedule with games spread out all over the place. There are 3 \u201cvery early\u201d starts followed by 5 later afternoon games and 6 evening games. I will focus on the 5-game afternoon slate and the evening slate in the article today.<\/p>\n

Weather does not look to be a concern, so it should be all systems go for a fun day of baseball. These are some tricky slates, so it will be interesting to see how things shake out.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dig in and see what the start of the weekend has in store for MLB DFS picks!<\/p>\n

Saturday Afternoon Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on DraftKings and FanDuel <\/p>\n

\"Mlodzinski<\/p>\n

AFTERNOON PITCHING OPTIONS<\/p>\n

I was unsure about whether or not I wanted to split teams into tiers for the 5-game afternoon slate, and then I looked at the pitching options. There isn\u2019t a \u201ctop\u201d tier for pitchers this afternoon, so that made this decision easy. All the pitchers are secondary options, so they shall all get bunched together. Here\u2019s what we have this afternoon, and as an early warning, it\u2019s not all that exciting.<\/p>\n

As usual, let\u2019s begin with a look at the 2026 data for these starters:<\/p>\n

Harrison \u2013 2.28 ERA, 3.14 xFIP, 31.3% K, 8.3% BB
Early \u2013 2.84 ERA, 4.42 xFIP, 21.4% K, 10.7% BB
Meyer \u2013 3.30 ERA, 3.92 xFIP, 25.0% K, 9.1% BB
Arrighetti \u2013 2.00 ERA, 4.56 xFIP, 26.9% K, 11.5% BB (3 starts)
Griffin \u2013 2.67 ERA, 3.96 xFIP, 21.9% K, 7.3% BB
Mlodzinski \u2013 4.13 ERA, 3.50 xFIP, 23.8% K, 8.7% BB<\/p>\n

The youth movement is in full force today. Here are the ages of these pitchers: 24, 24, 27, 26, 30, 27. It\u2019s hard to believe that Foster Griffin<\/a> is the \u201cold man\u201d of this group at age 30. I\u2019m 41, and that makes me feel pretty old. In any case, we\u2019ll see which young gun can have the most success.<\/p>\n

The discussion has to start with Kyle Harrison<\/a>. He has always shown plenty of talent in spurts, and he appears to be taking the next step forward in 2026. He has been a great acquisition for the Brewers, and his sparkling metrics and strikeout rate are supported by a swinging strike rate that sits north of 14%. I always love taking left-handed pitchers against the Nationals, as Harrison will have the L\/L splits advantage over their best power bats in James Wood<\/a> and CJ Abrams<\/a>. Harrison is a safe option with his overall profile and one of the lower walk rates of these options (even at 8.3%, that is low by the standards we have available today), and he obviously has a big ceiling. This is your obvious SP1 choice.<\/p>\n

Connelly Early<\/a> has a solid 2.84 ERA, but his advanced metrics suggest negative regression. He also seems slightly overpriced, he has the lowest strikeout rate of this group, and I prefer RHP against Houston. He\u2019s an easy pass for me today. The same largely goes for Spencer Arrighetti<\/a> on the other side of this game. While I have concerns about Boston\u2019s offense and their general direction as a team, Arrighetti has had a 10%+ walk rate in every one of his MLB seasons. His risk tends to outweigh his ceiling, and it\u2019s a tough sell on the road in Fenway Park. These are my least favorite pitchers of the ones I have listed here.<\/p>\n

Max Meyer<\/a> is another pitcher who came up as a well-regarded prospect a few years ago, and he\u2019s largely been solid \u2013 if unspectacular \u2013 at the MLB level. We know the Phillies have underachieved this year, and the bottom part of their lineup does leave a lot to be desired. The Phillies have the 5th-lowest team walk rate against RHP so far in 2026, and Meyer has shown some sneaky strikeout ability this season. It\u2019s not exciting, but he is absolutely in the mix as a secondary option.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most intriguing name as we move down the list is Foster Griffin<\/a>. He has transitioned nicely to the MLB environment after a successful couple of seasons pitching for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan. I had questions at first because the Japanese League tends to be lower-scoring on the whole, but Griffin has answered those questions with a 2.67 ERA and 1.07 WHIP through his first half dozen MLB starts. He has also faced the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, and Brewers already, so it\u2019s not like he\u2019s done all this against cupcake opponents. This will be his second time facing Milwaukee, and he allowed just 1 hit over 5 1\/3 innings the first time he faced them. All things considered, he\u2019s my favorite SP2 choice on DK.<\/p>\n

Carmen Mlodzinski<\/a> is the final option I will mention here. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s anything special, but the Reds have been a bit of a mirage in the early going. They have a great record, but they rank just 22nd in the league in team wOBA against RHP and have the 3rd-highest team strikeout rate. You could do worse than Mlodzinski as a cheap dart throw in GPP builds. I wouldn\u2019t bother with this on FD, but he\u2019s on my DK radar for tournament builds.<\/p>\n

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This content can help you make better MLB DFS picks To access this content, subscribe to MLB Premium or purchase a 3-day trial. An MLB subscription will allow you to access this content and much more! Buy MLB Premium!<\/a> <\/p>\n

About the Author <\/p>\n

\"stlcardinals84\" Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84)<\/a> <\/p>\n

Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is a longtime RotoGrinders contributor and show host. He\u2019s appeared in numerous Live Finals, has logged countless 6-figure wins in a host of different sports (including 5 in PGA), and is a former DFS Writer of the Year Nominee by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. You can find Justin\u2019s \u2018Covering The Bases\u2019 series on weekends during the MLB season. He is also a main contributor of sports betting picks at our sister site, ScoresAndOdds. Follow Justin on X \u2013 @stlcardinals84<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long-time grinder Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is here to cover the bases for the upcoming MLB DFS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-645486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}