MLB DFS Picks & Underdog Player Props: Saturday (8/9)

Everyone, find a way to stay cool today, as it looks like a scorcher in many places. One of my favorite ways to do that is to watch baseball from the comforts of an air-conditioned room. If you’re going to watch baseball, you should play a bit of DFS along with it.

Today, we are examining the featured slate on DraftKings, which includes 11 games starting at 5:05 p.m. ET. FanDuel has a slate that begins at the same time, but includes only 10 games, as it excludes the Marlins-Braves doubleheader.

Saturday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props

Saturday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (8/9)

MLB DFS Picks & Underdog Player Props: Saturday (8/9) | FantasyPros
PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
Blake Snell	$8,700	$10,000
Eduardo Rodriguez	$7,900	$8,500
Logan Evans	$7,300	$7,500

Blake Snell wasn’t the sharpest we’ve seen him in his return from the injured list (IL), but he still showed the upside that he always offers. He allowed three earned runs over five innings, but still struck out eight batters. Today, he has the toughest matchup in the game against the Toronto Blue Jays, which is likely why he is a bit cheaper than you would expect. Still, if Snell is on, he can reach double-digit strikeouts against anyone.
This is as much the matchup as anything. Away from Coors Field, the Rockies have a team OPS of .608. That is the lowest road mark in baseball. They’ve been average against left-handed pitchers with an OPS of .665 against them. Eduardo Rodriguez has been erratic all year. He has three double-digit strikeout games this season, but also three games with six or more earned runs.
Logan Evans has only a 17% strikeout rate, but he gets ground balls at a 40% rate. Today, he gets to take on the Tampa Bay Rays, who have the worst wRC+ over the last month. The matchup is taking place in Seattle, where Evans has a 3.03 ERA at home compared to a 5.45 ERA on the road.

Suggested Lineup Stacks

Atlanta Braves Projected Lineup (8/9)

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
OF	Jurickson Profar	$4,000	N/A
1B	Matt Olson	$5,400	N/A
C	Drake Baldwin	$4,100	N/A
OF	Marcell Ozuna	$3,800	N/A
OF	Michael Harris	$3,400	N/A
2B	Ozzie Albies	$3,600	N/A
OF	Eli White	$2,500	N/A
3B	Nacho Alvarez Jr.	$2,200	N/A
SS	Nick Allen	$2,100	N/A

The Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves are scheduled to play a doubleheader today. Unfortunately, we can only play that on DraftKings, but the Braves have to be mentioned as a possible stack. The second game is expected to see Sandy Alcantara start for the Marlins. His history against the Braves (especially versus the injured Ronald Acuna Jr.) has been well documented. This has been the worst version of Alcantara in many years, with a 6.44 ERA. He has allowed four or more earned runs in 13 of his 22 starts.
A good starting point for your fantasy baseball lineup is Ozzie Albies. He has not been up to his typical standards this season, but he has had success against Alcantara in his career — 13-for-42 with six extra-base hits, including two home runs.
I’m going to assume Marcell Ozuna is in the lineup today, given his history against Alcantara. He is 9-for-25 against him with two doubles. While he has been in and out of the lineup recently, he hit a home run on Thursday and still sports a .776 OPS on the season.
Don’t look now, but since the All-Star break, Michael Harris looks like a different player. In the 19 games since the break, he has 11 extra-base hits, including four home runs.

Los Angeles Dodgers Projected Lineup (8/9)

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
1B/OF	Shohei Ohtani	$6,400	$4,700
OF/2B/SS (FD)	Mookie Betts	$4,900	$3,300
1B	Freddie Freeman	$4,700	$3,600
C	Will Smith	$5,400	$3,300
3B	Max Muncy	$3,700	$3,200
OF	Teoscar Hernandez	$4,800	$3,400
OF	Michael Conforto	$3,000	$2,700
OF	Andy Pages	$4,300	$2,900
3B (DK)/SS (FD)	Alex Freeland	$2,900	$2,200

After a bit of a lull, the Dodgers’ offense has been playing better again recently. They have a 106 wRC+ over the last two weeks. They have a matchup today against Chris Bassitt. He is allowing a lot of baserunners with a 1.31 WHIP, showing that a blowup is always possible.
Max Muncy is back from his IL stint. He’s already had one two-home run game out of four games played. His OPS sits at .863 on the season, which would be his best mark since 2021. He also has two home runs already off Bassitt in his career.
If you can find the money, it’s always an advisable strategy to pay up for Shohei Ohtani in your lineup. He has four extra-base hits against Bassitt in his career, with two of them being home runs.
A couple of Dodgers who were slumping were Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez. Proven sluggers like those two don’t stay cold for long. Over the last two weeks, Freeman has an OPS of 1.040. Hernandez isn’t quite that high, but a .909 OPS is nothing to be ashamed of.

Core Studs

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
SS	Xavier Edwards	$4,300	N/A
C/1B (FD)	Salvador Perez	$4,200	$3,000
OF	Jordan Beck	$4,000	$2,900

It’s not the traditional way for big DFS production, but Xavier Edwards has been on a tear recently. Over the last 28 days, he has a slash line of .326/.374/.478. That’s an OPS of .852, which certainly plays in DFS games.
Salvador Perez has an OPS of .926 over the last 28 days. He has also had success against Bailey Ober in his career. He is 8-for-25 against him in his career with four extra-base hits, including two home runs.
Jordan Beck has a .990 OPS over the last 28 days. He has also been better all season against left-handed pitchers, like he is seeing today against Eduardo Rodriguez. He has a .957 OPS this season against left-handed pitchers, but only a .764 OPS against right-handed pitchers.

Value Plays/Punts

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
2B/3B/SS/1B (FD)	Ernie Clement	$3,700	$2,800
OF	Adolis Garcia	$3,600	$2,900
OF/2B (FD)	Isaac Collins	$3,500	$2,800

The Toronto Blue Jays take on left-handed pitcher Blake Snell. Snell has made one start since returning from the IL. In that start, he allowed two earned runs over five innings, but struck out eight batters. Ernie Clement is someone I like to use against left-handed pitchers, as he has a .932 OPS against them.
Adolis Garcia has a matchup against left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo. Garcia has an odd reverse split where his OPS is only .529 against left-handed pitchers. However, he is 2-for-4 against Luzardo in his career with two home runs.
Until his price rises, Isaac Collins will continue to be a value play. He has a .949 OPS going back to the start of June, which is top 10 in all of baseball.

Saturday’s Top Underdog Player Props

Jesus Luzardo (SP – PHI): 2.5 Earned Runs Allowed — Higher

Jesus Luzardo has been extremely inconsistent in the second half. Since the start of July, he has made six starts. He has had two starts where he went seven innings without allowing an earned run. In the other four starts, he allowed 18 earned runs over a combined 17.2 innings.

Ha-Seong Kim (2B, SS – TB): 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI — Lower

Ha-Seong Kim has been back for six games since his IL stint. He is a combined 3-for-18 with three singles. Going back to before his injury, he is in the midst of a 5-34 slump with five singles. He has only scored one run with zero RBI in that span.