Labor Day Sunday means that we are getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. The DraftKings MLB DFS main slate starts at 1:10 p.m. ET and includes nine games.
It’s not an ideal crossover between DraftKings and FanDuel’s primary slates today. FanDuel’s main slate begins at 1:35 p.m. ET, but still includes nine games. DraftKings includes the Braves and Phillies. FanDuel includes the Cardinals and Rockies.
Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props
Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (gavin9/6)
- Other than perhaps Jacob Misiorowski, Gavin Williams may carry the most fantasy upside from start to start. That’s due to his immense strikeout upside. He has double-digit strikeouts in seven of his last 10 games, including a season-high 13 strikeouts in his most recent start against Toronto.
- When Walbert Urena keeps walks in check, his profile can produce high-end outcomes. He is coming off a start against the Yankees, in which he allowed a single earned run in seven innings with eight strikeouts and zero walks issued. Four of his past eight starts have gone over 40 points on FanDuel.
- Randy Dobnak had a 1.92 ERA through his first 51 innings pitched this season. After six earned runs in his most recent outing, his ERA jumped to 2.65, which is still considerably lower than his 4.03 FIP. Still, at his price point, against a Blue Jays lineup that he had a quality start against recently, it could be worth it.
Suggested Lineup Stacks
Chicago Cubs Projected Lineup (9/6)
Labor Day Sunday means that we are getting close to the end of the regular baseball season. The DraftKings MLB DFS main slate starts at 1:10 p.m. ET and includes nine games.
It’s not an ideal crossover between DraftKings and FanDuel’s primary slates today. FanDuel’s main slate begins at 1:35 p.m. ET, but still includes nine games. DraftKings includes the Braves and Phillies. FanDuel includes the Cardinals and Rockies.
Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props
Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (gavin9/6)
- Other than perhaps Jacob Misiorowski, Gavin Williams may carry the most fantasy upside from start to start. That’s due to his immense strikeout upside. He has double-digit strikeouts in seven of his last 10 games, including a season-high 13 strikeouts in his most recent start against Toronto.
- When Walbert Urena keeps walks in check, his profile can produce high-end outcomes. He is coming off a start against the Yankees, in which he allowed a single earned run in seven innings with eight strikeouts and zero walks issued. Four of his past eight starts have gone over 40 points on FanDuel.
- Randy Dobnak had a 1.92 ERA through his first 51 innings pitched this season. After six earned runs in his most recent outing, his ERA jumped to 2.65, which is still considerably lower than his 4.03 FIP. Still, at his price point, against a Blue Jays lineup that he had a quality start against recently, it could be worth it.
Suggested Lineup Stacks
Chicago Cubs Projected Lineup (9/6)
| POS |
PLAYER |
DraftKings Salary |
FanDuel Salary |
| OF |
Pete Crow-Armstrong |
$6,700 |
$4,300 |
| OF |
Seiya Suzuki |
$5,400 |
$3,600 |
| 1B |
Michael Busch |
$4,400 |
$3,000 |
| 3B |
Alex Bregman |
$5,900 |
$3,500 |
| OF |
Ian Happ |
$4,100 |
$3,000 |
| SS/2B |
Nico Hoerner |
$4,200 |
$2,900 |
| 2B/3B |
Pedro Ramirez |
$3,700 |
$2,800 |
| OF |
Michael Conforto |
$3,000 |
$2,500 |
| C |
Carson Kelly |
$3,600 |
$2,800 |
- The Chicago Cubs matchup today is against Tyler Phillips. Phillips’ surface ERA is 3.43, but that is due for regression, given his 4.63 xERA, 4.47 FIP and 4.38 xFIP. Most of his success came earlier in the season when he was pitching in a relief role. He had a 1.96 ERA as a reliever, which has risen to 4.15 as a starter.
- How do you not start with Pete Crow-Armstrong? He leads all qualified batters in the second half of the season in slugging rate and is in the top five in wOBA and wRC+. He is rapidly closing in on a 40-40 season with 39 home runs and 33 stolen bases.
- The answer to how do you not start with Crow-Armstrong is that you start with the equally hot Alex Bregman. Bregman only trails Crow-Armstrong in slugging in the second half. His wOBA and wRC+ are actually higher than Crow-Armstrong’s. His second-half wOBA is second-best in baseball this half.
- Switch-hitter Ian Happ has moved into a bit of a platoon, but this should be a matchup where he starts and could produce. Nineteen of his 23 home runs this season have come against right-handed pitchers like Phillips.
Atlanta Braves Projected Lineup (9/6)
| POS |
PLAYER |
DraftKings Salary |
FanDuel Salary |
| C |
Drake Baldwin |
$5,200 |
$3,600 |
| OF |
Ronald Acuna Jr. |
$6,100 |
$3,600 |
| 1B |
Matt Olson |
$5,300 |
$3,800 |
| OF |
Michael Harris |
$4,500 |
$3,300 |
| OF/SS/2B/3B |
Mauricio Dubon |
$3,700 |
$2,800 |
| 2B |
Ozzie Albies |
$4,800 |
$2,900 |
| C |
Sean Murphy |
$2,700 |
$2,500 |
| 3B |
Austin Riley |
$3,800 |
$2,800 |
| OF |
Mike Yastrzemski |
$2,700 |
$2,600 |
- Please note that the FanDuel main slate doesn’t include this game. To get the values on FanDuel, I examined the all-day slate.
- Aaron Nola is facing a familiar foe in the Atlanta Braves today. He’s coming off a strong month of August in which he turned back the clock a bit to pitch to a 2.65 ERA, which is easily his lowest mark of the season in any month. However, this is a Braves team with a lot of success against Nola. Earlier this season, he allowed six earned runs in fewer than five innings against them.
- Let’s start our Braves stack with their priciest hitter on DraftKings in Ronald Acuna Jr. He’s working on upping his average back to its norms with hits in seven of his last eight games, including five multi-hit games. He’s gone 21-for-60 against Nola in his career with four home runs.
- The priciest hitter in the Braves’ lineup on FanDuel is Matt Olson. Just like Acuna, he has had immense success against Nola in his career — 10-for-38 with seven extra-base hits, including four home runs.
- It’s odd to be able to call Austin Riley a cheap option in the Braves’ lineup, but that’s where he is at with only 16 home runs and a .224 batting average this season. Perhaps a matchup with Nola is what it will take, since he has the best record against him. He’s gone 23-for-66 against Nola with 11 extra-base hits, six of which were home runs.
Core Studs
- Yordan Alvarez is facing left-handed pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez today. Typically, you want to avoid lefty-vs-lefty matchups in DFS contests, but there is never a bad day to use Alvarez. He’s gone 9-for-18 against Rodriguez in his career with a pair of extra-base hits.
- It was mentioned above that Alex Bregman is second in wOBA in the second half of the season. The only player with a better wOBA this half is Bryce Harper. He faces right-handed pitcher Tyler Mahle today. Bregman has a 1.036 OPS this season against right-handed pitching.
- Ezequiel Duran is facing left-handed pitcher Ian Seymour today. Because he has only a 31% groundball rate, Seymour is susceptible to the home run, allowing 20 home runs in only 113 innings. Duran has an .868 OPS against left-handed pitching and has three home runs in the past week.
Value Plays/Punts
- Coby Mayo faces left-handed pitcher Payton Tolle today. It’s hard to believe, but Mayo leads all qualified batters in OPS against left-handed pitchers this season.
- Just keep riding the hot hand with Mickey Gasper until it stops. Over the past 28 days, he has an absurd 1.528 OPS. While it’s not quite as high as it was over the past week, it’s still a phenomenal 1.226.
- Konnor Griffin has been back from the injured list (IL) for only a couple of days. He has gone 0-for-7 so far. Before he went on the IL, his price on DraftKings was routinely around $4,000. Take advantage of the dip while it lasts.
Sunday’s Top 3 Underdog Player Props
It worked yesterday, and we’re going back to the well today with Ronald Acuna Jr. The recommendation yesterday was to take the over on this combo prop, and Acuna delivered with four combined hits + runs + RBIs. That was his third straight game with multiple hits.
It feels sad to take the under on only 4.5 strikeouts for Kyle Bradish. This was a pitcher who posted a 37% strikeout rate in 2025, but it’s fallen to 21% in 2026.
Because of that, Bradish has gone over 4.5 strikeouts in only one game in the second half of the season. His matchup today is against a Red Sox team that has only struck out 20% of the time in the second half.
Yordan Alvarez: 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBIs — Higher
Yordan Alvarez‘s success against Eduardo Rodriguez was referenced above. In the last four games that he has faced Rodriguez in his career, he’s had at least one hit. He’s the American League leader in RBIs, and he can accumulate those in bunches.
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