{"id":656943,"date":"2026-04-01T16:16:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656943\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:16:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:16:26","slug":"mlb-dfs-draftkings-picks-breakdown-wednesday-april-1st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656943\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB DFS DraftKings Picks Breakdown (Wednesday, April 1st)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MLB Breakdown offers data-driven analysis using the FantasyLabs Tools and predictive metrics<\/a> to highlight notable players within our MLB Player Models<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MLB DFS Pitching Picks<\/p>\n

MLB DFS Stud Pick<\/p>\n

Chris Sale (L) $9,900 Atlanta Braves (-211) vs. Athletics<\/p>\n

With plenty of rotations rolling over back to their ace, we\u2019re spoiled for choice at pitcher on Wednesday. Four arms are projecting for a median of 20 or more points, and seven pitchers have ceiling projections of 30 or above. The leader of the pack by a narrow margin is Chris Sale, who seems to be as good as he ever was in his age-37 season.<\/p>\n

He made his 2026 debut last week against the Royals and threw six scoreless innings, striking out six. It\u2019s rare for pitchers these days to even throw six innings in their season debut, but he was ultra-efficient, needing just 88 pitches to make it through six frames. That\u2019s extremely valuable for DFS, as there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019d get the opportunity to go one more inning with a similar pitch count through six this time around.<\/p>\n

He does have a tough matchup this time against the Athletics, at least in terms of run prevention. The good news is the A\u2019s have had one of the higher strikeout rates against lefties since the start of 2025, giving Sale more upside but with slightly more risk. Of course, that risk is fairly minimal if you believe the betting lines, which have the A\u2019s implied for just 3.3 runs.<\/p>\n

Sale is a better GPP play than a cash-game one, though I certainly wouldn\u2019t mind putting him on my cash-game rosters either if I could find the salary.<\/p>\n

MLB DFS Value Pick<\/p>\n

Matthew Boyd (L) $7,300 Chicago Cubs (-165) vs. Los Angeles Angels<\/p>\n

Cubs southpaw Matthew Boyd got off to a rough start in 2026, giving up six earned runs before being chased out in the fourth inning on opening day against the Nationals. That makes him a bit scary today, but the combination of his decreased price tag, matchup, and 2025 numbers makes him worth the risk.<\/p>\n

Boyd finished 2025 with a 3.21 ERA and 21.4% strikeout rate, the former number bordering on elite. While the latter is just okay, we\u2019re not being asked to pay a premium price for Boyd. Plus, he gets to face the Angels today. They struck out at a league-high 27% clip against lefties last season and have picked up right where they left off this year with a 36.4% mark.<\/p>\n

While that\u2019s based on a minute sample size of just 22 plate appearances, the lineup is similar enough to last season\u2019s that it\u2019s a relatively safe bet the number stays high in general. They\u2019re also implied for just 2.7 runs in what looks to be terrible hitting conditions<\/a> at Wrigley, so I\u2019m willing to give Boyd another shot in my lineups today.<\/p>\n

Now available:\u00a0our\u00a0MLB DFS SimLabs Lineup Generator<\/a>\u00a0that creates advanced DFS lineups using the power of simulation.<\/p>\n

MLB DFS GPP Picks<\/p>\n

Cristopher Sanchez (L) $9,200 Philadelphia Phillies (-261) vs. Washington Nationals<\/p>\n

Sanchez might be the best overall play on the slate, with similar Vegas data and overall projections as Sale, but with a $700 cheaper price tag. He\u2019s not quite cheap enough to take the Pts\/Sal lead, and his median and ceiling projection are just behind Sale, but the combination of the two factors stands out. Depending on how ownership shakes out, he\u2019s either an elite GPP pivot or a fine cash-game salary saver relative to Sale.<\/p>\n

Jacob Misiorowski (R) $8,500 Milwaukee Brewers (-144) vs. Tampa Bay Rays<\/p>\n

With all of the strong pitching options today, it looks like Misiorowski is getting lost in the shuffle. We have him projected for single-digit ownership despite his massive upside. He struck out 11 hitters in his 2026 debut after notching a 32% K rate in his rookie season. It\u2019s a tougher matchup this time around against the Rays, but with Tampa implied for 3.3 runs, it\u2019s one Misiorowski should win.<\/p>\n

MLB DFS Hitters and Stacks<\/p>\n

Notable Stack<\/p>\n

With the Lineup Builder<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to incorporate stacks into DFS rosters.<\/p>\n

Also, don\u2019t forget that for large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer<\/a> to effortlessly create up to 300 lineups.<\/p>\n

The top DraftKings stack in the FantasyLabs MLB Player Model<\/a> when generated by rating using our tournament model <\/a>belongs to the Philadelphia Phillies:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Phillies aren\u2019t cheap today, but for good reason: they\u2019re implied for a slate-high 5.4 runs today, half of a run higher than any other team on the slate. Part of that is due to the matchup. They\u2019re facing Nationals righty Cade Cavalli ($6,200), who had a pedestrian 4.25 ERA last season and allowed three runs over 3.2 innings in his 2026 debut.<\/p>\n

The other big factor is the weather<\/a>. It\u2019s worth monitoring the situation, as some storms seem to be rolling in around when this game should wrap up. However, if they hold long enough to play ball, the situation is elite for bats. Temperature approaching 80 degrees, strong winds out to right field, and a low-air-pressure\/high-humidity combo that helps the ball fly farther.<\/p>\n

Given all of the power in the Phillies lineup, those conditions could lead to plenty of home runs, which is obviously ideal for DFS. The chance of a rainout should give us a slight ownership discount as well, which makes them worth the risk in my book.<\/p>\n

Not interested in messing around with optimizer settings? No worries, you can use our\u00a0MLB DFS Simulations<\/a> and let it find the best way to control your stacks, exposure, correlations, and more!<\/p>\n

Other MLB DFS Hitter Picks<\/p>\n

One of the great features of being a\u00a0FantasyLabs Pro member<\/a>\u00a0is the option to purchase additional items in the\u00a0FantasyLabs Marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to our in-house MLB projections,\u00a0THE BAT X from Derek Carty of RotoGrinders<\/a>\u00a0is available in our marketplace. With this purchase, you can use his projections alone or create\u00a0aggregate projections<\/a>\u00a0within our Player Models.<\/p>\n

For this example, we created a 50\/50 blend with THE BAT X<\/a>\u00a0and the FantasyLabs projections to pinpoint some hitters that stand out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wyatt Langford OF ($4,500) Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles (Trevor Rogers)<\/p>\n

The other game today with solid hitting weather and a limited chance of being rained out is the meeting in Baltimore between the Orioles and Rangers. We\u2019ve got temperatures in the 80s with winds blowing out, conditions that boost home runs by more than 20%.<\/p>\n

The Rangers are taking on O\u2019s lefty Trevor Rogers, who had an elite 1.81 ERA last season but is due for some major regression, with a 5.5% HR\/FB ratio. Plus, the top of their lineup does great work against southpaws, as we see in PlateIQ<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m interested in mini-stacks of the Rangers in general, but Langford fits the best if also trying to stack the Phillies.<\/p>\n

Drake Baldwin C ($4,300) Atlanta Braves vs. Athletics (Luis Severino)<\/p>\n

The Braves\u2019 4.9-run implied total is second on the slate behind only the Phillies. While the obvious starting point is superstar Ronald Acuna ($5,900), he\u2019s fairly difficult to afford, assuming you want to roster some of the star pitchers available today.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Baldwin comes in. He\u2019s much cheaper, plus he has the added benefit of playing a position where production is harder to come by. On top of that, A\u2019s starter Luis Severino is somewhat worse against lefty hitters, so Baldwin and first baseman Matt Olson ($4,900) get a slight boost to their projections relative to Acuna.<\/p>\n

Interested in more MLB action? Check out Polymarket and use our Polymarket invite code<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pictured: Chris Sale
Photo Credit: Imagn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MLB Breakdown offers data-driven analysis using the FantasyLabs Tools and predictive metrics to highlight notable players within…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[537,5,4,3226],"class_list":{"0":"post-656943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athletics","8":"tag-athletics","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-athletics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116330353419405177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}