Draftkings MLB Showdown Picks: Guardians vs. Yankees 10/17/24

On Thursday afternoon, Major League Baseball presents Draftkings baseball fans with an American League playoff matchup featuring the Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees. Let’s take a look at this MLB game from a DFS perspective.

Before we dive into the Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Yankees game let’s review the rules for the Draftkings single game MLB showdown contest.

Draftkings Single Game Showdown Contest Rules

You have $50,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team captain. The captain accumulates 1.5 times the standard fantasy points. Additionally, the captain is 1.5 times the standard cost of the flex position.

The remaining four players in your lineup will receive the standard fantasy points. Having stated that, it is highly important for you to identify the correct player for your captain position if you hope to win a large field DFS GPP (guaranteed prize pool) showdown contest.

If you have additional questions regarding the rules for the single game showdown contest, I recommend that you check out the Draftkings website for more details.

*I recommend that all readers review the starting lineups for both teams prior to setting your DFS lineup for this one game slate.

Here are my Draftkings picks for tomorrow afternoon’s New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians matchup.

Draftkings MLB Showdown Picks

Captain-Clark Schmidt, Starting Pitcher, New York Yankees $11,000

On Thursday afternoon, Major League Baseball presents the third game of the 2024 American League Championship series featuring the Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees.

How are these two teams playing entering tomorrow’s MLB playoff game? The Cleveland Guardians arrive at the third game of the 2024 American League Championship series playing below average baseball. More specifically, the Guardians have lost four of the team’s last seven games played this season, including a 3-0 shutout loss to the Detroit Tigers seven days ago.

In direct contrast to the Cleveland Guardians, the New York Yankees have been playing good baseball recently. The Yankees have won five of the team’s last six games played this season, including a 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals last week.

It should be noted that the New York Yankees won last night’s second game of the 2024 American League Championship series defeating the Cleveland Guardians 6-3.

Now that we have determined how both of these Major League Baseball teams are currently playing let’s shift our focus to tomorrow afternoon’s American League Championship series game.

New York pitcher Clark Schmidt has been a key contributor to the Yankees starting pitching rotation this season.  Having stated that, how has the New York Yankees pitcher been playing from a statistical standpoint in 2024? Let’s review Schmidt’s game data from this season to answer that question.

In the 17 games that Clark Schmidt pitched for the New York Yankees in the 2024 MLB regular season, Schmidt posted a 2.85 ERA (Earned Run Average), 1.13 WHIP (walks, hits, inning pitched) and added 93 strikeouts while allowing 29 walks.

More recently, in the New York Yankees 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals seven days ago, New York starting pitcher Clark Schmidt certainly pitched at a high level. Schmidt pitched five quality innings striking out four Kansas City batters while scattering four hits and one walk in the Yankees victory over the Royals.

I fully expect Clarke Schmidt to continue his outstanding play in Game 3 of the American League Championship series. For that specific reason, I am backing Yankees pitcher

Flex plays I like (Draftkings price noted): Matthew Boyd, Starting Pitcher, (Cleveland Guardians) $11,200: Jose Ramirez, Third Baseman (Cleveland Guardians) $9,400: Juan Soto, Outfielder (New York Yankees) $9,600: Aaron Judge, Outfielder (New York Yankees) $9,800.