Draftkings MLB Showdown Picks: Royals vs. Guardians 8/26/24

Major League Baseball presents a matchup between the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians. Let’s take a look at this MLB game from a Draftkings perspective.

Before we dive into the Kansas City Royals vs. Cleveland Guardians Game let’s review the rules for the Draftkings single Game 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 Kansas City Royals vs. Cleveland Guardians matchup.

Draftkings MLB Showdown Picks

Captain-Cole Ragans, Pitcher, Kansas City Royals $11,800

On Monday afternoon, Major League Baseball presents the opening game of a four game American League series between the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians.

How are these two teams playing entering tomorrow afternoon’s MLB Game? The Kansas City Royals arrive at the first Game of this American League series playing quality baseball. Let me be more specific. The Royals have won seven of the team’s last ten Games played in the 2024 MLB regular season, including a 3-0 shutout victory over the Los Angeles Angels last week.

Conversely, the Cleveland Guardians have not been playing good baseball recently. The Guardians have lost six of the team’s last nine games played this season, including a 6-0 shutout loss to the New York Yankee three days ago.

Now that we have determined how both of these American League teams are currently playing let’s shift our focus to tomorrow afternoon’s Game. Kansas City pitcher Cole Ragans has quickly established himself as one of the best strikeout pitchers in the American League. Having stated that, how has Ragans been playing from a statistical standpoint in 2024? Let’s review Ragan’s recent Game data to answer that question.

In the 26 Games that Cole Ragans has pitched for the Houston Astros in 2024, Brown has posted a respectable 3.31 ERA (Earned Run Average), 1.15 WHIP (walks, hits, inning pitched) and added a massive 183 strikeouts while allowing 50 walks.

More recently, in the Kansas City Royals 4-1 win over the Minnesota Twins 11 days ago, Kansas City starting pitcher Cole Ragans certainly pitched at a high level. More specifically, Ragans pitched seven innings striking out eight Royals batters while allowing only five hits and one earned run in the Kansas City Royals win over Minnesota.

As I noted in the rules section above, selecting the correct captain is absolutely vital if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) contest. In summary, I am rolling with Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Cole Ragans as my captain for this one game MLB DFS slate.

Flex plays I like (Draftkings price noted): Bobby Witt Jr., Shortstop, (Kansas City Royals) $10,000: Jose Ramirez, Third Baseman, (Cleveland Guardians) $9,600: Logan Allen, Starting Pitcher (Cleveland Guardians) $10,400: Salvador Perez, Catcher (Kansas City Royals) $8,800.