Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Stack City, where I’ll be going through the top MLB DFS Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel.
For a Thursday night, we have a pretty nice-sized 8-game slate of MLB DFS to navigate through. We have a couple of gas cans on the mound that we’ll look to stack around.
Always make sure to read Adam’s Starting Rotation when setting your lineup. It’s hands down the best pitching article in the MLB DFS business.
Let’s dig in and see if we can find some stacks to use today!
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Paolo Espino
While many Phillies fans will be looking forward to tonight’s game due to Noah Syndergaard being on the hill, MLB DFS players will be looking forward to tonight’s game thanks to Paolo Espino being on the hill. Over his last 21 innings of work, Espino has been getting shelled. He’s given up 7 homers and 9 barrels over that stretch. One of his biggest issues has been his inability to get ahead of hitters. His first strike % of 52.60% is by far the lowest of any pitcher on the mound tonight. He’s essentially getting behind nearly half the hitters he’s facing.
Over his last 6 innings of work, Espino has given 4 runs 4 times. Against a solid Phillies lineup, that number should climb. For the most part, we’re going to want to focus on the righties in the Phillies lineup tonight. Righties have a .514 slugging % vs. Espino this season, while also having a wOBA of .360. Both numbers are much higher than what lefties have done against him.
Core: My Phillies core tonight is going to revolve around the 3 guys in the middle of this lineup, Rhys Hoskins, Alec Bohm, and Nick Castellanos. All three of these guys are coming into this one swinging decent sticks. Castellanos hit his first homer run in over a month yesterday and is at a bargain price of just $3.2k. To say this season has been a disappointment for him would be quite an understatement. That said, his bat has been coming around of late. He has hits in 6 of his last 7 games and over that stretch, he has multiple games with multiple hits. Both Bohm and Hoskins have had decent weeks, with 8 hits each over the last 7 days.
Secondary Pieces: The only reason that Kyle Schwarber isn’t in my core tonight is that Espino is slightly better against lefties. That said, I’m going to try my hardest to get Schwarber into my lineups tonight. Over the last month, he’s absolutely crushed righties. He has a .424 ISO and a .347 wOBA. While he’s always a risk for a big K game, Espino doesn’t miss many bats with just a 10% swinging strike rate. That will lessen the risk of a 3-K game for Schwarber. Schwarber stands a great chance at taking Espino deep tonight.
Value: If you need some value with this stack tonight, Brandon Marsh should make his debut tonight and is just $2.9k on DK. He’s not great, but the Phillies should put up a boatload of runs tonight.
Houston Astros vs. Zach Plesac
With the additions of Trey Mancini and Christian Vazquez, these solid Astros got even better over the last few days. Today, that solid lineup will get a soft matchup vs. a pitcher in Zach Plesac that at times this season has been downright bad. While he had a stretch mid-season where he was pitching well, over the last month he’s started to regress back to his early season form.
Over his last 4 outings, he’s given up at least 4 runs 3 times. His last outing against the Rays was his worst outing in a couple of months, giving up 5 ER and 2 homers in 5 innings of work. Plesac has been worst against lefties this season, giving up a .465 slugging % and 9 homers. They also have a .361 wOBA against him.
Core: Like I wanted to yesterday when we thought the Astros would face Brayan Bello, my Astros core will start with Yordan Alvarez. He is a top 10 hitter in the game and has more raw power than most. Against righties over the last month, Alvarez has a .457 ISO and a .471 wOBA. I will say though that Alvarez is in a bit of a funk right now. He has just 2 hits in his last 5 games. Could a date with Zach Plesac be the turnaround for him?
Another piece I really like here is going to be Kyle Tucker. Over the last month, Tucker has a .339 wOBA vs. righties. After a string of bad luck, Tucker broke out yesterday with 2 hits and 2 RBI. He’s in another solid matchup today and should continue with turning his luck from bad to good.
Secondary Pieces: Other pieces I like in this stack are going to be Jose Altuve, Trey Mancini, and Yuli Gurriel. Should Gurriel be back in there, I’ll look to get him in after my core. He’s been arguably their best hitter over the past week. He’s coming into this game riding a 7-game hitting streak and is a very affordable $3.3k tonight. While he’s expensive, Altuve is always in play. He had a monster day at the plate yesterday going 4-4 and should smash in this matchup too.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Drew Smyly
The Cubs and Cardinals will play a doubleheader today, with the night game being a chance for the Cardinals bats to explode against Drew Smyly. Smyly got hit extremely hard in his last game against a Giants team that is nowhere near as solid as this Cardinals lineup is. The Cardinals are one of the top teams in the league against lefties, with a .782 OPS and a wRC of 123. They should be able to put up a big number tonight against him.
Smyly gives up a lethal combo that we look for in MLB DFS stacks. Flyballs and hard hits. Over the last month, Smyly has given up a 40% flyball rate and a nearly 37% hard-hit rate. Those 2 combined have caused Smyly to give up 7 barrels in just 16 innings of work. That’s the highest % of any pitcher tonight using their last month’s stats. Against Smyly, we’ll want to focus on righties. Righties have a slugging % over .500 against him and a .352 wOBA. 9 of the 11 homers he’s given up this season have been to righties.
Core: Cardinals stacks start and end with Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt. Both guys are primed for monster nights against the lefty. Against lefties this season, Goldy has a massive 1.431 OPS, mostly triggered by a .881 slugging % against them. He’s expensive, but against the lefty, he should produce and pay off his $6.1k DK salary tonight. Arenado is also having a solid year vs. southpaws, with a .613 slugging %. He comes in a bit cheaper than Goldy tonight at $5.4k. If you’re looking for savings and can only grab one of these guys, go with Arenado.
Secondary Pieces: After Arenado and Goldy, things get much better pricing-wise. Paul DeJong and Dylan Carlson are very reasonably priced. At just $4k on DK tonight, we can get some excellent production out of Carlson who has been one of the Cardinals’ best hitters against lefties this season, with a .992 OPS and a .576 slugging %.
***With this being a doubleheader, we’ll really want to keep an eye on this second game. There’s also a chance the Cubs go with Mark Leiter over Smyly. ***
MLB DFS Summary
Other stacks I’ll like tonight will be the Red Sox vs. Kris Bubic, a sneaky Nationals vs. Noah Syndergaard, and the White Sox vs. Cole Ragans.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green.
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