jason mezrahi 
Welcome to the Saturday edition of the Stack City, where I’ll be going through the top MLB DFS Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel.
The slates today on both DraftKings and FanDuel are split up three ways, with a 1:05 PM EST slate totaling four games, a 4:05 PM EST slate with another four (five on FD) and a five-game main slate locking at 7:20 PM EST.
We’ll follow the lead established in Adam’s must-read Starting Rotation, which covers the early and late slate slates, but I’ll add some general notes about the 4:05 slate for those of you who just can’t get enough MBLS DFS action!
Let’s get to the games and build that bankroll!
MLB DFS Stacks – Early Slate
While Aaron Judge‘s bat is starting to show some life, the New York Yankees just aren’t giving us that circular lineup production we’ve come to expect from the Bombers. Despite Cal Quantrill’s ability to induce soft contact (19.4% in 2021) and do an excellent job limiting the big blow (10.7% HR/FB rate last season), they could be an interesting value stack in GPPs. Both Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson come in pretty cheap on FD. Throw in Kyle Higashioka and/or another big bat, and you’ve got some leverage on the field. Lots of folks will be drawn to the Cubs in a very windy Wrigley.
The Cubs sport the highest projected team total of the early slate, and while the pricing of the main guys we’re targeting (Seiya Suzuki, Willson Contreras, Ian Happ and Frank Schwindel) has been adjusted on DK, they’re still way too low on FD. Leadoff hitter Rafael Ortega is just $2,200 on FD, and when you run out of Cubs to play, there’s a few Pirates bats that make sense for the game stack run-back. They include Daniel Vogelbach, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Yoshi Tsutsugo, to name a few. Kyle Hendricks has always been a decent pitcher, but the wind will be slapping out toward the left field wall at around 25 MPH today.
The other stack I’ll be getting exposure to in the early slate is the San Francisco Giants. It’s a group with oodles of run-scoring potential in their 1-5 slots. That should include Mike Yastrzemski, Brandon Belt, Darin Ruf, Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford, unless the manager mixes it up. Belt and Crawford are expensive on DK, but Ruf is just $2,500 on DK and the pricing on FD is all over the place, with Crawford at just $2,800.
Even if you want to spend all your salary on FD, it’s damn near impossible today with all the value that’s out there.
MLB DFS Stacks – Afternoon (4:05 p.m. EST) Slate
I’m not as interested in the afternoon slate. There’s some weather possible in the CHW-MIN game and most of the best stacks facing the better pitchers in these games. But the Red Sox-Rays matchup on FD makes for the best single game stack, and if there was a spot to jump back on the Phillies at what could be lower ownership, this is the day.
The pricing is high enough on Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos Rhys Hoskins and Jean Segura that folks may steer clear of them and focus more on pitching. But we can hitch our SP1 pitching wagon to Frankie Montas, take a contrarian flier on Dakota Hudson at $4,500, and fit all the big Phillies bats on on DK.
Since there are not too many high profile contests on either site for the afternoon slate, I might just run with one or two DK lineups. They will focus on the Phillies and a few bats from the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins — both of which have good matchups today.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main Slate
Los Angeles Angels vs. Spenser Watkins
We’re still waiting for the big breakout offensive game from Shohei Ohtani, but I’ll be getting plenty of exposure to him, Mike Trout, Jared Walsh, Anthony Rendon and Brandon Marsh in some full 1-5 Angels stacks tonight.
The matchup against Watkins is a great one, as the 29-year-old right hander sported a 8.07/6.37 ERA/FIP combo last season and is projected on ZIPS for a 6.50/6.10 ERA/FIP this season. He’s been lucky enough in his first couple starts, but there’s pop throughout this Angels lineup and we can look to one or more of the 7-8-9 hitters (Jo Adell, Tyler Wade, Andrew Velazquez) if we really need to save salary.
It’s an expensive bunch, especially on DK, but they carry the highest upside on the night in one of the better hitting environments.
New York Mets vs. Humberto Castellanos (and the D-Backs, too!)
The most important feature of this Mets lineup is that the pricing on DK isn’t quite as prohibitive as it is for some of the other favored stacks. I may have to fade Starling Marte (especially in cash games) at his $5,900 price tag, but Brandon Nimmo, Eduardo Escobar, Robinson Cano and Mark Canha are all under $5K and have excellent matchups against Castellanos.
We’ll have to keep an eye on who the Mets finally decide to roll out before lock, but there should be plenty of bats throughout this lineup that boast the type of potential to help win a GPP. Castellanos has pitched better in a small sample this season (7 IP, 2.57 ERA) despite a 6.76 xFIP, but he’s yet to surrender a homer and could do that multiple times in the first couple of innings tonight.
The D-Backs still have one of the best parks for offense in baseball, and this game is one of the only ones on the main slate where you could conceivably run a full game stack and mix in some of Arizona’s 1-4 hitters, including Daulton Varsho, Ketel Marte, David Peralta and Christian Walker — especially with three of those guys coming in under $4K on DK. 5-6 hitters Seth Beer and Pavin Smith are also a couple of interesting lefty bats who smash RHPs.
Seattle Mariners vs. Kris Bubic
There’s really not a lineup that I don’t think will beat up Bubic, who despite six free passes issued to Tigers hitters in his last start escaped with just 1 ER on two hits in 4.1 IP. That type of garbage shouldn’t keep happening, so I recommend getting some shares of the left-handed slugger and left fielder Jesse Winker with a few of the Mariners right-handed bats, including Ty France, Eugenio Suarez and Julio Rodriguez.
Winker has yet to go deep this season, and my “out of left field” prediction is that he goes deep against Bubic, which he has done before. I’m also going to keep working in Mariners rookie Rodriguez until he settles down and gets to the major league business he’s been preparing for his entire life. The kid’s just too good to keep struggling, and he’s coming off his first multi-hit game last night where he registered his second double of the season.
One of Adam Frazier or J.P. Crawford is also an option if you’re interested in running a full contrarian Mariners game stack.
MLB DFS Main Slate Summary
The Angels and NYM-ARI game stack could be popular, but I really believe the way to get different is by grabbing three to five hitters from Seattle in some of your GPPs and giving them a chance to go off against one of my favorite pitchers to target.
I suppose it wouldn’t be an awful idea to mix in a few Royals if you want to do some KC-SEA game stacks, but the aforementioned stacks re my favorites and there’s plenty of leverage to be gained on the field if you get a little different!
Good luck today, and remember to show us your green screens in Discord!
