Gary Gustafson 
Welcome to the Monday 31st edition of MLB DFS Picks and Pivots where we dive into the top fantasy baseball plays and slate strategy to help you take down tournaments all season long at Win Daily Sports!
If you are new to MLB DFS Picks and Pivots, the goal of this article is not simply to list out the “best plays” but rather walk through the context of the slate and help you identify the best arms and stacks to build around for MLB DFS tournament play. We will use DraftKings pricing as our anchor and help you get a head start on your winning builds!
MLB DFS Picks and Pivots: Early Slate Breakdown
Opening up this Memorial Day MLB DFS slate, we are greeted 9 games starting at 1 PM EST and finally – no weather issues! What stands out to me at first glance is this is going to be one of those “Double Aces” kind of slates as we have all of Carlos Rodon, Corbin Burnes and Jose Berrios in strong SP1 spots.
These kinds of builds were prevalent yesterday with Max, Woodruff, and Giolito as the common pairing atop leader boards and I think we go right back to the formula here on Monday!
Going with double aces means we have to get strategic with our bats/stacks and that could mean going with two mid-range stacks or going high/low and my first inclination is to start high because there is a stack I love here today and if you have followed along with Picks and Pivots it won’t surprise you to see me going back to the Tampa Bay Rays against RHP Jameson Taillon.
Taillon is one of the worst pitchers in baseball this season against left-handed hitting.
This is not a hot take.
This is not an opinion of a Mets fan.
This is statistical fact.
In 2021 against LHB – Taillon has the following ranks:
- A 2.5 HR/9 rate which ranks 4th in baseball behind such studs as Folty and Dean Kremer.
- A 53.1% fly ball which is 7th highest in the league and a .539 slugging percentage which is 8th in baseball.
Taillon is surrendering a .263 ISO mark to LHB this season and today he will face a Tampa team in Yankee Stadium with the short porch in right field and 7 projected left-handed batters in the line-up. Welcome to the trouble zone Jameson.
If you start with the left-handed bats here – this is a team with an ISO mark of .212 from the left side since the start of 2020 with the heart of the order with Meadows, Choi and Lowe standing out as premier plays.
Austin Meadows once again stands out as one of the best plays on the slate as he has extreme fly ball tendencies against RHP, a 55% mark and a team high .271 ISO against righties making him the must have play from this team and in this stack.
What is interesting about this team as a stack is even within the team they have such opposing price points. For every $5K-$6K bat like Arozarena, Lowe or Meadows – you get a value bat like Walls, Kiermeir or Phillips at the bottom of the order. The fact Tampa is on the road means you are guaranteed 9 innings of at-bats which is exactly where you can roll out bottom of the order stacks as a way to 1)be different and 2) save salary.
MLB DFS Picks and Pivots: Late Slate Breakdown
We have a solid three-game late slate with some surprisingly good contests as well on DK, and honestly this slate plays much as the early one does. We have two clear aces up top with Jacob deGrom and Trevor Bauer and that means we need to take stands with our stacks and also find ways to save salary.
DraftKings was smart in aggressively pricing up the Mets fringe bats in Chase Field but they did not do the same with the Kansas City Royals against RHP Chad Kuhl and that is exactly where I think you plant your flag here and get 5 KC bats with the high dollar options like Salvy & Whit but balance them out with $2K Edward Olivares in the OF.
Kuhl’s biggest struggles have come against LHB with a MASSIVE .481 ISO mark against lefties this season which puts Carlos Santana, Andrew Benintendi and Aldaberto Mondesi atop the player pool to attack those splits.
MLB DFS Picks and Pivots – The Wrap-Up
The two slates today in our MLB DFS picks play incredibly similarly in that I think we anchor to “double aces” and do so with a 5 man core stack for tournaments with the Rays early and the Royals late.
Enjoy this Memorial Day – it has finally stopped raining in the Northeast so I will enjoy the day off outside and make sure to be back in time to watch deGOAT pitch the nightcap!
Good luck tonight all! Let’s keep that hot streak rolling! Come join the Win Daily Sports Team – grab a Gold Membership and take advantage of all the tools, articles, and expert coaching we can give you to make you a consistent winner in DFS.
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