Jared Levitt 
Welcome to this season’s premier edition of Aces and Bases, where I’ll go through the top MLB DFS Aces and Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel.
We’re baaack! Oh, what a long offseason it felt like. Today we have ourselves our first slate of the season. I’m not counting the games in Korea as a regular slate because those were just showdowns. Today, we have an actual 8-game slate of MLB DFS to navigate through. Opening day is typically one of the harder days of the MLB season as we’re full of aces. Today is not different, but we do have some attackable arms.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Tarik Skubal ($9,100 on DK) vs. Chicago White Sox
For the past few years, when the White Sox would face a lefty it was almost automatic that we’d pick them as a stock. Not anymore. At least not until they prove they can still hang. Today, they’ll face off against one of the better lefties in the league. Skubal is no longer a young buck. He’s 27 now and starting to enter the prime of his career.
He was limited to just 15 starts last season, but those starts were mostly really good. He set a career-high last year with an 11.43 K/9 and also had a career-low ERA of 2.80. He’s becoming one of the top pitchers in the game and by far, the ace of this Tigers staff. I plan on using him heavily today against a White Sox lineup that projects to be pretty bad this season.
Cole Ragans ($8,700 on DK) vs. Minnesota Twins
I’ll start by saying that the Twins lineup is pretty good. They have the likes of Buxton, Correa, and Lewis right smack in the middle of the lineup. All 3 possess a lot of power, especially against lefties. That said, Cole Ragans was impressive at the Major League level last season. Across 96 innings last season, he had a 10.59 K/9 and also had a respectable 3.47 ERA. He broke out in a big way last season when traded to the Royals and that earned him an opening day start.
This Royals team will be vastly improved this season with the additions of Seth Lugo, Adam Frazier, and Hunter Renfroe. Don’t be surprised one bit if they take this game from the Twins off the heels of a solid performance from Ragans. Ragans won’t be under $9k for long so we’ll need to take advantage of this pricing while it lasts.
Jesus Luzardo ($7.6k on DK) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Jesus Luzardo is going to face a promising, but very young Pirates lineup today. Luzardo is coming off one of his finest seasons in the big leagues last season. For the first time in his career, he was able to start over 30 games. He set career highs in game started as well as innings pitched as he threw 178 innings last season. The one area of concern for Luzardo today is that he’s going to be facing a predominantly right-handed lineup as the Pirates will more than likely throw out 8 righties. That said, Luzardo was able to hold righties to just a .302 wOBA last season and an OPS below .750. He should be able to dominate this young lineup today and bring some strong value at a sub-$8k price
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
Before I get started on my recommended stacks, I want to touch on the Dodgers. They’ll be in play just about every game this season. Rarely, will you see me write them up as they’ll also be extremely expensive and chalky. Today will be no different. They are in a great spot against arguably the worst pitcher on the slate in Miles Mikolas. You don’t need me to tell you to play them though.
Houston Astros vs. Nestor Cortes
After bursting onto the scene in 2021 and 2022, Nestor Cortes regressed in 2023 big time. His ERA was 2.5 runs higher in 2023 than it was in 2022. More importantly, though, his ground balls were down significantly in 2023. Groundballs were a big key to his success in 2022 and if he’s not getting them, he’s not going to be successful. Until he shows he’s back to 2022 form, I’m going to stack against him. And why not stack against him with what is still one of the top offenses in the league, especially against lefties.
I’m staring off this stack with the man, the myth, the legend Yordan Alvarez. Yes, I’m going with lefty-on-lefty crime. Alvarez had a .407 wOBA vs. Southpaws last season. He also had a .220 ISO. Alvarez can hit lefties with the best of them, as can his teammate Kyle Tucker. Tucker had similar numbers against lefties last season and he’ll be sure to be on my stack today at a hopefully lower ownership %. Other players important to this stack today will be the usual guys like Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Chas McCormick.
Detroit Tigers vs. Garrett Crochet
Does Garrett Crochet have some talent in that left elbow? Yes, he does. But the young southpaw is also making his first career start today and I doubt he will go that long. That will mean an early entrance for a very suspect White Sox bullpen. Although Crochet had a respectable ERA of 3.55 last season out of the bullpen in a cup of coffee, his xFIP was 2 runs higher meaning he’s got some regression coming his way if he pitches like he did last year.
This Tigers lineup is going to surprise some people this season. The 3 guys I plan on loading up the most in the stack are going to be Gio Urshela, Spencer Torkelson, and Mark Canha. Both Canha and Urshela are below $4k and have shown in their careers that they can hit lefty pitching. I also don’t mind throwing Jake Rodgers into the mix at catcher. He too has shown the ability to hit lefties as evidenced by his .366 wOBA and .327 ISO vs. them last season. Look for the Tigers to put up some runs this afternoon.
Other stacks I like today are going to be the Reds and Rays. A strong case could be made that the Reds are one of my favorite stacks today. They are just really pricey today, especially De La Cruz at $5.6k. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him take Gray deep this afternoon.
MLB DFS Summary
It’s so great to be back. I can’t wait to see a combo of Skubal/Ragans take me to the top of the leaderboard today.
Make sure to drop into Discord where we’re constantly talking about plays for every slate.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green.
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