Jared Levitt 
Happy day after the Solar Eclipse! We have ourselves a large 11-game slate of MLB DFS tonight. This slate is mostly void of aces, but we do have some top-tier pitching. This slate is also full of very hittable pitches, meaning we’ll have plenty of teams to consider for our stacking. It’s early in the season, but it’s already been a fun one and going to get even more fun tonight.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Zack Wheeler ($9.6k on DK) vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Zack Wheeler is one of the true aces on this slate tonight and is priced accordingly. We watched Tigers castoff Spencer Turnbull throw a gem against these same Cardinals last night, throwing 6 innings and striking out 6 while not allowing a run. We should be fairly confident that a guy like Wheeler can more than replicate Turnbull’s performance. Wheeler is one of the top pitchers in the game.
Through his 2 starts this season, he’s been tremendous. His K rate is up to 31% and has not allowed much to opposing offenses as his WHIP is below .8 and his ERA is just .75. IF xFIP is your thing, that’s extremely low also at just 2.19. He’s off to a great start this season and that should continue tonight in a cake matchup vs. a Cardinals team striking out 27% of the time vs. righties so far this season.
Aaron Civale ($7.7k on DK) vs. Los Angeles Angels
Another pitcher off to a solid start this season is Aaron Civale of the Tampa Bay Rays. Making his new home in Tampa this season, Civale has just a 1.5 ERA and a 3.20 xFIP through his 2 starts. He also has an impressive 31.1% K rate. As a pitcher who’s never been known to be a high K guy, we can’t expect this number to last too long from Civale.
That said, this is a matchup where he should continue to get some K’s. The Angels are striking out 25% of the time vs. righties this season. At just $7.7k and with this matchup, Civale has a lot of value tonight. Look for him to continue with the momentum he’s built so far and have a strong game vs. an average-at-best Angels lineup.
I also really like Nate Eovaldi at just $8.8k vs. a bad Oakland A’s team. He should smash in this spot tonight as well.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
New York Yankees vs. A.J. Puk
A.J. Puk looked a little bit better in outing number 2 than he did in his initial outing. Still, though, he allowed 4 runs to score. That’s 8 guys that have scored against him so far across 2 games, with 6 of them being earned. His xFIP is massive to start the season at 7.41. That’s the highest of any pitcher on tonight’s slate. His biggest issue is that he’s falling behind on too many batters. He’s throwing first-pitch strikes just 54% of the time and has a WHIP of 2.83.
That’s just too many hitters reaching base to be successful at the major league level. I’m sure as the season moves along it will normalize, but right now it’s high and something we should take advantage of. Puk struggles mightly vs. righties as they have a .417 slugging % vs. him. He’s going to face a lineup tonight that will more than likely have 6 righties in it. It’s going to be a struggle for Puk and the Marlins bullpen today.
I’m going to start my Yankees stack with the most feared hitter in the game, Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge has a long history of crushing lefties as he has a career .575 slugging % vs them. With a very hittable lefty on the mound in Puk, this is a smash spot for Judge. The righties that I really like here are going to be Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Anthony Volpe. There’s no need to avoid the lefties here either as we can’t expect Puk to stay around too long tonight. That will bring guys like Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo into play. The weather is finally warming up in the northeast and that should help to raise scoring in the Bronx tonight.
Texas Rangers vs. Alex Wood
While Alex Wood was a smidge better in outing number 2 last week, his overall body of work so far this season is bad. Through the 2 starts, he owns a nearly 10 ERA. He’s giving up way more hard contact than he is in soft and when you allow a nearly 80% contact rate, that’s just not ideal. He’s only allowed 1 barrel so far, but his average exit velocity against him is a whopping 94.1. The hitters are just teeing off on him. The Rangers, one of the best lineups in all of baseball, are set to really take full advantage of him tonight. They have an implied run total of over 5 tonight and I think they get all of that and way more. Wood has a long enough track record to show that we really want the righties here.
I’ll start this stack with Adolis Garcia. Garcia has been great to start the 2024 season as he’s already up 4 homers and 11 RBI. He has not slowed down 1 bit from the amazing post-season run he had last year. Next up in this stack is going to be Leody Taveras and Marcus Semien. Both guys have started the season strong, especially Semien who has a combined 17 runs plus RBI. I won’t shy away from lefties here either because I really don’t expect Wood to stay around longer than 1 turn of the lineup. So in come Corey Seager and guys like Jared Walsh and Evan Carter. This whole lineup is in play tonight.
Other stacks I like tonight are going to be the Diamondbacks vs. Cal Quantrill, Mets vs. Reynaldo Lopez, and Cubs vs. Joe Musgrove
Good luck and hope to see you in the green.
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