Jared Levitt 
TGIF! It’s Friday and you know what that means. We have ourselves a massive slate on our hands. Tonight, we’ll be blessed with a 12-game slate of MLB DFS. This slate has a little bit of everything. Aces, gas cans, and also everything in between. This should be a fun slate as there are many different directions we can do.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Andrew Abbott ($8.2k on DK) vs. Chicago White Sox
The days of using the White Sox vs. lefties are pretty much gone. This is now a very watered-down lineup that no longer has Tim Anderson and one of their few remaining stars in Yoan Moncada is now going to be out for 3-6 months. This is a bad lineup that we’ll want to take advantage of any chance we can get. Tonight, we’ll do that with Andrew Abbott of the Reds. The one concern with Abbott so far is that his K’s are really down.
In his debut season last season, he had a K/9 of 9.88. That followed several seasons in the minors that saw him have K/9’s well into the double digits. This season it’s sitting around 7. I expect his K’s to pick up tonight in a cake matchup. The White Sox are striking out 31% of the time vs. lefties to start the season. Look for Abbott to have a huge night in a great matchup.
Tanner Houck ($8.4k on DK) vs. Los Angeles Angels
I’m going to mostly stay away from the top-tier pitching tonight. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the premier name pitching tonight but he gets a bad matchup vs. the San Diego Padres. That’s leaving me to play around in the mid-tier of pitching tonight. Next up for us will be Tanner Houck. Houck has now pitched in 2 games so far this season and has racked up 17 K’s. 7 of those were against this same Angels team a week ago.
I like his chances quite a bit to mostly replicate that outing he had. The Angels have not been good vs. righties this season. They own a nearly 25% K rate vs. them and the power numbers have not been there as they also have just a .661 OPS. This is a great spot for another mid-tier pitcher tonight.
Other pitchers I like tonight are going to be Freddy Peralta vs. the Orioles and Kevin Gausman vs. the Rockies. I will more than likely stick with the law firm of Abbott and Houck though.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
Cincinnati Reds vs. Chris Flexen
When in doubt, we pick on Chris Flexen. Flexen is on my list of pitchers that anytime he’s on the mound, stacking against him is in play. It doesn’t matter the team, we stack against him. Tonight, thankfully we get a strong lineup to use against. Flexen had 2 good seasons after coming back from Korea. Those are way in the rearview mirror as Flexen really regressed in 2023 back to what he is, and that’s a gas can.
This season has been no better for him as through 2 outings, he has a nearly 6 ERA and xFIP of 5.85. He just gives up way too much contact at 86%. Hitters aren’t fooled by any of his pitchers as his chase rate is just 23%. He’s going to struggle mightily vs. this very good Reds lineup. Flexen is a reverse splits pitcher so we’ll want to target righties here first.
That’s going to have me target guys like Jonathan India, Spencer Steer, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. CES has really struggled to start the year. He has 6 strikeouts over the last week and only 3 hits. That changes tonight against a contact pitcher. When making contact, it’s actually been pretty good contact as he has 2 barrels over the last week and a nearly 40% hard-hit rate. Flexen will be his slump-buster.
After the righties, I’ll want to look at guys like Elly De La Cruz, Will Benson, and Jake Fraley. De La Cruz is red hot at the plate with 8 hits in his last 20 AB. He also has scored 9 runs while driving in 6. He’s one of the most dynamic players in the game right now and he’ll show off those skills in a great matchup. This lineup should get all of the 5 runs they’re expected to get and then some.
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Tyler Wells
Tyler Wells is probably the weak link in this Orioles rotation. Through 2 starts, he’s been very average and I think that’s putting it mildly. He’s allowed 3 ER in each of his starts this season and those were against far inferior teams than the Brewers. Hitters have really hit him hard so far as he’s allowed a hard-hit rate of more than 36%.
He’s going to have his hands full tonight as he faces off against one of the better lineups in the game to start the season. No team has scored more runs over the last week than the Brewers. They’ll look to keep that going tonight. Similar to Flexen, Wells is a reverse splits pitcher. Righties have had way more success against Wells than lefties.
That has me on guys like Rhys Hoskins, William Contreras, Jackson Chourio, and Willy Adames. Contreras is more than I normally like paying for catcher, but you have to respect what he’s been doing of late. Over the last week, he has 11 hits in 25 AB. He also has driven in 9 runs while scoring another 8. He’s been a huge force in this lineup and that should continue with this matchup tonight.
I’m not going to shy away from the lefties here either. Guys like Christian Yelich and Sal Frelick are very much in play. Yelich has been superb to start the season. He’s already belted 5 homers and has driven in 11 runs. He’ll look to continue the great play tonight in the beautiful city of Baltimore.
Other stacks I really like tonight are going to the Marlins vs. a struggling Max Fried, the suddenly hot Mets vs. Michael Wacha Wacha Wacha, and the Astros vs. Dane Dunning.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green.
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