Jared Levitt 
TGIF! It’s almost the weekend and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for it! We have a massive 12-game slate of MLB DFS tonight. This is a slate that is very top-heavy with pitching and not much below that. My plan right now is to go with double aces and find some value bats to allow me to get some solid stacks.
Let’s Dig in and make some money!
MLB DFS Aces – Main
Chris Sale ($10.5k on DK) vs. Tampa Bay Rays
This year’s version of the Tampa Bay Rays is hot garbage. There’s no other way to say it. At 33-36, the Rays currently occupy last place in the AL East. It’s a far cry from the success they’ve had over the last few years. They’ve been especially bad against lefties this season, with a 25% K rate and just a .130 ISO. That K rate is one of the highest rates in the league vs. lefties.
Tonight they’ll be facing one of the best in the game in Chris Sale. It’s a resurgent season for Sale as his new home in Atlanta has done him well. His K’s are back to where they were back in 2019 and his walks are also down to the lowest level of his career. Out of his 12 starts this season, he has just 3 starts that were under 20 DK points. Look for him to continue to make a case for the NL Cy Young award as he blows away the Rays tonight.
Simeon Woods Richardson ($7.5k on DK) vs. Oakland
For a brief minute there, the Oakland A’s looked like a competent lineup. They even put up an 8 spot vs. Chris Sale a few weeks ago. Those days are long gone though. They are back to their old selves as their record has dipped to 26-45 and have lost 6 straight games. Over the last week, the A’s have scored just 15 runs and own a 35% k rate. Only the Mariners have struck out more times than the A’s this season. And only the fish and White Sox have scored fewer runs.
We are talking about an awful offense. That will set up great for Woods Richardson tonight. While he doesn’t have the K ability as his peers, he does have the matchup and that’s what I’m looking at here. If we can get the normal 5-6 K’s from him today, at his price he should be able to pay off his salary. He’s cheap and in a great matchup.
As I said earlier, there are a ton of options for pitching. Going with double aces is also very much in play. Freddy Peralata vs. Cincy, Tarik Skubal vs. Houston, Cole Ragans vs. LA, Luis Castillo vs. Texas (especially if Seager is out again), and Matt Waldron vs. the Mets are also other options to play with tonight.
MLB DFS Stacks – Main
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Chris Flexen
This isn’t just a play on Chris Flexen, but also a play on the White Sox bullpen. Flexen hasn’t been awful of late. Over his last 3 starts, he’s only given 5 ER. Not terrible. But he’s also gone just 5 innings in each of the games and the White Sox ended up giving up at least 6 ER in 2 of the 3 starts. In fact, if we look at his last 8 starts, opposing teams have scored at least 6 runs in all but 2 of them.
That’s because he’s not going long and we’re getting close to half the game with the White Sox pen. Over the last 2 weeks, the White Sox pen has an ERA that’s pushing 9. If we can get another 4-5 innings of the White Sox bullpen today, we’ll get a ton of runs from the Diamondbacks. Don’t get me wrong though, even if the White Sox bullpen wasn’t that bad I’d still be stacking against Flexen because he’s terrible.
Core Bats: Corbin Carroll, Joc Pederson, Christian Walker, Ketel Marte
Secondary Bats: Lourdes Gurriel
Value Bats: Gabrial Moreno, Geraldo Perdomo, Jake McCarthy
Atlanta Braves vs. Zack Littell
My family and I went to the Braves/Orioles game and I noticed something very glaring. The Braves hit the ball damn hard. Almost every ball hit yesterday was smoked. Not a single one of their hits were cheapies. Their offense has been mostly stagnant of late but they’re poised for a huge breakout and I think it comes tonight against Zack Littell. Littell is mostly a low-strikeout pitcher. Yeah, he K’d 9 A’s a few weeks ago, but who hasn’t? He’s coming off back-to-back appearances vs. the O’s that saw him strikeout just 5 hitters across the 2 games.
In comparison, he also gave up 5 barrels. A 1:1 K to barrel % isn’t ideal. Now if you were getting 10 K’s a game that’s one thing, but we’re not seeing that from Littell. He’s given up multiple barrels in 5 games, with 3 of the games having 3 a piece. He’s getting rocked and he’s going to wake the sleeping giant known as the Braves today. We want to prioritize the lefties here as they have a .258 ISO and a .402 wOBA against him over the last month.
Core Bats: Michael Harris, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson
Secondary Bats: Marcel Ozuna, Austin Riley,
Value Bats: Jarred Kelenic, Orlando Arcia
Other stacks I like tonight will be the Padres vs. Sean Manea, White Sox vs. Ryne Nelson, and both sides of the Pirates/Rockies game.
Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for a PREMIUM account here at Win Daily Sports. Gain access to our Projection Models and jump into our Discord where we will have our experts talking plays across every sport and slate!
