Dave Gloeckner 
Welcome to the first Monday edition of Stack City, where I’ll be going through the top MLB DFS Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel.
We made it through the first weekend of the MLB. Teams are now going into the back end of their rotations and that will open up more teams that make sense to stack. Today we have some really good spots for offense that I’ll be walking you through.
Always make sure to read Adam’s Starting Rotation when setting your lineup. It’s hands down the best pitching article in the MLB DFS business.
Let’s dig in and see if we can find some stacks to use today!
MLB DFS Stacks – Main Slate
Los Angeles Angels vs. Elieser Hernandez
We now have a 4-year track record of baseball to judge Hernandez on and it says he’s someone we can attack with hitters, especially with power hitters. After a successful 2020 season, Hernandez regressed back to the norm in 2021. He finished the season with a 4.33 xFIP and an ERA more than a full run higher than 2020.
One of his biggest struggles last season was with the home run ball as he set a career-high in HR/FB at 20%. His K/9 was the lowest it’s been since his rookie year and like his HR/FB ratio, his HR/9 was the highest of his career. Hernandez has one of the biggest splits differences there is. He really holds up his own vs. righties as they had just a .133 ISO against him last year. Lefties though? Well, they absolutely crushed him with a .313 ISO and a 49% flyball rate.
Knowing that Hernandez is awful against lefties, I’m locking in Shohei Ohtani tonight. Ohtani should have no issues with Hernandez tonight and it’s really just a matter of how hard and how far his hits will go tonight. Ohtani crushed righties last year with a .296 ISO and a .392 wOBA. His price on DK tonight is a little prohibitive at $6k, but on FanDuel at just $4.1k he’s almost a must-play. Even at $6k tonight on DK, I think he’s close to a must-play. We’ll be able to find enough value to fit him in and still field a solid lineup.
Other pieces I love here are Jared Walsh and potentially Josh Rojas. Walsh is another guy that smashes righties as he had a .398 wOBA against them last season. Building around Ohtani and Walsh tonight has the potential to be very lucrative in our MLB DFS contests.
Atlanta Braves vs. Josh Rogers
Lefty Josh Rogers gets the daunting task tonight of facing off the Atlanta Braves. No other way to put it than to say this is going to be really tough for him. Through his brief time in the Majors, Rogers has a very, very clear weakness and that’s righties. Since 2019, Rogers has given up a .376 ISO and a .432 wOBA against righties. They have a 52% flyball hit rate vs. and a 44% hard-hit rate against him. The Braves should trot out a lineup with 7 righties in it. This has the makings of a really rough spot for Rogers.
Both Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley are extremely solid plays here, they’re just both at $4.8k on DK and that’s going to eat up a ton of our salary, especially if we already paid $6k for Ohtani. By jumping down the middle to the back of this lineup, we can get similar production out of guys like Marcell Ozuna, Travis d’Arnaud, and Adam Duvall. All three are significantly cheaper than Riley and Albies.
While Ozuna has yet to hit one over the fence this season, he’s been hitting the ball extremely hard as he has a 61% hard-hit rate in 14 at-bats. Adam Duvall is another guy that has yet to find the seats, even though he’s sporting an 87.5% flyball rate to start the year. It’s only a matter of time for these 2, and with a matchup against a bad pitcher in Rogers, we could see it happen tonight. Oh, and I may have forgotten to mention that Duvall has a .500 ISO against lefty sliders over the few years. Rogers throws his slider 33% of the time to righties.
Seattle Mariners vs. Dylan Bundy
Dylan Bundy is somewhat of an enigma. He has decent stuff, he just can’t put it all together on a consistent basis. Until he does, he’s someone that we should always consider using hitters against. Last year was more of the same for Bundy with an xFIP in the mid 4’s for the fifth time in 6 years.
The difference last season was that homers started to do him in more. He set a career with a HR/FB ratio of 19.2% and his HR/9 was the highest it’s been since 2018. While his FB% was below his career %, his barrel % reached double digits for the first time in his career, nearly 400 basis points higher than his career average. Batters are really squaring him up more than ever.
Bundy is a splits neutral pitcher, so we really don’t need to shy away from any hitters in this lineup. The guy tearing the cover off the ball so far for Seattle is Mitch Haniger. Haniger so far this year already has 2 homers, multiple barrels, and a hard-hit rate north of 55%. Considering his production and matchup, he’s still reasonably priced at $4.6k on DK tonight. At $3.2k on FD, he’s a steal.
Aside from Haniger, I’ll also look to build around JP Crawford and Ty France. Both guys have started out well with OPSs near or at 1.000. You could also take a flyer on Jered Kelenic, but so far he seems overmatched. If stacking the Mariners today, you’d really need to go with a full-stack.
MLB DFS Main Slate Summary
I didn’t write them up as a top stack, but Toronto should and will always be in play. They get a great matchup vs. Taillon tonight, a pitcher that gave up 24 homers last season. They should put up a big number tonight in Yankee Stadium. Other teams to consider today will be some cheap Marlins bats vs. Michael Lorenzen and Twins bats vs. Chris Flexen. Even though he pitched better last season, he’s still Chris Flexen and not a good pitcher.
Good luck today and hope to see some green tonight!
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