MLB

Welcome to the Friday edition of the Stack City, where I’ll be going through the top MLB DFS Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel. 

It’s Friday and that means we have a full slate of baseball.  There are 13 games on tap tonight, including a Coors game between the Pirates and Rockies.  There are a lot of great spots for our MLB DFS stacks tonight

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

Minnesota Twins vs. Michael Kopech

Over his last 4 starts, Kopech has not looked very sharp.  In those 4 starts, Kopech allowed 16 ER in just 22 innings of work.  Even if we look at his last outing out of the pen, he allowed another 2 ER in 5 innings.  He’s someone that we can attack right now as he’s struggling in just about every metric.  Over the last month, Kopech has allowed a 51% flyball rate and a 31% hard-hit rate.  This has caused him to give 8 homers in 26 innings of work and 11 barrels. 

Hitters are seeing the ball great against him and it’s really showing as they’re crushing most of his pitched.  One of the games he struggled in recently was against this same Twins lineup.  I have a feeling they get to him again tonight.  With Kopech, we’ll want to focus on lefties.  He’s been really solid against righties, but lefties have his number.  Their wOBA is 100 points higher, their slugging % is 160 points higher and their average is about 70 points higher. 

Core:  My core with the Twins tonight will be Jorge Polanco, Luis Arraez, and Max Kepler.  These 3 lefties should be able to do some damage against Kopech tonight.  Polanco is probably my favorite of the bunch as he’s been crushing righty pitching over the last month.  Over his last 43 plate appearances against righties, Polanco has a .441 ISO and a .381 wOBA.  Although he hits for a bit of a higher average as a righty, he generates way more power as a lefty.  11 of his 13 homers this season have been hit as a lefty and his slugging % is 120 points higher as a lefty.  With Arraez, he won’t give us much power, but he’s been an on-base machine this and is in a solid matchup here.  He should be able to get on base a couple of times here and score some runs. 

Secondary Pieces:  Anytime you play the Twins, you’ll always have the conundrum of whether or not to play Byron Buxton.  He has as much upside as anyone in the game, but he can also strike out as much as the best of them.  Both Buxton and Carlos Correa will be complementary pieces for me with this stack.  I’m not going to try to force them in, but if they can fit we can roll with them. 

Value: Both Nick Gordon and  Alex Kirilloff will be my value pieces here, with Gordon being my favorite.  In the right situations, Gordon continues to be a very serviceable value play.  And tonight he’s in the right situation.  He has some sneaky power as he’s in the top 25 of expected slugging in all of baseball.

Chicago White Sox vs. Devin Smeltzer

Anytime the White Sox face off against a lefty, they need to be in the conversation as a top stack.  Tonight they get to take on a pitcher in Devin Smeltzer who has finally come back down to earth.  After starting the year very strongly on paper, regression has finally caught up to him.  Over his last 5 starts, Smeltzer has two blow-up games.  He allowed 7 ER against the Rangers and 6 ER against the lowly Diamondbacks. 

With a matchup against the White Sox tonight, he’s going to have arguably his toughest task to date.  Over the last month, Smeltzer has really struggled with the long ball, allowing 8 over his 25 innings of work.  The White Sox should be able to add to that total tonight with how well they handle left-handed pitching. 

Core: My White Sox stack tonight will be built around Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, and Luis Robert.  These are the 3 guys that are typically the most productive against lefties.  Anderson has an OPS of 1.128 this season vs. lefties, Abreu has a .966, and Robert has a .982.  While these 3 are also the most expensive of the bunch, they possess the most upside.  The 3 have combined for 9 home runs vs. lefties and should absolutely smash in this matchup tonight.   

Secondary Pieces:  Some other pieces that I like here but won’t press the issue on are Andrew Vaughn and A.J. Pollock.  If you want to save money at 1b and not pay for Abreu, going down to Andrew Vaugh should work.  Vaught has very respectable numbers vs. lefties this season, with a .481 slugging % and a .856 OPS.  He’ll save you $1.1k from Abreu and can get you similar production.    

Value:  Some cheap ways to get access to this stack will be Josh Harrison and Adam Engel.  Both guys hit at the bottom of the order, but are priced at just $3.2K and $3k respectively.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. German Marquez

On large slates, I really try to avoid using one of my 3 recommended stacks with a team playing in Coors.  I just think the matchup tonight plus the pricing of the Pirates is just too good to pass up.  So far this season, German Marquez has just not been good at home.  His ERA at home this season is over 7 while on the road is at 4.20.  Since the start of May, Marquez has just one start at home where he’s given up less than 4 ER.  He’s been getting into way too much trouble and until he gets things back on track like he was last year, we really need to stack against him any chance we can get. 

Over the last month, Marquez has been giving up just a ton of hard contact at 38.4% and has also given up 10 barrels in his last 29 innings of work.  I’m not going to be overly concerned with splits here as both sides of the plate have an OPS over .900 against him at home.

Value:  I’m going to list the Pirates tonight in my value section because well, the pricing gurus at DK messed up again and there’s only 1 Pirate tonight priced above $4k.  My Pirates stack tonight will start with Daniel Vogelbach and Oneil Cruz.  Over the last month, Vogelbach has been crushing righties.  His ISO is at .352 and has a wOBA of .449.  He’s also coming into this one swinging a pretty good stick, with 5 hits over the last and 5 walks, while also driving in 6.  At just $3.4k, he’s extremely affordable for the matchup.  I’ll also look to guys like Ben Gamel, Josh VanMeter, and Jake Marisnick.    The Pirates as a whole are way too cheap tonight and will make for a nice complimentary stack to either the White Sox or Twins. 

MLB DFS Summary

Other stacks I like tonight will be the Braves vs. Patrick Corbin, Cardinals vs. Hunter Greene, and Brewers vs. Alex Wood.   

Good luck and hope to see you in the green.   

Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD 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! 

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Stack City, where I’ll be going through the top MLB DFS Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel. 

Tonight we have a very manageable 9-game slate of MLB DFS to play with.  On the docket, we have several very attackable pitchers. 

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

New York Yankees vs. Mike Minor

With no Aaron Judge in the lineup last night and Aaron Hicks going down with an injury, the Yankees were a little bit of a disappointment last night.  They’ll get Aaron Judge back in there tonight and they get an absolutely glorious matchup tonight vs. Mike Minor.  In his first 7 starts as a Reds pitcher, Minor has really struggled.  He’s had just one start giving up less than 3 ER and has a handful of starts giving up at least 4.  He gets to take on a team that tonight that is one of the most powerful teams against lefties. 

The Yankees are sporting an ISO of .210 vs. lefties as well as a .332 wOBA.  I just don’t see the Yankees disappointing 2 nights in a row.  In just 38 innings of work this season, Minor has already managed to give up 12 homers.  9 of those 12 homers have been hit by righties as they have a .660 slugging % vs. him.  While they’ll be my priority, lefties have also done well against him with a .548 slugging %.

Core: My core to the Yankees stack tonight will revolve around guys like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Josh Donaldson.  With how much power that Minor gives up to righties, these guys are going to be super important tonight.  Judge should come into this well rested since he hasn’t played since Sunday.  21 of his 30 homers this year have come against southpaws and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him add to the total tonight.  Both Stanton and Donaldson have done well vs. lefties too, with ISO’s over .270 over the last month.

Secondary Pieces:  While he’s not a core piece for me tonight, getting Anthony Rizzo in there will be important.  Over the last month, Rizzo has a .468 wOBA vs. lefties and a 50% hard-hit rate.  You will typically see a lefty like Rizzo go under-owned in a L/L matchup like this.  If the Yankees do get to Minor tonight like they should, you’re talking 1 or 2 AB vs. Minor.  It’s a solid spot for the former Cub.  Gleyber Torres is also someone that I’ll want to try to get into my lineups.  He’s been solid vs. lefties all year and has a .415 wOBA vs. them over the last month. 

Value: We should expect Kyle Higashioka in there tonight for the Yankees.  At $2.9K tonight on DK, he’s a solid value.  Higgy has done extremely well vs. lefties over the last month with a .484 wOBA and a .500 ISO.  He’ll make paying up for guys like Judge and Donaldson a wee bit easier, and we shouldn’t lose any production.

Texas Rangers vs. Paul Blackburn

Sorry if this seems like a rinse and repeat of last night, but the Rangers are yet again in a solid matchup and they continue to hit the ball extremely well.  Paul Blackburn is someone that has a long history of being an awful pitcher.  He’s had a handful of starts this year that have been decent, but he also has a handful like his last one vs. the Astros that have been awful.  While he’s been better on the road this season than at home, I’m not going to worry too much about that because of how well the Rangers are hitting right now. 

Over their last 8 games, they’ve failed to score at least 5 runs just 1 time and have so far scored 17 runs in this series in the 2 games.  They should be able to tack on even more to that number today.  With Blackburn, we want to focus on lefties.  Lefties have a slugging % almost 100 points higher than righties and a wOBA nearly 50 points higher.  This Rangers lineup is loaded with lefties.  

Core: My core with my Rangers stack will revolve around Josh Smith, Corey Seager, and Leody Tavares.  At some point, the pricing gurus at DK will figure out that Tavares is not a $2k player.  He is a lock in all of my lineups tonight with him still being min-priced.  He’s been on fire in this series with 5 hits in 9 AB, which included 4 doubles and 2 stolen bases. 

Josh Smith is another Rangers player that just isn’t priced right at $2.9k on DK.  He’s hit safely in 4 of his last 5 games and had a 3 hit game last night.  He continues to be a force out of the leadoff spot for this team.  Corey Seager homered again last night and that now makes it homering 6 out of his last 7 games.  Just an epic run and with this matchup, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him do it again. 

Secondary Pieces:  Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, and Nate Lowe aren’t in my core tonight, but they are guys that should always be in consideration with this lineup.  They are some of the most productive members of this team and if the offense is clicking, they’re a part of it.  If I had to pick favorites from this bunch, I’d Garcia since he has the best numbers against righties over the last month at a .339 wOBA. 

Value:  Tavares.  He’s still min priced and got moved up in the batting order last night.  Just continue to play the free square.

San Diego Padres vs. Chad Kuhl

Since his complete-game shutout of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chad Kuhl has gone on to throw 2 straight stinkers.  Number 3 should come tonight against the Padres.  Over his last 2 starts, Kuhl has gotten pummeled, both times vs. the Diamondbacks.  He gave 9 ER in just 11 innings of work and gave up an average of a 45% hard-hit rate.  The Padres are a much better lineup than the Dbacks and have already done well against him in the lone game they played him this season. 

We’ll want to focus on the lefties for the Padres tonight.  Kuhl gives up significantly more power to lefties as they have a slugging % 120 points higher than righties.  7 of the 10 bombs he’s given up this season have been to lefties.  They also have a significantly higher OBP and wOBA. 

Core:  I’m going to build around Jake Cronenworth here tonight.  He hasn’t been playing all that well over the last couple of weeks but he’s in a solid matchup.  Cronenworth also lineups well with Kuhl.  Kuhl’s main pitch to lefties is a slider, throwing it around 33% of the time.  Against righty sliders, Cronenworth has a .261 ISO and a .338 wOBA.  Most importantly though he has a nearly 85% contact rate. 

Secondary Pieces:  Knowing that Kuhl is better against righties than lefties, I’m not going to force in Manny Machado.  That said, if I can fit him in I will.  Machado is far and away the best hitter for the Padres and is mostly matchup-proof.  He’s also been solid against righties over the last month with a .412 wOBA and a .256 ISO. 

Value: I’m going to be more interested in the value pieces for the Padres tonight than my core or secondary pieces.  Nomar Mazara is still just about min-priced on DK at just $2.1k.  Can he fail?  Absolutely.  There’s a reason he’s been making the rounds with teams.  That said, he’s cheap and gets the platoon advantage vs. Kuhl.  He also has back-to-back really strong games with 4 hits so far in this series.    Other good value pieces here will be Trent Grisham and C.J. Abrams.  Both guys are cheap and will also get the platoon advantage. 

MLB DFS Summary

Other MLB DFS stacks I like tonight will be the Guardians vs. Lucas Giolito, Orioles vs. Justin Steele, Cubs vs. Spenser Watkins, and Rays vs. Josh Winckowski. 

Good luck and hope to see you in the green.   

Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD 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! 

Welcome to the Monday edition of the Stack City, where I’ll be going through the top MLB DFS Stacks on DraftKings and Fanduel. 

Tonight we have a solid-looking 8-game slate of MLB DFS to navigate through.  While a smaller slate normally means fewer options, that isn’t the case tonight.  We have some pitchers that we can really attack tonight.

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

Texas Rangers vs. Adrian Martinez

The young Adrian Martinez now has 3 starts under this his belt.  While his first one was very solid, his last 2 have not and that’s what we’re going to be attacking tonight.  In his last 2 starts, Martinez has combined to surrender 4 homers and 10 ER in just 9 innings of work.  Tonight he’s going to face off against a Rangers team that is finally starting to hit like they were supposed to.  Over the last week or so, the Rangers have scored at least 5 runs 5 times in their last 6 games.  With a matchup against a struggling pitcher tonight, they should make it 6 of 7. 

So far it’s really been the righties that have done Martinez in.  Righties have hit all 4 homers and they have a .647 slugging % vs. him.  They also have a .424 wOBA.  Outside of batting average, all numbers against righties are significantly worse than to lefties.

Knowing that I’m starting off my Rangers stack with Marcus Semien.  Semien is coming into this one swinging a hot bat.  He has hits in 5 of his last 7 games and has extra-base hits in back-to-back games.  Martinez is mostly a sinker ball pitcher, throwing it more than 60% of the time to both sides of the plate.  This should put Semien in a good spot tonight as he has a .379 wOBA and a .244 ISO against them over the last few seasons.

I know he’s not a righty, but I’m going to prioritize getting Corey Seager into my Rangers stack tonight.  Seager is red hot at the plate right as he’s homered in 4 of his last 5 games.  He’s on an epic run right now and with a matchup against a pitcher giving up bombs, he should continue his torrid run.  Seager also has done extremely well against righty sinkers.  Over the last several seasons, Seager has a .519 wOBA and a .471 ISO.  Lock him into your lineups.

Other Rangers bats I really like tonight are going to be Adolis Garcia, Josh Smith, and Nate Lowe.

San Diego Padres vs. Jose Urena

The Padres are going to be extremely chalky tonight.  Neither site decided to price them up tonight and they are in an absolute smash spot tonight vs. Jose Urena.  If you look at just the ERA on Urena in his first start for the Rockies, he did well.  That’s really the only positive from his start.  Although he gave up just 1 ER in his 6 innings of work, he also walked 3 and gave up 5 hits.  He also had a low BABIP of just .238 in the start.  The Dodgers had a 43% flyball rate and a 38% hard-hit rate. 

Having those metrics coupled with a 91% contact rate is just asking for trouble.  While you may be able to get away with stuff like that in a park like Dodger Stadium, Coors field is way less forgiving.  Padres currently have an implied run total of over 6 and they should get all of it tonight.

We’ll start off this Padres stack with leadoff hitter Trent Grisham.  Grisham is criminally priced on DK tonight at just $2.9k.  It’s not often we get a leadoff hitter priced under $4k in this type of a matchup and environment, let alone $3k.  Can he fail in this matchup?  Absolutely.  But I’m willing to risk that with how well he’s set up tonight.  Grisham is also one of the Padres’ better hitters of late.  Over his last 16 AB, Grisham has 5 hits and has an OPS Of .921.  At his price tonight, we won’t need much to return value.

Next up will be Nomar Mazara who is literally min-priced on DK tonight.  Whoever set pricing tonight for the Padres should probably have a new job.  Over the last month, Mazara has been decent against right-handed pitching.  He has a .141 ISO and a .310 wOBA.  He’s always a risk to put up a goose egg, but again, at this price, he’s in play in a solid matchup and environment.

Other Padres I like tonight are going to Manny Machado, Luke Voit, and Jake Cronenworth.

I will add that fading the Padres tonight is 100% in play. They’re going to be very chalky, but they aren’t playing very well right now.  Over their last 6 games, they’ve scored more than 2 runs just once and got absolutely embarrassed by the Giants yesterday.  The last time they were in Coors they were expected to do well and did not, scoring just 11 runs in a 3-game series. 

Colorado Rockies vs. Sean Manaea

While the masses will probably gravitate towards the Padres in this one, I actually find the other side of this game way more appealing.  While not priced as low as the Padres, there still is some real nice value on the Rockies side and they get an enticing matchup vs. Sean Manaea.  Manaea has been very beatable this year as he just a 3-4 record.  While his K’s are up this year, so are the walks as he has a career-high 3.57 BB/9 on the year. 

It’s been more than a month now since he’s had a truly good start.  Over his last 4 starts, he’s pitched to an ERA over 6 and his 4.8 xFIP indicates that the 6 ERA isn’t all just bad luck.  He’s been giving up a ton of flyballs with a flyball rate of 49% over the last month and those flyballs tend to get some extra giddy-up in Coors.  We’ll want to focus on the righties with Colorado as Manaea is very dominant against lefties.

We’ll start this stack off with a finally healthy Kris Bryant.  Since coming back from the IL, Bryant has been crushing left-handed pitching.  Over his last 24 AB against lefties, Bryant has a .348 ISO and a .472 wOBA.  Bryant has a long history of crushing lefties so these numbers are nowhere near surprising.  He was removed from yesterday’s game with cramping, but according to Bud Black he’s fine.  We’ll just want to monitor the lineup ahead of the game.

Next up will be Brendan Rodgers.  Rodgers is another Rockies bat that has historically done extremely well against sinkers.  Manaea throws his sinker more than 60% of the time. Over his last 14 plate appearances against lefty sinkers, Rodgers has a .467 ISO and a .397 wOBA.  He too is coming into this one having hit lefties very well over the last month.  Over the last month, Rodgers has a .214 ISO and a .441 wOBA vs. southpaws.  At just $4.5k on DK tonight, his price is very reasonable.

Other Rockies I really like here are going to be Connor Joe, Randal Grichuk, Yonathan Daza, and even Charlie Blackmon.

MLB DFS Summary

Other stacks I really like tonight are the Royals vs. Alex Faedo, Rays vs. Brayan Bello, and A’s vs. Spencer Howard. 

Good luck and hope to see you in the green.   

Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD 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!