You can hit your pitching slots at DraftKings all day, but when the dust settles, you better have some active bats. Especially with how bad the aces have been in baseball lately, getting your sticks right matters more now than ever.
Fortunately, we’ve got you covered, as we routinely hit on at least a couple of stacks and have another batch of worthwhile offenses on the table for Wednesday night. Here are my favorite MLB DFS stacks for tonight at DraftKings, along with my reasoning.
Primary stacks – Mets, Dodgers, Braves
You can make cases for other teams here (Yankees, Cubs, etc.), but I think these are the true standouts.
The Mets are at home against Carlos Carrasco. He had his day as an ace, but it’s a mere speck in the rearview mirror by now. He’s pretty clearly the worst pitcher on the board, while we know the Mets have talent 1-through-9. Carrasco’s striking out just 12.9% of lefties, while righties are barreling him up nearly 14% of the time.
Translation: everyone’s very much in play.
We’re starting with Alonso, Soto, and Lindor, as always, but there are all sorts of combinations here that look appealing. Nimmo, Mullins, and Baty have the next best power numbers among those in the projected order, while Francisco Alvarez has looked like the 2023 version since he’s come back from the minors. Marte and McNiel aren’t typically major power sources, but they do still have excellent numbers. I expect this team to be the primary chalk.
Secondary chalk is likely the Dodgers against Kyle Hendricks in Anaheim. Ohtani will only accrue pitching points, which sucks, but the rest of the lineup leaves us with plenty of talent. Hendricks’ numbers are generally weaker against righties – putting Betts, Hernandez, Pages, and Smith at the forefront – but I’m still certainly firing up Freeman, Muncy, and Freeland in stacks.
Atlanta should be the lowest-owned of this bunch by a healthy margin, as they’re facing the most talented pitcher of the bunch, David Peterson. His utter dominance of lefties relegates Matt Olson to an only-in-stacks GPP play, but I’m interested in the RHBs against him – Ozuna, Profar, Murphy, White, Albies. Nacho Alvarez is a nice value with a terrific name.
Secondaries – Yankees, Twins, Cubs, Angels, Astros
The secondary stacks list is a long one, and I’d still include teams like Boston, Tampa Bay, and the A’s in multi-entry. Yankees are my favorite of this group despite a matchup with the splitsy Ryan.
As mentioned, he’s far better against righties across the board. That’s not to say he’s a gas can vs. LHB, but the strikeouts dip enough to make Jazz, Rice, Grisham, Bellinger, Wells, etc. the priorities. Judge is always a priority as well. Twins (at Schlittler) and Cubs (at Gausman) get tough spots of their own. I always like the value on Minnesota, and it’s not like Schlitty is an ace by any means. His control is wonky, and the strikeouts have been fairly average to this point. Buxton is awesome, while I’m ranking the others Wallner, Lee, Keaschall, Jeffers, Lewis in terms of priority.
Gausman will be owned, so Chicago is natural leverage against that. Busch looks like the best point-per-dollar value, while Shaw is still nice and cheap. PCA/Suzuki/Tucker are expensive but always great if you can afford ’em. I like Ohtani, but power-hunting with the Angels’ sluggers is always viable – Neto, Adell, Trout, Ward, O’Hoppe. Buehler is mostly terrible, and he’s had control issues as well. Houston is also pretty cheap – Pena, Walker, Sanchez – with Altuve being the lone spend.
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