Hey everyone CeeGee here again to break down my favorite stacks for today’s MLB EARLY Slate. If you have any questions hit my up in the DFS Army VIP Slack chat @CeeGee and we can chat. If you decide to sign up here at the DFS Army make sure you use my coupon code CEEGEE and you’ll save 10% on your membership. If you sign up today your price will never go up so get on board ASAP!
If you have played MLB DFS in the past you probably know stacking is a near MUST if you want to give yourself a chance to take down a Large Field GPP. If you’re new to MLB DFS well, now you know, STACK to win GPPs!!! There really is no other way increase your upside (and your downside) more than stacking. With that in mind I’ll do my very best to point in the right direction each day with my favorite MLB Top Stacks on Fanduel and Draftkings.
Since I’ve been with the DFS Army I’ve be utilizing the Domination Station aka the “DS” to run my 150 lineups daily in NBA and now in MLB. I’m hoping you’ll find my Stack Picks useful each day and use them in combination with the the settings within the DS. With the like, love, adore, dislike, hate and enrage (along with Lock and Exclude) features you can completely customize your player pool so that its truly unique. If you want some more info on the Domination Station check Kevin’s Domination Station MLB Tutorial HERE.
Before we get started, lets talk about the Types of stacks we have in MLB. First and foremost we have to understand that no matter how perfect a matchup looks on paper MLB is a fail first sport, meaning, even the best batters will fail nearly 70% of the time. Mike Trout (lefty masher) vs John Dank (slow pitch lefty) is a perfect matchup for Trout, but he can (and will) go 0-4 in that matchup more times that the numbers “that day” would lead you to believe. Knowing this, we can’t go “all in” on any 1 stack or 1 value stack for the day. I suggest about 30% to 35% max for teams you want to stack each day. 30% across 150 lineups would give you 45 lineups maximum on that single team. If you want exposure to more teams, drop that number to 20% – 25%
Types of Stacks
4-4 – this gives you 4 players from 1 team and 4 players from another. This gives you the highest upside and high downside
(note this Season Fanduel added the SP option to this stack so you can have 4 bats and 1 SP, last year you could only have 4 total players from 1 team)
4-3-1 – this stack is my favorite because it gives me the ability to snag a superstar “one off” player.
Example, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper as one off bats with my Red Sox / Padres (4×3) stack
3-3-1-1 – Similar to 4-3-1 but this stack gives you 2 “one off” batters. I’m not a huge fan of this as I feel like only having 3 bats from 1 team lowers my upside overall
In my article I’m not going to specify which stack you should or should not use. I’ll may mention from time to time “I am playing all 4 of these guys” or something like that. However I recommend you dig into the MLB Research Staion every day and combine that info with the tools of the MLB Domination Station along with this articles and stack as you see fit.
One final note before I get into today’s top stacks. I wanna give a huge shoutout to DFS Army Member Canders0221 for his MASSIVE take down over the weekend. He is just the most recent of 100’s of DFS Army members to take down big wins in the past few months. Check out our Wall of Wins for some of the rest and make sure you get on board sooner rather than later today. Use promo code CEEGEE to Save 10% on your membership and lock in your price forever!
NOTE #1 stacks article is written early in the day so projected lineups are based on the lineup each team usually has vs the handedness of today’s opposing SP
NOTE #2 I will very rarely write up Stacks in Coors Field (Colorado) and stacks in Wrigley (Chicago) with the wind blowing OUT… Simply because it would be a waste of time for me to tell you what everyone else that day is already telling you… I will tell you this however, In Coors (generally) both teams are fully stackable every single night… And in Wrigley (Chicago) with the wind blowing OUT both teams are fully stackable
NOTE #3 if you see me reference numbers like this when talking about batters 400/200 that is in reference to their woba/iso ratings rather than typing out “woba” and “iso” for every single player I may use this format more often going forward
My Favorite Stacks Today (MAIN)
Reds vs Brewers Wade Miley (L)
Peraza, Votto, Duvall, Suarez
Total Cost $14.0k
Order 2-3-4-5 (projected)
Total DFSA Grade 336
This Reds vs Brewers series has been a series we’ve been targeting the last few days and they haven’t disappointed. Thew Brewers have won the first two games of the Series 6-5 and 7-6 but the Reds bats have paid off just fine for us the past few days and I expect more of the same today.
Today the Reds get a juicy matchup vs Left hander Wade Miley who throws mainly a Sinker 33% Fastball (90-92) 22% and Slider 22%. Lets start with the pitch Miley throws the most, the Sinker. Joey Votto, Eugenio Suarez, handle sliders well each with 400+ woba and 200+ iso vs the pitch type. Votto also crushes fastballs between 90-92 to the tune of 466 woba 360 iso and 54% hard contact rate. Suarez has similar numbers with 413/216 but less hard contact only 32%
I would start all Reds stacks with Suarez and Votto today and then fill in with Duvall and Peraza. The game is fully stackable but I don’t like putting all of my eggs into one basket so to speak so I’ll have a few 3-3-1-1 stacks built around Red/Brewers and some other teams
Brewers @ Reds Luis Castillo
Yelich, Braun, Shaw, Santana
Total Cost $13.9k
Order 2-3-4-5 (projected)
Total DFSA Grade 312.3
Exact same situation as above with the Reds, this Series between the Brewers and Reds has been DFS Gold the last few days. Both teams are again fully in play today but of course some guys are in better spots than others. So lets take a look at what we can exploit with Brewers bats vs the young fireballer Luis Castillo
Castillo really struggles giving up the long ball to left handed hitters coming into the game with a 237 iso vs lefties. The Brewers have some real solid left handed hitters like Yelich and Shaw so lets see how they handle Castillo’s pitches
Luis Castillo throws major heat hitting 99 on his fastball often and an average fastball speed greater than 96mph. Yelich and Shaw don’t handle fastballs that fast very well, 302/037 for Yelich and 319/188 (better but not great) for Shaw. Manny Pina has a small sample size vs fastballs that fast but has crushed in that small sample size to the tune of 482/259. Lorenzo Cain and Danny Santana don’t quite reach the 400/200 threshold but their numbers are well above average vs this speed of fastball. Cain 376/164 and Santana 373/314 with 46% hard contact.
The second most popular pitch for Castillo is his Sinker and Change up, both around 25%. Ryan Braun is a player that stands out vs the changup sporting a 434/366 and Christian Yelich really does well vs Sinkers 427/202
This is a Double Stack game on the early slate if you can fit in a decent SP with it, if not, 3-3-1-1 would be in play with a few of the cheaper Brewers / Reds bats. Bottom line get exposure to this game because there will be runs scored
Phillies @ Marlins Jose Urena
Hernandez, Hoskins, Altherr, Santana
Total Cost $13.6k
Order 1-2-4-5 (projected)
Total DFSA Grade 326.4
This will probably be an under the radar stack option today with all the firepower in the Brewers/Reds game above. That being said there are some great spots here for some of these Phillies vs Jose Urena.
Urena is a pitcher who throws a hard fastball, averaging nearly 96 mph. One Phillie that stands out vs the fastball speed is Aaron Alther who have a 418 woba 255 iso and 42% hard contact. Most people that target Phillies go straight to Rhys Hoskins but he really struggles vs the hard heat only 219/056. The next most popular pitch for Urena however, is his Slider 25% and Hoskins hammers this pitch 399/275 with 43% hard contact. Urena would be wise to avoid throwing the slider vs Hoskins tonight. Cesar Hernandez and Carlos Santana also handle the slider well, 365/185 for Hernandez and 360/225 for Santana.
The third pitch Urena throws the most is his change up, which makes sense considering the hard heat he throws as his number one pitch. All of the Phillies struggle vs the change and not a single hitter has a woba over 300. This tells me a full stack of the Phillies (like most nights) is probably not wise as most of them struggle vs two of the three main pitches Urena throws. However I still think we can target Hoskins, Altherr, Hernandez and Santana as possible one offs or x2 mini stacks in some of our Reds/Brewers stacks tonight.
Mariners vs Athletics Brett Anderson (L)
Cano, Cruz, Seager, Zunino
Total Cost $14.8k
Order 2-3-5-7 (projected)
Total DFSA Grade 313.3
Need a late night hammer tonight? Stack the Mariners vs left hander Brett Anderson.
Anderson is actually worse vs lefties, giving up a 461 woba vs only 350 (still bad) to righties. He also allows much more hard contact to lefties 44% vs only 35% to righties. Hello Robby Cano!
Anderson throws his sinker 33% of the time. Kyle Seager hits this pitch very well 401/250. Seager makes contact with the sinker 93% of the time but only hits the ball on the ground 37% of the time, which tells me he actually likes the ball down in the zone (like most left handers do) and he lifts the ball more than pounding it into the ground.
Other Mariners vs Sinkers
Nelson Cruz 403/249 with 40% hard contact
Mike Zunino 367/221 with 40% hard contact
Mitch Haniger 389/184 but only 27% hard contact
Quick rundown of some other pitches that Mariners hitters should have success against
Slider 21%, Mitch Haniger 403/311
Fastball (90-92) 19% Robinson Cano 513/432 with 43% Hard Contact
Fastball (90-92) 19% Nelson Cruz 472/509 with 53% Hard Contact
Mariners full stack is undoubtedly in play tonight if you can withstand the sweat of losing all day before you stack goes off late!
Other Stacks
Diamondbacks vs Dodgers Hyun-Jin Ryu (L)
Peralta, Ahmed, Pollock, Goldschmidt (expensive)
Order 1-2-3-4
Nationals vs Pirates Ivan Nova
Harper, Turner, Adams, Zimmerman
Order 1-2-3-4
My Favorite Value Stacks Today (MAIN)
Mets @ Braves Sean Newcomb (L)
Cabrera, Flores, Cespedes, Frazier
Total Cost $10.2k
Order 1-2-3-5 (projected)
Total DFSA Grade 313.3
Wilmer Flores vs a Lefty at $2,200 on Fanduel 100% LOCK AND LOAD
Sean Newcomb throws a 92-94 mph fastball 65% of the time and a Curveball 20% of the time. Flores and other Mets should tee off vs that fastball tonight
Mets vs 92-94 Fastball
Wilmer Flores 396 woba 379 iso 38% hard contact
Yoenis Cespedes 367 woba 308 iso 50% hard contact
Todd Frazier 377 woba 261 iso
All of the Mets righties are in play tonight and they wont cost you too much so you could fit a few of them in with some of your more expensive stacks above.
Thanks for taking the time to check out the article. If you’re in the slack chat, hit me up with any questions @CeeGee
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