On Monday night, Major League Baseball has a dozen teams taking the diamond on a solid six-game main slate. All six games are the start of a new series, but some matchups definitely stand out as good options for DFS lineups. The slate locks a little early at 6:40 p.m. ET with a nice late-night matchup from San Francisco closing out the action. Let’s take a look at Monday’s 12-team player pool and find some top matchups to attack for MLB stacks.
In case you’re still just working into the daily grind of DFS fantasy baseball, let’s quickly define the term “stacking.” Stacking is an MLB DFS strategy that is designed to create a positive correlation in your lineup by including multiple players from the same MLB team. The best MLB stacks typically include players from the same section of the lineup so they can work together to boost each other’s run production. Having any stack in the Reds’ 24-run outburst on Sunday afternoon definitely paid off!
The key to successful MLB stacks is finding the right matchup to attack. In examining the six games on Monday night’s slate, here are the three that stand out for tonight’s top MLB stacks.
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1. Philadelphia Phillies
Kyle Schwarber ($5,900)
Bryce Harper ($5,400)
Nick Castellanos ($4,800)
J.T. Realmuto ($4,000)
Max Kepler ($3,600)
The Phillies visit the Mets in an NL East matchup to start the week and on Monday, they’ll face Tylor Megill ($7,200). Megill has allowed seven runs in 19 1/3 innings, but some of those runs have been unearned. He has a 48.3% hard-hit rate against him this season, and in his career, he has typically struggled against left-handed hitters. In this specific head-to-head matchup, J.T. Realmuto has gone 4-for-15 with a home run, while Nick Castellanos is 4-for-10 with a double.
Schwarber and Harper have each averaged over 10 fantasy points per game so far this season. Harper has posted 14+ fantasy points in five of his last six games with three homers over that span, while Schwarber has 14+ fantasy points in three of his last four games as well. Stacking the Phillies isn’t cheap, though, so including Kepler is a way to balance out some salary while still getting good power potential from a left-handed hitter against Megill.
2. Milwaukee Brewers
Jackson Chourio ($5,500)
Christian Yelich ($4,900)
William Contreras ($4,500)
Rhys Hoskins ($3,900)
Caleb Durbin ($2,000)
The Brewers won four of their last five games on their homestand before taking to the road on Monday and taking on the Giants by the Bay. They scored at least five runs in each of those wins and capped the run with 14 runs on Sunday. On Monday, they’ll take on veteran lefty Robbie Ray ($7,500), who had a great spring training and start to the season but has issued 14 free passes in his last three starts. He gave up four runs on six hits and gave walks in four innings against the Phillies in his last start, and the Brewers will look to take advantage of his wildness if it continues on Monday.
Chourio is almost always the right spot to start a Brewers stack and had two hits on Sunday. Yelich has 14+ fantasy points in three of his last four after going 2-for-3 with a stolen base on Sunday. He has four homers and four stolen bases on the season. Hoskins homered on Sunday on his way to 33 fantasy points and is hitting .296 with a .369 wOBA against lefties in the early part of this season. I highlighted Durbin as one of my top values of the day, and if he bats ninth, his speed will be a great way to build a back-door stack and get good correlation with the hitters at the top of the order.
3. Miami Marlins
Xavier Edwards ($4,500)
Otto Lopez ($4,000)
Connor Norby ($3,100)
Eric Wagaman ($3,100)
Javier Sanoja ($2,500)
I get it… You probably weren’t expecting a Fish stack to start the week. While it is a contrarian stack to be sure, the Marlins bring sneaky value against the Reds and lefty Nick Lodolo ($8,700). Miami has hit an NL-leading .292 against southpaws this season with a .325 wOBA. Lodolo usually has a high strikeout rate, but he only has a 5.4 K/9 this year to go with his 2.31 ERA and 4.02 FIP. His BABIP against is just .197, which indicates that there is likely some regression coming based on his batted-ball metrics and the kind of contact he has given up.
Edwards lost his 12-game hitting streak on Sunday but is still hitting .299 on the season. He is hitting .340 with a .388 wOBA and 146 wRC+ against lefties this season after hitting .341 with a .367 wOBA and 134 wRC+ against lefties last season. Lopez has hit safely in six of his last seven and has been hitting cleanup. On the corners, Wagaman is a good value as well, bringing an eight-game hitting streak into this matchup. Norby has just returned from the IL but has already contributed to the Marlins’ offense, going 5-for-16 (.313) and averaging 7.5 fantasy points per game in his four contests. You can even get creative and combine the bargain stack with the Phillies or other big stars if you include rookie Javier Sanoja, who is averaging 11.2 fantasy points in his last five games.
