Monday on Memorial Day, there’s baseball on tap all day long! In the afternoon, DraftKings has a seven-game featured DFS fantasy baseball slate that starts at 1:10 p.m. ET. With 14 lineups to choose from, there are some great options to target if you’re looking to add some fireworks to the afternoon of your Memorial Day fantasy lineups. Let’s take a look at the matchups and identify Monday afternoon’s top three MLB stacks.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, “stacking” refers to an MLB DFS strategy that uses multiple players from the same lineup, and ideally, the same section of that lineup. Due to the nature of fantasy baseball scoring, multiple players from the team earn points most of the time when a team scores a run. MLB stacks can be very effective because high-scoring teams usually have multiple players near the top of the overall leaderboard. Creating MLB stacks allows for a positive correlation between your players’ production, and if you can find the right matchup, the increased connection can pay off in huge ways. While it is a risky strategy, stacking raises the ceiling of your roster if you can pinpoint the best MLB stacks on the board.
Here are my top three MLB stacks for this Monday.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $200K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]
1. Chicago Cubs
Kyle Tucker ($6,500)
Pete Crow-Armstrong ($5,800)
Seiya Suzuki ($5,600)
Nico Hoerner ($4,300)
Matt Shaw ($3,600)
The Cubs get the top spot in my MLB stacks for this Monday afternoon as they play at home against the visiting Rockies. Over the last two weeks, the Cubs have scored more runs per game than any other team in the majors with the best team batting average, the top wOBA and the second-highest ISO. They had 28 runs in their three games against the Reds and scored double-digit runs in three of the games on their six-game road trip.
They’ll face rookie lefty Carson Palmquist ($5,000), who has struggled badly in his first two MLB outings. Palmquist is 0-2 with an 11.88 ERA, 7.52 FIP, 2.52 WHIP and 16 hits allowed in just 8 1/3 innings. He struggled at Coors Field in his last start, and even though he won’t have to deal with that challenge, he’ll face a red-hot Cubs order at Wrigley, which can be very hitter-friendly depending on the wind conditions.
Tucker and Crow-Armstrong are lefties but still have plenty of upside despite the matchup against a lefty. PCA has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball, averaging 14.2 fantasy points over his last 10 games. Tucker has averaged 12.1 fantasy points over his last 10 games. Suzuki has three homers in his last five games and earned 30+ fantasy points in each of those three games. Hoerner has also averaged more than double-digit fantasy points in his last 10 games, and I highlighted Shaw in my top value plays of the day as well. Shaw is an inexpensive way to get nice exposure to one of the top MLB stacks.
2. St. Louis Cardinals
Ivan Herrera ($5,700)
Brendan Donovan ($4,900)
Masyn Winn ($4,200)
Willson Contreras ($4,200)
Victor Scott II ($3,900)
The Cardinals are in Baltimore to take on the last-place Orioles on Monday, and they come in with some solid momentum after sweeping the Dbacks over the weekend. They are just two games behind the Cubs in the NL Central to start the week, and they’ll be one of the top MLB stacks in the afternoon since they’ll take on Charlie Morton ($5,500). Morton is returning to the rotation after some solid work out of the bullpen, but he struggled before being moved to the ‘pen. In his 12 games, he is 0-7 with a 7.68 ERA, 5.89 FIP and 1.76 WHIP over his 41 innings with the O’s. Right-handed hitters are hitting .329 with four homers and a .394 wOBA against him on the season, and he has an 8.22 home ERA, which should set up well for the Cardinals at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Monday afternoon.
Due to those splits, Winn and Contreras are actually the players at their salaries that I’m chasing the most. Winn homered on Sunday and is averaging 8.8 fantasy points per game over his last 12. He seems to be heating up after injury issues early in the season and is a nice option just over $4,000. Contreras has been out due to back spasms, but manager Oli Marmol said that he hopes Contreras will start Monday. Donovan and Herrera have been the team’s hottest hitters lately, and Donovan is affordable and versatile with his dual eligibility at 2B and OF. Donvan is 17-for-40 (.425) over his last 10 games with five doubles, a home run and an average of 9.1 fantasy points per contest.
3. New York Mets
Francisco Lindor ($5,500)
Pete Alonso ($5,400)
Jeff McNeil ($3,700)
Mark Vientos ($3,400)
Brett Baty ($3,100)
The Mets stay home after getting a big win in their Sunday Night Baseball matchup with the Dodgers. They’ll welcome the White Sox in a much more fantasy-friendly way to start the week. On Monday afternoon, they’ll take on Adrian Houser ($5,800), who impressed in his first start with the White Sox but struggled in the minors with the Rangers before that. The former Met had a 5.03 ERA and 4.72 FIP in his nine games in Triple-A, with 22 runs allowed in 39 1/3 innings. I’m skeptical of him being able to “flip the switch,” especially since the Mariners had runners on base in every inning, and he was just able to work out of trouble. The Mets will know Houser well since he went 1-5 with their team last year with a 5.84 ERA, 4.93 FIP and 1.53 WHIP mostly while working out of the bullpen in a middle relief role.
In his career, lefties have hit Houser hard with a .357 wOBA and 1.18 HR/9. Lindor, McNeil and Baty will be on the strong side of those splits. Baty went 0-for-3 on Sunday but had three straight multi-hit games before that with at least 17 fantasy points in each contest. Lindor has three games of double-digit fantasy points in his last five as well, and always brings a high ceiling with his power-speed combo. Alonso had the big homer on Sunday night and finished with 16 fantasy points.
