Monday night’s eight-game fantasy baseball slate shapes up to be another offense-forward slate with some questionable starting pitchers and plenty of warm weather on the East Coast. Taking a look at the 16 teams on the board, a few stand out as great places to build MLB stacks this Monday as part of your DraftKings lineups.
In case you’re new to the concept, “stacking” is an MLB DFS strategy that encourages using multiple players from the same team in your fantasy lineup, and preferably even from the same section of the lineup. Since most run-scoring plays earn fantasy points for multiple players, teams that score a lot of runs usually place several players near the top of the overall leaderboard. Playing multiple players from high-scoring lineups creates a positive correlation and lifts the ceiling of your lineup. The key to successful MLB stacks is getting the right matchups to attack. Picking the right team to build around can vault you to the top of the leaderboard, so choose your MLB stacks wisely.
Here are my top three MLB DFS stacks for this Monday.
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1. Atlanta Braves
Ronald Acuna Jr. ($6,400)
Matt Olson ($5,300)
Austin Riley ($4,500)
Ozzie Albies ($3,900)
Alex Verdugo ($3,100)
The Braves are in New York taking on the Mets at Citi Field, where they’ll face Paul Blackburn ($6,300) for the second time in the last week. Blackburn gave up four runs (three earned) in 3 2/3 innings against Atlanta last Wednesday and has given up three earned runs or more in each of his last three games. In his 13 innings in the majors, he has a 6.92 ERA, 3.76 FIP, and 1.69 WHIP. The weather in New York is going to be warm with winds blowing out to LF at around 10 miles per hour, and Blackburn gives up enough contact that the Braves are a solid option in MLB stacks.
Acuna has been straight fire since returning from his knee injury, and I picked him as one of my top home run props of the day. Over his last 10 games, Acuna has three doubles, three homers, two stolen bases and a .515 batting average. He has averaged 15.6 fantasy points per game over those 10 contests and is dropping 11.9 fantasy points per game in his 27 games since returning.
Olson, Riley and Albies have also been picking up their production lately. Olson has averaged 9.7 fantasy points per game over his last 10 while going 12-for-36 (.333) with a homer. Albies had a couple of hits on Sunday against the Marlins and is 3-for-4 with a home run in his past meetings with Blackburn. If you need a cheaper way to round out your stack, Verdugo makes sense with hits in four of his last six games and has gone 4-for-12 with a pair of doubles in the past against Blackburn.
2. Boston Red Sox
Jarren Duran ($4,500)
Wilyear Abreu ($4,200)
Roman Anthony ($3,900)
Abraham Toro ($3,300)
Marcelo Mayer ($3,000)
The Red Sox are a great cheap stack in one of the latest games on the slate as they face the Angels and Jack Kochanowicz ($6,500). Kochanowicz does have long-term upside and strikeout potential, but the 24-year-old is 3-8 in his 15 games this season with a 5.38 ERA and 5.69 FIP. His main struggles have been against left-handed hitters, who are hitting .305 against him with a .400 wOBA on the season. Teams are stacking lefties against him, and the Red Sox have plenty of good, young lefties who come at good salaries in this smash spot.
Duran has been cold lately but always brings good upside with both power and speed potential. Abreu went 4-for-8 with a total of 20 fantasy points in his two games since returning from the injured list before being out of the lineup on Sunday. He’s a great option at just over $4,000 from the left side.
Anthony and Mayer have not quite caught fire in the majors yet, but both have also had positive signs. Mayer has brought good power, and I have him as one of my top home run props for the day. Anthony has been patient and had a good plate approach with timely hitting, but is only 4-for-36 (.111) overall. Both Mayer and Anthony have tons of potential, both short and long term, and are on the strong side of the splits for Monday’s matchup, bringing a high ceiling even with their high risk.
3. San Diego Padres
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($5,000)
Manny Machado ($4,900)
Jackson Merrill ($4,500)
Xander Bogaerts ($3,300)
Elias Diaz ($2,600)
The Padres have won three of their last four games after dropping three straight to the Dodgers early last week. They scored 18 runs in those four games, and they’ll look to keep rolling as they take on Mitchell Parker ($6,800) and the Nationals at Petco Park in the last game of the night.
Parker was good in his last start, but that was against the Rockies. In his previous nine starts, he went 1-6 with a 7.50 ERA, giving up 38 runs on 50 hits in 42 innings. He has been hit hard on both sides of his splits this season, letting lefties post a .334 wOBA while righties have eight of his nine homers allowed with a .311 wOBA. He has give up a 50% hard-hit rate, which should allow the Padres to keep putting up runs.
Tatis is the right place to start the Friars’ stack in almost every matchup. He has a 63.6% hard-hit rate in his last 12 games with an average of 10.2 fantasy points per game. Machado has also been stepping up with five homers in his last 17 games and a .401 wOBA against southpaws.
Merrill just returned from the concussion IL and would have had a home run in his return except for a heroic effort from Jack Caglianone. He still went 1-for-4 with a double for seven fantasy points and is averaging 8.0 fantasy points per game in the 45 games he has been available. I also like sneaking in Diaz as a wraparound value play as a cheap catcher who will likely be just ahead of Tatis and the top of the lineup. Diaz didn’t start Sunday, but he averaged 6.0 fantasy points in his previous six games. He makes sense as a punt play behind the plate if you are building around the Padres stack Monday night.
