On Friday, Major League Baseball starts Players’ Weekend with 12 games on the fantasy baseball main slate on DraftKings. The first pitch will lock the contests at 7:07 p.m. ET with games beginning throughout the night. There are a few tough starting pitcher matchups to avoid on the board, but there are also some great spots to attack for Friday’s MLB DFS stacks. As you fill out your lineup card for Friday, let’s look at some of the strongest offenses to build around in favorable spots headed into a fun weekend of festivities.
Before we get to Friday’s picks, let’s define what exactly we’re looking for. An ideal MLB DFS stack is a team that is in a position to score plenty of runs based on its matchup and environment. “Stacking” is a strategy that can be very effective since it is built around multiple players from the same MLB lineup, boosting each other’s production in high-scoring spots. Ideally, MLB DFS stacks focus on players who are back-to-back or at least from the same part of the lineup to allow positive correlation.
Most run-scoring plays produce fantasy points for multiple players, so stacking a high-scoring team can carry your entry to the top of the leaderboard. Stacking increases the connectedness of your lineup, which raises both the risk and the ceiling of your team since they will either go off or get shut down together. The key to MLB DFS stacks paying off is finding the perfect matchup to attack, so let’s take a look at Friday’s top spots.
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1. Arizona Diamondbacks
Corbin Carroll ($6,600)
Ketel Marte ($6,400)
Geraldo Perdomo ($5,600)
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ($5,200)
Blaze Alexander ($4,000)
Tyler Locklear ($3,900)
The Dbacks are an obvious stack on Friday night since they’re playing at Coors Field, but they’re also a very strong pay-up group to consider if you can find some MLB DFS Bargains to balance out your spending. On Thursday, they started the series with eight runs on nine hits, including homers from Gurriel and Jose Herrera ($3,300). Over the last week, the Diamondbacks have scored the second-most runs in the majors while hitting .285 as a teal with a .380 wOBA and an MLB-leading 15 homers.
They’ll be in a good spot against Tanner Gordon ($4,500), who is 2-5 with an 8.37 ERA and 35 runs allowed in 33 1/3 innings this year. Lefties have hit four of the five homers he has allowed this season, while righties are hitting .443 with a .476 wOBA against him. Since everyone has hit him so hard this year, stacking against him is a good place to start your lineup if you have the salary available.
I highlighted how hot Carroll has been in my home run props for this Friday, and Marte is also rolling. Over his last 19 games, he went 25-for-74 (.338) with four doubles, four homers, 16 RBI, and an average of 10.4 fantasy points per game. Gurriel’s homer on Thursday gave him 15 blasts on the season, and he tacked on a stolen base as well to finish with 25 fantasy points.
Alexander and Locklear are two of the young bats the Dbacks are looking at down the stretch. Alexander is 13-for-38 (.342) with three doubles, four homers, and a .498 wOBA over his last 11 games, averaging 11.0 fantasy points over that span. Locklear hasn’t been quite as hot with just 5.7 fantasy points in his 13 games since joining the Dbacks, but he brings good power potential after his success in Triple-A. Both Alexander and Locklear are cheaper ways to still get exposure to this stack.
2. Boston Red Sox
Alex Bregman ($5,200)
Jarren Duran ($5,000)
Roman Anthony ($4,600)
Ceddanne Rafaela ($4,000)
Masataka Yoshida ($3,100)
The Red Sox are home for Players’ Weekend after going 2-4 on their six-game trip to San Diego and Houston, facing two of the hottest teams in baseball. They’ll look to get their bats in gear for their homestand with a volatile matchup against Sandy Alcantara ($6,500), who has been very hittable most of this year with a few strong starts mixed in. Alcantara is 6-11 in his 23 starts with a 6.55 ERA and 4.55 FIP. He had two strong starts in July, but has given up at least four runs in six of his last eight outings with a 6.32 ERA. Righties are hitting .298 against Alcantara, and on the road, he has an 8.87 ERA and 5.59 FIP on the road.
Anthony, Bregman, and Duran have been the top three in the Sox lineup and all have good ceilings, especially at home. Bregman has gone 20-for-60 (.333) with three doubles, four homers, and a .430 wOBA over the last three weeks. Anthony is 19-for-56 (.339) over that same span with four doubles, a triple, a home run, and a .444 wOBA.
Duran has also been cruising over that span, going 20-for-62 (.323) with six doubles, two doubles, three triples, and a .434 wOBA. He is hitting .294 at Fenway this season with seven homers and a .378 wOBA and 136 wRC+ at home. Rafaela and Yoshida are affordable ways to round out the stack against the Marlins this Friday night.
3. Houston Astros
Jose Altuve ($5,200)
Jeremy Pena ($4,600)
Carlos Correa ($4,000)
Ramon Urias ($2,900)
Jacob Melton ($2,400)
The Astros took two of three from the Red Sox and have won six of their last nine games. They’ll start a home series against the Orioles on Friday night, taking on Brandon Young ($5,600). Young is 0-6 in his 10 starts in the majors with a 6.70 ERA and 5.59 FIP. He has given up 35 runs in 44 1/3 innings, including 10 homers allowed and a 44.4% hard-hit rate against him. Both lefties and righties are hitting over .300 against him with lefties producing a little more power with six homers and a .416 wOBA.
Houston is a much cheaper stack than the Red Sox or Rockies, but they bring a very nice ceiling against Young. Altuve has been the heart of the injury-depleted offense this season. He has 21 homers and is averaging 11.2 fantasy points per game over his last 13 games.
Pena has also been hot with double-digit fantasy points in four of his last five games and six of his last nine. Correa has been hitting between Pena and Altuve, and has gone 16-for-44 (.364) since rejoining the Astros 11 games ago. Urias and Melton are good bargain plays to mix in. They typically hit at the bottom of the lineup and would be on base in front of Altuve and Pena as part of a wraparound stack.
