On Friday, Major League Baseball has 12 games on the main slate for DraftKings contests, which get underway at 7:05 p.m. ET. With a massive player pool of 24 teams in the mix, there are a few very smashable spots to attack for offensive production. Let’s run down my top three plays in Friday night’s MLB DFS Stacks.
- St. Louis Cardinals: vs. Brady Singer. Singer has a 6.18 ERA and 6.89 FIP this year with 16 HR allowed in 11 starts. In his last six starts, opponents have 13 HR and 17.3% barrel rate against him.
- Washington Nationals: vs. Merrill Kelly. Kelly has a 5.06 ERA and 5.60 FIP. He has a 16.3% barrel rate against him and a 7.29 xERA.
- Colorado Rockies: vs. Brandon Sproat. Sproat is 1-4 with a 6.25 ERA, 5.59 FIP and 1.53 WHIP. Lots of traffic in a premium offense environment for the Rox, who have won two straight series.
Before we break down all the selections for these contests, let’s define exactly what we’re searching for. An ideal target for MLB DFS stacks is a team well-positioned to score plenty of runs based on its matchup and ballpark. “Stacking” is the strategy of adding multiple players from the same MLB lineup to your roster to boost each other’s production.
Ideally, MLB DFS stacks focus on players who are either back-to-back or from the same part of the lineup to allow positive correlation. Since most run-scoring plays produce fantasy points for multiple players, stacking a high-scoring team can carry your entry to the top of the leaderboard. The key to MLB DFS stacks paying off is finding the perfect matchup to attack, so let’s take a deeper look at the top spots.
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1. St. Louis Cardinals
Jordan Walker ($5,000)
JJ Wetherholt ($4.400)
Alec Burleson ($4,100)
Lars Nootbaar ($3,400)
Nolan Gorman ($2,900)
The Cardinals are hosting Brady Singer ($6,000) and the Reds on Friday night to start their NL Central series, and whether you opt to go tarps off or not, you can build your lineup around this strong stack. Singer has been getting hit around with a 6.18 ERA and 6.89 FIP this year. He has given up 16 homers in his 11 starts overall, and 13 homers in his last six starts, allowing multiple home runs in all but one of those outings along with a 17.3% barrel rate against him. Lefties have a .450 wOBA and .274 ISO against him, which is why I’m leaning my stack in that direction.
Wetherholt and Nootbaar are both expected to be in the lineup for this home game. Nootbaar has been out all year following operations on his heels, but he is expected to be activated from the 60-day IL, while Whetherholt will likely be back in action after missing just one game. The rookie is averaging 8.4 FPTS per game this season and has hit six of his nine homers in front of his home fans.
Burleson has averaged 8.0 FPTS per game this season and has delivered 42 RBI with a solid .349 wOBA and 125 wRC+. Gorman is another lefty with power potential, but he has been scuffling a little bit lately.
The Cards’ most consistent righty this year has been Jordan Walker, who had three hits and 20 FPTS on Wednesday in his last game. He has played two games against the Reds this season, averaging 25 FPTS per game by going 4-for-9 with a pair of homers. Walker has a high ceiling for a play at just $5,000.
2. Washington Nationals:
James Wood ($6,200)
C.J. Abrams ($5,700)
Curtis Mead ($5,200)
Daylen Lile ($4,500)
Luis Garcia ($3,500)
The Nationals were just swept at home by the Marlins, but will be in a good bounce-back spot at hitter-friendly Chase Field against Merrill Kelly ($7,200). Kelly has a 5.06 ERA and 5.60 FIP. He has a 16.3% barrel rate against him and a 7.29 xERA, indicating that opponents have been making great contact against him all season. Kelly is 5-3 and has won four of his last five starts, but his metrics have still been very favorable for opposing offenses. Lefties have hit .265 with a .390 wOBA and .299 ISO against Kelly this season with a barrel rate over 20%.
If you’re stacking lefties against Kelly, Wood is the obvious and correct place to start. Wood has 16 homers and ranks near the top of just about every hard-hit and barrel-rate metric on the season. He is averaging 10.7 FPTS per game for the season. Abrams and Lile are two more lefties with good power potential, and I highlighted Lile in my top home run props for the day.
Mead has become an anchor in the middle of the order for the Nats and has averaged 9.8 FPTS over his last 11 games. Garcia is another lefty with good upside and a low salary to add to the mix, after he averaged 8.9 FPTS over his last eight games.
3. Colorado Rockies
Hunter Goodman ($4,900)
T.J. Rumfield ($4,300)
Ezequiel Tovar ($3,900)
Jake McCarthy ($3,800)
Sterlin Thompson ($2,900)
The Rockies are home at Coors Field, where the weather will be warm with the wind blowing out on Friday night. They’ll take on Milwaukee’s Brandon Sproat ($5,700), who has struggled to a 1-4 record with a 6.25 ERA, 5.59 FIP and 1.53 WHIP. Righties have hit Sproat especially well with a .198 ISO and 10.4% barrel rate. The Rockies have scored 43 runs over the last week (third-most in the majors), while going 4-2. They have a .301 team batting average and .399 team wOBA over that short span and still bring plenty of value.
McCarthy has power and speed potential from the leadoff spot, producing 10+ FPTS in four of his last six games and averaging 14.3 FPTS per game over that stretch. Goodman has 14+ FPTS in three straight and has averaged 12.1 FPTS in his last 11 games.
Rumfield has provided some good power from the middle of the lineup as well, with at least seven FPTS in three of his last four games, and has a .360 wOBA in his 60 games this season. He is a great value at his salary, but if you need to go even cheaper, Thompson is worth a look after going 3-for-11 with a total of 23 FPTS, while starting each of the Rockies’ three games in Anaheim this week. The 24-year-old lefty had four homers and eight stolen bases in his 38 games in Triple-A before his promotion, so he brings both power and speed potential.
