After some early games throughout the afternoon, Major League Baseball has eight games on the main slate for fantasy baseball contests on Saturday night. With 16 teams to consider, there are many options to consider as you assemble your lineup. While there aren’t any extreme situations from a weather or ballpark perspective, there are a few matchups that stand out as places to attack this Saturday. Let’s take a look at the top options and run down my top three lineups to build around in Saturday night’s MLB DFS Stacks.
- Milwaukee Brewers: The Brew Crew face new Cubs starter David Peterson on Saturday in Milwaukee. Peterson has a 6.09 ERA and 1.65 WHIP on the season with 35 runs allowed in 41 1/3 innings over his last 10 games.
- St. Louis Cardinals: In St. Louis, the Cardinals are in a good place against Ryan Gusto and the Marlins. Gusto has allowed 3+ runs in three of his last five games with a 6.34 ERA and 1.71 WHIP. On the road, he has a 10.80 ERA in his limited action this season.
- Minnesota Twins: The Twins’ offense continues to roll and gets another favorable matchup against Michael Lorenzen, who has a 7.11 ERA and 1.83 WHIP in his first year with the Rockies.
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. Milwaukee Brewers
Brice Turang ($5,600)
Jackson Chourio ($5,500)
William Contreras ($4,700)
Andrew Vaughn ($3,700)
Cooper Pratt ($3,100)
The Brewers host the Cubs this weekend in a fun NL Central matchup, and Jacob Misiorowski got the team off to a flying start on Friday. On Saturday, they’ll look to pick up their sixth straight win as they take on lefty David Peterson ($6,000), who was just traded from the Mets to the Cubs earlier this week. For the Mets, Peterson struggled this season, going 3-6 with a 6.09 ERA and 1.65 WHIP. Righties are hitting .303 with a .349 wOBA against Peterson on the season, which is why most of the options in the stack are right-handed bats.
Turang is the only lefty in the stack, but he has been productive enough to use even in the lefty-lefty matchup. Over his last 10 games, he’s averaging 7.8 FPTS with two doubles, a triple, a home run and a stolen base. In his 40 games at home this season, he is averaging 10.0 FPTS per game. Turang has multiple paths to production as a pay-up play and can be a solid 1-2 combo with Chourio, whom I highlighted in my home run props for Saturday. Chourio has seven multi-hit games in his last 17 games, hitting .325 with five doubles and six homers, giving him a .410 wOBA and .299 ISO. He’s averaging 11.1 FPTS per game over those 17 games.
Contreras has gone yard in back-to-back games with 28 and 21 FPTS, and he is averaging 14.8 FPTS over his last six games. Against the lefty, Vaughn should be a solid value option, while I also highlighted Pratt in my value picks for today, since he brings so much speed upside and a very high ceiling for a player just over $3,000.
2. St. Louis Cardinals
Jordan Walker ($5,300)
JJ Wetherholt ($4,700)
Alec Burleson ($4,300)
Lars Nootbaar ($3,800)
Blaze Jordan ($3,000)
The Cardinals have lost three straight and didn’t get a run against the Marlins on Friday, but they should be in a great spot to bounce back against Ryan Gusto ($5,600) on Saturday at Busch Stadium. Gusto has only pitched two road games this season, allowing eight runs on 13 hits in 11 1/3 road innings. He has allowed three runs or more in three of his last five starts, with lefties hitting .311 with a .378 wOBA against him.
Lefties Wetherholt, Burleson and Nootbaar are on the strong side of the splits and can anchor the Cardinals stack. Wetherholt is 0-for-14 in his last three games but did have a huge game last Sunday, blasting two homers and posting 37 FPTS. Burleson has been a little more consistent and has averaged 9.1 FPTS over his last 15 games. Nootbaar has also been very solid since returning from offseason heel surgery, averaging 8.0 FPTS in his last nine games and hitting safely in eight of those nine games.
In addition to those three lefties, Walker and Jordan can be strong additions to the stack since they bring power potential at their respective price points. Walker has 18 homers on the season and has hit safely in five of his last seven games. Jordan is a great value play at only $3,000. He has averaged 7.1 FPTS in his 13 games since his promotion and has three doubles, a triple and a home run with 12 RBIs. He has plenty of power potential and brings a high ceiling and positional flexibility that can slide to either 1B or 3B to fit in your roster builds.
3. Minnesota Twins
Byron Buxton ($5,900)
Kody Clemens ($4,000)
Trevor Larnach ($3,500)
Brooks Lee ($3,200)
Victor Caratini ($2,900)
Josh Bell ($2,500)
The Twins were in my stacks yesterday and delivered nine runs in their extra-inning win over the Rockies. After knocking around Tomoyuki Sugano on Friday, they’ll get another great matchup against Michael Lorenzen ($5,800). Lorenzen has been a little better lately, allowing under two runs in two of his last three starts, but the Pirates got to him for four runs in his last outing. For the season, Lorenzen has a 7.11 ERA and 1.82 WHIP, struggling both at home and on the road. Lefties have nine of the 13 homers against Lorenzen this season with a .472 wOBA, a .301 ISO and a 48.5% hard-hit rate.
Switch-hitters Victor Caratini, Brooks Lee and Josh Bell will face Lorenzen from the left side, and Bell is 9-for-31 (.290) in his past meetings with Lorenzen, with a double and two homers. Lee comes in on an impressive roll with eight homers since May 31 in exactly 100 plate appearances, producing a .342 wOBA with a 31.7% hard-hit rate.
Lefty Trevor Larnach has settled in as the leadoff hitter and has averaged 9.9 FPTS in his last 10 games. He had 10 FPTS on Friday and has reached double-digit FPTS in five of his last eight. Clemens hasn’t been as consistent as Larnach but brings nice upside, as he showed with 20 FPTS on Friday.
All of those pieces fit well around slugger Byron Buxton, who makes the offense go with his 25 homers and .390 wOBA. He had three hits, including a double, on his way to 19 FPTS on Friday. He has hit safely in six of his last seven games and is averaging 11.6 FPTS per game in his 35 home games at Target Field.
