After a trio of early games just before 7:00 p.m. ET, a dozen games are on DraftKings main MLB DFS slate for this Friday night headed into the All-Star break. With 24 teams in the player pool, lots of strong options are available to consider, but a few places stand out as the best places for MLB DFS stacks. Since Coors Field and Sutter Health Park aren’t on the slate, plus the weather is hot and humid across the board, it’s more about finding hittable starting pitcher matchups to attack. Let’s take a look at the top options and run down my top three lineups to build around in Friday night’s MLB DFS Stacks.
- Chicago White Sox: The White Sox will face some mixture of Jacob Lopez and Aaron Civale for the Athletics, and both have been very hittable. Getting Munetaka Murekami back in the lineup should give the White Sox a boost.
- San Francisco Giants: The Giants are at home against Tanner Gordon, who has been very smashable all season, especially by lefties. The wind blowing out at Oracle could lead to a big night for the Giants.
- Minnesota Twins: The Twins get a great matchup at home against Grayson Rodriguez (back) in his first game off the IL.
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. Chicago White Sox
Miguel Vargas ($5,400)
Munetaka Murakami ($4,800)
Colson Montgomery ($4,400)
Kyle Teel ($3,700)
Braden Montgomery ($2,900)
The White Sox only scored two runs in their three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, but they were rolling before that with 18 runs in four games against the Guardians. They should be in a good spot to bounce back against Jacob Lopez ($6,800) as the opener and Aaron Civale ($6,000) as the bulk reliever on Friday. Lopez has a 7.04 ERA and 1.84 WHIP in his 10 games this season (three starts) and has allowed 11 homers in 53 2/3 innings. He’ll be followed by Civale, who has a 5.10 ERA with a 1.58 WHIP and has allowed 16 homers in 15 games this year. Lefties have hammered Civale, while righties have crushed Lopez, meaning there are favorable options on both sides of the splits.
Murakami will be the big story as he returns from missing over a month with a hamstring injury. He averaged 9.7 FPTS per game with 20 homers in his 57 contests before the injury and will look to pick up where he left off against Lopez and Civale. Vargas makes sense, especially against Lopez, and he’s averaging 9.7 FPTS in his 45 home games this season. Lefty Colson Montgomery is on the other side of the splits and should be ready to smash once Civale enters. He’s averaging 8.2 FPTS over his last nine games.
As value options to round out the stack, Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery are worth a look. Teel is still just ramping up after missing a while with a couple of injuries, but is typically hitting in a key lineup spot and has the ability to go off with a big number. Braden Montgomery has averaged 7.7 FPTS in his 13 home games and has reached base safely in 16 of his last 17 games.
2. San Francisco Giants
Casey Schmitt ($4,300)
Heliot Ramos ($3,900)
Rafael Devers ($3,800)
Jung Hoo Lee ($3,800)
Bryce Eldridge ($3,500)
The Giants are coming off eight runs on Thursday night in their opener against the Rockies and should be in a great matchup to keep mashing against Tanner Gordon ($5,200). Gordon has worked 45 1/3 innings in 11 games this year and has a 6.95 ERA and 5.03 FIP. He has allowed 11 homers in those 11 games this season, including four long balls to the Giants when he started against them last week. Lefties have nine of those 11 homers with a .333 batting average, a .382 wOBA, and a 14.7% barrel rate against Gordon on the season.
Stacking up the Giants lefties is a great strategy with Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge as my two favorite options. Devers has hit nine homers over his last 23 games with a .305 batting average, a .390 ISO and a .459 wOBA. He has a 16.7% barrel rate over that span with a 51.5% hard-hit rate. Eldridge homered on Thursday night in the series opener and has hit six homers in his last 25 games while batting .264 with a .380 wOBA and .242 ISO. Both lefties come as good value plays at their salaries.
Casey Schmitt homered with 25 FPTS on Thursday and has three games in his last six with double-digit FPTS. He can fit at either 3B or SS and bring a good ceiling even as a right. Heliot Ramos is another righty with a high ceiling as he showed with his 44 FPTS on Monday against Toronto. He’s averaging 13 FPTS per game over his last nine games and makes a lot of sense as a swing-for-the-fences play under $4,000.
3. Minnesota Twins
Kody Clemens ($5,000)
Trevor Larnach ($4,200)
Brooks Lee ($4,000)
Royce Lewis ($3,600)
Josh Bell ($3,000)
Alan Roden ($2,100)
The Twins will look to spoil the return of Grayson Rodriguez ($6,900), who will be returning from the injured list for the second time this season. He struggled after his first return, allowing four homers in his six starts with an 8.06 ERA and 5.14 FIP. Lefties especially hit him up with a .357 average, .462 wOBA, and .268 ISO in his limited work. Lefties had a 60.9% hard-hit rate and 13.0% barrel rate against Rodriguez.
I highlighted Josh Bell in my value plays for today, and both he and switch-hitter Brooks Lee will hit against Rodriguez as lefties. Bell has averaged 11.1 FPTS over his last nine games, while Lee has also been trending up over the last month and averaged 8.4 FPTS over his last 14 contests.
Kody Clemens has brought some good power from the left side this season and is up to 16 homers in his 80 games. He’s averaging 12.4 FPTS per game over his last 10 contests and has produced double-digit FPTS in six of his last eight. Also from the left side, Trevor Larnach has moved into the leadoff spot, making him a nice option as part of the stack if the Twins get to Rodriguez for a big total on Friday.
Royce Lewis is the only righty in the stack, but he makes sense coming off 19 FPTS and his ninth homer of the year on Thursday. Lefty Alan Roden is a good punt play at just over the minimum salary since he has been very good when available at Triple-A this season, slashing .272/.397/.512 with eight home runs, 24 RBI and a pair of stolen bases in 33 games with St. Paul.
