Major League Baseball has a 13-game MLB DFS slate on DraftKings this Friday to fire up the weekend with plenty of fantasy baseball goodness. While there are some big names on the mound, the 26 teams on the scoreboard also present some good offensive options to consider. Let’s spotlight a few of the top offensive lineups to build around on Friday in today’s MLB DFS Stacks.
- Cleveland Guardians: The Guardians get the boost of playing at Coors Field, and they get a great matchup against Tanner Gordon, who has been very hittable at home, especially by lefties.
- San Diego Padres: The Padres are back at Petco Park to take on the Twins and Connor Prielipp. Prielipp has allowed 3+ runs in 4 of his last five outings with a 6.23 ERA over that stretch.
- New York Yankees: The Yankees’ offense hasn’t been awesome, but they have won four straight and now come home to Yankee Stadium to take on Spencer Arrighetti in his Blue Jays debut. Arrighetti went 0-3 with a 9.72 ERA and 8.25 FIP in his last six appearances before landing on the IL and being traded to Toronto.
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.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB $150K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st]!
1. Cleveland Guardians
Jose Ramirez ($6,000)
Angel Martinez ($4,700)
Steven Kwan ($3,800)
Nathaniel Lowe ($3,700)
Angel Genao ($3,500)
The Guardians are in Colorado, which would make them fantasy-relevant at their affordable salaries in any matchup, but especially against a very hittable starting pitcher like Tanner Gordon ($5,000). In his 17 games in the majors this season, Gordon has allowed 15 home runs and compiled a 5.55 ERA. Attacking him has been an even better strategy at Coors Field, where he has a 7.82 ERA with 13 homers and 35 runs against him in 38 innings. Lefties have especially been effective against Gordon, with 11 of the 15 homers against him, a .315 batting average, .402 wOBA, and an 11.0% barrel rate.
Switch-hitters Ramirez, Martinez and Genao will face him from the left side and be on the strong side of those splits, while Lowe and Kwan are strong lefty options as well. Ramirez hasn’t been quite right since his hand injury has slowly been heating up lately with 7+ DraftKings points in four of his last five games. He is a pay-up anchor for this stack but does come with a hefty price tag. Martinez had a slow July but has hit .333 in August with one homer, one stolen base, and an average of 7.25 FPTS per game.
After a very slow start, Steven Kwan has turned things around and averaged 8.5 FPTS over his last 10 games. To add a little lefty pop to the middle of the order, Lowe was brought in at the trade deadline, and he has already smashed a pair of homers with Cleveland and averaged 7.6 FPTS per game over his last five contests. Lowe also homered in July in Colorado when he was with the Reds.
Genao has hit safely in four of his last five games and is averaging 7.0 FPTS over his last 10 games. He brings power and speed potential but also a fairly high floor since he is hitting .333 and usually does a good job making contact.
2. San Diego Padres
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($5,600)
Manny Machado ($5,000)
Ty France ($4,100)
Luis Rengifo ($3,600)
Austin Hays ($2,700)
After taking three of the six games on their road trip, the Padres are holding onto the third NL Wild Card spot coming into their weekend series against the Twins, who are tied for the third AL Wild Card spot. Both of these teams will be in the middle of all the action coming down the stretch, and the Padres offense has started to look much better over the last few weeks.
They’ll take on Twins lefty Connor Prielipp, who has had a solid season overall for the Twins, but he is starting to show some signs of fatigue. He gave up eight runs in five innings to the Phillies in his last start and has allowed at least three runs in four of his five most recent contests. In those five games, he has a 6.23 ERA and 5.36 FIP. Opponents have a 46.3% hard-hit rate against him and have racked up six home runs.
The Padres have been getting outstanding production from Fernando Tatis at the top of their lineup, and he’s the right starting spot for a Padres stack on Friday. He is averaging 11.7 FPTS over his last 15 games with seven homers during that stretch. Manny Machaco has also been coming around and had 22 FPTS on Tuesday to help carry his team to a win in New York.
Ty France and Austin Hays are each righties who typically hit lefties well, so they should be set up in a good spot against Prielipp on Friday night. Switch-hitter Luis Rengifo has also been a key part of the Padres’ recent success, hitting .295 with two homers and 6.8 FPTS per game over his last 12 contests. Whichever of the value options hits second behind Tatis could be a great sourse of production at low cost as part of the San Diego stack.
3. New York Yankees
Luis Garcia Jr. ($5,000)
Trent Grisham ($4,600)
Heliot Ramos ($3,900)
George Lombard ($3,300)
Spencer Jones ($3,200)
The Yankees are coming home after sweeping the Orioles to start the week, and they’ll take on another divisional opponent as the Blue Jays come to the Bronx. On. Friday, Spencer Arrighetti ($7,800) will make his debut for his new team after coming over at the trade deadline from Houston. Arrighetti was struggling before landing on the IL with a foot issue. He started the season with some strong outings, but in June and July, he went 0-4 with an 8.34 ERA, a 1.59 WHIP, and a 6.31 FIP. Lefties in particular hithim hard with eight of the 12 homers against him this season and a .359 wOBA.
The Yankees’ offense as a whole has struggled without Aaron Judge, but some of the new arrivals have been chipping in meaningful production. They come at lower salaries in this contest and could be good value in a hitter-friendly ballpark with a favorable matchup.
Luis Garcia had three hits and a homer to lead the way on Thursday, racking up 22 FPTS. He has 10 hits in his last nine games, batting .278 with a .312 wOBA and 55.6% hard-hit rate. Ramos has also been solid during the team’s four-game winning streak, producing 7+ FPTS in three of his last four games. Lombard had poste four straight games of at elast 7 FPTS before coming up empty with an 0-for-4 on Thursday.
Lefty outfielders Trent Grisham and Spencer Jones bring good upside as well, with power potential in strong splits against Arrighetti. Grisham has averaged 12.3 FPTS over his last 10 games and is averaging 9.3 FPTS at home in his 47 games at Yankee Stadium, making him a strong mid-range play, especially if he’s hitting leadoff. Jones is a good bargain after smashing a home run to get to 27 FPTS on Thursday and averaging 8.1 FPTS over his last 10 contests.
