On Monday night, Major League Baseball gets the work week rolling with a seven-game MLB DFS slate on DraftKings. While there are some strong starting pitchers at the top of the salary structure, there are also some nice matchups to attack for offense. With 14 teams to choose from, let’s dig in and highlight three top offensive lineups to build MLB DFS stacks around this Monday night.
- Minnesota Twins: In good hitting conditions at Sutter Health Park, the Twins will take on lefty Jeffrey Springs, who has a
6.63 ERA and 17 homers against him in 12 home starts. - Chicago Cubs: The Cubs face Merrill Kelly, who has had a very rough year and is especially vulnerable to power-hitting lefties, which the Cubs feature throughout their lineup.
- Cincinnati Reds: The matchup and weather aren’t perfect, but rookie Carson Whisenhunt has allowed 4+ runs in four of his last five starts with an 8.86 ERA.
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. Minnesota Twins
Byron Buxton ($6,000)
Ryan Jeffers ($5,000)
Royce Lewis ($4,900)
Luke Keaschall ($4,300)
Brooks Lee ($4,200)
Kaelen Culpepper ($3,300)
The Twins are just two games back in the AL Wild Card even though they were swept over the weekend by the Padres. They’ll head up the California coast to Sacramento to start this week and take on the Athletics at hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park on Monday. They’ll be facing lefty Jeffrey Springs ($5,300) in very favorable conditions for offense with the temperatures near 90 degrees and the wind blowing out. Springs has a 6.02 ERA and 3-11 record in his 23 starts this season, and he’s 2-7 at home with a 6.63 ERA and 17 homers against him in 12 starts at Sutter Health Park.
Byron Buxton had some of the drippiest swag for Players Weekend, but he only went 1-for-10 in San Diego. He hasn’t been at his best form over the last few weeks, but he always brings a very high ceiling and is worth considering in this environment since he should bring good leverage to go with his high ceiling. Ryan Jeffers got the day off Sunday after posting 10 FPTS on Saturday and has averaged 7.4 FPTS even without a home run in his last 10 games.
Switch-hitter Brooks Lee homered in back-to-back games to produce 38 FPTS over the weekend against the Padres and is up to 20 dingers on the year. He has good numbers on the road, where he is averaging 8.7 FPTS per game, compared to just 5.7 FPTS per game at home. Luke Keaschall is also a strong midrange play, who has hit safely in six straight games, averaging 9.1 FPTS over his last nine.
I also like Kaelen Culpepper as one of my top value plays of the day since the rookie brings a high ceiling at his bargain salary.
2. Chicago Cubs
Pete Crow-Armstrong ($6,600)
Alex Bregman ($5,600)
Seiya Suzuki ($5,300)
Michael Busch ($4,600)
Michael Conforto ($3,300)
The Cubs snapped a three-game skid by hammering out 19 runs on Sunday in Seattle, and they’ll look to carry that momentum with them as they head to Chase Field, which is usually a good spot for offense. They’ll take on Merrill Kelly ($6,000), who is 8-11 with a 5.37 ERA and 5.80 FIP. His 7.25 xERA shows that he has given up even more contact than his results indicate, with a 43.9% hard-hit rate and 12.6% barrel rate. Kelly has let lefties hit 18 of the 26 homers against him with a .387 wOBA and a 13.2% barrel rate.
Pete Crow-Armstrong is the right place to start any Cubs stack if you have the salary. He homered on Sunday and is up to 33 homers on the season and has raised his season average to 10.8 FPTS per game by producing 13 FPTS per game over his last 10. He had 30 FPTS on Sunday and always brings a high ceiling with power and speed.
Alex Bregman has 10+ FPTS in five of his last six games, averaging 13.7 FPTS per game over that span. Seiya Suzuki is averaging 10.0 FPTS in his last nine games as well, and both righties have enough momentum to be considered in the stack along with PCA and the other lefties.
Michael Busch and Michael Conforto can round out the Cubs stack nicely from the left side as cheaper plays. Busch had 12, 14 and 15 FPTS in the team’s three-game stop in Seattle and went 5-for-10 with an average of 14.7 FPTS in the Cubs’ three-game series against Arizona earlier this season. He’s 4-for-8 in his career against Kelly with a double, triple and a home run. Conforto has also had success against Kelly, going 5-for-14 with three doubles. Conforto went yard on Sunday as well, and he can be a good bargain DFS play when he starts against hittable righties like Kelly.
3. Cincinnati Reds
Elly De La Cruz ($6,100)
Sal Stewart ($5,200)
Eugenio Suarez ($3,700)
Dane Myers ($3,200)
Hector Rodriguez ($2,700)
The Reds’ offense has been struggling lately, but as the team rolls into San Francisco, it could provide a nice contrarian option in Monday’s MLB DFS Stacks to consider. They’ll be taking on the Giants, who were just swept by the Red Sox and come in with a beat-up bullpen. Rookie lefty Carson Whisenhunt ($5,000) has allowed 4+ runs in four of his last five starts with an 8.86 ERA and 6.04 FIP. Righties have a .406 wOBA against Whisenhunt on the season with a 54.5% hard-hit rate against him.
The top two bats in the lineup are Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart, who usually hit 1-2 at the top of the order. While the team totals are low, those two hitters have continued to be high performers. Elly has averaged 10.1 FPTS per game over his last seven contests, while Stewart has 10+ FPTS in four of his last five games while averaging 11.8 FPTS in that short span.
Dane Myers had two hits and 12 FPTS on Sunday and has a pair of homers in his last nine games for 7.0 FPTS per game. Eugenio Suarez always brings good power potential. Hector Rodriguez, who was also in my top values, is a great cheap way to round out the stack, especially if he bats ninth just before Elly and Stewart when the lineup turns over.
