On Friday night, Major League Baseball has a dozen games on the main DFS fantasy baseball slate, which gets underway at 7:05 p.m. ET. Friday’s slate has a few big-name acers to consider building around on the mound, but it also has some very hittable starting pitchers who set up as great spots to attack for offense. In this post, we’ll dive into the 24-team player pool and pick out a few MLB DFS stacks around this Friday night.
- St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals are in Denver taking on Ryan Feltner, who has a 6.26 ERA and a .365 wOBA against him at Coors Field. Both lefties and righties have hit Feltner hard all season.
- Seattle Mariners: Winds are blowing out again at Wrigley, with 85 total runs (17 per game) in the five games during the current homestand. David Peterson has been solid but not unhittable with Chicago.
- Kansas City Royals: The Royals take on Eury Perez, who is 2-6 with a 4.05 ERA and 4.02 FIP on the road this year. Perez gave up five runs in just three innings in his last start.
Before we break down all the selections for these contests, let’s define exactly what we’re searching for. An ideal target for an MLB DFS stack 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 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 for 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 ($6,200)
Ivan Herrera ($5,200)
Joshua Baez ($5,000)
Bryan Torres ($3,600)
Leo Bernal ($3,500)
The Cardinals get the boost of playing at Coors Field this weekend and start the series on Friday with a favorable matchup against Ryan Feltner ($5,500). While Feltner has had a few solid road starts lately, he continues to regularly give up plenty of runs in his starts at home. He gave up seven runs in five innings to the Dodgers in his last home start and has a 6.26 ERA at home while going 1-6 in 10 appearances this season. Both lefties and righties have hit Feltner hard this season, with lefties posting a .374 wOBA against him and righties hitting 10 of the 19 homers he has allowed. When facing him at Coors, righties have a 12.5% barrel rate and both righties and lefties have a wOBA over .360.
Jordan Walker has hit .347 with eight doubles and five homers in his 18 games since August 15. He has a 17.3% barrel rate and .307 ISO over that span, with an average of 11.9 FPTS per game over that span. Herrera has multiple hits and 8+ FPTS in three of his last four games, and he averaged 16.3 FPTS in his three games earlier this season against Colorado.
Young outfielder Joshua Baez has made an impressive splash in his 19 games in the majors, averaging 8.4 FPTS per game with six home runs. He has at least 7 FPTS in five of his last seven contests and has plenty of power potential in this matchup. September call-up switch-hitting catcher Leo Bernal has averaged 10.3 FPTS in his first three MLB games after slashing .278/.363/.468 with 16 home runs in Memphis.
Another important spot to watch for value is the very top of the Cardinals’ lineup with J.J. Wetherholt on the IL. If Bryan Torres hits leadoff, he brings nice power and speed potential, while Jose Fermin is another option in the leadoff spot depending on how strict the Cardinals want to be with their platoons against the righty Feltner. Torres is the lefty, so he’s most likely to be in the leadoff spot as a good option to fill in your MLB DFS Stacks from St. Louis this Friday night.
2. Seattle Mariners
Randy Arozarena ($5,000)
Cal Raleigh ($4,500)
Dominic Canzone ($3,700)
Lazaro Montes ($3,300)
Cole Young ($3,000)
The Mariners’ offense has been a little better lately, with 29 runs in their four games this week. They’re in a good spot at home against the A’s, even though they did lose Thursday’s series opener. On Friday, they’ll face rookie Kade Morris ($6,800), who hasn’t looked ready for the majors in his limited time this season. In 14 2/3 MLB innings, Morris has a 9.82 ERA and 6.91 FIP. In Triple-A, he has been only a little better with a 4.45 ERA and 5.84 FIP in 16 starts. Lefties have especially been effective in his MLB outings, going 15-for-33 against him with three home runs, a triple, and a .540 wOBA, backed up by a 50% hard-hit rate.
In the Mariners build in Friday’s MLB DFS stacks, I’m leaning on the lefties, with just Arozarena hitting from the right side. He’s been productive enough to be a good option based on form, going 7-for-18 (.389) in his last four games, averaging 19.0 FPTS during that short stretch. He’s up to 22 homers and 20 stolen bases on the season, averaging 8.9 FPTS per contest for the year.
Cal Raleigh will bat from the left side against Morris and has picked things up over his last nine games, averaging 13.6 FPTS with six homers in those nine contests, giving him 20 on the year. Canzone has moved nearer the top of the order lately and has 13+ FPTS in five of his last eight games, averaging 10 FPTS per game.
I highlighted Lazaro Montes as one of my top value plays of the day, and Cole Young is another lefty with a cheap salary but good upside if you’re building a Seattle stack. He has reached base safely in seven straight games, averaging 5.0 FPTS per contest.
3. Kansas City Royals
Bobby Witt Jr. ($5,900)
Jac Caglianone ($4,900)
Carter Jensen ($4,400)
Vinnie Pasquantino ($4,000)
Nick Loftin ($3,100)
The Royals are home against the Blue Jays after taking two of three in Toronto last week. The Royals had 18 runs in that series, 12 runs against the Guardians, and 16 runs against the Marlins in their last three series, as the offense finally starts to get going after a rough start to the year. They have a good matchup on Friday night against Jameson Taillon ($5,800), who will be coming off the IL due to forearm tendinitis. Taillon made just two starts for Toronto after joining the team in a trade early in August. He allowed three runs in eight innings for Toronto, but on the season he has a 5.68 ERA and 6.55 FIP in his 17 starts overall this season. He has allowed 26 homers in 84 innings, and lefties have a .384 wOBA against him.
The Royals have some strong lefties to build around in today’s MLB DFS stacks, although the top centerpiece play is always righty Bobby Witt Jr. Witt has averaged 7.8 FPTS over his last 10 games and had 10.7 FPTS per game in his three games last week against the Jays. In his 64 home games, Witt has produced 10.0 FPTS per game, making him worth considering as a pay-up play in the middle of the lineup agains Taillon.
Carter Jensen is coming off a massive game on Thursday, falling just a single short of the cycle on his way to 35 FPTS. He had 30 FPTS with two home runs on Wednesday as well and has been scorching hot, going 14-for-43 (.326) with a 60.6% hard-hit rate and 18.2% barrel rate over his last 12 games.
Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone always have high ceilings due to their power potential, with Caglianone especially productive lately, posting 9.5 FPTS over his 10 most recent contests. He went 5-for-6 with 42 FPTS in the final game of the Royals’ last series against Toronto and will look to pick up where he left off with another monster game against Taillon on Friday. Vinnie P. has also been finding his form after battling wrist issues for much of the summer. Nick Loftin is a little different than those two options since he is more of a contact-first option than a power play, but he has been producing consistently enough to be one of my top value plays of the day as well.
