This Monday, Major League Baseball starts a new work week with a fresh slate of series with eight games on the main slate for DraftKings contests, which get underway at 6:35 p.m. ET. With a solid 16-team player pool, a few very smashable spots stand out to attack for offensive production. Let’s run down my top three plays in Monday night’s MLB DFS Stacks.
- Milwaukee Brewers: The Brewers go from Coors Field to Las Vegas Ballpark, another great hitting environment with hot temps and wind blowing out. They’ll face lefty Jeffrey Springs, who has a 4.37 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 14 HR against him in 13 starts. He has given up 13 runs in 15 innings and six HR in his last three starts.
- Houston Astros: Opposing starter Grayson Rodriguez is 2-2 with a 9.50 ERA and 1.89 WHIP in his four starts with four homers, a 50% hard-hit rate and a 10% barrel rate against him in 18 innings.
- San Francisco Giants: The Giants are home after getting an extra-inning win over the Cubs in Chicago on Sunday Night Baseball. The winds will be blowing out as they take on the hittable Miles Mikolas, who has a 6.07 ERA and 1.38 WHIP this year for the Nats.
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 ($6,000)
Jackson Chourio ($5,700)
Christian Yelich ($5,600)
William Contreras ($5,500)
Andrew Vaughn ($4,300)
Joey Ortiz ($2,900)
The Brewers are still an expensive stack even though they’re leaving Coors Field. They’ll head to the desert to take on the A’s at the Las Vegas Ballpark, which is the home of the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators. Temperatures will be near 90 degrees with the wind blowing out to right field, setting up a good spot for offense against Jeffrey Springs ($6,500). Springs has allowed six homers in the last three games, giving up 13 runs on 16 hits in 15 innings. The lefty has allowed a 12.8% barrel rate in those three games and a 9.4% barrel rate this season. Lefties have actually had a better batting average against him this season than righties, so it isn’t just a one-sided stack this Monday.
Righties like Chourio, Contreras and Vaughn make up the core of the stack, though. Chourio had three hits and 13 FPTS on Sunday and is averaging 13.3 FPTS over his last nine games. Contreras had 12 FPTS on Sunday in his second straight multi-hit game, and Vaughn had 22 FPTS, going 3-for-5. In his 26 games this season, Vaughn is hitting .341 with one home run and a .392 wOBA. He’s been very consistent, even though his power hasn’t been quite as much as during last season’s breakthrough.
Turang and Yelich can still be options even in the lefty-lefty matchup. Turang has averaged 14.7 FPTS over his last seven games, while Yelich has averaged 12.1 FPTS over his last six. If you need a cheap play to round out the stack, Ortiz makes sense, especially if he’s batting ninth in the order, putting him on base in front of the big bats when the lineup turns over.
2. Houston Astros
Yordan Alvarez ($6,200)
Jeremy Pena ($4,300)
Isaac Paredes ($3,600)
Taylor Trammell ($2,600)
LaMonte Wade Jr. ($2,300)
The Astros couldn’t finish out the home sweep of the A’s on Sunday, but they still took two of three from the division leaders. They’ll head on the road for another division series this week, facing the Angels in Anaheim. On Monday, they’ll take on Grayson Rodriguez ($7,000), who is 2-2 with a 9.50 ERA and 1.89 WHIP in his four starts with four homers, a 50% hard-hit rate and a 10% barrel rate against him in 18 innings. At home, he has allowed 19 runs and four home runs in 13 innings.
Lefties have hit .356 against Rodriguez this season with three homers and a .461 wOBA. Lefty Yordan Alvarez is a natural spot to start your stacks since the slugger is averaging 14.4 FPTS over his last 12 games. Taylor Trammell and LaMonte Wade are two very affordable lefties that make sense as well against Rodriguez if you need to balance spending. Trammell has hit .297 in his 21 games this season with four doubles and a triple, while Wade just signed with the Astros last week after exercising an opt-out in his contract with the White Sox. He homered and had 28 FPTS on Saturday and was not in the starting lineup Sunday.
Pena and Paredes are also solid options to round out the stack. Pena had at least six FPTS in five straight games before going 0-for-4 on Sunday, and Paredes had at least 14 FPTS in four straight before going 0-for-4 on Sunday as well. After Gage Jump shut them down on Sunday, the whole offense will be looking to get back on track on Monday againts Rodriguez, and they’re a solid option in today’s MLB DFS stacks.
3. San Francisco Giants
Casey Schmitt ($4,400)
Rafael Devers ($4,000)
Willy Adames ($4,000)
Jung Hoo Lee ($3,700)
Matt Chapman ($3,400)
The Giants won 2-1 on Sunday night after Matt Chapman’s RBI single in the 10th inning. They’ll come home after winning four of their last five games, including a pair of wins with 12 and 18 runs. They’ll face Nationals SP Miles Mikolas ($5,000), who has a 6.07 ERA and 1.38 WHIP. Mikolas has allowed 14 homers in 13 games with both lefties and righties taking him yard seven times.
Willy Adames is 6-for-30 in his career against Mikolas with three doubles, while Chapman is 5-for-11 with a double as well. Devers is 5-for-8 with a homer.
Schmitt averaged 11.3 FPTS in his three games against Washington earlier this season and is averaging 9.0 FPTS in his last 10 games. Devers is also averaging 9.0 FPTS over his last 10, and Adames has produced 10.3 FPTS over that span.
While there isn’t a big anchor like Alvarez or a heavy-hitting duo like Chourio-Turang in the Giants’ order, they are a very well-balanced group that has had some big games lately and have a very solid matchup. They can fit as a complementary stack around the Astros or Brewers or be used as an independent option in Monday’s MLB DFS Stacks.
