With the MLB Trade Deadline just over a week away, Major League Baseball has another weekend of very important matchups on the board as teams determine if they will be buyers or sellers ahead of the final push for playoff spots. It looks like a favorable day of weather across the country without much rain threatening any of the games with delay or postponement. With warm temperatures and some shaky pitching matchups, there should be plenty of offense in the forecast, so let’s take a look at the top options and run down my top three lineups to build around in Saturday night’s MLB DFS Stacks.
- Minnesota Twins: The A’s are at Target Field and will give the ball to righty Mason Barnett for his first MLB start of the season. Barnett posted a 4.34 ERA and 5.54 FIP in 12 starts at Triple-A and a 4.64 ERA and 5.87 FIP in the MLB. Lefties have hit him especially well.
- Baltimore Orioles: The O’s host the Braves and Bryce Elder, who has a 5.31 road ERA in eight road starts, with nine homers allowed.
- Colorado Rockies: The Rockies are a sneaky stack against lefty Robert Gasser and the Brew Crew. Gasser has allowed 10 runs on 15 hits in 15 2/3 innings over his last three starts.
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 ($5,300)
Kody Clemens ($5,000)
Trevor Larnach ($4,000)
Luke Keaschall ($3,200)
The A’s took the first game of the series in the Twin Cities on Friday as the Twins were kept silent by lefty Jacob Lopez. On Saturday, the A’s are starting Mason Barnett ($5,000), who hasn’t started in the majors this season, going 1-0 with a 4.64 ERA and 5.87 FIP out of the bullpen. In the minors, he has made 10 starts and worked to a 4.34 ERA and 5.54 FIP. In the majors, he has allowed lefties to post a .378 ISO and .435 wOBA with a 41.9% hard-hit rate. He is more than just an opener since he has been starting at Triple-A, but the Twins should be able to make good contact and pile up offense against him on Saturday night.
Lefties Kody Clemens and Trevor Larnach are the two core pieces I’d start this option with in my MLB DFS stacks. I highlighted Larnach’s production in my top home run props for the day, and for DFS, he can be a good bargain option after averaging 9.0 FPTS over his last 10 games, with three doubles and a pair of homers. He usually hits leadoff against righties, and he is a great play at $4K if he’s in that spot on Saturday. Clemens has five homers and a .323 wOBA in July and is 4-for-13 with at least one hit in three straight games.
Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers are more expensive plays from the right side but bring lots of power potential and upside. Jeffers has averaged 9.1 FPTS per game over his last 10, and Buxton has produced 10.8 FPTS per game at home this year.
As a bargain way to round out the stack, Luke Keaschall has had 7+ FPTS in three straight games and is averaging 6.7 FPTS per game since the All-Star break. The 23-year-old has hit .347 (17-for-49) in July and brings a little power and speed upside of his own as a play just over $3,000.
2. Baltimore Orioles
Pete Alonso ($5,500)
Taylor Ward ($4,600)
Christian Encarnacion-Strand ($3,200)
Dylan Beavers ($2,800)
Tyler O’Neill ($2,600)
The Orioles had won seven straight before running into the Red Sox to start the week. They dropped the first two in Boston before ending the Red Sox’s winning streak on Wednesday night. They lost the opener of their series to the Braves on Friday in extra innings, but on Saturday, they’re in a good spot against Bryce Elder ($6,900), who has a 5.31 road ERA in eight road starts, with nine homers allowed. Elder has given up at least one home run in seven straight starts, including seven homers in his three most recent outings.
The Orioles are missing multiple key hitters in their lineup, which opens room for some big bargains to step up. The one top name still in the mix is Pete Alonso, who is 4-for-14 with a home run and a double in his previous meetings with Elder. He has 7+ FPTS in five of his last seven games and is averaging 9.1 FPTS over his last 10, so he can be the anchor of the stack.
Taylor Ward has also been productive, averaging 8.8 FPTS over his last 10 games and producing at least 7 FPTS in four of his last five.
The bargain options are also attractive, led by Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who has 19+ FPTS in three of his last four games and is averaging 14.2 FPTS per game this season in his short stint in Baltimore. Dylan Beavers has been hitting leadoff and is 9-for-27 (.333) over his last 10 games with two doubles and a stolen base. Even Tyler O’Neill has been in on the action, hitting safely in six straight games and averaging 6.8 FPTS per game over that stretch.
Since both righties and lefties have had success against Elder on the road, you can mix and match the O’s as value plays around other pieces you’re including in your lineup.
3. Colorado Rockies
Hunter Goodman ($5,700)
Jake McCarthy ($4,400)
Cole Carrigg ($4,000)
Kyle Karros ($3,200)
The Rockies are usually only an option for MLB DFS stacks when they’re playing in Coors Field, but on Saturday, they make sense in Milwaukee as they face Robert Gasser ($7,200). The Rockies took the first game of this series and are a respectable 9-10 in July. They were shut out by the Nats on Wednesday but have scored 103 runs in those 19 games, the fifth-most in the MLB during the month.
Gasser has allowed 10 runs on 15 hits in his three starts in July and has a 4.91 ERA and 5.13 FIP on the season. The fact that he’s a lefty and holds lefties to a .213 batting average gives a chance for the Rockies’ righties to return great value.
Goodman is one of the most popular home run bets of the day after averaging 13.8 FPTS per game in his six games since the All-Star break, highlighted by a 46-FPTS performance against the Reds last Sunday. Switch-hitting Cole Carrigg has three games of at least 9 FPTS in his last five games after going 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI in the opener, and the rookie always brings nice power and speed upside.
Jake McCarthy is a lefty, but he’s been hot enough to include anyway. Over his last 10 games, he is averaging 10.9 FPTS and also brings power and speed upside. Kyle Karros has been batting second right after McCarthy and has hit safely in four of his last five games. In July, Karros is hitting .281 with a .406 wOBA. He’s a great bargain way to round out your Rockies stack on Saturday.
