MLB DFS Top Stacks: Thursday, June 8
Alex Sonty walks you through the top stacks for the upcoming MLB main slate. Should we eat the chalk? Which team is a good pivot? Where can we find leverage? Find out below!
MLB DFS is complex. Most articles on MLB DFS picks are about the individual players most likely to succeed on any given day, but the MLB DFS picks most likely to succeed aren’t always the MLB DFS picks we should be most likely to play.
In this space, we will look at the MLB DFS process over the MLB DFS picks. And we’re looking at teams over individual players, using the features of the RotoGrinders Top Stacks tool. We’ll still look at the player projections available in LineupHQ. Still, we’ll be more focused on collective ownership, optimal scores, and matchups of full stacks within the context of game selection and leverage.
Plate IQ has received a simplified facelift. Thanks to the team for that. Check it out here.
This is a short slate where we get no NYY-CHW because neither site wants to touch a doubleheader and PHI-DET has been postponed. Frankly, we can play everyone. I’d fade the Braves and Jays, but there’s nothing wrong with playing them. Spencer Strider is on the slate, so we’ll have to get creative where we play him and stack against him where we don’t. Or we can just lock in Strider and figure out the rest from there. Good luck, though. Stacks are kind of expensive today. On a shorter slate, though, we can get away with playing more bottom of the order cheapies to construct strong lineups.
Chalk Stack – Guardians vs. Matt Dermody
Matt Dermody has given up 1.2 HR/9 in Triple-A over 210.2 IP. A sizeable sample to say that he struggles with power prevention. The 32-year-old journeyman will take the bump for the Red Sox and is projected for 82 pitches, so we’ll get a good crack at him.
The problem is that the Guardians can just slap him around for six runs without knocking any out of the park. Therein lies the risk, factoring in their high ownership.
Jose Ramirez is a nut play, but we shouldn’t one-off someone so highly owned on a condensed slate. Since the start of 2022, Josh Bell has the same ISO as Ramirez against LHPs (.183), Amed Rosario comes in next (.178), and then the sneaky power of Mike Zunino (.157). Zunino is cheap and a way to get unique on FD because almost no one wants to spend their C/1B and UTIL slots to play Bell and Zunino together. In general, Josh Naylor leads the projected lineup with a 9.1% barrel rate. Not sexy, but he’ll go overlooked in a lefty-lefty situation.
I’m not touching the Guardians in single-entry and small fields, but I get it. The pitcher’s bad. Spending so much of my ownership budget on a team so lacking in power — as a unit — feels wasteful. In MME, we shouldn’t fade the Guardians because, well, bad pitcher, but going overweight with 25-30% just spends too many lineups for the direction I’m going. Underweight is probably the way to go.
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