DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet For August 16: Projections, Ownership, And Stacks
By Sam Smith
August 16, 2026
The Quick Answer
All thirty rows on today's MLB DFS cheat sheet come from the seven games first-pitching 1:35-1:40 p.m. ET, and 19 of them come from just two. Play Dylan Cease. He is 56.8% owned, the August 16 board's highest projected ownership, and the Sims run him in 90.0% of their top-150 ROI lineups, a 33.2% gap on the day's most popular player. Pair him with Eury Pérez and stack Miami, the 27.3% five-stack, against Nick Lodolo. The build is below.
| Panel | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projections | Cease 23.4 | Pérez 17.3 | Scott 15.9 | Burke 15.1 | Weathers 14.2 |
| Ownership | Cease 56.8% | Pérez 21.4% | Scott 20.9% | Burke 14.9% | Carroll 14.7% |
| Values | McAdoo 2.96 | Rodríguez 2.87 | Polanco 2.86 | Jiménez 2.76 | Navarreto 2.75 |
| Exposures | Cease 90.0% | Ramírez 62.0% | Pérez 44.7% | Scott 36.0% | Ruiz 34.0% |
| Leverage | Ramírez 49.0% | Cease 33.2% | Ruiz 26.9% | Edwards 23.3% | Pérez 22.6% |
| 5-Stacks | MIA 27.3% | SD 8.7% | BOS 4.0% | CLE 3.3% | NYM 3.3% |
Cease Is Chalk You Should Still Overweight
Cease brings a 2.40 ERA, 191 strikeouts in 131.1 innings and a .182 opponents' average into a home matchup with the Yankees and left-hander Ryan Weathers. His 33.2% gap between exposure and ownership trails only Ramírez on the sheet: the ownership projections say the field is on him, the sims say not enough. I would not fade him just to be different.
Miami Owns The Stack And Leverage Panels
Lodolo has allowed 12 home runs in 66.2 innings, 11 to right-handed hitters, who slug .487 off him, in a 118-home-run-factor park. The Marlins bats the sims lean on against him are right-handed: Agustín Ramírez (49.0% leverage, .936 OPS vs. lefties in 45 plate appearances) and Esteury Ruiz (26.9%, .556 slugging in 77). Switch-hitting Xavier Edwards (23.3%) is the third.
Worked Example: Cease, Pérez, And Five Marlins
DraftKings rosters two pitchers, the biggest structural difference in how you read this sheet, and caps you at five hitters per team, pitchers exempt. So the build I keep coming back to is Cease and Pérez on the mound behind a Miami five-stack. Pérez is Miami's own starter: not the tight correlation a stack gives you, since the link is only the win bonus and game state, but the opposite of pairing the opposing arm with those bats. Watch the position column this board does not have. Four of its Marlins fill four different slots: Ramírez at catcher, Ruiz in the outfield, Leo Jiménez (2.76) at third, Edwards at second. But Brian Navarreto (2.75) is a second catcher, and DraftKings gives you one C slot, so your fifth stack bat has to come from the rest of Miami's lineup rather than off this sheet. Jiménez is the slot, not the matchup: .557 OPS vs. lefties in 76 plate appearances. Pull the rest in the MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks DataHub.
Where The Free Sheet Stops
Every panel comes out of the Stokastic Sims, which run this slate tens of thousands of times, keep a stack's outcomes correlated, and derive exposure from sim ROI. This free sheet gave you Ramírez at 49.0% leverage, not the rest of the Miami stack around him or the ownership distribution behind Cease's 90.0%. Those, the ROI-ranked lineup pool and Boom/Bust are paid. Code CHEAT applies to a Stokastic MLB DFS package.
Confirm lineups before lock. This is projection and leverage analysis, not a promise. 21+.