DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Aug. 22 Picks And Stacks
By Sam Smith
August 22, 2026
Today's free DraftKings MLB DFS cheat sheet from Stokastic is a one-pitcher slate with a two-pitcher problem. On the Saturday, Aug. 22 main board (11 games, 7:05 PM ET lock), Tarik Skubal projects 23.4, nearly six points clear of Hunter Brown (17.7), and the field knows it: 49.6% owned. The Sims do not flinch: 76.0% of top-150 lineups and the No. 1 leverage play at 26.4%. The question is who goes next to him.
The Quick Answer
Play Skubal against the Pirates and do not overthink it. Fill SP2 with Christian Scott (24.1% leverage) or Patrick Sandoval (47.3% exposure), not Brown, and if you take Sandoval, no Giants bats. Stack five Guardians at Coors (18.0%) built on Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez. The full board, the SP2 fork, and the Giants trap are below.
Today's Board For Aug. 22
| Panel | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Projections (Proj FP) | Tarik Skubal 23.4 | Hunter Brown 17.7 | Michael Soroka 16.4 | Patrick Sandoval 16.3 | Christian Scott 15.9 |
| Highest Ownership (Own%) | Tarik Skubal 49.6% | Patrick Sandoval 26.0% | Hunter Brown 18.6% | Steven Kwan 18.2% | Jose Ramirez 16.9% |
| Top Values (Value) | Jonah Cox 2.92 | Ezequiel Tovar 2.65 | Brett Callahan 2.65 | Christian Koss 2.65 | Steven Kwan 2.55 |
| Top Exposures (Exp%) | Tarik Skubal 76.0% | Patrick Sandoval 47.3% | Christian Scott 36.7% | Steven Kwan 32.7% | Shohei Ohtani 26.0% |
| Leverage Plays (Lev%) | Tarik Skubal 26.4% | Christian Scott 24.1% | Patrick Sandoval 21.0% | Shohei Ohtani 16.9% | Joc Pederson 14.9% |
| Top 5-Stacks (5-Stack%) | CLE 18.0% | HOU 10.0% | SD 7.3% | LAA 6.7% | SF 3.3% |
The row that decides the night is Brown's: second in projection, 18.6% owned, and absent from both the exposure and leverage panels. The field is paying for a name the Sims do not surface on either top-five panel. Michael Soroka (16.4) is off both panels too, but nobody is on him: Brown is the fade, Soroka is just off the board.
Skubal Plus Who
DraftKings rosters two pitchers, so half the build is the arm beside Skubal. Sandoval is the safe version: 16.3 projected, 26.0% owned, in 47.3% of top-150 lineups. Brown draws the Athletics, and the Sims still pass. Scott, at the White Sox, is the one I keep coming back to: 15.9 projected, 36.7% top-150 exposure, ownership outside the top-five panel, and 24.1% leverage, second only to Skubal. When half the field shares Skubal, Scott is where my pitcher slot separates.
That fork sets the bats, and it is the Giants trap. Sandoval starts for Boston against San Francisco, and two of the top four values, Jonah Cox (2.92, No. 1) and Christian Koss (2.65), are Giants: the cheapest points on the board are facing the pitcher 26.0% of the field is rostering. Pick one side. I never pair a pitcher with the hitters he is facing.
The Cleveland Stack And The Ohtani Pairing
Five batters from one team is the DraftKings cap, and Cleveland at Coors against Rockies starter Gabriel Hughes is the stack, 18.0% against Houston's 10.0%. Kwan is on three panels (18.2% owned, 32.7% exposure, 2.55 value) and Ramirez is 16.9% owned, so the stack is chalk, but correlation at altitude is the classic DraftKings GPP shape, and Tovar (2.65, the No. 2 value) is the natural Colorado bring-back. The Stokastic Sims build these stacks by playing the slate tens of thousands of times with Ownership Projections modeled as a distribution. The full stack tables live in our MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the DataHub.
The secondary mini-stack runs through the Skubal game. Ohtani (26.0% exposure, 16.9% leverage) bats for the same Dodgers team Skubal starts for against Pittsburgh's Jared Jones, so a Dodgers blowout feeds both slots. The one-off slot is Ohtani if I want that Skubal-game correlation, or Joc Pederson (14.9% leverage) against the Angels if I want off the Coors chalk. Not both.
Worked Example: Scott Over Brown
Brown at 17.7 is 1.8 points better than Scott on paper. With 18.6% of the room on Brown and the Sims leaving him off the top-150 panel, that edge is already priced in; Scott at 24.1% leverage has the room on the other side, against a White Sox lineup. Skubal, Scott, five Guardians, Tovar, one Giants bat, then Ohtani or Pederson to close the 10-man roster, whichever fits the cap: that is my Saturday core.
The free sheet gets you to Skubal plus Cleveland. The paid Stokastic MLB Sims are where I sort the Scott-Sandoval fork against the ROI-ranked lineup pool and check Brown's Boom/Bust before fading him. Code CHEAT takes 15% off a DFS weekly or monthly package.
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FAQ
Is Skubal worth 49.6% ownership tonight? Yes: the Sims want him in 76.0% of top-150 lineups while the field sits at 49.6%, and that 26.4-point gap is the whole play.
Which pitcher is the value beside him? Christian Scott, second in leverage at 24.1% with ownership outside the top-five panel.
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