DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Aug. 23 Picks And Stacks

Today's free MLB DFS cheat sheet tells a two-part Sunday story: the field and the Stokastic Sims agree on the arm, so the August 23 DraftKings tournaments come down to bats, and the top of the leverage board points at Miami.

The Quick Answer

Cristopher Sanchez is the anchor: a slate-high 19.6 projected DraftKings points at 49.6% ownership, and the Sims still push him to 71.3% top-150 exposure. They want more of the chalk, not less. Separation comes from the Marlins: Agustin Ramirez (24.3%) and Esteury Ruiz (23.6%) are the top two leverage plays, and Miami's 13.3% 5-stack more than doubles every other team, all against Washington lefty Jackson Kent. The full board and a worked Miami build are below.

Today's Board

Every number comes off today's free DraftKings cheat sheet; every panel comes out of the Stokastic Sims, which run this slate tens of thousands of times instead of ranking names off one static projection.

The tell is Cristian Javier: fifth in projections at 13.2 while his opponent, the Athletics, is the No. 2 stack at 6.0%. The sheet likes the arm and the opposing bats at once, so I never roster Javier with A's hitters.

Two Arms, Then Five Marlins

DraftKings rosters two pitchers, so the second slot decides more here than anywhere else. Sanchez hosts St. Louis in nearly all of my lineups; next to him I take Nolan McLean (16.4) against the White Sox, or duck his 30.8% ownership in the Bronx, where Carlos Rodon (14.4) and Toronto's Jose Soriano (13.7) oppose each other. With both popular arms priced in, my edge has to come from bats: Ramirez and Ruiz sit 1-2 in leverage and tied at 34.0% exposure against the lefty Kent. Five batters from one team is the DraftKings cap, and correlation is why the five-man stack is the classic GPP shape: one rally pays every slot.

More on this:

• DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Projections, Ownership & Stacks For August 3
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• FanDuel MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Projections, Ownership & Stacks
• FanDuel PGA DFS Cheat Sheet: Sims, Projections And Ownership

Worked Example: Building Around Ramirez

I take the loudest row, Ramirez at 24.3% leverage, and walk it to a roster:

1. Lock Sanchez, add McLean in the two-pitcher format.
2. Stack five Marlins. Ramirez and Ruiz are the core; I fill the rest from the MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the DataHub.
3. Pair an Athletics mini. Lawrence Butler (15.5% leverage) plus the A's Max Muncy (2.64 value), never alongside Javier, per the tell above.
4. Glue with value. Josh Lowe (3.45, 14.1% leverage) against Texas is the rare double-panel name.
5. Recheck at lock. One scratch deletes a value row.

The engine explains the build: the Sims simulate correlated outcomes, so a Ruiz rally already involves Ramirez, Ownership Projections feed in as a distribution rather than one guess, and the top-150 ROI pool ranks the survivors. The cheat sheet stays free; code CHEAT takes 15% off your first week or month of the paid Stokastic MLB packages the Sims live in.

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