DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Aug. 24 Picks And Stacks
By Sam Smith
August 24, 2026
Today's free MLB DFS cheat sheet is a pitcher-heavy board with a bat problem: the four most-owned players on the August 24 DraftKings slate are all starting arms, so tournaments come down to the bats behind them. One leverage number decides my night, and a lefty owns it.
The Quick Answer
Zack Wheeler leads at 19.7 projected DraftKings points; Parker Messick is the ownership magnet at 35.1%. Separation lives elsewhere: Carson Whisenhunt is first in leverage at 30.1%, and Minnesota's 16.0% 5-stack against Athletics lefty Jeffrey Springs laps the field. The full board and a worked Twins build are below.
Today's Board
Every panel comes off today's free DraftKings cheat sheet and out of the Stokastic Sims, which run this slate tens of thousands of times instead of one static ranking.
| Panel | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Projections (Proj FP) | Zack Wheeler 19.7 | Chase Burns 19.6 | Parker Messick 19.1 | Logan Gilbert 17.9 | Robbie Ray 14.7 |
| Highest Ownership (Own%) | Parker Messick 35.1% | Zack Wheeler 28.2% | Logan Gilbert 22.7% | Chase Burns 22.5% | Byron Buxton 21.4% |
| Top Values (Value) | Christian Koss 2.56 | Christian Moore 2.55 | Carson Whisenhunt 2.55 | Cody Freeman 2.55 | Drew Romo 2.46 |
| Top Exposures (Exp%) | Parker Messick 47.3% | Carson Whisenhunt 43.3% | Luke Keaschall 42.0% | Byron Buxton 41.3% | Kaelen Culpepper 34.7% |
| Leverage Plays (Lev%) | Carson Whisenhunt 30.1% | Luke Keaschall 23.1% | Kaelen Culpepper 19.7% | Byron Buxton 19.6% | Jose Ramirez 12.3% |
| Top 5-Stacks (5-Stack%) | MIN 16.0% | CLE 10.7% | CHC 7.3% | ATH 4.7% | CIN 2.0% |
The tell is Christian Moore: the Angels' second baseman is second in value at 2.55, and he faces Messick, the slate's most-owned arm. The sheet likes the chalk pitcher and an opposing bat at once, so I never roster Moore with Messick.
Two Chalk Arms And The Lefty Pivot
DraftKings rosters two pitchers, so those four owned arms mean two decisions. The first: Wheeler and Gilbert face each other in Seattle, so the field is paying up for both sides of one game. I take Wheeler: the slate's top projection at less ownership than Messick. The second slot is where Whisenhunt earns his 30.1% leverage: the Sims put the lefty in 43.3% of the top-150 sim-ROI lineups while his ownership misses the board's top five, and his 2.55 value frees salary for bats. Messick at 47.3% top-150 exposure stays my chalk-eating alternative, never the double with Moore.
More on this: MLB DFS Hub: Every Live Stokastic MLB Page · DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Projections, Ownership & Stacks For August 3 · FanDuel MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Projections, Ownership & Stacks · DraftKings NFL DFS Cheat Sheet: Week 1 Picks And Stacks · DraftKings MLB DFS Cheat Sheet: Sept. 15 Picks And Stacks
Worked Example: Five Twins Against Springs
Leverage clusters on one team. I take Luke Keaschall's row, 42.0% exposure against 23.1% leverage, and walk it to a roster:
- Lock Wheeler, add Whisenhunt in the two-pitcher format.
- Stack five Twins. Keaschall, Byron Buxton (21.4% owned, 19.6% leverage) and Kaelen Culpepper are the core, all righties against the lefty Springs; DraftKings caps you at five bats from one team, and correlation is why one rally pays every slot. The stack's last two spots come from the MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the DataHub.
- Add a three-man Cleveland mini. Jose Ramirez (12.3% leverage) fronts the 10.7% CLE stack; those bats fit a Messick build too, riding with their arm, not against it.
- Recheck at lock. The Giants had no named starter when this board ran, so confirm Whisenhunt before trusting his 2.55 value.
The Sims explain the build: correlated outcomes mean a Culpepper rally already involves Buxton, ownership projections feed in as a distribution, not 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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