FanDuel MLB DFS Cheat Sheet For August 16: Projections, Ownership, And Stacks

More than half the field starts the same pitcher today. On a one-arm site, that settles nothing. The slate turns on bats.

The Quick Answer

Play Dylan Cease. He is 55.8% owned, yet his 16.2% leverage is still positive, rare for a board's most-owned name. Separate with hitters: Agustin Ramirez tops value (4.43) and leverage (33.9%) out of the top 4-stack, Miami at Cincinnati. Toronto's bats fill what FanDuel's cap leaves open.

Today's August 16 FanDuel Board

Top three per panel from today's free sheet. The 1:35-2:10 p.m. ET window holds eight of the day's 15 games.

Note the ownership shape: 55.8%, then a cliff to 14.9%. The field has one opinion, and it is not a hitter.

The One Pitcher Slot

FanDuel rosters one pitcher, so that slot eats the most salary and variance, with no hedge from the second arm a DraftKings build carries. Cease starts for Toronto against the Yankees at 41.49 projected, 9.2 clear of Eury Perez. Fading him spots more than half the field that gap with no second arm to earn it back, which is why the Sims still run him in 72.0% of top-150 lineups, and at 3.81 he is fifth in value, so the chalk is not a salary tax either.

Worked Example: Agustin Ramirez

1. Anchor Ramirez. He lands in 44.7% of top-150 sim-ROI lineups on the board's widest leverage gap, 33.9%: a right-handed Marlins catcher facing Reds lefty Nick Lodolo.
2. Fill Miami to the cap. FanDuel allows four hitters from one team, and a fifth player only if he is your pitcher. The panels name just one Marlin, so pull Ramirez's three stackmates from the DataHub.
3. Spend what a DraftKings stack would eat. Four slots remain, and the salary a DraftKings second pitcher eats is still in your budget, which is what lets a four-man Miami stack coexist with Francisco Lindor (30.0% exposure, 16.0% leverage) rather than a punt. Hector Rodriguez (3.96 value) is the Reds bring-back if you want both sides of that game.
4. Take the one-offs. Toronto misses the top five 4-stacks, yet George Springer posts 28.0% exposure on 22.3% leverage and Charles McAdoo ranks fourth in value. Both are righties facing Yankees lefty Ryan Weathers, on Cease's side, never against your own arm, and with Cease that is three Blue Jays, inside the cap.
5. Pass on quiet chalk. Byron Buxton (13.9%) and Elly De La Cruz (13.5%) reach the ownership panel and no other: ownership the Sims never buy back.

Every panel comes from the Stokastic Sims, replaying the slate tens of thousands of times with correlation intact and Ownership Projections entering as a distribution. Full lineups sit in the MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the DataHub. The sheet is free daily; code CHEAT takes 15% off your first week or month of the paid MLB packages behind it, not on annual plans.

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So: eat the pitcher chalk, separate with bats the field is not on. If Cease is ordinary I lose with everyone; if Ramirez pays off, the lineup separates. Confirm lineups before lock. 21+; play responsibly.