MLB DFS Picks Today (6/19): DraftKings & FanDuel Lineups

The U.S. men were busy getting it done abroad, but back home it is a baseball day, and Friday hands us a 13-game main slate with a Coors Field game in the mix and one starting pitcher who bent the whole board around himself. Below is the full read from Eric "Lindy" Lindquist's MLB DFS Live Before Lock show: the pitchers he is jamming, the stacks he wants, the bargain bats, and the home runs he is chasing, all built for DraftKings and FanDuel.

In Summary

• Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers, $8,100 DK) is the slate. He carried 70-75% of Eric's lineups, with an over 8.5 strikeouts lean against Atlanta.
• Jacob deGrom (Rangers, $10,000 DK) is the cleanest pivot, and the cheaper Tatsuya ($6,000) opens up tournament builds.
• Roki Sasaki (Dodgers, $8,800 DK) is the late-slate leverage arm at just 6% projected ownership.
• Stacks to target: Pittsburgh and the Yankees lead, with Cleveland the single-entry pick and St. Louis plus Kansas City as the contrarian options.
• DraftKings over FanDuel today, because FanDuel's pitcher pricing forces everyone onto the same arm.

Watch the Video

Eric breaks down the whole slate live, with the Sims updating as confirmed lineups roll in. Watch the full show here: Watch on YouTube.

Today's MLB DFS Slate at a Glance

This is a "spend up for bats" kind of day. Coors Field is on the board, the Kansas City game carries another big total, and there are enough cheap, confirmed value bats to pay all the way up at pitcher. Eric is on DraftKings today and says so plainly: FanDuel's pricing pushes you into a single pitcher, while DraftKings actually rewards finding the right one.

A reminder on how we build this read. Everything below runs through the Stokastic MLB Sims and DataHub that our experts use live, so the calls are graded on projected ownership and leverage, not just a top projected score. If you want a refresher on why ownership and stacking drive tournaments, the stacking guide and ownership and leverage guide cover the fundamentals this slate read assumes.

Picking Your Pitchers

Pitcher is a four-name conversation, and Eric was blunt that there are no real pivots outside of it: "These are by far the best four pitchers to get to on this slate."

Jacob Misiorowski (Brewers, $8,100 DK) is the centerpiece. His stuff keeps climbing, his strikeout-per-nine number is "running away with it" on the slate, and against this version of the Atlanta lineup the strikeouts are very much in play. His top-pitcher percentage in the DataHub sits at 34.9%, his strikeout rate against lefties is a frankly silly 49.2%, and Eric was riding the over 8.5 strikeouts. The plan: Misiorowski in over half of his lineups, landing around 70-75% exposure by first pitch.

The leverage angle: the field is concentrated on Misiorowski and deGrom, so the cheap arm (Tatsuya) and the low-owned arm (Sasaki) are where the tournament gets won. If you want the framework, see the ownership and leverage guide.

Jacob deGrom (Rangers, $10,000 DK) is the one option to get off Misiorowski. The Padres are still running a 23.1% strikeout rate against right-handers, deGrom's raw stuff grades out well north of 100, and the cheaper DraftKings price tag makes him the cleaner build than the other arms near him. Eric did not even want to call him a pivot, he just likes the deGrom side.

Tatsuya ($6,000 DK) is the tournament special. He carries a 4.5 strikeout prop that drifted toward the over, a 215 expected ISO against lefties, and enough strikeout upside in the matchup to matter at the price. The real value is what $6,000 does to the rest of your roster: it frees up salary to pay for bats, which is why Eric says going cheap here opens "a lot of different stacks."

Roki Sasaki (Dodgers, $8,800 DK) is the late-night leverage play. He sits at just 6% projected ownership coming off one rough outing against the White Sox, his outs prop opened at 15.5 (moved to 16.5), and Baltimore's lineup ranks fifth-highest in strikeout rate at 23.3% against right-handed pitching. The field is piled onto Misiorowski and deGrom, so a low-owned arm in a strikeout spot is exactly the GPP angle.

Pitcher	Team / Matchup	DK Salary	Eric's role
Jacob Misiorowski	Brewers at Braves	$8,100	Top play, ~70-75% exposure
Jacob deGrom	Rangers vs Padres	$10,000	Cleanest pivot, cash-grade
Tatsuya	Value/GPP arm	$6,000	Tournament value, salary saver
Roki Sasaki	Dodgers vs Orioles	$8,800	Late-slate leverage, 6% owned

Top Stacks to Target

With pitcher mostly settled, Eric called stacks "the conversation piece" for the rest of the show. Confirmed batting orders kept moving right up to lock, so they did the heavy lifting here.

Pittsburgh Pirates is the favorite, and "everybody" knows it. They draw a struggling Kyle Freeland at Coors Field, and Eric is fading the Rockies bats while loading the Pittsburgh side. Spencer Horowitz is a lock for those stacks.

New York Yankees is the co-headliner. They face Rhett Lowder, who Eric called "legitimately awful," and the left-handed bats should punish him in the short porch. Ben Rice, Spencer Jones and Jasson Domínguez are the names, and over half of Eric's lineups run a Pittsburgh or Yankees stack.

Our read on the top two: when more than half of one expert's lineups funnel into just two stacks, that is the field's chalk forming in real time. We want exposure to Pittsburgh and the Yankees, but a piece of a third, less-obvious stack is how you separate in a tournament.

Cleveland Guardians is the single-entry pick. There is no José Ramírez, but you get a cheap, patient lineup, Steven Kwan and a 13.2% walk rate hitting ninth, Kyle Manzardo at $2,700, and a real shot at leverage if the field underrates them. Eric pairs the Cleveland stack with his Misiorowski and deGrom builds.

Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals round out the board. Texas draws Randy Vásquez, who has surrendered a 410 expected ISO to right-handers over his last 30, so Wyatt Langford and that lineup are live. The Cardinals (Lars Nootbaar, JJ Wetherholt, Alec Burleson) make a chalky large-field stack against Seth Lugo in Kansas City, and the Royals are a top value stack against Michael McGreevy, with no Bobby Witt Jr. keeping every replacement bat cheap. Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone, now first-base and outfield eligible, are the cheap entry points there.

Stack	Opposing pitcher	Why Eric likes it
Pittsburgh Pirates	Kyle Freeland (Coors)	Coors total, struggling arm, fade the Rockies
New York Yankees	Rhett Lowder	Lefties feast, short-porch power
Cleveland Guardians	Low-strikeout spot	Cheap, patient, single-entry leverage
Texas Rangers	Randy Vásquez	410 ISO vs righties, last 30
St. Louis Cardinals	Seth Lugo	Large-field 888 stack
Kansas City Royals	Michael McGreevy	Top value stack, no Bobby Witt

Value Bats and Bargain Plays

The cheap, confirmed bats are what make the "pay up everywhere else" plan work. Kyle Manzardo ($2,700 DK, batting second, sub-8% owned) is the headliner, and Eric loves him at first base. Logan O'Hoppe ($2,200 DK, batting seventh) was flagged as a nuclear price, and Billy Cook ($3,000 DK) saves money in the outfield.

On FanDuel the bargains are everywhere, which is the problem. Joe Adell at $2,900 is "one of the best projected bats on the entire slate," Christian Moore is $2,000 batting fifth for the Angels, and Shohei Ohtani is just $4,200. Eric's read: FanDuel's bats are underpriced but its pitcher pricing is so soft that you end up jamming Misiorowski and little else, so he is playing DraftKings, "because they actually respect what pricing means."

DraftKings vs FanDuel: Where Eric Is Playing

The two slates are not the same build, and the difference comes down to pricing.

	DraftKings	FanDuel
Pitcher	Real choice (Misiorowski, deGrom, Tatsuya, Sasaki)	"Just play Misiorowski"
Bats	Priced fairly, must be selective	Cheap everywhere (Adell $2,900, Moore $2,000)
Best stacks	Pittsburgh, Yankees, Cleveland	Pirates, Dodgers, Arizona (3-4 man)
Eric's call	Primary slate today	Skipping it

On FanDuel, the playable stacks are a four-man Dodgers group with Ohtani against Trey Gibson, and a three-to-four-man Arizona stack (Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno) against a left-handed starter who gives up power to lefties.

Home Run Picks (Dong of the Day)

Eric closed with the bats he wants to leave the yard. Jasson Domínguez headlines at +475, and Ben Rice is a tournament favorite at +250 in that Yankees spot. The rest of the board: Jac Caglianone, Lars Nootbaar as a contrarian piece, Royce Lewis, Gunnar Henderson and Zack Neto. When pressed for his own two, Eric went Jac Caglianone and the St. Louis side with Lars Nootbaar.

Eric's Dong of the Day: Jac Caglianone, then Lars Nootbaar as the contrarian Cardinals piece in that St. Louis at Kansas City game.

How Eric Builds These Lineups in the Stokastic Sims

The reason the show can read ownership and leverage in real time is the workflow. As confirmed lineups roll in, Eric re-runs the Stokastic Contest Sims, which simulate the full contest tens of thousands of times and build the lineups for you, with exposure controls baked in. Misiorowski and deGrom showed up in "absolutely everything," which is the Sims telling you where the edge sits.

For the larger 888-style field, he leaned toward a chalkier St. Louis stack, using Carter Jensen and the cheap Royals bats to get there. Same player pool, two different shapes, both driven by projected ownership rather than a single projected score.

Example Lineup: Eric's Single-Entry DraftKings Build

Here is the worked build Eric locked for single entry, the construction in his own words, paired around the Cleveland stack:

• Pitchers: Jacob Misiorowski ($8,100) and Roki Sasaki ($8,800), two arms the Sims put in nearly every build, neither in Cleveland's game.
• Five-man Cleveland stack: Kyle Manzardo ($2,700) at first, plus Steven Kwan, Daniel Schneemann, Gabriel Arias and Brayan Rocchio. Cheap, patient, and underowned with no José Ramírez in the lineup.
• Two Pittsburgh bats: Spencer Horowitz and Nick Gonzales, the secondary stack against Kyle Freeland at Coors.

The logic, straight from the show: a five-man Cleveland stack for leverage if the field underrates them, two Pittsburgh bats for the Coors ceiling, and Nick Gonzales' multi-position eligibility to give the build some salary maneuverability. If you are new to building around a primary and secondary stack, the DFS strategy guide walks through the framework this lineup uses.

Get the same ammunition. Stokastic+ gives you the MLB Sims, projections, Top Stacks and ownership data the show runs on, so you can build and tune your own DraftKings and FanDuel lineups the way Eric does. Use code MLBLBL for 15% off any DFS or Props package: Start building with Stokastic+.

FAQ

Who is the top MLB DFS pitcher today? Jacob Misiorowski ($8,100 DK) against Atlanta. He led Eric's exposure at roughly 70-75%, with a 34.9% top-pitcher rate in the DataHub and an over 8.5 strikeouts lean.

Who is the best value pitcher today? Tatsuya ($6,000 DK). The cheap price is the point, it lets you pay up for bats while still getting real strikeout upside, and Eric leaned to the over on his 4.5 strikeout prop.

What is the best MLB DFS stack today? Pittsburgh and the Yankees are the top two, running in more than half of Eric's lineups. Cleveland is the single-entry pick for its leverage and cheap, patient bats.

Should I play DraftKings or FanDuel today? DraftKings. FanDuel's bats are cheap but its pitcher pricing funnels everyone onto Misiorowski, while DraftKings rewards finding the right arm.

What MLB home run picks does the show like? Jasson Domínguez (+475) and Ben Rice (+250) headline, with Jac Caglianone and Lars Nootbaar as Eric's two favorites.

The Bottom Line

Friday is a pay-up-for-bats slate built around one elite pitcher. Misiorowski is the foundation, deGrom and Tatsuya shape your salary, and the stack decision between Pittsburgh, the Yankees and a leverage play like Cleveland is where the tournament is won. Our advice: run it through the Sims, watch the confirmed lineups, and let projected ownership pick your spots before you lock.

Ready to build your own? Stokastic+ puts the MLB Sims, projections and Top Stacks in your hands. Use code MLBLBL for 15% off any DFS or Props package: Get Stokastic+ for tonight's slate.