MLB DFS Live Before Lock: Eovaldi-Tolle Double Up
August 7, 2026
Friday's slate hands Eric Lindquist two chalk pitchers he's actually excited about, which almost never happens on the same night. Nathan Eovaldi (TEX) against a strikeout-prone Baltimore lineup and Payton Tolle (BOS) against a gassed Athletics roster are both drawing more than double the field in his build, and he's not trying to get cute and pivot off either one. The real decision on this slate is how much further to push Roki Sasaki as a boost, and which cheap stack pairs best with two chalk arms that eat up salary. Both calls, plus the stack he's trimming for pure popularity, are below.
Nathan Eovaldi — one of the featured players on today's slate.
The Quick Answer
Lindquist doubles up Nathan Eovaldi (TEX) against Baltimore and Payton Tolle (BOS) against a bullpen-drained Athletics team, calling both "unfadeable" at pitcher. He's boosting Roki Sasaki (LAD, 2.25 ERA, 3.33 xFIP over his last stretch) against Arizona's power-suppressing park to roughly 12-15% of his pitcher pool, and his top stack by a wide margin is Boston, priced under $5,000 at three of its top four bats. He's trimming the Chicago Cubs stack purely because it's about to get too popular, and pulling every Atlanta-Yankees player off the board on rainout risk. The full pitcher board, the Boston stack math, and the FanDuel read are below.
- Nathan Eovaldi (TEX) vs. Baltimore joins Tolle as one of two pitchers Lindquist is playing at more than double the field, backed by a lineup that strikes out up and down the order.
- Payton Tolle (BOS) vs. the Athletics is the other, a left-hander who gets to face a shorthanded lineup with his own bullpen too gassed from an extra-innings night to bail him out early.
- Roki Sasaki (LAD) vs. Arizona is Lindquist's boost play, pushed to 12-15% of his pitcher pool on a stuff surge and a park that keeps the ball in the yard.
- Boston Red Sox is the stack Lindquist is "obsessed with," landing in more than a third of his lineups against a beat-up Athletics pitching staff.
- Chicago Cubs get trimmed down for no reason other than popularity, and the Atlanta-Yankees game gets removed entirely on rain risk.
Watch The Video
Eric Lindquist builds Friday's full lineup portfolio live below, from the Eovaldi/Tolle pitcher pool through the Boston stack build and the late weather scratch.
Pitching: Two Chalk Arms Lindquist Won't Fade, Plus A Boost
Lindquist isn't wavering on this one. If he were playing a single lineup today, it would have Eovaldi and Tolle in it, no question, and in large-field tournaments where he's rolling out 40-plus lineups, he's still doubling the field on both rather than trying to get cute underneath them.
| Pitcher | Team | Matchup | Lindquist's exposure | The read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan Eovaldi | TEX | vs. BAL | 2x the field, 26% DK / 62%+ FD | Baltimore's lineup is loaded with strikeout-prone bats; Lindquist won't move off him |
| Payton Tolle | BOS | vs. ATH | 2x the field, ~19% DK | Lefty spins it well vs. RHP; his own bullpen too gassed to pull him early |
| Roki Sasaki | LAD | vs. AZ | Boosted to 12-15% of pitcher pool | 2.25 ERA, 3.47 SIERA, 3.33 xFIP, 1.13 HR/9 over his last stretch; Arizona parks suppress power |
| Logan Gilbert | SEA | vs. TB | ~15-18% DK | Toughest strikeout matchup on the board; Tampa Bay owns a 19.4% team K rate, 2nd-best in baseball |
| Parker Messick | CLE | vs. CWS | Roughly field-level | Solid K upside vs. lefties, but Colson Montgomery is a real power threat off the bench |
Baltimore is the whole case for Eovaldi. Gunnar Henderson leads off, but the strikeout risk shows up everywhere behind him: Jackson Holliday in the three-hole, Dylan Beavers moved up to the five-hole, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser rounding out a lineup Lindquist calls close to "nuclear" for strikeout upside. He's fine going up against Baltimore at both pitcher props on the board, sitting well above 6.5-7.5 strikeouts.
Tolle is the more interesting price. He's a rookie left-hander who "spins it against righties" with a real changeup, and he's inheriting a Boston bullpen that just burned Aroldis Chapman, Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock in an extra-innings marathon against the White Sox the night before, forcing an emergency call-up in Raymond Burgos. That workload crunch is exactly why Lindquist expects Tolle to get pushed deep into Friday's start against an Athletics team that's been one of the worst in baseball over the last month and a half.
Every projection on this board comes out of the Stokastic MLB DFS projections, ownership and stacks in the DataHub, the same screens the show runs live. Code MLBLBL takes 10% off any MLB or All Access package.
The Boost: Roki Sasaki's Stuff Is Outrunning His Box Score
Sasaki is already over the field's ownership, and Lindquist wants to push further. His argument isn't about results, it's about what the pitch data says is coming: a 2.25 ERA, 3.47 SIERA and 3.33 xFIP over his recent run, with his home-run rate down to 1.13 per nine after a stretch where the power he allowed was the one real hole in his profile. "The stuff is all right for him there," Lindquist said, pointing to Sasaki's splitter grading out as one of the nastiest pitches in baseball over the last 14 and 30 days.
Arizona is the matchup that makes the boost easy. The Diamondbacks carry a 93 park factor for home runs on the rolling three-year sample, and an even more extreme 96 mark this season alone, thanks to the humidor and a spacious outfield that turns potential homers into doubles and triples instead. Lindquist is comfortable allocating 12-15% of his combined pitcher pool to Sasaki even if it strips a little away from Eovaldi and Tolle elsewhere.
The Fade: Trimming Boston's Cubs Rival Purely On Popularity
The Chicago Cubs are the one team Lindquist is actively pulling back on, and he's clear that it isn't about the matchup. Pete Crow-Armstrong is running through one of the best offensive seasons an outfielder has produced in years, and the Cubs carry a strong wRC+ against left-handed pitching into a start against a lefty who flips to a right-hander later. Lindquist still likes the spot. He just thinks the field is about to like it more than he does. "I might trim down even a little bit further, not for any other reason than they could end up being more popular on this specific slate," he said, pointing to a Kansas City bullpen that's gotten a little better than its reputation.
The other subtraction on the night isn't a fade, it's a scratch. Braves-Yankees was already delayed by weather when Lindquist went live, and he pulled every player from that matchup out of his pool entirely rather than bet on the game getting in. "No chance Atlanta-New York plays tonight. I'm not going to say zero percent chance, but I'm taking it out," he said, removing Max Fried from consideration in the process.
Stacks: Boston At A Third Of Lineups, Built Around A Depleted Athletics Staff
Boston is the stack of the night, and it isn't close. "I'm just obsessed with Boston today," Lindquist said, running the Red Sox in more than a third of his lineups against Athletics starter Jack Perkins and a bullpen that's been a mess since the Mason Miller era ended, anchored by Hogan Harris and Elvis Alvarado, who Lindquist dryly notes "is surely good" despite a negative-WAR season.
| Stack | Opponent | Lindquist's exposure | The read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Sox | Jack Perkins (ATH) | More than a third of lineups | Cheapest top-of-the-order pieces on the slate against a bad Oakland bullpen |
| Chicago Cubs | vs. CWS | Trimmed down | PCA having a historic year, but ownership is about to spike |
| Detroit Tigers | vs. HOU | Small, negatively-leveraged exposure | A live alternative if the popular stacks get too chalky |
| Colorado Rockies | Coors Field | Small, negatively-leveraged exposure | Same idea, kept as a differentiator rather than a real lean |
What makes Boston work is the price. Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela both sit under $5,000, and Masataka Yoshida is priced around $3,000, well below what their recent form would suggest. Fenway Park is forecast at 89 degrees with a slight wind blowing out and 57% humidity, and Lindquist frames the matchup bluntly: a Boston team that's "completely in on winning" against an Athletics roster that isn't built to beat anybody right now. He's building lineups around Jarren Duran, Connor Wong, Jake Rogers and Caleb Durbin rounding out the stack, and he's not worried about a heavy pinch-hit workload cutting into Boston's regulars given how deep into extra innings the team played the night before.
For the mechanics behind sizing a stack like this into a large-field build, see our MLB DFS stacking guide and MLB DFS correlation strategy guide.
Worked Example: How The Board Fits Together
Eovaldi and Tolle doubled up at pitcher already eats a large chunk of salary, which is exactly why Boston's stack matters so much: Abreu and Rafaela both under $5,000 and Yoshida around $3,000 leave real room for Sasaki's boosted exposure or a one-off swing elsewhere. Gilbert stays in the player pool at roughly the field's rate rather than as a stand, useful as a pivot if either chalk arm gets scratched late. Sizing a build this way, where two expensive chalk plays fund a discount stack rather than fighting it for salary, is the same math covered in our MLB DFS multi-entry strategy guide.
FanDuel: Same Two Arms, One Value Names To Watch
FanDuel's single-pitcher format doesn't change the call. Eovaldi still gets the bulk of Lindquist's exposure at 62%-plus ownership, and he says he has "no problem" playing him even that heavy against Baltimore. Tolle is right behind him, and Logan Gilbert remains a smaller piece in the player pool given how difficult the Tampa Bay matchup is on paper. Boston stays the preferred stack on FanDuel as well, the same cheap top-of-the-order math that makes it the DraftKings play.
The Through-Line: Two Chalk Arms Fund A Discount Stack
Friday's slate is a reminder that chalk isn't automatically a reason to fade. Lindquist doubles up Eovaldi and Tolle because the matchups actually support it, then uses the salary Boston's cheap top of the order frees up to boost Sasaki instead of forcing a contrarian pitcher just to be different. The only real fades on the night are a popularity trim on the Cubs and a full scratch of the rained-out Atlanta-Yankees game, not a strategic pivot away from what the Sims already like. For the full pitcher board and stack updates through lock, see our MLB DFS picks hub, and check back for Saturday's edition of this series.
Build Your Own Lineups
Every number on Friday's show came out of the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims: refresh projections as lineups drop, boost Sasaki the way Lindquist did, and watch which stacks the simulations keep building around before lock. Try it on the next slate with code MLBLBL for 10% off any MLB or All Access package.
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