MLB DFS Perfect Lineup: DraftKings Picks For June 26

A $13,000 starting pitcher does not come around often. On this 13-game Friday MLB DFS slate, Jacob Misiorowski is exactly that, and his price forced a question we almost never ask on the Perfect Lineup show: do you pay all the way up for the best arm in baseball right now, or spread that salary around and chase a better lineup everywhere else? So Loughy did something he had not done all year. He built the Perfect Lineup twice, once with Misiorowski and once without, and let the Stokastic Sims tell us which path actually wins.

In Summary

• The Slate: a 13-game Friday DraftKings main slate, headlined by a $13,000 pitcher we have not seen priced this high all season.
• The Experiment: two builds of the Perfect Lineup, one anchored by Jacob Misiorowski and one that pivots to a value starter so the bats can level up.
• The Stack: the Philadelphia Phillies, back-to-back. They were the top stack on Thursday and they sit No. 1 in the Top Stacks Tool again Friday.
• The Sims Verdict: the cheaper-pitcher build did not just keep up. It graded out a touch better on Sim ROI and cash rate, which is the whole reason we simulate instead of guess.

Watch The Perfect Lineup Show

Loughy walks through both builds in real time and shows the Sim output on screen, so you can see exactly how the with-Misiorowski and without-Misiorowski lineups diverge.

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The $13,000 Question: Is Jacob Misiorowski Worth It?

Jacob Misiorowski · $13,000 · Brewers vs. Cubs

We are in uncharted territory with this salary. A $13,000 starter is rare enough, but a $13,000 starter who actually earns the tag is rarer still. The case for Misiorowski is not subtle.

The case:

• A 33% strikeout-minus-walk rate, roughly 7% clear of the next-closest starter on the board.
• A 1.66 ERA heading into July, the lowest mark on the slate. The next-best starter, Cam Schlittler, sits at 2.21.
• An 8.5 strikeout prop that the market is leaning over, not under.
• A projection nearly six fantasy points clear of any other pitcher in the Stokastic DataHub.
• A 35% top-two-pitcher probability. Zack Wheeler is second on the slate at 16%.

He has been so dominant that the Cy Young race has flipped. Christopher Sanchez was out front; another start like the ones Misiorowski has been throwing and he runs away with it.

Here is the catch, and it is the entire reason this is a question instead of an auto-lock. At $13,000 you cannot profit on a quiet 23-to-25 fantasy point night. You need a genuine blow-up game to pay off that salary, and you need it while the rest of your roster gets squeezed by the money he eats.

Build It Yourself With The Stokastic Sims

The Perfect Lineup is not a hot take. It is the output of the single-lineup Stokastic Sims: you set your core, the Sims run the slate thousands of times, and they hand back the optimal build around your decisions along with the numbers that matter (Sim ROI, cash rate, and chance to win). That is how Loughy can build a roster two different ways and actually know which one held up, instead of arguing about it. New to this? Our DFS beginner guide walks through how the Sims construct a lineup from the ground up.

Run the slate yourself. The Stokastic Sims simulate the full DraftKings slate to surface the highest-upside lineups, projected ownership, and your real cash and GPP rates. Grab 10% off any Stokastic MLB subscription with code PERFECT10 and build your own Perfect Lineup.

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The Value-Pitcher Pivot: Building Without Misiorowski

If you fade the $13,000 arm, the savings have to go somewhere productive. Loughy floated three value starters to plug into the non-Misiorowski build, none of them expensive:

• Roki Sasaki vs. the Padres: a 24% strikeout rate, much sharper in his recent outings, against a San Diego offense that has been punchless against right-handers all year.
• Will Warren at Boston: the simplest case on the board. The Red Sox have been arguably the worst lineup in baseball against righties, and Warren is good enough to punish that.
• And the one that made the build:

Taj Bradley · $7,600 · Twins vs. Rockies

Bradley carries a 6.5 strikeout prop, which is a big number for a mid-$7K arm with real swing-and-miss stuff. Colorado has been more manageable against right-handed pitching than against lefties this season, so it is not a perfect spot, and Bradley does walk himself into trouble. That is the trade-off at this price. He came back as the heavily owned chalk value, the second-most-owned player on the entire slate, precisely because the field sees the same K upside for the money.

SP2: Attacking The Angels' Strikeout Problem

With Jorge Soler back from the injured list, the Angels once again carry the highest strikeout rate against right-handers in the league, sitting at 25% while ranking 27th in wRC+. That is the cleanest combination you can ask for in a pitcher: whiffs plus an offense that does not do damage.

J.T. Ginn · Athletics at Angels (Anaheim)

Ginn has quietly been Loughy's SP2 in back-to-back Perfect Lineup builds, returning 30-plus fantasy points at a cheap price both times, and tonight he draws that Angels lineup in Anaheim.

The case:

• A 5.5 strikeout prop in the best strikeout matchup in baseball.
• Real power suppression at 0.87 home runs per nine, notable given how hitter-friendly his home park is.
• A 21.3% strikeout rate, enough to cash in on the Angels' whiffs.
• The seventh-highest fantasy-point projection and seventh-highest top-two-pitcher probability on the slate, despite ranking only 10th in salary.
• Roughly 8% ownership in the DataHub, a strong projection at a price the field is ignoring.

He is not an elite strikeout arm in a vacuum, but the matchup, the price, and the ownership make him an easy lock at SP2.

The Stack: Riding The Phillies Back-to-Back

This is the part Loughy knew everyone would push back on. The Phillies were the top stack on Thursday, and he is going right back to them. There is no rule that a team cannot be the best stack two days in a row, and the data backs the move: Philadelphia is No. 1 in the Top Stacks Tool again Friday, facing a Mets starter who has command but no real swing-and-miss stuff. Re-stacking a chalky team the day after it goes off is its own leverage decision, the kind we dig into in our MLB DFS contrarian strategy guide.

The wrinkle is value. Philadelphia is third in projected ownership but only 20th in top value, which drags its stack score down to ninth. With an expensive Misiorowski already in the build, you have to be surgical about which Phillies bats you can actually afford.

The cheap Phillies bats that make the math work:

• Alec Bohm ($3,500): the most interesting piece in the stack purely on price.
• J.T. Realmuto ($3,600): a catcher you can fit and still get production.
• Brandon Marsh ($4,700): the popular value click of the group.

Around them sit the expensive anchors (Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and Kyle Schwarber), and you simply cannot fit all of them next to a $13,000 pitcher. That tension is exactly what the two builds expose.

Worked Example: With Or Without Misiorowski

Run both rosters through the single-lineup Sims and the divergence is clear. The Misiorowski build packs a five-man Phillies stack (Realmuto, Harper, Bohm, Turner, and Edmundo Sosa, no Schwarber) and leaves only about $2,700 per remaining slot for a second baseman and two outfielders, forcing thin one-offs like Tyler O'Neill and Andrew Benintendi. The Taj Bradley build frees up roughly $4,500 per slot, which is enough to upgrade those one-offs to Xavier Edwards in the two-hole and a name like Shohei Ohtani as a true one-off.

Here is how the Sims graded the two paths:

Same chance to win, but the cheaper-pitcher build edged ahead on both Sim ROI and cash rate by getting better bats into the lineup. That does not make Misiorowski a bad play. He is the best pitcher on the board and a real tournament leverage piece if he detonates. The salary he eats is just a genuine cost, and on this particular slate the Sims liked spreading it around.

The Verdict

Two clean paths, one Perfect Lineup. Pay all the way up for the most dominant arm in baseball and live with thinner bats, or pivot to Taj Bradley and let the offense breathe. The Sims gave the slight nod to the value-pitcher build here, but the margin is close enough that your contest type and your read on Misiorowski's ceiling can tip it either way. The point of the exercise is that you do not have to guess: build it both ways, simulate it, and play the one the numbers like.

Build, simulate, and compare your own MLB DFS Perfect Lineup with the Stokastic MLB Sims. Code PERFECT10 takes 10% off any Stokastic MLB plan: Start with the MLB Sims

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Jacob Misiorowski worth $13,000 in MLB DFS on June 26?

He is the best pitcher on the slate by the numbers (a 33% K-BB rate, a 1.66 ERA, and a slate-high 35% top-two-pitcher probability), so he is a legitimate play. The catch is that his salary forces weaker bats elsewhere, and the Sims graded a value-pitcher build slightly higher on ROI. Use him when you are betting on a true blow-up start to outrun the salary he costs you.

What is the best value pitcher on the June 26 MLB DFS slate?

Taj Bradley ($7,600) was the build-maker, with a 6.5-strikeout prop and real swing-and-miss stuff against Colorado, though he is the chalky, heavily owned option. Roki Sasaki against the Padres and Will Warren at Boston were the two other value arms in play.

Which team should I stack on June 26?

The Phillies are the No. 1 team in the Top Stacks Tool for the second straight day. The value bats that fit them next to an expensive pitcher are:

• Alec Bohm ($3,500)
• J.T. Realmuto ($3,600)
• Brandon Marsh ($4,700)

Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and Kyle Schwarber are the pricier anchors if your build has room.

How do the Stokastic Sims help me build the perfect lineup?

The single-lineup Sims take your core, simulate the full slate thousands of times, and return the optimal build along with Sim ROI, cash rate, and chance to win, so you can compare two roster constructions on real numbers instead of opinion.