As we shake off the long holiday weekend and dive back into MLB DFS, tonight’s slate gives us a perfect chance to build a high-upside, tournament-winning DraftKings MLB DFS Lineup — and we’ve found two pitchers that DraftKings continues to price too low. With a little creativity and the right data, we just might be staring at the perfect DraftKings lineup. Let’s walk through the optimal picks, based on tonight’s slate and the latest data from the Stokastic MLB DFS Sims and Top Stacks tools.
Perfect DraftKings MLB DFS Lineup: Optimal Strategy
Top Pitchers for Your DraftKings MLB DFS Lineup
Top Pitcher: Christopher Sanchez – $8,800
Sanchez is quietly having a phenomenal season, and DraftKings just hasn’t adjusted. He draws a dream matchup at Oracle Park — one of the most pitcher-friendly venues in baseball — against a Giants team with the seventh-highest strikeout rate against lefties and a bottom-10 wRC+ (91).
Sanchez has a:
- 26% strikeout rate
- 57% ground ball rate
- 5% barrel rate
- 14% swinging-strike rate
Books have his props set at 18.5 outs, 1.5 earned runs, and 5.5 strikeouts — strong indicators of a deep and effective outing.
SP2: Yusei Kikuchi – $7,200
At $7,200, Kikuchi is the clear pricing error on the slate. He’s the 10th-highest-priced pitcher yet ranks third in top-2 pitcher probability on Stokastic’s Top Pitchers Tool. He’s been dominant at home this year (26% strikeout rate, .253 average against) and faces a Rangers squad that ranks:
- 28th in wRC+ versus lefties
- 29th in wOBA
- 24th in ISO
- 8th in strikeout rate
Even with Jacob deGrom opposing him, Kikuchi’s form and upside are too good to ignore in MLB DFS contests.
Top DraftKings MLB DFS Stack: Reds
Great American Ball Park remains a launching pad with a 122 park factor for home runs, and Janson Junk hasn’t shown much resistance for Miami. He’s allowing a .165 xISO to lefties this season — and that climbs to .193 if you include last year’s data.
Target Bats:
- Elly De La Cruz (SS) – Power-speed monster, a must-play despite price
- Will Benson (OF) – Salary saver with upside
- Gavin Lux (3B/OF) – Dual eligibility, lefty bat in the stack
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand (1B/3B) – Roster flexibility
- Tyler Stephenson (C) – Reasonable price tag with power upside
Cincinnati ranks top 3 in top-stack rate tonight, and while its value rating isn’t elite, the upside more than makes up for it.
Filling Out the Rest: Use Sims for the Optimal Finish
After locking in Sanchez, Kikuchi and the Reds stack, we head over to the Single Lineup Simulator to optimize the rest. The sim rounds out the MLB DFS Lineup with:
This build gives you everything you want in a DraftKings MLB DFS lineup:
- Two undervalued pitchers with big strikeout upside
- A top-3 stack in a power-friendly park
- A mix of chalk and leverage to balance risk and reward
- Lineup flexibility thanks to multi-position players
