Are you new to playing MLB DFS, or are you a long-time veteran? Maybe you just like to dabble every once in a while. Regardless of the type of player you are, there are endless strategies to take down a DFS tournament. I have taken down several big tournaments and I want to teach you the strategies I use, including how to manage your bankroll, how to select a slate, how to improve your lineup construction, how to snap out of cold streaks, and much much more. My goal is to make you a better player and get you into the green consistently. Let’s get into it.
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MLB DFS Strategy Tips
DraftKings vs. FanDuel
Some DFS players have drawn a line in the sand and play only either FanDuel or DraftKings, but I strongly suggest that you play both platforms for baseball. The biggest reason is that in FanDuel, your lineup only needs one pitcher, whereas in DraftKings you need two. Some nights I only like one pitcher and will play mostly FD lineups, and other nights there is one pitcher who everyone is drawn to, making that pitcher a great fade option on FD. Most nights, though, there are two pitchers you can fit in your lineup, which makes DraftKings the more desirable option. Another good reason to play both slates is player pricing. Baseball has the biggest price discrepancy between the platforms of all major sports. Many players on any given night are priced very high on one platform and cheaply on the other. For example, when Braves outfielder Michael Harris first came up to the big leagues, he was hot out of the gate. FanDuel priced him up rather quickly, while DraftKings took a couple of weeks to adjust, making Harris lineups profitable for a longer period on DK.
Bankroll Management
Everybody’s bankroll is different, but I don’t suggest playing above 2-3% of your bankroll on any one slate. The baseball season is long, and you don’t want to go broke after the first week. Do not play every day just to play. Be comfortable with the slates you play, and be confident in your lineups. If you are forcing yourself to play every day, then you are playing slates and lineups that will eat up your bankroll. Be selective; the season is long, and the National Anthem is sung every day, so you will have plenty of chances to get in the green.
Cash Game Tournaments
Cash game tournaments are 50/50 tournaments that double your money if you finish in the top half. There is no need to finish at the top of these tournaments as the payout is the same for first place as it is the cutoff. When constructing a cash game lineup, you want to pick players who are consistent and offer fair value. Cash game slates are the easiest way to win, and I think they are a great starting point for new players.
GPP Tournaments
In a GPP tournament, you are trying to beat a larger field of players, and first place is usually the big payoff. You want to have riskier value plays that you think will be lower-owned, which means you may have to fade big-name players. Your goal is to beat the entire field, and those low-priced players who have big nights are how you win.
Choosing the Right Slate
Choosing the right slate depends on the person and what you are comfortable with. Still, whether you are a veteran of MLB DFS or just starting, I have some strong tips that should help you be a winner. First, I strongly suggest that you play in single-entry tournaments. Sure, the $15 entry fee to win a daily $100K tournament looks like a great deal, but if you have a relatively small bankroll, you will be eating into it very fast. These tournaments take a perfect lineup to win, which is extremely hard to hit, and you will find that even cashing in these tournaments is difficult. Single-entry tournaments mean that you have the same chance as anyone else. They are much easier to cash in and, in most cases, do not require a perfect lineup to win. I would start out playing in lower-field tournaments and advance from there. I like playing tournaments that have 130 entries or fewer, and sometimes playing 11-30 entry tournaments is ideal.
MLB DFS Lineup Construction
Pitching
Regardless of the slate I am playing, I look for pitching first and foremost. If you have stellar pitching, you have the building blocks to take down any tournament. Even if your pitching is just steady, you can cash in GPP tournaments and win 50/50 slates, because in most cash game slates, many of your opponents will have the same pitchers. The pitchers you want have high strikeout totals on average and low ERAs. Strikeouts especially are what give pitchers the most points, and the best real-life pitcher is not always the best DFS pitcher. It is better to have a pitcher who gives up three runs and strikes out seven than to have a pitcher who gives up just one run but has a low strikeout rate. In DraftKings slates, it will be difficult to spend up for two top-tier pitchers and still be able to construct a lineup you feel comfortable with. To pay down for pitching, you need to consider matchups and look for poor-hitting teams and or teams that strike out a lot. Note that in DraftKings, pitchers get negative points for walks, hits given up, and hit batters, but they do not on FanDuel. DraftKings also gives bonus points to pitchers who have complete games, complete game shutouts, and no-hitters, whereas FanDuel only gives bonus points for quality starts. Otherwise, both platforms score the same categories, with FanDuel scoring slightly higher than DraftKings. Please make sure you read the scoring rules, as they can change from season to season.
Hitting
The hitting scoring categories for both FD and DK are walks, hit by pitches, singles, doubles, triples, home runs, runs, runs batted in, and stolen bases. Once again, FanDuel gives a slightly higher value in each category than DraftKings. As I mentioned, your strategy should depend on whether you are playing cash games or GPP. In cash games, I want a lineup that has consistent hitters who have good matchups against weaker opposing pitchers, so it’s often that my lineup will be filled with players who are in the medium price range with just one or two big spend-up options and one perceived bargain play. In GPP tournaments, I may build a lineup that resembles a cash game lineup, but often times I will have more than one spend-up play and more than one value play. Who to target for these plays becomes more evident as the season goes on. There are so many changes in MLB lineups from day to day that you need to keep a close eye on where people are batting.
Stacking
Stacking lineups is crucial in DFS, especially in GPP tournaments. Stacking is when you use more than one player from the same team, generally those near one another in the order. DraftKings allows you to stack up to a maximum of five players from one team, while FanDuel allows you to stack a maximum of four players from one team. The importance of playing more than one player from the same team is all to do with correlation. You may want to play a player like Aaron Judge by himself, but more often than not, you want to play the players that are around him so your lineup scores in bunches. I learned early that not stacking and just playing a lineup of one-offs is a losing proposition. Every big tournament I have won, which has been quite a few, has involved a stack of three or more players from one team along with a stack of three or more players on another team. For example, I took down a $15K first-place prize in 2022 by stacking Orioles Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo, Cedric Mullins, and Austin Hays, along with Cardinals Nolan Arenado, Tyler O’Neill, and Tommy Edman. Both teams hit very well, and since they were all scoring and knocking each other in with extra-base hits and home runs, my lineup shot to the top. My biggest tip for stacking is to find a low-priced team that has players with home-run potential and is going against a weaker pitcher and stack them with a very good hitting team that may be higher priced and have a pedigree for scoring runs. The Cardinals, Yankees, Blue Jays, Dodgers, and Astros are historically good teams to consider as your elite stack.
My Personal Tips for Building Better Lineups
Avoid teams that are going through slumps until they break out of it … unless they are going up against a very bad pitcher. All teams will go through hitting slumps, just some more than others. When a good-hitting team starts to come out of a slump, play them right away. If the Yankees haven’t hit well for a week but come out with a six-run performance, then I will be stacking them the next few nights. My second tip is not to pay up for catching in DraftKings. DraftKings greatly overprices the catchers who don’t produce like big-time hitters at different positions. More often than not, you are better off punting the position. The one time I will play more expensive catchers is when I am not spending up for pitching, which is rare. Also, I play them more often in stacks. Catchers like Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and the Dodgers Will Smith are whom I have stacked most often. FanDuel doesn’t make you play a catcher, you can select a first baseman instead, which is usually the choice I make.
Tips To Cash More Consistently
Play Slates With Fewer MLB Games
Unless it is Monday or Thursday when some teams are off, you will find that most MLB slates have a ton of games on them. I find that slates with eight or more games are extremely difficult to cash in big-entry GPPs. I want to find an advantage, especially if I have a sneaky team stack or a sneaky pitcher I like. Even if your sneaky play hits, playing them in a full slate gives your competition more chances to find a different sneaky stack that can compete with yours. Hitting on a sneaky stack with fewer other MLB teams active increases your chances of winning. I like to play three or four-game slates with 20-50 entries. One way I like to do this is to play the Turbo or Night slates that only involve a smaller selection of games.
Fading
Finding the right players to fade is key to tournament success and keeping your bankroll in the green. In some FanDuel tournaments, a given pitcher can be 70-80% owned, which should make them an automatic fade. It takes guts to fade Spencer Stider when he is the marquee pitcher on the slate and the next man up is Kenta Maeda, but these are some of the chances you have to take. If Strider is not the top-scoring pitcher on the slate, then you have a much greater-than-normal chance of winning. In DraftKings, you don’t have to fade the pitching as much because you have to use two pitchers. You will find that fading stacks is the way to go,especially in tournaments that have 11-50 entries. For example, on many night slates, Dodger players will have extremely high ownership. If Mookie Betts is projected to be 50-70% owned, again, it is tough, but you may have to fade him, especially if he is not on a hot streak. Remember, most players do not make their value on a routine basis. Baseball has the most random variance in player statistics.
Cold Streaks
Winning and cold streaks may come and go during an MLB season. When I hit a cold streak, I sometimes take a break for a few days until I find a slate I really like. I may also shorten up my number of entries on some slates or play 50/50s. There are plenty of slates that have just 11 to 30 entries to choose from. These are tournaments that I find easier to win to build up my bankroll.
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