MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Hitters & Stacks for Saturday, April 10th

MLB DFS action on Saturday, April 10, features every team in action across six slates with giant contests on Yahoo, DraftKings and FanDuel. Before locking in MLB DFS picks and lineups, make sure to check out Awesemo’s daily fantasy baseball top stacks, picks, rankings and projections. Let’s dig into some MLB DFS picks and daily fantasy baseball stacks, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins.

Don’t forget to head over to the Awesemo MLB DFS HOME PAGE for more great written daily fantasy baseball content, including FREE daily article series: Spotlight Pitchers, MLB DFS Tournament Strategy and MLB Cheat Sheets for all the major DFS sites.

MLB DFS Picks: Spotlight Hitters and Stacks, Saturday, April 10th

Yahoo Stack of the Day: Toronto Blue Jays vs. LHP Jose Quintana — 5.5 implied runs

Yes, I am going right back to the Blue Jays against a lefty. Last night, LHP Andrew Heaney was dealing. However that was within his range of outcomes, as he has strikeout stuff that can offset his propensity for allowing home runs. Tonight’s target, LHP Jose Quintana, has relied heavily on his change-up and curveball in the latter third of his 11-year career, as his 90-92 mph fastball is nothing special. If he is locating his pitches tonight he will be fine, if not — well that is why we want to target Toronto.

Keep in mind that the Blue Jays’ home field is currently TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla. This is also their spring training facility, and note that they will be in Florida at least through April. Though, as the weather warms up, they may go to Buffalo, N.Y. (where they played last year) — or even Toronto — depending on travel restrictions.

Lourdes Gurriel was dinged up last night while running the bases, so he may not be in the lineup tonight. Other than Cavan Biggio we should see Toronto rolling with an all right-handed lineup. On sites that require us to roster a backstop, Danny Jansen is the target of choice for his near-minimum salary and power upside, even batting ninth.

Marcus Semien, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. need no introduction as we are all aware of their skillsets. Randal Grichuck has solid power and gamers tend to blanch at his “higher-than-it-should-be” salary, which will keep his popularity in check. Jonathan Davis and Alejandro Kirk are cheapies who will likely both be at the bottom of the order if Gurriel is not able to take the field. Enjoy!

[JOINMLB+]

Early Slate

Minnesota Twins vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi — 4.7 implied runs

Though this is just his third MLB campaign, LHP Yusei Kikuchi is in his age 30 season after starting out as a 19-year old in the NPB — AKA Japanese League. While the southpaw has allowed power to batters from both sides of the plate, he introduced a new pitch mix last year that as increased his strikeouts. In his debut season with the Mariners, they were careful with his workload and he was using a fastball 47.3% of the time with his secondary pitches being a slider 27.1%, curve 14.9% and change-up 7.3%. Last year, he went away from his curveball completely and introduced a new pitch in his “cut fastball,” which he used nearly 40% of the time while also dropping his reliance on his heater to 37%. This increased is strikeout rate from 6.48 K/9 to 9 K/9 while lowering his home run rate from 2 HR/9 to 0.6 HR/9. We have just a 47-inning sample size from last year’s abbreviated season, but it is worth keeping tabs on this development.

Even with the change in pitch strategy, the Twins are going to be a team to target against left-handed hurlers this season. They may run out an entirely right-handed lineup depending on what they do with Max Kepler this afternoon. The sluggers we want to focus on will be Mictch Garver, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano, all of whom have a long track record of bringing the lumber against opposite-handed pitchers. Kyle Garlick should be near the top of the order and he is a fine discount dandy. Jorge Polanco will have the platoon advantage all game as a switch-hitter and he should be in the heart of the order. Byron Buxton seems to be putting everything together, albeit much slower than scouting projections.

Finally, and this is important, at the bottom of the order we will likely see Willians Astudillo and Andrelton Simmons. This duo rarely strikes out, and while they do not walk a lot either, they get their bat on everything within reach. Their ability to foul off pitches is in the upper percentile of the the league and it tends to drive up pitch counts quickly. The Mariners bullpen does not have many scary arms at all, which could lead to some crooked numbers this afternoon.

Late Slate

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. RHP Jeff Hoffman — 5.3 implied runs

Tonight the Chase Field roof is scheduled to be closed for the start of the game, though with game-time temperatures “only” in the upper-80s that could change. While RHP Jeff Hoffman is no longer pitching for the Rockies, he will still be bringing Coors Field with him. In his last 37.2 road innings he had an unsightly 2.39 HR/9 and his 6.21 ERA was exacerbated by his 12.2 BB% The Diamondbacks do not have many brand name hitters which makes them a wonderful contrarian stack on the main slate. With just two games on the late slate, they will draw attention by default.

Kole Calhoun is outstanding against righties with a .250+ ISO though he also strikes out nearly 25% of the time. Christian Walker sees very similar results from the right-side of the plate. Add in veteran David Peralta and the well-traveled Asdrubal Cabrera with a pinch of Eduardo Escobar and we have the makings of an overlooked/high-upside DFS roster.

Final Thoughts for the Saturday, April 10th MLB DFS Slate

Tonight’s main slate is half a dozen games with a couple aces and a couple gas cans in search of a match which will make for some interesting decisions. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a home run play on Yahoo may be a below-average MLB DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

Stokastic +

Premium Data and Tools
PREMIUM TOOLS
Lineup Generator
Stokastic Sims MLB
PREMIUM DATA
Projections
Top Stack %s
MLB Data Central
FREE DATA
SoRare MLB Rankings
DraftKings Night Owl
FANTASY CRUNCHER (ADD-ON)
MLB Lineup Study
COMMUNITY
MLB Discord Server
PREMIUM DATA
Projections
Ownership Projections
PREMIUM TOOLS
Fantasy Cruncher (ADD-ON)
NHL Lineup Study
COMMUNITY
NHL Discord Server
PREMIUM TOOLS
Lineup Generator
Stokastic Sims PGA
PREMIUM DATA
Ownership Projections
Top Golfers Tool
PGA Tournament Models
FANTASY CRUNCHER (ADD-ON)
PGA Lineup Study
COMMUNITY
PGA Discord Server
Ownership Projections
Top Drivers Tool
NASCAR Discord Server
NASCAR Fantasy Cruncher
USFL Projections
USFL Discord Server
Ownership Projections
Top Fighters Tool
MMA Discord Server
MMA Fantasy Cruncher
NFL Betting Tools
Stokastic Discord Server
Best Ball
Best Ball Rankings
Best Ball Stat Projections
Stokastic Discord Server
Season Long Fantasy (Coming Soon)

DFS Winners from the Stokastic Community

Subscribe to the Stokastic newsletter

DFS advice, exciting promos, and the best bets straight to your inbox

Stokastic.com - Daily Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting Data, Tools, & Analytics

Please play responsibly. Only customers 21 and over are permitted to play. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.