MLB DFS Picks, Projections, Lineups & Stacks Today: Friday Playbook

Welcome to the Fantasy Alarm MLB DFS Playbook for Friday, April 11th! 

We have another action-packed day of day baseball with a 13-game main slate on DraftKings and FanDuel that starts at 7:05 ET. With a Friday night full of baseball ahead, our expert analysis is here to guide you through the top pitchers, value plays, and stackable offenses to target.

Whether chasing big GPP prizes or grinding cash games, we’ve got you covered with insights tailored to today’s matchups. Let’s jump right into the key plays and strategies to dominate the slate!

This season's MLB DFS picks and playbook will consist of a pitcher and hitter core players section with written analysis, player pool grid and core stacks section.

The core player section should be used as a starting point for all lineups, you may not be able to use all players in the same lineup, but those players should be the building blocks for you on a given night.

The player pool grid will feature both players from the core player section along with additional plays to help you build a complete lineup. The grid will be broken into top priced players, mid-priced players and value tier players.

The stacks section will bring you our favorite lineups stacks for the day and which players we would look to include in those stacks based on matchups and pricing.

There will also be a daily MLB DFS Show with a variety of hosts ranging from myself, Jon Impemba, Howard Bender, and James Grande. The MLB DFS Show will give you an initial outlook on the day's MLB DFS slate and should give you a good base for the start of your research each day! 

We will also have an MLB DFS Livestream every day! So tune in at 5 PM ET to watch Jon Impemba and James Grande break down today’s slate, give you last-minute advice, and answer any questions before locking in those lineups!

Make sure you subscribe to the Fantasy Alarm YouTube channel so you never miss a show! Also, join the Fantasy Alarm Discord to get your DFS lineup questions answered by our MLB DFS team! Plus, as always, be sure to check in with our MLB DFS Tools, with the Daily MLB Projections, MLB DFS Rostership Projections, and our MLB DFS Lineup Generator when building those lineups today to help you decide which players you should be targeting.

MLB DFS Picks & MLB Playbook

MLB Weather: Friday, 4/11
 

• TOR vs BAL - The chance of rain is near 100 precent and there is a good chance they do not get this one in tonight. We have 12 other games to work with and there is very little reason to bother with a game this risky. 
• ATL vs TBR - There is a chance of rain late in the game. The weather is otherwise good for hitting, with temperatures in the 70s and the wind blowing out. 
• SFG vs NYY - The second-highest chance of rain behind Baltimore. Pitchers are certainly not safe from an in-game delay, and there is some risk of a postponement as well. 

UPDATE: TOR vs BAL has been postponed 

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

A massive 13-game slate means plenty of options to choose from, so I will immediately be ruling out the risky weather games (TOR/BAL and SFG/NYY) from consideration. Jacob deGrom headlines the slate, along with an elite Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Nick Pivetta figures to garner ownership in a great matchup and there are a couple pricing discrepancies we can take advantage of at SP2 on DK. 

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers 

Yamamoto has been excellent in three starts for the Dodgers this season, as the strikeouts are up over 30% and he has allowed just three earned runs. He will face the Cubs again after shutting them down in Tokyo to open the season. The Cubs have been excellent on offense to begin the season, but I still prefer the Yamamoto side of the matchup.

Yamamoto should come at a significant ownership discount as the highest-priced pitcher on the slate in a tougher matchup than the two pitchers just below him on the salary scale.  

Jacob deGrom, Texas Rangers 

Jacob deGrom has thrown just 208 innings since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. And while age may have caught up with him a bit, he is still expected to be an elite fantasy pitcher. His strikeouts are down around 20% and his average fastball velocity is “just” 96.8 MPH through two starts in 2025, but I am not concerned given his other context today. 

The matchup for deGrom is elite against the Mariners in their pitcher-friendly ballpark. Seattle struck out at the highest rate in baseball against RHP last season, and they are striking out at an above average rate this season. 

Nick Pivetta, San Diego Padres 

Pivetta was excellent against the Braves to open the season and struggled against the Cubs in his second start. He gets his easiest test of the season so far against the Rockies in Petco Park. 

Pivetta was around 29 percent strikeouts last season, but sits at just 20 percent so far this season. I am willing to overlook that given the two offenses he has faced thus far. He should have an easier time racking up the whiffs against the Rockies, who lead the league in strikeouts so far in 2025. 

Taj Bradley, Tampa Bay Rays 

Bradley is an upside arm with some risk given he has to deal with some of the best hitting weather on the slate and a Braves offense that packs plenty of punch. I still love his upside despite there being some risk here. Bradley has struck out 31.8 percent of the batters he has faced through two starts, and the Braves have struck out over 25% of the time this season. 

The pitch count is a bit of a concern (just 79 and 82 pitches in his two starts) but the strikeout upside should more than make up for that.  

Reese Olson, Detroit Tigers 

The salary discrepancy is notable, as Olson is priced up to $8,800 on FanDuel and down at $7,100 on DraftKings. I will have significant exposure to Olson as my SP2 on DK, while he is more of a large-field tournament dart on FD. 

Olson was quite good in 22 starts for the Tigers last season. And while the surface number don't look great in 2025, both xFIP (3.59) and xERA (4.01) agree he has pitched better than his 5.06 ERA would suggest. 

The Twins have been a below average offense so far this season (75 wRC+) and have struck out more than league average (23.6 percent).  

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

When there's less that great pitching on a slate that usually means there is plenty of good hitting spots for us to take advantage of and when we have a small slate AND Coors Field without expensive pitching on the slate you know where the chalk is going to be and that's exactly what we have. Stacking the Brewers and filling in the positions where the money allows today.

Core MLB DFS Hitters

New York Mets in Sutter Health Park 

The Mets get a massive ballpark upgrade today traveling to Sacramento to take on the Athletics. They get a matchup against JP Sears, who is a flyball pitcher that could really be impacted by the change in his home park this season. Sears allowed 1.39 HR/9 in the spacious Oakland Coliseum last year, and we can expect a jump in that number with the park shift if he does not make significant improvements. 

Francisco Lindor is my top target here at a a very fair salary on both sites. He owns a .277 ISO and .368 wOBA since last season against lefties. 

Pete Alonso has a long track record of destroying LH pitching, and Juan Soto was elite against lefties last season as well. 

Mark Vientos was also incredible against lefties last season, but he has struggled out of the gate in 2025. 

Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros 

Put Yordan Alvarez in the bucket of hitters that have struggled to open 2025 that we should have zero concerns about. He has never posted lower than a 137 wRC+ in a season in his career, and he has four straight seasons of 30+ home runs.

Yordan gets a matchup against a low strikeout, groundball pitcher in Jack Kochanowicz of the Angels. Alvarez owns a 38 percent fly ball rate and .247 ISO against righties since last season that should be the perfect counter to Kochanowicz attempts to limit damage. 

Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Trout has rarely been healthy over the last several seasons, but he is still an elite hitter when he has been on the field. He gets a matchup against Ronel Blanco, who has been due for major regression for quite some time. Blanco has allowed 7 runs in his first two starts, with way too many walks (17.6 percent walk rate) and his typical massive fly ball rate that can lead to home run troubles.  

Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays 

Lowe is off to a scorching hot start for the Rays, with 3 home runs and a .359 wOBA to begin the season. He gets a matchup in which he should excel against Bryce Elder of the Braves. Elder is a much better pitcher against righties, where he has an above average strikeout rate and keeps the ball on the ground. He does not possess those same skills against lefties, as he struck out just 15.7 percent of them last season and allowed over 29 percent fly balls. 

Player Pool

• DraftKings
• FanDuel

$ Tier	SP	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	OF
High	Yoshinobu Yamamoto $10,600			Mookie Betts $4,300			Aaron Judge $4,800
	Jacob deGrom $9,900						Shohei Ohtani $4,500
	Taj Bradley $9,700						Kyle Schwarber $4,400
							Fernando Tatis $4,400
							Juan Soto $4,100
							Mike Trout $4,000
Medium	Aaron Nola $9,500	William Contreras $3,300	Pete Alonso $3,900	Jose Altuve $3,600	Manny Machado $3,800	Willy Adames $3,400	Mike Trout $4,000
	Nick Pivetta $9,300	Will Smith $3,200	Bryce Harper $3,900	Kyren Paris $3,300	Rafael Devers $3,700	Corey Seager $3,400	Teoscar Hernández $3,900
	Bryce Miller $9,200		Matt Olson $3,300	Tommy Edman $3,200	Alex Bregman $3,300	Trea Turner $3,700	Yordan Alvarez $3,900
	Reese Olson $8,800		Tyler Soderstrom $3,600	Brandon Lowe $3,100	Austin Riley $3,300	Francisco Lindor $3,600	Jackson Chourio $3,800
			Christian Walker $3,100				Jarren Duran $3,800
Low	Sean Newcomb $7,500	Cal Raleigh $3,000	Spencer Torkelson $2,900	Jake Cronenworth $2,900	Isaac Paredes $2,900	Trevor Story $2,900	Jorge Soler $3,000
			Rhys Hoskins $2,800	Jonathan Aranda $2,700	Mark Vientos $2,800	Geraldo Perdomo $2,900	Lourdes Gurriel $3,000
			Joc Pederson $2,600	Colt Keith $2,400	Junior Caminero $2,700	Joey Ortiz $2,600	Lawrence Butler $2,900
							Matt Wallner $2,900
							Luis Robert $2,800
							Starling Marte $2,700
							JJ Bleday $2,500

Stacks

Mets	Juan Soto	Mark Vientos	Francisco Lindor	Brandon Nimmo	Pete Alonso
DraftKings	6200	4000	5100	4200	5700
Fanduel	4100	2800	3600	2900	3900

Athletics	JJ Bleday	Lawrence Butler	Tyler Soderstrom	Shea Langeliers	Brent Rooker
DraftKings	3900	4900	4400	4200	5500
Fanduel	2500	2900	3600	3100	3600

Red Sox	Triston Casas	Alex Bregman	Jarren Duran	Trevor Story	Rafael Devers
DraftKings	3500	5000	5300	4100	4900
Fanduel	2800	3300	3800	2900	3700

Angels	Jorge Soler	Mike Trout	Kyren Paris	Logan O'Hoppe	Taylor Ward
DraftKings	4400	5600	3300	4600	4300
Fanduel	3000	4000	3300	3300	3300