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

Welcome to the Fantasy Alarm MLB DFS Playbook for Friday, April 18th! 

Friday brings another 10-game main slate on DraftKings and FanDuel, starting at 7:05 ET. With a full slate to start the weekend, 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 MLB DFS projections 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. 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! 

The MLB DFS Livestream is now happening every day during the week, so make sure to tune in at 5 PM ET to watch a breakdown of 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, 4/18

• WAS vs COL: Was originally the 11th game on this slate but has been postponed.  

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

We’ve got a good range of top-end arms and a lot of lower-end arms today. I am not a big fan of any of the cheaper SP plays today and am much more likely to live in the top half of the pitching slate today. Some honorable mentions for me today outside of my core plays would be Bryan Woo, Jacob deGrom, and Carlos Rodon. 

Let's get into today's core pitching plays for our DFS lineups.

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers

Yamamoto has looked incredible to start the season. If he can stay healthy, he legitimately could be a Cy Young candidate this season. He just threw another 6 scoreless innings against a really good Chicago Cubs offense while striking out 9. I expect more of the same today against the Rangers. 

Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants

Logan Webb has had a strong start to the season, with a 2.63 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. However, the biggest piece of success has been the jump in strikeouts, with a 28% strikeout rate, up from 20.5% last season. I don’t expect him to hold all the way up to a 28% strikeout rate, but if he can even carry around a 25% mark, that could make him a top 10 pitcher in all of baseball. He shouldn’t struggle too much to put up another great line against the Angels today. 

Drew Rasmussen, Tampa Bay Rays

Drew Rasmussen has looked so good through his first 3 starts. 15 strikeouts in his first 15 innings to go with a 0.60 ERA and a 0.73 WHIP. I hope he will start to go past the 5th inning, but even if he only goes 5 innings again, he is pitching well enough to be worth going after. He faces the Yankees today, but he is pitching so well, they aren’t scaring me away from starting him in Steinbrenner Field today; he has just been that dominant.  

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

We have some great offenses to target today with a lot of less trustworthy arms on the mound. Some of my favorite offenses to target today include the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins, and Milwaukee Brewers.  

Let's check out today's core plays to build our lineups around.

Core MLB DFS Hitters

Matt Olson, 1B Atlanta Braves

I like the Braves in this spot against Chris Paddack, who I don’t trust at all and has a home run problem. A lot of the higher-end first basemen today have tough matchups, and this is a really good price on Matt Olson, who is still a great bat who provides a ton of power potential. 

Kristian Campbell, 2B Boston Red Sox

Kristian Campbell’s on-base streak finally came to an end in his last game, and then he got his first off day right after. I think he bounces right back, and so far, the rookie has been hitting the ball great in the middle of a solid Red Sox lineup. They face Martin Perez and the White Sox today, and I think they could put up a fair number of runs. I think Campbell will continue to produce good value at this price. 

Junior Caminero, 3B Carlos Rodon

I’m not necessarily jumping to build a huge Rays stack against Rodon today, but this price is way too low for how well Caminero has been hitting the ball. He has 4 homers in his last 6 games and is slashing .348/.400/.870. The power is legit, and he has excellent plate skills to go along with it. I'm going to keep going after Caminero while he's priced this low. 

Randy Arozarena, OF Seattle Mariners

When Randy gets hot, look out. He always has these stretches where he is one of the best hitters on the planet for short stretches when he is locked in, and he looks like he is right now. In his last two games, he has 4 hits, including a homer and 2 doubles, and has also walked 4 times and stolen a base. I’m taking the bet he is seeing the ball really well right now and think he will likely continue it today in Toronto against Bowden Francis.   

Player Pool

• FanDuel
• DraftKings

$ Tier	SP	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	OF
High	Yoshinobu Yamamoto $10,200	Adley Rutschman $4,900	Pete Alonso $5,700	Matt McLain $5,300	Manny Machado $5,400	Francisco Lindor $5,200	Fernando Tatis $6,200
	Logan Webb $9,000			Brice Turang $5,000			Juan Soto $5,800
	Bryan Woo $9,200						Jackson Chourio $5,300
							Jung Hoo Lee $5,000
Medium	Drew Rasmussen $8,300	Sean Murphy $4,300	Matt Olson $4,600	Jordan Westburg $4,700	Junior Caminero $4,200	Trevor Story $4,500	Brandon Nimmo $4,200
	Jacob deGrom $8,500		Jonathan Aranda $4,500	Ozzie Albies $4,500	Matt Chapman $4,300	Corey Seager $4,600	Heliot Ramos $4,100
				Kristian Campbell $4,100			Michael Harris $4,000
							Randy Arozarena $4,300
							Byron Buxton $4,400
Low		Yainer Diaz $3,300	Rhys Hoskins $3,900	Dylan Moore $3,900	Mark Vientos $3,800	Jeremy Peña $3,600	Sal Frelick $3,900
		Elias Díaz $2,500	Jeimer Candelario $3,500		Wilmer Flores $3,600		Austin Hays $3,300
							Gavin Sheets $3,300
							Ceddanne Rafaela $3,000

Stacks

Braves	Ozzie Albies	Austin Riley	Marcell Ozuna	Matt Olson	Michael Harris
DraftKings	4500	4600	4400	4600	4000
Fanduel	3200	3300	3800	2900	2600

Mets	Juan Soto	Mark Vientos	Francisco Lindor	Brandon Nimmo	Pete Alonso
DraftKings	5800	3800	5200	4200	5700
Fanduel	3900	2500	3200	2800	4400

Mariners	Jorge Polanco	Randy Arozarena	Cal Raleigh	Dylan Moore	Julio Rodríguez
DraftKings	4000	4300	4100	3900	4900
Fanduel	3000	3200	3200	2900	3400

Padres	Xander Bogaerts	Manny Machado	Elias Díaz	Fernando Tatis	Gavin Sheets
DraftKings	4200	5400	2500	6200	3300
Fanduel	2800	3800	2400	4400	2700