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

Welcome to the Fantasy Alarm MLB DFS Playbook for Monday, April 28th!

We’re diving into the action with a 6-game night slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. With a packed day of baseball ahead, our expert analysis is here to guide you through the top pitchers, value plays, and stackable offenses to target.

Whether you’re hunting for GPP glory or locking in cash game success, we’ve got tailored insights to help you conquer today’s matchups. Let’s dive 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! 

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: Monday, 4/28

Colorado Rockies vs. Atlanta Braves

• Could be a sprinkle but should not be too bothersome

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

This is an absolutely disgusting slate for pitching.

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Dustin May, Los Angeles Dodgers

I guess this one isn’t surprising after you look at the pitching pool. I hate the price tag, but this is an awful slate for pitchers. May is probably the cash-game play right now. Miami has a miniscule 3.4 implied run total, which is by far the lowest on the board. That being said, Miami has been sneaky vs. lefties, and the emergence of Agustin Ramirez certainly helps. I don’t mind having both sides of this one in different lineups, as May is currently projected to be more than 30% owned.

Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers

Flaherty has been awesome this season, striking out 30% of hitters. Houston ranks just 25th in wRC+ vs. RHP this season. There are four hitters in the HOU lineup with K rates higher than 25% vs. righties in 2025. Things have looked a little bit better across the last 30 days for Houston, but the bottom half of the order is still horrendous.

Everyone Else

I don’t love the upside of pretty much anyone else on this slate. As lucky and not-so-great as I think Ronel Blanco is, I think he’s in play, but there is a gap between him and the two pitchers I listed above. Much like May vs. Miami, this slate is so bad, that I think both pitchers will be over-owned, so I want to make sure I get to a little Detroit offense (with a focus on lefties).

Instead of wasting salary on some of the mid-range guys, I may just sprinkle some of these cheap guys and hope they survive (note: I'm playing some cheap large-field stuff). As much as it pains me to say any of these names, I don’t mind (please tread carefully) taking some shots on Corbin (I’m going to vomit), Will Warren, or Nick Martinez. But if I’m playing a serious lineup or something single entry, I’m not using any of them – I’d probably just roll out May and Flaherty (or possibly Blanco if he’s your cup of tea) and hope the chalk come through. There is a reason those guys are projected to carry so much ownership, and that’s because most of the pitchers on this slate are downright bad.
 

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

With so many bad pitchers, it's not surprising there are plenty of bats to like despite a smaller slate. I'm spending a ton of time on them specifically, but if May and Blanco are going to carry serious ownership, I'd love to get a few leverage stacks in large-field GPPs.

Core MLB DFS Hitters

Ozuna, from the Braves

The bottom line is, we have the Braves at Coors Field tonight. While I do believe Ryan Feltner is a much better pitcher now than he was a few seasons ago, he still has a career 5.74 ERA pitching in Denver compared to a 4.64 road ERA.

Feltner developed a sweeper that has produced a massive 40% whiff rate this season, but the problem is, he’s only throwing it to righties, so lefties won’t have to deal with that plus-offering. I have zero problem with any right-handed batter in this lineup, I will be getting to all of them.

But I’ll give the slight advantage to the ATL lefties, and it makes sense why Feltner has yielded a higher ISO and wOBA to lefties compared to righties since the beginning of last year.

I really like Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies hitting from the left side. That being said, Marcell Ozuna has posted a .254 ISO/.455 wOBA vs righties in 82 PAs this season, and Sean Murphy has done nothing but destroy the cover off the ball since his return from injury, with a .432 ISO and 22% barrel rate in 2025. Austin Riley is leading the team in hard-hit rate and has a team-leading 40% line-drive rate across the last month. Eli White has been a pleasant surprise, and he’s pretty cheap for a Coors bat. So, yeah, edge to the lefties, but there are some amazing righties in this spot as well. The Braves have an implied run total well over 6, which is by far the highest on the board.

Michael Toglia, Colorado Rockies

I love the idea of Toglia tonight, and I think it’s a great matchup vs. Bryce Elder. Elder has thrown 31% of sliders and 25% sinkers to righties over the last month, and Toglia owns barrel rates north of 20% against both of those pitches dating back to last season. Dating back to last year, he ranks first on the team in ISO vs. RHP and is second in fly-ball rate amongst the Rockies projected lineup, including anyone with at least 100 ABs since then. I’m fine with a mini stack too – it’s Coors Field – and Elder has been pretty miserable in general, with a 4.51 xERA, a .256 ISO and just a 13% K rate. Brenton Doyle is probably the Rox best player, but I wouldn’t forget about a cheaper option in Mickey Moniak, who quietly owns a .180 ISO vs. RHP dating back to 2024. Elder has also issued a fly-ball rate of 33% to lefties, which is 13% higher than his rate against RHB.

Yankees vs. a very lucky Tomoyuki Sugano

The Yankees have struggled at times vs. pitchers who have some stuff. But so far at the MLB level, Sugano does not have that so-called stuff. He’s sporting a putrid 8% strikeout rate, and he’s not walking hitters while owning a 44% hard-hit rate (not the worst, but not exactly good) and issuing an 11% barrel rate.

Sugano has a nice and shiny 3.45 ERA but his xERA is 6.11 and his SIERA is 5.18…WOOF! He’s going to have to get exceptionally lucky to survive tonight – and for the rest of the season if he can’t figure out how to start putting away more hitters on his own. It’s wild to me that he hasn’t given up more than 3 earned runs in any of his five starts in 2025. However, zooming out, three of those starts came against Toronto and Kansas City, which rank 28th and 29th in wRC+ vs. RHP, respectively, this season. His other two opponents were the Nationals (16th) and Guardians (13th). The Yankees rank 2nd, and have strong power metrics across the board. I will say that Sugano has done a really nice job of keeping the ball on the ground, but eventually, that luck is going to start running out.

Wyatt Langford & cheap Rangers

The funny thing is, there might be a lineup of 9 of them against Sears tonight. Well, it’s not going to be funny for JP, a guy who has been hurt by the longball throughout his career, has been much better this season. He’s using his sweeper over 60% of the time against lefties, but he’s throwing it less than a third of the time to righties. 

Historically, he always threw his fastball way too often, and he has seemed to kabosh that a bit with his new sweeper. Good for him. However, he’s still throwing that bland 4-seamer about 45% of the time to RHB, and this is a Texas lineup full of righties that hit 4-seam fastballs really well. They’re small sample sizes, but Wyatt Langford, Josh Jung, Adolis Garcia, Marcus Semien, Jake Burger, and Kyle Higashioka all have double-digit barrel rates vs. southpaw 4-seamers since the start of 2024. Of course, it’s just one piece of information, but when a pitcher is going to (likely) throw it almost 50% of the time, he becomes very predictable. 

Langford is the only Ranger at $5K on DK, and Heim is the only player north of $4K, making this stack very affordable and one of the best value options on paper.

Two Tigers vs. Ronel Blanco

It’s possible Ronel Blanoc is the luckiest pitcher of baseball across the last 2.5 seasons. Now, his xERA is 3.63, but he over-achieved greatly last year (2.80 ERA, 4.00 xERA), and his SIERA has always been poor/bad as a pro (4.75 this season, 4.17 last year).

Kerry Carpenter is slotted in at leadoff and owns a .301 ISO/.410 wOBA vs. RHP dating back to last year while Riley Greene has a .216 ISO/.373 wOBA. Blanco also throws 4-seam fastballs ~40% of the time to lefties. Carpenter has totally demolished that right-handed offering since 2024 – 46% fly-ball rate, 24% barrel rate, 63% hard-hit rate. Greene logged a not-so-shabby .244 ISO himself against it. It’s only the end of April, but Blanco is striking out just 9% of lefties compared to 27% of righties with a swinging-strike rate of just 8% against LHB. He’s also yielded a .206 ISO and .356 wOBA to lefties – and he’s been borderline elite vs righties. Clearly, lefties are giving him fits, so I am OK with a mini stack of one-offing either of these guys.

Athletics vs. Patrick Corbin

How long can he keep getting away with this? Corbin just keeps surviving. He’s striking out just 15% of hitters this year (and we expected) and giving up just about 50% of hard contact. He’s another guy whose SIRA has been 4.41 or worse since 2020. His biggest calling card is keeping the ball on the ground and praying to the variance gods he doesn’t get destroyed. I’ll still happily take some chances at these big-boy A’s bats. You cannot ignore some of these numbers. 

Lawrence Butler, Shea Langeliers, JJ Bleday, Luis Urias (unexpected lefty masher there), and Jacob Wilson all have ISO rates north of .200 vs. LHP dating back to last year. Brent Rooker does not have one over .200 – he has one over .300! Throw in rookie phenom Nick Kurtz, and I’m definitely going to have some exposure and hope Corbin finally gets the crushing that’s been coming. The A’s just saw him a few days ago (and there was not a ton of production), but it might help that they saw him so recently. During that game, he had a sad 4.61 SIERA and a miserable 7.85 FIP.

Dodgers Lefties vs. Edward Cabrera

Cabrera has some of the filthiest stuff in baseball, but he can’t control it most of the time. It’s tough to attack pitchers with a nice K rate from a stack perspective, but he’s still walking 11% of hitters, and he’s historically struggled vs. lefties. This year, he’s yielding a.250 ISO, 40% fly-ball rate, and 12% barrel rate against them. It goes without saying that Shohei Ohtani is in play every slate, but I’m also interested in Freddie Freeman, Tommy Edman, Michael Conforto, and even Max Muncy, who has been brutal this year.

Value Stack - Cardinals

There are plenty of ordinary pitchers on this slate. The Cardinals are in that scenario vs. underwhelming starter Nick Martinez, who has a much higher SIERA on the young season than he did in each of the last two years. The kicker is that these Cardinals are really cheap, with six hitters sub-$4K on DraftKings. I really like the idea of WIllson Contreras, Nolan Gorman, and even Masyn Winn. STL is at the Great American “Smallpark” tonight, and there is always potential for fireworks at that pitcher-friendly venue.

Player Pool

• DraftKings
• FanDuel

$ Tier	SP	P	DH	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	OF
High	Jack Flaherty $9,600		Shohei Ohtani $4,400	Ben Rice $3,500	Tyler Soderstrom $3,900	Tommy Edman $3,500	Austin Riley $3,800	Mookie Betts $3,900	Aaron Judge $4,700
	Dustin May $9,300		Marcell Ozuna $4,300	Shea Langeliers $3,300	Freddie Freeman $3,700	Ozzie Albies $3,400	Noelvi Marte $3,400	Elly De La Cruz $4,300	Brenton Doyle $4,200
	JP Sears $9,800				Matt Olson $3,600		Ryan McMahon $3,300		Cedric Mullins $3,700
					Michael Toglia $3,400				Jordan Beck $3,700
									Wyatt Langford $3,600
Medium	Patrick Corbin $7,800			Will Smith $3,100	Paul Goldschmidt $2,900	Jazz Chisholm $3,400	Josh Jung $3,000	Gunnar Henderson $3,100	Brent Rooker $3,400
	Ronel Blanco $7,500			Jonah Heim $2,900	Michael Toglia $3,400	Brendan Donovan $3,200	Connor Norby $3,000	Jacob Wilson $0	Lawrence Butler $3,400
								Anthony Volpe $3,000	Mickey Moniak $3,400
									Michael Harris $3,300
									Lars Nootbaar $3,300
									Cody Bellinger $3,100
									Alex Verdugo $3,000
Low		Will Warren $6,900		Austin Wells $2,800	Willson Contreras $2,800	Nolan Gorman $2,900	Luis Urías $2,200	Xavier Edwards $2,900	Eli White $2,700
				Agustín Ramírez $2,600	Nick Kurtz $0	Otto Lopez $2,800	Gio Urshela $2,400	Masyn Winn $2,600	Michael Conforto $2,900
				Adley Rutschman $2,800	Jake Burger $2,700	Marcus Semien $2,600	Oswaldo Cabrera $2,300	Trey Sweeney $2,400	Kevin Pillar $2,500
				Kyle Higashioka $2,400	Eric Wagaman $2,700		Max Muncy $2,700		Adolis García $2,800
									Heston Kjerstad $2,400
									Trent Grisham $2,900
									JJ Bleday $3,000

Stacks

Braves	Sean Murphy	Ozzie Albies	Austin Riley	Marcell Ozuna	Matt Olson
DraftKings	5300	5700	5900	5400	5500
Fanduel	3600	3400	3800	4300	3600

Yankees	Trent Grisham	Jazz Chisholm	Aaron Judge	Austin Wells	Oswaldo Cabrera
DraftKings	3500	4900	6300	3800	2800
Fanduel	2900	3400	4700	2800	2300

Rangers	Kevin Pillar	Josh Jung	Marcus Semien	Jake Burger
DraftKings	2700	3500	3000	2900
Fanduel	2500	3000	2600	2700

Athletics	JJ Bleday	Lawrence Butler	Tyler Soderstrom	Brent Rooker
DraftKings	4000	5200	5100	5400
Fanduel	3000	3400	3900	3400

Cardinals	Nolan Gorman	Lars Nootbaar	Willson Contreras	Nolan Arenado
DraftKings	3500	4600	3400	4300
Fanduel	2900	3300	2800	3100