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

Happy Saturday and welcome to the first weekend of the baseball season! 

We had an exciting opening day yesterday with a lot of incredible games. We had some big performances.

We have another great day in store for us to follow up opening day with an 9-game early slate on DraftKings and a split early / late slate on FanDuel.

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 are 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: Saturday, 3/29

Los Angeles Angels vs Chicago White Sox

• Rain in the area, could play through some showers. If rain picks up we could see in game delay.

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

First Saturday of the MLB season is here and with it we've hit the “number 3” starters for these teams. Now, there are still some elite starting pitching on this slate with Max Fried making his regular season Yankees debut, Joe Ryan toeing the rubber for the Twins and a pair of future Hall of Famers donning new jerseys with Justin Verlander pitching for the San Francisco Giants and Max Scherzer pitching for the Blue Jays.

But, who makes today's Core Plays? Let's find out!

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Max Fried, New York Yankees

Fried signed a big contract this offseason to join the Yankees in free agency and he will make his season debut today in Yankee Stadium against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Fried had a solid spring for New York, striking out 12 over 16 innings with a 0.81 WHIP.

We saw the strikeout numbers be a bit inconsistent at times last season for Fried as a member of the Braves but was still right around a strikeout per inning pitcher.

New York is a home favorite today against the Brewers and we need those win points for Fried to pay off being the most expensive pitcher on the slate.

Joe Ryan, Minnesota Twins

Ryan is a very talented pitcher that just goes through some ups and downs during the regular season. When on his game I'd argue he is the top pitcher on the Twins staff.

Today he faces a Cardinals lineup that has a lot of lefty bats but still one that has a lot of “prove it to me” guys in their lineup and for that reason I'm willing to build some GPP's with Ryan.

Zack Littell, Tampa Bay Rays

Going with a bunch of mid and value pitcher last night worked out so why not look to run it back with Zack Littell in a home start against the Colorado Rockies. Yes, this is not the same home, pitcher friendly ballpark in Tampa Bay that we are use to seeing but the Rockies only managed a couple of runs yesterday as their struggles away from Coors Field continue to be ever present. 

Littell is not a big strikeout pitcher but the Rays are favorites today and if  he can just repeat when Ryan Pepiot did yesterday with a few less strikeouts he will pay off the price tag.

Jose Soriano, Los Angeles Angels

A nice value pivot off of the chalky Littell today is Soriano in his matchup against the White Sox. Yes, I realize the White Sox hung a big number on the board on Thursday but lets be realistic here, that offense still projects to be the worst lineup in baseball.

Soriano showed a lot of promise at times last season which included some nice strikeout upside. If we are going to get low ownership today on Soriano because everyone was burned by the Kikuchi chalk on opening day then we should look to take advantage here.

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

When it comes to hitting today we have some favorable spots we should be looking to target as we get deeper into team's rotations. 

The Yankees taking on Nestor Cortes, Orioles drawing Max Scherzer and Angels facing Jonathan Cannon and Phillies against Jake Irvin are spots that I'm looking to test today.

Core MLB DFS Hitters

Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

He's the top priced outfielder today as he draws a matchup against former teammate Nestor Cortes.

Judge went just 1-for-4 on Opening Day but we know the power he possess and he's a really good hitter against southpaws.

With Cortes being a longtime teammate they both should have an idea of what they are going to do and I'm going to give the edge to Aaron Judge today as we “All Rise” with his first homer of the season.

Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies

I really like the Phillies today in their matchup against Jake Irvin. In his first two seasons as a starter in the big leagues we've seen Irvin allow 1.3 and 1.5 HR/9. 

Last season his 4.41 ERA was on par with his sabermetric stats and he doesn't really strike anyone out.

I'm betting on a lot of contact today by the Phillies with Harper leading the way.

Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays

I honestly couldn't believe that Antonio Senzatela was still pitching in the MLB. Last season the Rockies starter posted a 6.57 ERA in three starts. He hasn't had an ERA under 5.00 since the 2021 season. This should be a green light to stack some Tampa Bay Rays today and Lowe has double-dong upside.

Hunter Goodman, Colorado Rockies

While I like Zack Littell today I do also like to punt the catcher position and Hunter Goodman had a really good spring training and carried that over into his opening day performance yesterday against Ryan Pepiot where he went 2-for-4 with a double. At just $2,400 on DraftKings, I'm willing to dive back in here.

Player Pool

• DraftKings

$ Tier	SP	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	OF
High	Max Fried $9,200	Adley Rutschman $4,700	Kyle Schwarber $5,800		José Ramírez $6,000	Bobby Witt $6,100	Aaron Judge $6,300
	Joe Ryan $8,800	J.T. Realmuto $4,500	Bryce Harper $5,400		Junior Caminero $5,200	Elly De La Cruz $5,900	Mike Trout $5,600
							Oneil Cruz $5,300
Medium	Zack Littell $7,500	Joey Bart $3,400	Yandy Díaz $4,600	Jordan Westburg $4,400	Matt Chapman $4,300	Bo Bichette $4,500	Brenton Doyle $4,800
	Jesús Luzardo $8,200	Danny Jansen $3,200	Nolan Schanuel $3,700	Yoán Moncada $4,200		Xavier Edwards $4,100	Taylor Ward $4,700
		Logan O'Hoppe $3,200	Ryan O'Hearn $3,700	Brandon Lowe $4,200			Jorge Soler $4,500
				Bryson Stott $4,000			Matt Wallner $4,100
Low	José Soriano $7,100	Hunter Goodman $2,400	Jonah Bride $2,900	Andrés Giménez $3,800	Curtis Mead $3,400		Lars Nootbaar $3,800
			Wilmer Flores $2,900	Willi Castro $3,100			Cedric Mullins $3,800
			Eric Wagaman $2,300	Otto Lopez $2,600			Heliot Ramos $3,500

Stacks

Angels	Jorge Soler	Luis Rengifo	Mike Trout	Logan O'Hoppe
DraftKings	4500	4600	5600	3200
Fanduel	-	-	-	-

Phillies	Trea Turner	Bryson Stott	Brandon Marsh	Bryce Harper
DraftKings	5600	4000	3400	5400
Fanduel	-	-	-	-

Rays	Junior Caminero	Curtis Mead	Yandy Díaz	Brandon Lowe
DraftKings	5200	3400	4600	4200
Fanduel	-	-	-	-

Yankees	Anthony Volpe	Paul Goldschmidt	Aaron Judge	Cody Bellinger
DraftKings	4100	4800	6300	5300
Fanduel	-	-	-	-