MLB DFS Picks, Projections, Lineups & Stacks Today: Sunday Playbook
Published: Apr 13, 2025
Welcome to the Fantasy Alarm MLB DFS Playbook for Saturday, April 12th!
We’re diving into the action with a 10-game main slate on DraftKings and FanDuel, kicking off at 1:35pm ET. 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: Sunday, 4/13
There are no games expected to be impacted by weather.
Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers
It's a big slate chalk full of top tier pitching. This is one of those classic, pick your stud and move along but my guess is that Garret Crochet at his ridiculous price tag on DraftKings at just $9,400 against the White Sox is going to be the highest rostered pitcher of the day while on FanDuel, he's priced up but only the third highest-priced pitcher on the slate and those savings likely draw him a decent run of ownership as well.
Core MLB DFS Pitchers
Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox
This isn't just a “revenge” game play, but the fact that the Red Sox absolutely need to come out of Sunday with a win after dropping the first two games of a series that many expected them to sweep.
Crochet has thrown over 100 pitches in each of his last two outings and while the cold weather in Boston during his Toronto start did him no favors, he largely held his own in that one while battling some control issues and slightly diminished velocity.
Despite dropping the firs two games of this series, the White Sox offense is still nothing special and they were being shutout by Red Sox righty Richard Fitts until he left in the sixth inning with an injury.
I'm betting on a dominant Crochet performance today and that DraftKings price tag is too good to pass up.
Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds
On FanDuel Greene is actually more expensive than Garrett Crochet but on DraftKings he is just $8,500 in his matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Greene is making an early bid for NL Cy Young, owning a 1.31 ERA and a 0.65 WHIP over his first three starts while striking out 23 over 20.2 innings.
Greene nearly threw a complete game shutout in his last start, being lifted after 8.2 innings and 104 pitches against the Giants.
The “stuff” was never a question with Greene but in the past two seasons he was inconsistent when it came to throwing strikes and right now he is peppering the zone, having issued just one walk in each of his first three starts.
This is another ELITE play today and one that is also likely popular.
Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants
Listen, I completely understand this Yankees lineup is dangerous against right-handed pitching, especially when in Yankee Stadium but Webb is also an elite pitcher and an elite ground ball pitcher at that.
New York also has the third highest strikeout rate against right-handed pitching so far this season and we did just see Jack Flaherty hold is own against this Yankees lineup.
Webb has allowed just a single earned run over his last two starts, going seven innings in both while striking out a total of 16 batters with zero walks.
Nobody is going to go here despite the fact he has gone for 33 and 27 DK points in his last two starts.
Casey Mize, Detroit Tigers
So, Reese Olson struggled in Game 1, Jackson Jobe was dominant in Game 2 and now we have Mize taking the mound for the Tigers in this matchup against the Minnesota Twins.
Minnesota has been a decent team against right-handed pitching on the season but that lineup also lacks some real high-end talent throughout their lineup as long as Royce Lewis is on the shelf.
Mize has looked good in both of his starts this season, holding the Mariners to one hit over 5.2 innings in his season debut and then allowing just one run over six innings to the Yankees in his second start.
Mize looked good during spring training and he was once a top prospect in the Tigers organization that has just delt with some injuries over the last few seasons.
He's looking healthy and sharp and I'd be more than willing to run out another Tigers pitcher on Sunday.
Recommended MLB DFS Hitters
When the slate is full of elite pitching that often means the offense could be hard to come by. For the most part, that's pretty accurate for this slate but there are a few spots we can look to target with the Astros and Tigers in matchups that will likely make them popular targets within DFS lineups on Sunday.
Core MLB DFS Hitters
Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros
The Astros offense is starting to wake up and I'm going to once again go back to the well and stack against the Angels Kyle Hendricks.
Hendricks pitched well in his last start against the Rays, holding them to just two hits over five innings and even in the start before he managed to work around seven hits over six innings to the limit the damage against him but the numbers suggest his luck will run out sooner rather than later and for that reason I'll have some Alvarez in my lineups today.
Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds
The grand slam was something that fantasy managers are certainly happy to see considering it came from the right side of the plate which has historically been the weaker split side for De La Cruz.
He has immense power, with two homer potential as we saw on display earlier this season but we also know he's capable of stealing two-plus bases in a game as well as long as he can get on first base.
The slow start has mostly been poor luck, as all of his exit velo's and contact rates are pretty strong this season and his home ballpark is still extremely favorable when it comes to offensive output.
Trevor Story, Boston Red Sox
While everyone in the Boston media can't wait to see Marcelo Mayer, Story is off to a nice start to his 2025 season, hitting .279 with two homers and five stolen bases.
The Red Sox offense needs to get going after dropping the first two games in this series to the White Sox and Story still hits in the middle of the lineup and is a really nice price tag for someone that has the upside to homer and steal a bag in the same game.
Spencer Torkelson, Detroit Tigers
Don't look now but it seems as if the 2022 1st overall pick has figured something out this season and is back to looking like the rookie that smacked 30 homers two seasons ago.
Hitting .314 with four homers and an OPS of 1.066 through the first two weeks of the MLB season, Torkelson is playing much like someone who should be priced $1,000 more expensive than he currently is and this matchup against Simeon-Woods Richardson is one I'm trying to target.
UPDATED
Atlanta Braves
The Tampa Bay Rays have pushed Shane Baz back to Monday and will be calling up Joe Boyle to make the spot start.
Boyle is a big boy, standing 6'8, 250LBs and he throws hard. He also can get a strikeout, posting a K/9 over 10 last season.
So, why do we like this matchup? Well, the dude has ZERO control, owning a BB/9 over 7.0 last season and in two starts at AAA this season he had a 6.75 BB/9.
We know the ballpark in Tampa Bay is going to be a good hitters ballpark, especially when there is day baseball where it is warm, humid and the wind is blowing out.
Player Pool
| $ Tier | SP | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High |  Hunter Greene  $10,800 |  Vladimir Guerrero $3,300 |  Jose Altuve $3,600 |  Austin Riley $3,200 |  Bobby Witt $4,100 |  Aaron Judge $4,700 |
 Garrett Crochet $10,600 | Vinnie Pasquantino $3,100 | Ozzie Albies $3,100 |  José Ramírez $4,000 | Elly De La Cruz $3,800 | ||
| Matt Olson $3,200 | Rafael Devers $3,600 | |||||
| Medium |  Shane Baz $9,900 | Christian Walker $3,000 |  Luis García $3,000 | Alex Bregman $3,200 |  Trea Turner $3,500 | Yordan Alvarez $3,700 |
 Logan Webb $9,700 |  Spencer Torkelson $2,900 | Gleyber Torres $3,000 | Isaac Paredes $3,000 |  Xavier Edwards $3,200 | Marcell Ozuna $3,800 | |
| Chris Sale $9,500 | Wilmer Flores $2,900 | Jarren Duran $3,700 | ||||
| James Wood $3,500 | ||||||
 Taylor Ward $3,400 | ||||||
| Low | Casey Mize $9,100 | Triston Casas $2,800 | Kristian Campbell $2,900 | Junior Caminero $2,700 | Bo Bichette $2,900 | Heliot Ramos $3,300 |
| Michael Massey $2,700 | Trevor Story $2,900 | Kerry Carpenter $3,200 | ||||
| Hayden Wesneski $7,700 | Nick Castellanos $3,100 | |||||
| Wilyer Abreu $3,100 |
Stacks
| Braves | Sean Murphy | Ozzie Albies | Austin Riley | Marcell Ozuna |
 DraftKings | 3700 | 4400 | 4500 | 4600 |
| Fanduel | 2800 | 3100 | 3200 | 3800 |
| Astros | Yanier Diaz-DUP | Christian Walker | Isaac Paredes | Yordan Alvarez |
| DraftKings | - | 4100 | 3600 | 5700 |
| Fanduel | - | 3000 | 3000 | 3700 |
| Tigers | Spencer Torkelson | Kerry Carpenter | Dillon Dingler | Riley Greene |
| DraftKings | 3600 | 3800 | 3700 | 4400 |
| Fanduel | 2900 | 3200 | 2600 | 3300 |
| Giants | Matt Chapman | Wilmer Flores | Heliot Ramos | Jung Hoo Lee |
| DraftKings | 4500 | 3200 | 4100 | 4300 |
| Fanduel | 3500 | 2900 | 3300 | 3100 |