Even if you don’t have a subscription to our groundbreaking Sims package, we have a lot of advanced data at Stokastic that can help you out on the MLB DFS side. Here we’re going to show you how you can use our data and tools in synergy with each other, starting by looking at the MLB Top Stacks and Top Pitchers Tools. You get these tools with any data package, and you can even use them as a starting point if you are using the Sims. There are all sorts of ways to use our tools, so let’s get into some of the most effective ways to enhance your MLB DFS lineups with the Top Stacks and Top Pitchers Tools.
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How to Use Stokastic’s MLB DFS Lineup Generator
How the Top Stacks Tool Helps You Pick the Best Lineups
This screenshot shows everything we have in the Top Stacks Tool — all the available slates, the sites where you can play, we’re showing you each team, how owned their opposing pitcher is, the total for the game, how frequently they are the top-scoring and top-value stack, how owned they are, the leverage they offer, and their overall stack score. The stack score is a blend between the top stack percentage and the top value percentage.
The first thing you will notice for this slate — a weekday evening slate with only four games — is that the stack with the most leverage also has the highest top stack percentage and the highest stack score: The Brewers at Coors Field. That seems like a team that should do really well, so one possible move here is to do a run of the MLB Sims with the base settings just to see what comes up. These are those results looking at the Stack ROI sorted by five-man stacks:
What do you know? The Brewers in Coors came out of that sim as easily the highest-ROI five-man stack. That’s interesting because now we know that things you see in the Top Stacks Tool also translate to the advanced stats and the Sims. So even if you don’t the Sims, you’re seeing elite stacking data with the Top Stacks Tool.
Look at the other higher-ROI five-man stacks: The Rockies at home are second there, and they have the second-most leverage and the third-highest stack score. The Rays are third in ROI and are second in top stack percentage and stack score. They are slightly more owned and thus have negative leverage, but they still have good value metrics. So you can see how the data goes from one Tool to the other, which can help you dial into the stack that you are looking for.
Doing the Same With the Top Pitchers Tool
These principles apply in some ways to the Top Pitchers Tool as well.
We show you similar data here in the Top Pitchers Tool: Chance of being a top-2 pitcher (top 1 on FanDuel because you only roster one pitcher there), chance of being a top-2 value, ownership and leverage. Pitcher is a little bit different, however, because you don’t need to hunt down leverage in quite the same way as you do with stacks. There is a lot less variance in pitcher performance compared to hitters, so pitching outcomes are easier to project. Therefore, it makes sense to stick to the top of the top-2 pitcher odds — in this case, to high-end starters in Charlie Morton and Zac Gallen.
Then, when you examine pitcher exposures and their ROIs in the Sims, you see more differences than you do with the Top Stacks Tool:
Here Morton and Gallen have our third- and fourth-highest exposures, while our top exposure and highest simulated ROIs go to Alec Marsh and Tobias Myers. We are actually under the field on Morton and Gallen and over the field on Marsh and Myers.
This goes to show how top-2 percentage and top-2 value percentage matter in relation to the ownership. Marsh and Myers have the two highest top-2 value percentages on the slate and less ownership than Morton and Gallen. So you want to try to balance the top-2 metrics of overall pitcher and value pitcher, and that will dial you in closer to what the Sims are reporting.
The point here is that, even if you aren’t using the Sims (we recommend you use them since they are pulling winners across a bunch of different spots and contest sizes, by the way), you can still manufacture comparable data using our other data tools. The Sims are using the same data as what you see in the Top Stacks Tool and Top Pitchers Tool; the difference is that it’s also making the strategy decisions with regard to leverage, ownership, how contests play out, etc. As far as the data goes, you are getting a lot of what you need to build the best MLB DFS lineups with these tools alone.
