Welcome to Fantasy Alarm’s MLB DFS Playbook for Sunday, May 18th, covering the DraftKings and FanDuel main slates! 

Our team of experts has poured over the matchups, stats, and trends to bring you a curated selection of top plays and value picks to help you build winning lineups. 

Whether you’re chasing big GPP prizes or looking to cash in head-to-heads, we’ve got you covered with insights designed to give you an edge. Let’s dive into today’s slate and get ready to crush it!

 

 

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, 5/18

Wind is the story today with the following games having 15+ MPH winds blowing out today.

 

 

Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers

What a pitching slate we have here today. Not only does it feature the likes of Paul Skenes, Freddy Peralta and Spencer Schwellenbach but also a trio of exciting young arms in Jackson Jobe, Jack Leiter and the season debut for Zebby Matthews,

Core MLB DFS Pitchers

Andrew Abbott,  Cincinnati Reds

Abbott has been pretty dominant across six starts this season, posting a 2.10 ERA with a 2.33 xERA and a 3.07 FIP. He has a K/9 of 11.4 and a 31.7% strikeout rate.

Today he faces a Guardians offense that has really lacked some punch this season, specifically against left-handed pitchers, as they own a .228 average, .114 ISO and  .283 wOBA  against southpaws this season.

The ballpark is always a bit worrisome given how much of a hitters park that it is but Abbott's numbers this season and this matchup puts him firmly on my radar.

Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals

I think this kid is a stud and we are just scratching the surface of what could be coming with Liberatore now that the organization has committed to him being in their starting rotation. 

He has a 3.11 ERA with an xERA of 2.94 and a 2.31 FIP. All the numbers are legit and the K/9 is actually at a career best 8.1 right now. 

He's not walking anybody, a 1.4 BB/9 and now faces a Royals team that is 27th in wOBA, 30th in ISO and 15th in batting average against left-handed pitching with a 22% strikeout rate.

A great mid-tier option today in this matchup.

Colin Rea, Chicago Cubs

Rea is an unexciting but certainly servicable starting pitcher at his price tag today against the White Sox where the Cubs are big home favorites this afternoon.

If we can get six innings with two or fewer runs scored and a handful of strikeouts then an 18-to-20 FP outing is more than doable. 

Zebby Matthews, Minnesota Twins

The Twins finally pulled the trigger this week and called up one of their top prospects in Zebby Matthews. Yes, we saw Matthews last season and it wasn't anything special but that can happen to a young pitcher who gets their first taste of the big leagues. 

This season at Triple-A he has been lights out, owning a 1.93 ERA with 38 strikeouts over 32.2 innings.

The Brewers offense is in a bit of disarray with Jackson Chourio struggling to the point of him being demoted in the lineup.

The Brewers are 25th in average, 25th in wOBA and 27th in ISO against right-handed pitching this season.

 

 

Recommended MLB DFS Hitters

There are definitely some easy stacks today as we look at the Rays against Cal Quantrill, the Reds taking on Luis L. Ortiz and the Cubs going against Jonathan Cannon as the core stacks to include when building your lineups today.

Core MLB DFS Hitters

Yandy Diaz, Junior Caminero (Rays RHH)

The Rays finish up their series against the Marlins today with Miami sending Cal Quantril to the mound. Quantril has been absolutely torched by right-handed hitters this season to the tune of a .417 batting average, .694 slugging percentage and 2.3 HR/9.

I'd love to get more Rays in this lineup today but they usually only have a few right-handed hitters so a mini-stack of Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero may end up being the best play.

Chicago Cubs

I don't think I need to go into too much detail here but obviously the Cubs offense is elite. Yes, they are all pretty expensive but a matchup against Jonathan Cannon is not something we need to be afraid of with his 18% strikeout rate and 4.72 xFIP.

Detroit Tigers LHH

Lefties have been a bit of an issue for Berrios going back a few seasons and while the issue isn't to the same extent that Bowden Francis has we are still looking at a .277 batting average with a .446 slugging percentage and a .363 wOBA allowed to lefties by Berrios and we know the Tigers lineup is loaded with left-handed hitters are a pretty inexpensive price.

 

 

Player Pool

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Stacks

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