MLB DFS Picks, Projections, Lineups & Stacks Today: Sunday Playbook
Published: Oct 05, 2025
Welcome to the Fantasy Alarm MLB DFS Playbook for Sunday, October 4th! It's time for some playoff baseball! Nothing better than MLB DFS playoff contests!
Let’s start the week on the right foot with some winning lineups today. We have a 2-game main slate in store for us this afternoon on DraftKings and FanDuel starting at 4:08 PM ET. Today, we have plenty of talent on the diamond and many different ways to build your lineup. Our expert analysis is here to guide you through the top pitchers, value plays, and stackable offenses to target.
Whether chasing big GPP prizes or grinding cash games, we’ve got you covered with insights tailored to today’s matchups. Let’s jump right 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 are favorite lineups stacks for the day and which players we would look to include in those stacks based on matchups and pricing.
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, 10/4
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Recommended MLB DFS Starting Pitchers
Let's get into today's core pitching plays for our DFS lineups
Core MLB DFS Pitchers
Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers
The best pitcher in the game gets to pitch in the best pitching environment of the league. It's not groundbreaking, but this is a tough spot to fade Tarik Skubal in. There are only two games and if he goes crazy, you're drawing dead.
Max Fried, New York Yankees
For eight consecutive starts, Max Fried has dominated the opposition. He's only allowed more than 2 ER once over that span and has tossed at least six innings in seven of them. This will be Fried's fifth matchup against the Blue Jays and it's been a mixed bag of results against them, with two good and two bad outings.
Luis Castillo, Seattle Mariners
The Tigers offense has been brutal in the second half and that was one of the primary reasons of their demise. The Tigers are 28th in OPS and wOBA and 27th in wRC+ against right-handed pitching. They also have a 26% K-rate against RHP over that same span. Castillo has been incredible at home this year pitching to a 2.6 ERA and .192 BAA.
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Recommended MLB DFS Hitters
Let's check out today's core plays to build our lineups around.
Core MLB DFS Hitters
Ranking My Top Stacks below;
The Yankees offense has not been getting it done, but they lead the majors in homers during the regular season and are facing Trey Yasavage, a pitcher who's made three starts at the major league. He misses bats, sure, but his 3.21 ERA is paired with a 4.14 xERA.
Righties have had more success against him in both the minors and majors, so Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Anthony Volpe are the three names I go to right away. Hard not to like some of the lefties like Jazz Chisholm, Ben Rice, Trent Grisham, and Austin Wells.
As good as Luis Castillo has been at home, he's a flyball pitcher and has allowed 23+ home runs in three straight seasons. He allows big flys. Lefties have been the one's that have snake bit him and the Tigers have a lot of them. Lefties have a .188 ISO, .174 xISO, .352 wOBA, and .342 xwOBA this season.
The Tigers are going to throw a boatload of lefties out there as they used five in Game 1 and will probably do the same thing in Game 2. Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Colt Keith, Zack McKinstry, and Parker Meadows. If you want to use Spencer Torkelson because he hits home runs, you can do that too.
The Blue Jays hit lefties well and they don't strike out. I'm not a huge fan of stacking against Max Fried, but stacking the Blue Jays could be different and pay off if/when the Yankees have to go to their shaky bullpen. Vladimir Guerrero, George Springer, and Alejandro Kirk is where we're starting. Ernie Clement and Davis Schnieder hit lefties well, but the latter will be pinch hit for as soon as a righty comes in.
I mean, they face Tarik Skubal. That's not fun. If you want to play some one-off options, do it, but the only way you're stacking against Skubal is if you're playing 150 lineups just to have exposure elsewhere. It's similar to a Blue Jays stack. Hope they run Skubal's pitch count up and you can get to the bullpen.
Player Pool
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Stacks
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