MLB DFS Picks & Stacks for Wednesday (9/2/26)
Wednesday’s MLB DFS main slate at DraftKings is a modest one, just six games, and it is extremely heavy on top-shelf pitching. Jacob Misiorowski leads the way at $12,000, and for once the question on a Misiorowski slate is whether to fade him. He is on the road at Wrigley Field with the wind blowing out against a very good Cubs offense, and two other aces are priced well below him.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto at $10,500 is my top arm when I weigh projection, price and matchup together, Cam Schlittler at $11,000 is the tournament pivot, Reid Detmers at $7,800 is the SP2, and The Miz is a GPP-only spend. This is not the best slate for hitting, as you might expect with that much pitching on the board, but it is brutally hot in Kansas City and the wind at Wrigley does not fade tonight. That combination creates a sticky situation, and one we can gain leverage on.
Here are the best MLB DFS picks and stacks for Wednesday at DraftKings, with the salaries, the matchups and the posted market numbers that back them up.
Slate Breakdown
Misiorowski slates are usually easy to figure out. Typically you just play him, because his ceiling is so absurd that fading him is a death sentence. Tonight is different for two reasons: he is very pricey at $12,000, and he is on the road in a difficult spot at Wrigley Field with a steady wind blowing out.
Wrigley is the main place the weather matters, but it plays a role just about everywhere on this slate. It is extremely hot in Kansas City, and the two Los Angeles parks have light breezes. For a slate stacked with top-shelf pitching, this one weirdly could be explosive for the bats.
The Wind Holds at Wrigley, and Kansas City Is an Oven
Last night’s Wrigley wind was on a timer, and tonight’s is not. The National Weather Service has a southwest wind at 10 mph in the 6 PM CT hour, and it holds at 10 mph through 10 PM. Wrigley’s home plate sits at the southwest corner of the park with the outfield to the northeast, so a southwest wind pushes balls toward the bleachers for all nine innings. Precipitation stays at 13 percent or lower through the game, with a slight chance of storms only after midnight, so the game itself is not at risk.
Kauffman Stadium is the other environment that matters. The weather service has Kansas City at 97 degrees in the 6 PM CT hour, 95 at 7 and 93 at 8, with a south wind of 7 to 9 mph and a heat index that reaches 101. That is the hottest first pitch on the slate by ten degrees, and hot air is less dense, so the ball carries.
Kauffman grades 102 on the Statcast park runs index (2024-2026 window), which is part of a seven-park tie that starts at eighth, so the top-10 label holds if you count ties. The detail worth knowing is that it sits 25th in home runs at 87. A hot night here is a doubles and traffic night more than a barrage.
Three Aces, Then a Cliff
Three arms on this board are priced above $10,000, and the drop after them is steep. DraftKings’ own listed season averages have Misiorowski first at 28.5 fantasy points per game, Schlittler at 23.0 and Yamamoto at 22.2, then Detmers at 18.0, then a middle tier, then two listed starters averaging in single digits. Here is the full board of listed starters with the implied run total the market has posted for the offense each of them faces.
| Listed Starter | Salary | Matchup | Opponent Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Misiorowski | $12,000 | MIL at CHC | 3.5 |
| Cam Schlittler | $11,000 | NYY at LAA | 2.5 |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | $10,500 | LAD vs. STL | 2.5 |
| Eury Pérez | $8,500 | MIA at KC | 4.5 |
| Reid Detmers | $7,800 | LAA vs. NYY | 3.5 |
| Noah Cameron | $7,200 | KC vs. MIA | 4.5 |
| Hayden Wesneski | $7,000 | HOU vs. CWS | 3.5 |
| David Peterson | $6,600 | CHC vs. MIL | 4.5 |
| Dean Kremer | $6,400 | MIN vs. DET | 4.5 |
| Davis Martin (IL flag) | $6,200 | CWS at HOU | 4.5 |
| Drew Anderson | $6,000 | DET at MIN | 4.5 |
| Brycen Mautz (STL, unannounced) | $5,800 | STL at LAD | 4.5 |
Two things jump out of that table. Schlittler and Yamamoto draw the only two offenses the market has posted at 2.5 runs, and they are the two arms I want. And the bottom two rows are the slate’s open questions: MLB lists Davis Martin as Chicago’s probable while he is still on the 15-day injured list, and the Cardinals have not announced a starter at all. DraftKings pencils in Brycen Mautz, a lefty with two big-league relief appearances this year, for the Dodgers game. Both get their own section below.
Best MLB DFS Pitchers for 9/2
Yoshinobu Yamamoto at $10,500 is the best pitcher pick of the night when I factor in projection, price and matchup. He is not the top arm on DraftKings’ own listed average, where Misiorowski sits first at 28.5 per game, but he is $1,500 cheaper than The Miz, he draws the second-weakest power offense on the slate, and he is at home.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($10,500): The Matchup Beats the Park
Yamamoto profiles as the top arm tonight when I factor in projection, price and matchup. The Cardinals erupted against Eric Lauer last night, 13 runs on 13 hits in a 13-8 win, and Lauer lasted three innings while giving up seven earned runs and two homers. They should have a much more difficult time on Wednesday. St. Louis carries a .136 ISO against right-handed pitching, the second-lowest mark among the twelve offenses on this slate, and the market posts them at 2.5 implied runs, tied for the lowest total on the board.
Yamamoto himself is having a tremendous year: 12-8 with a 2.56 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP over 24 starts, a 25.2 percent strikeout rate, a 5.9 percent walk rate, and 16 home runs allowed in 158 innings. He has struck out nine, nine and eight in his last three starts.
The park factor does not help his case, because Dodger Stadium is the number one home-run park in baseball on the Statcast index at 124, but the weather does: the forecast is 73 degrees at first pitch falling to 66 with a 5 mph breeze, which is a pitcher’s night. He still looks pretty good here, and I lean Yoshi.
Cam Schlittler ($11,000): The Tourney Pivot at Half the Ownership
Schlittler is a terrific pivot in tourneys. He is just $500 more than Yamamoto, and I project him at roughly half the ownership. A road date with the Angels is not exactly easy on paper, but the numbers say otherwise: Los Angeles strikes out 25.1 percent of the time against right-handed pitching, the highest rate on this slate, and carries a .135 ISO on that side, the lowest. The market posts the Angels at 2.5, tied with the Cardinals for the bottom of the board.
His season is even better than Yamamoto’s on the surface: 12-6 with a 2.09 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP over 28 starts, a 30.9 percent strikeout rate and 14 home runs allowed in 163.2 innings.
One number worth knowing before you click: his strikeout rate drops about seven points against right-handed hitters, from 33.8 percent against lefties to 26.3 percent, and the Angels’ best bats are all right-handed. Angel Stadium is not the hitter’s park it gets treated as, either. It sits 18th on the Statcast runs index at 98, so the concern here is the Angels’ right-handed power, not the building.
Reid Detmers ($7,800): The SP2 With the Discount Built In
Detmers looks like the top SP2 tonight. His salary is down $1,000 since the weekend, from $8,800 on Saturday’s slate to $7,800 now, and that has a lot to do with a tough draw against the Yankees plus a last start that gave DFS players very little: six innings, one earned run, and only two strikeouts against the Phillies. The results have been fine, one earned run across his last 20 innings with 18 strikeouts, so the price cut is about the matchup more than the form.
Here is why I lean Detmers anyway. The Yankees’ power against left-handed pitching is essentially the same as it is against righties, a .173 ISO against .178, so the team split alone does not make this an easy spot. The lineup shape does.
Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the two right-handed bats built to punish a lefty, are both on the injured list. The power that is left is left-handed: Ben Rice with 35 homers, Luis García Jr. with 28, Jazz Chisholm Jr. with 19, Trent Grisham with 18. Detmers holds left-handed hitters to a .099 ISO with a 24.3 percent strikeout rate, against .146 and 13 homers to righties.
He carries a 27.8 percent strikeout rate on the season, the market posts New York at 3.5, and the risk is baked into his price tag.
Jacob Misiorowski ($12,000): Elite Ceiling, Wrong Night to Pay for It
The Miz would normally be an easy click. His season is absurd: 14-5 with a 1.73 ERA and a 0.75 WHIP over 25 starts, 222 strikeouts in 151 innings for a 38.9 percent strikeout rate, and only 13 home runs allowed. DraftKings’ own listed average has him first on the board by a wide margin at 28.5 fantasy points per game.
He is also $1,000 more than Schlittler and $1,500 more than Yamamoto, and on my numbers he does not carry the best projection tonight. He is in a violently windy environment at Wrigley against a Cubs offense that has hit 137 home runs against right-handed pitching. He has also settled into six-inning, six-strikeout starts in each of his last three outings rather than the 10 and 12 strikeout nights from July.
One thing in his favor that the wind cannot change: Chicago’s best power is left-handed, with Pete Crow-Armstrong at a .304 ISO and 27 homers against righties, and Misiorowski strikes out 44.6 percent of the left-handed hitters he faces. He is an elite GPP spend because of that immense upside. He is not a cash-game play at this price in this park.
The SP2 Pivots, and the One I Would Skip
Hayden Wesneski at $7,000 and Noah Cameron at $7,200 are viable SP2 pivots. Wesneski draws a White Sox offense the market posts at 3.5 that strikes out 23.6 percent of the time against righties, though his 3.86 ERA and 21.1 percent strikeout rate come from only six starts and 32.2 innings, so treat that line as a small sample. Cameron gets the Marlins in 97-degree heat, which is the environment I am attacking with bats, so he is a pivot I would use sparingly.
You can go dumpster diving for Drew Anderson at $6,000 if you wish. Anderson at least has a 26.0 percent strikeout rate. I would not go there for Dean Kremer at $6,400, whose numbers argue against it: a 5.60 ERA, 15 home runs allowed in 62.2 innings, and a .279 ISO surrendered to left-handed hitters. Kremer is a pitcher to attack, and the market agrees, posting the Tigers at 4.5. More on that in the stacks.
Top MLB DFS Hitters for Wednesday
Two of the three bats below come out of the same game in Kansas City, and the third is a one-off swing at the pitcher I just told you to roster. That is not a contradiction; it is how tournaments work.
Bobby Witt Jr. ($6,100): The Heat Does the Talking
Witt is in a solid hitter’s park and it is extremely hot. Kauffman Stadium should give way to a good amount of scoring tonight, and it is a big reason he owns the top projection among bats on my numbers. DraftKings’ own listed averages put Pete Crow-Armstrong, Yordan Alvarez and Shohei Ohtani ahead of him, so I am aware I am higher on Witt than the house is.
A date with Eury Pérez on paper is not that exciting, because Pérez carries a 3.44 ERA and a 26.8 percent strikeout rate. The .190 ISO he has allowed to right-handed hitters gives us some wiggle room, with 10 of his 14 home runs allowed coming from that side, and Witt strikes out just 17.3 percent of the time, so he is going to put the ball in play against a pitcher who walks 10.6 percent of hitters. Witt is hitting .285 with a .166 ISO and 16 homers, and I think he smashes here.
Leo Jiménez ($2,300): Cheap Exposure, and Nothing More
Staying in that game, the Marlins side will also look good. If Leo Jiménez gets the start, and he has started four of Miami’s last five, he is going to feel a bit too cheap for the situation he is in at $2,300. Noah Cameron is no punk against righties, holding them to a .140 ISO, but this is very cheap exposure to a great hitting environment.
Be honest with yourself about what you are buying. Jiménez is hitting .199 with a .306 on-base percentage, a .259 slugging percentage and two home runs across 194 plate appearances. He is a salary-saver who lets you fit Witt and an ace, and the case is the park and the temperature rather than the bat. If the lineup card comes out without him, move the $2,300 to another cheap Marlin rather than forcing a different punt.
Mike Trout ($5,000): The One-Off Against Schlittler
I do not want to go out of my way to pick on Cam Schlittler, but a one-off with Mike Trout is not the worst idea in the world. Schlittler’s strikeout rate drops about seven points against right-handed hitters, and Trout brings real pop to the table from that side: a .195 ISO with 15 of his 20 home runs coming against right-handed pitching.
The tradeoff is the strikeout rate. Trout whiffs 25.6 percent of the time, and Schlittler has 201 strikeouts on the year, so this is a home-run-or-nothing roster spot. That is fine in a tournament, where a $5,000 Angel against the slate’s second-most-expensive pitcher is going to be almost nobody’s play. Zach Neto, at $4,500 with a .195 ISO and 17 homers against righties, is the other right-handed Angel who fits the same argument.
Wednesday’s Best MLB DFS Stacks
The market has bunched more than half of this slate together. Seven of the twelve offenses sit at exactly 4.5 posted runs, so the implied totals below are the DraftKings team totals, and the order is mine. My own numbers run a few tenths hotter on the Dodgers and Brewers, but the order they produce matches the market’s: devigging the over/under prices puts Los Angeles first, Milwaukee second and Miami third.
| Stack | Opposing Arm | The Split That Matters | Start With |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dodgers | TBD (DK lists Mautz, LHP) | 16.3% walk rate in Triple-A, no MLB starts | Ohtani, Muncy, T. Hernández |
| Brewers | David Peterson (LHP) | 15.6% K, 11.5% BB vs. righties | Sánchez, Vaughn, Chourio, Bauers |
| Royals | Eury Pérez (RHP) | .190 ISO allowed to righties | Witt, S. Perez, Jensen, Caglianone |
| Marlins | Noah Cameron (LHP) | .161 ISO allowed to lefties (reverse split) | H. Hernández, Stowers |
Los Angeles Dodgers: The Chalk, With a Lineup-Card Caveat
The Dodgers grade out as the top stack, on my numbers and on the market’s, where their over carries the highest devigged probability on the board. For that very reason I am fine with going away from them on a smaller slate like this.
They are in the best home-run park in baseball, first on the Statcast index at 124, and the matchup got better on paper after I wrote my first draft. The Cardinals have not announced a starter, and DraftKings pencils in Brycen Mautz, a left-hander with no big-league starts and a 16.3 percent walk rate across 16 Triple-A starts this year.
A lefty flips the Dodgers’ platoon math:
- Toward: Shohei Ohtani ($6,500, .266 ISO and 12 homers against lefties), Max Muncy ($4,700, .239), and the right-handed Teoscar Hernández ($3,700) and Tommy Edman ($4,000)
- Away from: Freddie Freeman ($5,000, .114 ISO against lefties) and Kyle Tucker ($3,500, .147)
Eating the chalk here is totally understandable. Just confirm who is on the mound before you do.
Milwaukee Brewers: Walks and Traffic Against Peterson
Milwaukee may be enough leverage if they get overlooked, but I would imagine they still pull plenty of ownership. The wind keeps blowing out at Wrigley, and David Peterson is someone they can get to. He carries a 5.11 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP, and his numbers against right-handed hitters are the tell: a 15.6 percent strikeout rate and an 11.5 percent walk rate across 390 batters faced.
The Brew Crew projects better against righties, and I want to be clear about the shape of this stack. Milwaukee’s .131 ISO against left-handed pitching is the weakest on this slate, so this is a walks-and-traffic stack rather than a power stack, built on the 10.5 percent walk rate the Brewers post against lefties.
- Gary Sánchez ($4,100): .220 ISO against lefties
- Andrew Vaughn ($3,600): .208
- Jackson Chourio ($5,500): .194 with six homers
- Jake Bauers ($4,500): the left-handed exception, a .248 ISO and six homers in 136 plate appearances against southpaws
Milwaukee could clean up here.
Royals and Marlins: Both Sides of the Hottest Game
Kansas City and Miami both look good because their game is being played in 97-degree weather in a park that plays up for runs. Even though we get talented pitchers on either side, I want the bats.
Pérez’s split says right-handed Royals, and Witt and Salvador Perez ($3,600) are the two I start with, but do not force handedness here. Kansas City’s biggest power against right-handed pitching is left-handed: Carter Jensen ($4,300) and Jac Caglianone ($5,100) each have 16 homers and an ISO above .215 on that side.
On the Marlins side, Cameron has a reverse split, a .161 ISO allowed to lefties against .140 to righties, which is what makes Kyle Stowers ($4,200) interesting even though Stowers himself hits lefties poorly. The Marlin who has to be in the stack is right-handed Heriberto Hernández ($4,000). His .297 ISO and 10 homers in 139 plate appearances against left-handed pitching are the best numbers on the roster against that side.
Where I Go to Get Different
The Cardinals and Angels could give us leverage against the two popular pitchers up top, both at 2.5, but I do not love going that route. New York may just go overlooked since the spots above should garner more attention, and that has me into the Yanks.
They are not in a nice park for offense, whatever the reputation says, because Angel Stadium sits 18th on the runs index, and their .173 ISO against lefties is only average. The case is the specific bats:
- Paul Goldschmidt ($3,400): .300 ISO with 11 homers in 163 plate appearances against left-handed pitching
- Ben Rice ($5,900): 10 homers against lefties
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. ($4,700): .168 ISO against lefties, and the stolen-base upside
Detmers is still a pitcher I would like to get to a lot, but this is not a fun spot for him, and I am guessing he will be a popular SP2. If so, the pinstripes look like killer leverage.
The Miz will not be crazy owned, but I project him at 20 percent ownership or more. Chicago offers some leverage, and this is more about a very good offense in excellent hitting conditions and possibly not being very owned.
Attacking Misiorowski is not easy, and the shape matters. His 44.6 percent strikeout rate against lefties makes Crow-Armstrong ($7,000) the hardest Cub to trust tonight. The right-handed side, Seiya Suzuki ($5,800, .202 ISO vs. righties), Alex Bregman ($6,000) and Tyrone Taylor ($3,300), gets the friendlier 31.5 percent strikeout rate and a .099 ISO. If you are not paying for him, firing up some Cubs is a fine approach in tourneys.
The Twins are going to go overlooked tonight. They are at home in a hitter’s park, Target Field is tied for fifth on the runs index at 104, and the matchup with Drew Anderson is solid enough, but nobody will play them. Minnesota carries a .176 ISO against right-handed pitching and strikes out just 20.5 percent of the time on that side, tied with the Dodgers for the lowest rate on the slate.
Anderson’s 26.0 percent strikeout rate is very solid and he does not give up anything to lefties, a .129 ISO, but he is showing severe reverse splits. That has me digging Twins righties, who can exploit his 11.1 percent walk rate and the .208 ISO he has allowed to right-handed hitters.
- Ryan Jeffers ($4,900): the bat, with a .270 ISO and 11 homers in 191 plate appearances against righties
- Royce Lewis ($4,000): the second piece
- Byron Buxton: on the injured list, so the ceiling is lower than the name on the front of the jersey suggests
The market opened the Twins at 4.0 this morning and has since moved them up to 4.5, so the number agrees with the case even if the ownership will not.
One stack the market flags that I did not have on my first pass: the Tigers, posted at 4.5 against Dean Kremer. Kremer has allowed a .279 ISO and nine homers to left-handed hitters in 157 batters faced this year. Detroit brings Riley Greene ($4,300, .204 ISO vs. righties) from that side plus Dillon Dingler ($4,800, .259 and 22 homers vs. righties) from the right.
Kerry Carpenter and Parker Meadows are on the injured list, which thins it, but as a low-owned pairing with Twins bats from the same game it is a live tournament idea. If you want the fuller argument for stacking the game the field ignores, our guide to finding low-owned MLB DFS stacks covers it.
Building Winning MLB DFS Lineups on 9/2
This is a weird slate. I think the baseline strategy is to pick one of the top aces, namely Yamamoto, and stack the Dodgers. Doing both together will stretch you thin at $10,500 plus Ohtani, though, so my preference is to just pick a side: either the ace or the stack from that game, not both.
Yoshi is the top arm, but Schlittler and The Miz are both very much in play. They just carry extra risk, and for the dollar they are simply not as appealing. If you want the fuller version of why I weigh price against ceiling the way I do on a slate like this, our breakdown of the DFS mistakes that keep lineups losing walks through it.
This is not a big slate, so any risks we take had better pay off. But I am totally comfortable with going away from L.A. and ignoring the Cubs. My focus will be on the Brewers, both sides of the Royals game, the Twins, and a dash of the Yanks in the builds where I am not rostering Detmers. Treat any ownership number you read today, mine included, as a projection rather than a fact.
Build the Core in the Optimizer
Want to build around these plays? The optimizer below opens with tonight’s DraftKings pool loaded and my core already locked in: Yamamoto on the mound with Witt and Trout in the lineup. Jiménez is left unlocked on purpose, because he depends on the Marlins’ lineup card, and Schlittler, Detmers and Misiorowski are alternatives to Yamamoto rather than additions, so unlock whichever arm you want to swap. Every projection is yours to edit, and the lineup rebuilds around whatever you change.
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Frequently Asked Questions
A few things readers ask me most weeks, plus three that are specific to this slate.
Should I pay 12,000 dollars for Jacob Misiorowski on Wednesday’s DraftKings slate?
Only in tournaments, and only as one of several builds. His season is absurd, a 1.73 ERA with a 38.9 percent strikeout rate over 25 starts, and DraftKings’ own listed average has him first on the board at 28.5 fantasy points per game. The problem is the spot and the price. He is on the road at Wrigley Field with a 10 mph southwest wind blowing out all night, against a Cubs offense that has hit 137 home runs off right-handed pitching, and he costs 1,500 dollars more than Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who draws the Cardinals at a 2.5 implied total. My numbers do not have him as the best projection tonight, so he is a GPP-only spend rather than the cash-game click he usually is.
Is the wind actually blowing out at Wrigley Field tonight, or does it fade like last night?
It holds. The National Weather Service has a southwest wind at 10 mph in the 6 PM CT hour and it stays at 10 mph through 10 PM, unlike Tuesday, when it dropped to 5 mph by the third inning. Wrigley’s home plate sits at the southwest corner with the outfield to the northeast, so a southwest wind pushes balls toward the bleachers for all nine innings. The rain chance stays at 13 percent or lower through the game, with a slight chance of storms only after midnight, so the game itself is safe. That makes both the Cubs and the Brewers live for power, with the caveat that Misiorowski strikes out 44.6 percent of left-handed hitters.
Who is starting for the Cardinals against Yamamoto, and does it change the Dodgers stack?
As of publication, St. Louis has not announced a starter for the 10:10 PM ET game. DraftKings’ lineup data pencils in Brycen Mautz, a left-hander who has made two relief appearances in the majors this season and 16 Triple-A starts with a 16.3 percent walk rate, and the Cardinals also called up right-hander Hancel Rincon on Tuesday. If it is Mautz, a lefty on the mound moves the Dodgers stack toward Shohei Ohtani, Max Muncy, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman and away from Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker. Check the official probable-pitcher board before the 7:40 PM ET lock, because the Dodgers game is the last one to start and the lineup card can change your build.
Is Leo Jimenez really worth rostering at 2,300 dollars, or is he just a punt?
He is a punt, and I say so in the article. Jimenez is hitting .199 with a .306 on-base percentage, a .259 slugging percentage and two home runs across 194 plate appearances, so nothing about the bat itself is the reason to play him. The reason is the situation: a 97-degree night at Kauffman Stadium against Noah Cameron, who has a reverse split and gets hit harder by lefties than righties, and a salary that lets you fit Bobby Witt Jr. and an ace in the same lineup. He has started four of Miami’s last five games, but confirm he is on the lineup card before lock and move the money elsewhere if he is not.
Why would I stack both the Royals and the Marlins from the same game?
Because the environment, not either lineup, is the reason to be there. The National Weather Service has Kauffman Stadium at 97 degrees at first pitch with a heat index reaching 101, and hot air is less dense, so the ball carries. The market posts both teams at a 4.5 implied total, tied for the top of the board. Kauffman ranks 25th in home runs on the Statcast park index, though, so build for hits, runs and RBI rather than three-homer nights: Witt and Salvador Perez against Eury Perez’s .190 ISO allowed to righties on one side, Heriberto Hernandez and Kyle Stowers against Noah Cameron on the other. In a tournament, a lineup with bats from both dugouts of the hottest game on the slate is a reasonable way to get different.
