CourtEdge - MLB - Monday, August 24, 2026 - ~20 minute read
MLB Main - 8/24 Cash + Stack Playbook
Cash core, top stacks, salary fades, contrarian ownership discipline and contest-sim construction.
Build + SimulateAll PlaybooksSlate read
138 positive-projection players are live for auto-build/sim from a preserved 649-row source pool. Cash is the cleanest focus this early: high-floor arms, top-of-order bats and salary efficiency.
Hitter ownership is not populated yet. The uploaded MLB source has 126 projected hitters but only 0 with non-zero ProjOwn. CourtEdge is not going to call 0.0% a real ownership projection or invent 1-2% stacks. The stack board below is live from projection/lineup/total data; the 1-2% section should be refreshed when ownership populates.
Cash pitchers
| Pitcher | Team | Salary | Proj | Floor | Ceiling | Own |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Messick | CLE | $9,500 | 25.07 | 12.18 | 27.50 | 2.0% |
| Zack Wheeler | PHI | $10,800 | 25.82 | 9.35 | 32.46 | 2.0% |
| Chase Burns | CIN | $11,000 | 24.92 | 12.64 | 27.20 | 2.0% |
| Logan Gilbert | SEA | $9,800 | 22.37 | 13.48 | 30.28 | 2.0% |
| Braxton Ashcraft | PIT | $10,000 | 22.43 | 6.20 | 31.31 | 2.0% |
| Robbie Ray | SD | $8,000 | 16.11 | 7.76 | 24.17 | 2.0% |
| Zebby Matthews | MIN | $5,700 | 14.28 | 2.11 | 21.07 | 2.0% |
| Kumar Rocker | TEX | $6,200 | 12.60 | 1.73 | 20.98 | 2.0% |
Cash hitters
| Hitter | Team | Pos | Order | Salary | Proj | Pts/$1K | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pete Crow-Armstrong | CHC | OF | 1 | $6,600 | 12.70 | 1.92 | 1.59 |
| Luke Keaschall | MIN | OF | 1 | $4,300 | 10.08 | 2.34 | 3.24 |
| Rafael Flores Jr. | PIT | 1B/C | 5 | $3,100 | 8.81 | 2.84 | 0.00 |
| Gabriel Moreno | ARI | C | 3 | $4,400 | 9.56 | 2.17 | 3.30 |
| Tim Tawa | ARI | 1B | 6 | $3,000 | 8.75 | 2.92 | 1.62 |
| Fernando Tatis Jr. | SD | OF | 1 | $5,900 | 10.75 | 1.82 | 2.43 |
| Esmerlyn Valdez | PIT | OF | 2 | $4,100 | 9.50 | 2.32 | 0.88 |
| Josh Bell | MIN | 1B | 3 | $4,500 | 9.80 | 2.18 | 1.30 |
| Corbin Carroll | ARI | OF | 2 | $5,500 | 10.48 | 1.91 | 1.91 |
| Steven Kwan | CLE | OF | 1 | $3,500 | 8.33 | 2.38 | 2.92 |
| Carlos Cortes | ATH | OF | 2 | $3,400 | 8.64 | 2.54 | 0.10 |
| Jake Cronenworth | SD | 2B | 2 | $3,200 | 7.91 | 2.47 | 2.39 |
| Andrew Benintendi | CWS | OF | 4 | $3,400 | 8.44 | 2.48 | 0.71 |
| Victor Bericoto | SF | OF | 5 | $2,500 | 7.19 | 2.88 | 0.00 |
| Nathaniel Lowe | CLE | 1B | 4 | $3,400 | 8.52 | 2.51 | 0.00 |
| Lawrence Butler | ATH | OF | 4 | $4,200 | 8.90 | 2.12 | 2.57 |
Top five-man stacks
Ranked by the actual uploaded projection pool, not fabricated ownership.
| # | Team | Top-5 Proj | Implied | Salary | Core |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHC | 50.1 | 4.8 | $26,400 | Pete Crow-Armstrong #1 Seiya Suzuki #2 Michael Busch #3 Alex Bregman #4 Ian Happ #5 |
| 2 | MIN | 47.6 | 5.7 | $25,100 | Luke Keaschall #1 Josh Bell #3 Byron Buxton #2 Royce Lewis #5 Kody Clemens #4 |
| 3 | ARI | 45.9 | 4.2 | $21,300 | Corbin Carroll #2 Gabriel Moreno #3 Tim Tawa #6 Nolan Arenado #5 Ildemaro Vargas #1 |
| 4 | CWS | 44.3 | 4.2 | $21,900 | Miguel Vargas #3 Munetaka Murakami #2 Sam Antonacci #1 Andrew Benintendi #4 Tristan Peters #8 |
| 5 | SD | 43.1 | 3.7 | $22,700 | Fernando Tatis Jr. #1 Jackson Merrill #5 Ty France #4 Jake Cronenworth #2 Manny Machado #3 |
| 6 | ATH | 42.8 | 4.8 | $19,900 | Lawrence Butler #4 Zack Gelof #3 Carlos Cortes #2 Henry Bolte #1 Donovan Walton #7 |
| 7 | CIN | 42.7 | 4.0 | $22,100 | Elly De La Cruz #1 Sal Stewart #2 Eugenio Suarez #5 Tyler Stephenson #4 Matt McLain #6 |
| 8 | PIT | 42.7 | 3.8 | $20,500 | Esmerlyn Valdez #2 Rafael Flores Jr. #5 Bryan Reynolds #3 Brandon Lowe #4 Nick Gonzales #1 |
| 9 | CLE | 42.6 | 4.4 | $20,500 | Jose Ramirez #3 Jo Adell #2 Nathaniel Lowe #4 Chase DeLauter #7 Steven Kwan #1 |
| 10 | PHI | 42.1 | 3.3 | $25,100 | Kyle Schwarber #1 Bryce Harper #3 Trea Turner #2 Bryson Stott #4 Brandon Marsh #5 |
Verified contrarian stacks - every player 1-2%
No verified hitter stack has four or more players at 1-2% in this upload.
Salary-based fades
These are not bad hitters. They are expensive bats currently giving back projection/value or floor relative to salary. In cash, price is enough to fade; in GPPs, ownership should be added when it is actually populated.
| Player | Team | Salary | Proj | Pts/$1K | Floor | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luis Arraez | PHI | $4,500 | 6.28 | 1.40 | 1.49 | 9 |
| Manny Machado | SD | $4,900 | 7.32 | 1.49 | 0.00 | 3 |
| Kyle Schwarber | PHI | $6,300 | 9.42 | 1.50 | 0.00 | 1 |
| Bryce Harper | PHI | $5,800 | 8.94 | 1.54 | 5.77 | 3 |
| Brandon Lowe | PIT | $5,100 | 8.01 | 1.57 | 0.63 | 4 |
| Elly De La Cruz | CIN | $6,100 | 9.83 | 1.61 | 0.00 | 1 |
| Mike Trout | LAA | $5,000 | 8.07 | 1.61 | 0.13 | 2 |
| Byron Buxton | MIN | $6,000 | 9.71 | 1.62 | 0.25 | 2 |
| Nico Hoerner | CHC | $4,700 | 7.62 | 1.62 | 1.29 | 6 |
| Ryan Jeffers | MIN | $5,000 | 8.13 | 1.63 | 1.12 | 8 |
Builder + simulation plan
- Cash: rank Cash% first once a real cash contest ladder is loaded, then projection/floor.
- SE: search thousands of candidates even though only one lineup is entered; RAROI/Best Overall matter more than pure rare-event ROI.
- 20-max: generate thousands, simulate, then choose a diversified 20-lineup portfolio.
- 150-max: generate thousands, simulate, rank the library by Sim ROI / RAROI / Win% / Top-1% / Cash%, then control exposures and overlap.
- Exact ROI: requires the actual 8/24 contest field, fee and payout ladder from the lobby.