MLB DFS Optimizer Guide

What is the BluecollarDFS MLB optimizer?

It's a free web tool that builds the highest-projected MLB daily fantasy lineups for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo slates, using our own player projections and each site's salary cap and roster rules. Premium adds team stacking rules, multi-lineup builds of up to 150 lineups, exposure and diversity controls, late swap position locking and CSV export.

Why use BluecollarDFS instead of a bigger MLB DFS tool?

It depends on how you play. BluecollarDFS is built around projections: each sport has its own model, refined by hand over years of playing DFS ourselves and updated through the day as news breaks, and we use them in our own lineups. The optimizer is deliberately simple, with the settings that change your lineups and nothing to get lost in. It's free for basic builds, and Premium is $17.99 per month for every sport (as of October 2026).

If you want lineup simulations, ownership modeling and hundreds of fine-grained rules, the larger subscription tools offer more, at several times the price. If you want dozens of research dashboards, other sites go wider. We'd rather get the projections right.

How do I build MLB DFS lineups with the optimizer?

• Choose your site (DraftKings, FanDuel or Yahoo) and the slate you're entering. The player pool loads with salaries, positions and our projections.
• Review the player table. Filter by position, search by name, and sort by salary or projection.
• Lock players you want in every lineup and ban players you want to fade.
• Adjust settings if you need them, pick how many lineups to build, and press BUILD.
• Review the results on the Lineups tab.

Free accounts build up to 2 lineups at a time. Premium builds 6, 10, 20, 50 or 150 lineups per run.

How do I lock or ban a player?

Click the lock icon next to a player to force them into every lineup, or the ban icon to keep them out of every lineup. Click again to clear it. The optimizer keeps a list of everyone you've locked or banned, so you can review your choices before building.

Locks and bans are the fastest way to add your own read to the math: lock the players your research says you can't fade, ban the ones you don't trust, and let the optimizer fill the rest.

How do MLB stacks like 5/3 and 4/4 work?Premium

A stack is several hitters from the same team, so one big inning scores for your whole lineup. The numbers are how many hitters come from each team: 5/3 means five hitters from one team and three from another, and 4/2/1/1 means four from one team, two from a second, and one each from two more. Pick "No Forced Stacks" to let the projections decide.

FanDuel has no 5-hitter options because FanDuel allows at most four hitters from one team.

What does "Allow Batters vs. Pitcher" mean?

By default the optimizer won't roster a hitter facing one of your own pitchers, since a good night for one is a bad night for the other. Turn on Allow Batters vs. Pitcher to lift that rule. On small slates of four games or fewer it starts on, because there aren't enough games to avoid every conflict. It's free.

How many pitchers does each site use?

DraftKings and Yahoo lineups have two pitchers; FanDuel has one. FanDuel also has a combined C/1B slot and a UTIL slot any hitter can fill. The optimizer applies the right roster when you pick your site.

What does Lineup Cost Max do?

Lineup Cost Max caps the total salary the optimizer may spend on a lineup. It defaults to the full salary cap. Lowering it forces lineups that leave salary unused, which can make tournament lineups less common in large fields. It's free and applies to classic slates.

How does Max Player Exposure work?Premium

Max Player Exposure caps the share of your lineups any single player can appear in. It starts at 100, meaning no limit. Set it to 50 and no player appears in more than half of the lineups you build.

Capping your top stack's hitters around 50 spreads your entries across more teams, which matters when one team's offense decides the slate.

What does Minimum Unique Players do?Premium

Minimum Unique Players sets how different each lineup must be from every other lineup in the same build, from 1 to 5 players. At 1, lineups only need to differ by one player. At 3, every pair of lineups differs by at least three. Higher values give you a more diverse set of lineups for multi-entry tournaments, at the cost of some projected points. It applies to classic slates.

How do I use position locking for late swap?Premium

Once early games start, the players already in your lineups are fixed to specific roster slots on the DFS site. Position locking lets you tell the optimizer which slot each of those players occupies, so it only fills the slots that are still open. Lock the player, then pick their slot from the dropdown in the player table. For example, on FanDuel you can lock a catcher from an early game into the C/1B slot or a first baseman into UTIL.

How do I upload my lineups to DraftKings, FanDuel or Yahoo?Premium

On the Lineups tab, click Export Lineups. You get a CSV file named after your site (for example DraftKings-lineups.csv) with players in the site's roster order, ready for the site's bulk upload or edit page.

FanDuel single-game exports use FanDuel's own MVP column header ("MVP - 1.5X Points"), so the file uploads without edits.

You can also download the projections themselves as a CSV (player name and projection) with the download icon above the player table, to use in your own spreadsheets or tools.

How often do the MLB projections update?

Daily, and again as starting pitchers and batting orders are confirmed. Weather and other game-day news are reflected before lock. Read more about how our projections are built.

What's free and what needs Premium?

Premium is $17.99 per month as of October 2026, covers every sport, and can be cancelled anytime.