Stacking can be a controversial topic in many daily fantasy sports, but you can count baseball as a glaring exception. Here, it's universal.
Using multiple players on the same team on a given day presents you with the opportunity to double dip. If one of your players hits an RBI double, there's a good chance he drove in another one of your guys. When you get the points for both the run and the RBI, you'll be climbing the leaderboards fast.
Each day here on numberFire, we'll go through four offenses ripe for the stacking. They could have a great matchup, be in a great park, or just have a lot of quality sticks in the lineup, but these are the offenses primed for big days that you may want a piece of.
Premium members can use our new stacking feature to customize their stacks within their optimal lineups for the day, choosing the team you want to stack and how many players you want to include. You can also check out our hitting heat map, which provides an illustration of which offenses have the best combination of matchup and potency.
Now, let's get to the stacks. Today, we'll cover three stacks from the main slate in addition to one from the all-day slate.
New York Mets
In the first game of today's doubleheader, Sandy Alcantara is taking the ball for the Miami Marlins. He has a 0.75 ERA in a tiny sample size, but he's nearly walked as many batters as he's struck out. With just a 16.7% strikeout rate, 14.6% walk rate, and a matching 38.7% fly-ball rate and hard-hit rate allowed, Alcantra's 5.70 SIERA belies his 0.75 ERA like it only can with a 12-inning sample size. In short, hope other DFS players fail to look more carefully at Alcantra's minuscule ERA as you profit from stacking the New York Mets on the all-day slate.
It took all of 45 games for Jeff McNeil ($3,800) to become the most expensive hitter on his team. I guess that's what happens when you strike out just 8.9% of the time, hit a fly-ball 38.5% of the time, and hit the ball hard 34.1% of the time. Brandon Nimmo ($3,600) comes into play with a ridiculous 162 wRC+ against right-handed pitching thanks to a 14.5% walk rate, 38.8% fly-ball rate, and 39.1% hard-hit rate. Michael Conforto ($3,500) was Brandon Nimmo before Brandon Nimmo. His career rates against right-handed pitching include a 133 wRC+, 13.1% walk rate, and matching 40.4% fly-ball and hard-hit rates.
Wilmer Flores ($3,100) pairs excellent contact skills (just a 9.3% strikeout rate) with a solid batted-ball profile, including a 45.5% fly-ball rate and 33.1% hard-hit rate. Todd Frazier ($3,100) comes into play having torched pitchers for a 43.9% fly-ball rate and 41.7% hard-hit rate this year. In a down year by his standards, Jay Bruce ($2,500) has an 11.4% walk rate, 18.8% strikeout rate, 45.7% fly-ball rate, and 35.7% hard-hit rate against right-handed pitching.
Minnesota Twins
Heath Fillmyer started his season as a reliever, but injuries and ineffective starting pitching for the Kansas City Royals have forced KC to use him as a starter. He fails to miss bats, as indicated by a low 7.9% swinging-strike rate. He also has an elevated 11.1% walk rate, and he's allowed a 40.7% hard-hit rate this year. This all adds up to a horrendous 5.28 SIERA.
Eddie Rosario ($3,400) has proven beyond doubt that his 2017 was no fluke. Here in 2018, Rosario has got a 127 wRC+ against right-handed pitching, including a 17.3% strikeout rate, 45.8% fly-ball rate, and 37.8% hard-hit rate. Tyler Austin ($3,200) offers plenty of upside with his 36.8% fly-ball rate and 35.0% hard-hit rate on the year. Joe Mauer ($3,100) strikes out just 14.6% of the time against right-handed pitching. That combined with a 10.3% walk rate and 44.1% hard-hit rate in that split makes him a great value.
Jorge Polanco ($3,000) comes into play with a 134 wRC+ against right-handed pitching, including a 16.6% strikeout rate and 40.3% fly-ball rate against them in 2018. Mitch Garver ($2,700) owns a 37.4% fly-ball rate and 39.9% hard-hit rate this year. Max Kepler ($2,300) is flat out underpriced. He's got a 12.3% walk rate, 14.9% strikeout rate, 47.2% fly-ball rate, and 37.9% hard-hit rate against right-handed pitching this campaign.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Austin Gomber has pitched primarily out of relief this season, but the southpaw has been forced into action as a starter recently for the St. Louis Cardinals. Gomber has just a 19.5% strikeout rate to go with his elevated 10.3% walk rate. His contact management is an issue, as well, as he has allowed a 37.1% fly-ball rate and 36.7% hard-hit rate this year.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a lot of dudes who thrive versus lefties.
The red-hot Justin Turner ($4,200) is at the top of the list as he's sporting a .438 wOBA, 51.9% hard-hit rate and 45.6% fly-ball rate in the split in 2018. Manny Machado ($4,300) is certainly worth a peep, too, with Machado carrying a .389 wOBA, 39.7% hard-hit rate and 41.1% fly-ball rate versus southpaws.
The Dodgers offer some top-notch cheaper options, as well. Kiké Hernandez ($2,400) usually hits in a nice spot in the lineup when LA is up against a lefty. In the split in 2018, his numbers are down a bit (.311 wOBA), but he posted a .390 wOBA and 43.3% hard-hit rate versus lefties in 2017. David Freese ($2,300) has a .356 wOBA and 40.9% hard-hit rate with the platoon advantage in 2018, although he's more likely than Hernandez is to be removed late in the game if the Cardinals deploy a right-handed reliever.
Los Angeles Angels
Mike Leake has produced a poor combination of contact and hard contact this year. He has just a 15.1% strikeout rate to go with a 36.1% hard-hit rate surrendered. He's also experienced a concerning dip in his velocity of late.
Mark McGwire had a tremendous (although artificially enhanced) career, as he swatted 583 home runs in his 16 year career. Mike Trout ($5,000) already has more career WAR than McGwire. Trout is just 27 years old. Shohei Ohtani ($3,900) has a 37.9% fly-ball rate and 43.2% hard-hit rate this year against right-handed pitching. He also has 9 steals in just 300 plate appearances.
Justin Upton ($3,600) enters today having torched opposing pitching for a 35.8% fly-ball rate and 43.7% hard-hit rate this year. Andrelton Simmons ($3,500) is on pace to break his career high in WAR, and it's not like his defense had any room to get better. His career season is due to the strides he's made with his bat, including a 6.3% strikeout rate and 36.7% hard-hit rate. Kole Calhoun ($3,300) owns a 36.2% fly-ball rate and 44.2% hard-hit rate this year against right-handed pitching.
Akash Bhatia is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Akash Bhatia also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username tenswimrun1. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.