4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/11/20

In the world of daily baseball, stacks are often the backbone of the most successful -- and profitable -- lineups. Correlation is the key.

When an offense hangs runs in bunches, it means hitters are scoring runs and teammates hitting behind them are driving them in. By rostering stacks, you’re maximizing the fantasy scoring by essentially double dipping on a run-scoring event.

This is your daily home for the top stacks on the daily fantasy baseball slate. Whether you’re looking to identify the projected highest-scoring stacks or contrarian stacks that can help you separate from the pack in GPPs when they explode, they’ll be thrown under the spotlight here.

Gamers who are numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. The tool allows you to select the team and number of players from that team you’d like to include in your lineup. If you’re looking to identify other potentially high-scoring stacks beyond those featured in this space, check out our hitting heat map, a tool that provides valuable info such as implied total, park factor, and stats to identify the quality of the opposing pitcher.

Without further ado, let’s dive into today’s main slate’s featured stacks.

Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals bashed the New York Mets' skulls in last night, and tonight they'll take cuts against Rick Porcello and his hilariously bad 6.92 ERA.

Porcello's 4.97 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), per FanGraphs, is also a number to get excited about stacking against. Left-handed batters have done more damage against him since last season with a .353 weighted on-base average (wOBA), but his .325 wOBA yielded in same-handed matchups against righties isn't the mark of a pitcher befuddling the opposition, either.

The right-hander's ineptitude against all hitters makes the entire Nationals lineup stackable. However, I'm especially drawn to the top power options in Washington's lineup. Porcello has ceded an eye-popping 31.8 percent line-drive percentage and 47.7 percent hard-hit percentage to hitters this year and struggled to avoid contact with just a 5.0 percent swinging-strike percentage.

With power in mind, the two players who stand head and shoulders above their teammates as the two must-roster options in a Nationals stack are Juan Soto ($4,100) and Eric Thames ($2,400).

Soto sent a ball into orbit last night, and he's the career owner of a .274 isolated power (ISO) against right-handed pitchers. He's also exhibiting zero ill effects from Covid-19 in his return to the diamond with three doubles, two homers and a .500 ISO through his first 19 plate appearances this season.

Thames is strikeout prone, but Porcello doesn't have the goods to exploit the swing-and-miss aspect of Thames' game. When he does make contact, he does damage with a .273 ISO and 46.3 percent hard-hit percentage against righties since returning to MLB from the Korean Baseball Organization in 2017.

Howie Kendrick ($2,500) and Asdrubal Cabrera ($2,900) have each found themselves sandwiched between Soto and Thames at times when the Nationals have faced right-handed starters this year, making both correlation plays as part of the stack.

Table-setting hitters Trea Turner ($3,200) and Adam Eaton ($2,700) also would make for obvious beneficiaries of another beatdown of the Mets tonight, sitting in the catbird seats at the top of the order and second spot, respectively.

Chicago Cubs

Instead of facing the supremely talented Mike Clevinger tonight, the Chicago Cubs will have the less daunting task of taking hacks against Adam Plutko.

Plutko takes Clevinger's spot in the rotation tonight due to the latter breaking MLB's Covid-19 protocol. Plutko's turned in a quality start and a relief appearance this year, but his larger body of work both last season and in his total career reveal a middling-at-best starter who the Cubs should have little trouble roughing up.

Since last year, Plutko's allowed a .473 slugging and .331 wOBA to left-handed batters and a .500 slugging and .330 wOBA to right-handed batters.

The Cubs offer a mix of righties and lefties with above-average numbers against righties since 2017, starting right out of the gate with Kris Bryant ($3,500). In 1,405 plate appearances against righties since 2017, he's rattled off a .375 OBP, .208 ISO and 126 weighted runs created plus (wRC+).

Hitting behind him in the two-hole is my favorite option from a Cubs stack, Anthony Rizzo ($3,700). Rizzo's done the most damage of the Cubs hitters against righties since 2017 with a .404 OBP, .228 ISO and 142 wRC+.

The trio of Javier Baez ($3,300), Kyle Schwarber ($2,700) and Willson Contreras ($3,000) each have compelling cases for usage and should be among the higher-owned options in Cubs stack.

Having said that, don't forget about Ian Happ ($2,700) at the bottom of the order as a potent option in a wrap-around stack. Happ's .259 ISO and 125 wRC+ against righties since 2017 are the second-highest and third-highest marks on the team during that period of time.

Cleveland Indians

In GPPs, the Cleveland Indians are probably my favorite stack tonight.

Opposing starter Jon Lester has a 0.82 ERA through two starts spanning 11.0 innings this year, but he's walking a tight rope and waiting for a stiff breeze to topple him over. He's struck out only 5 of the 42 batters he's faced this year with an almost unbelievably low 2.4 percent swinging-strike percentage. In addition to pitching to contact, he's coughing up fly balls at a high rate of 47.1 percent this year.

The Indians are stacked at the top of the order with options to make Lester pay for allowing contact and fly balls at high rates. Jordan Luplow ($2,100) is priced just $100 above the minimum salary and has hit leadoff against a lefty this year. Further, he leads the team with a .347 ISO and 154 wRC+ against lefties since 2017. He carries the risk of being lifted for a pinch-hitter later in the game, but that's more than baked into his salary.

My favorite option on the Indians, though, is hulking Franmil Reyes ($2,600). Since reaching the Majors in 2018, he's quickly established himself as a lefty-killer with a .383 OBP, .236 ISO and 143 wRC+.

The talented infield duo of Francisco Lindor ($3,400) and Jose Ramirez ($3,800) aren't slouches, either, with the former amassing a .210 ISO and 132 wRC+ and the latter ripping off a .230 ISO and 127 wRC+ against lefties since 2017.

Other stacking options include Carlos Santana ($2,700) and Domingo Santana ($2,400). I'm not crazy about the latter Santana, but Carlos is a strong play as the club's cleanup hitter.

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks are back in Coors Field tonight, and they had little trouble making themselves at home in MLB's most hitter-friendly venue.

Tonight, they face an even cushier matchup with Kyle Freeland. The 27-year-old lefty went from defying the odds and pitching well at home through his first two years in the Majors, but the other shoe dropped last year with him recording a 9.25 ERA in 47.2 innings at home. He's bounced back through two starts at home this season, but when betting on a pitcher succeeding at Coors Field or the park factors getting the better of him, my money's going to routinely be on the park winning out in the long term.

Since last year, Freeland has been creamed by right-handed batters. They've recorded a .547 slugging and .370 wOBA against him. The Diamondbacks have plenty of right-handed batters and switch-hitters who will step in as right-handed batters against him tonight. The stack I'm most intrigued by, though, is a wrap-around stack with a couple of down-order options who might be under-rostered tonight.

Carson Kelly ($2,500) and Nick Ahmed ($3,000) don't call premium lineup slots home, but each can take credit for impressive numbers against lefties since 2017. Kelly's tallied a 399 OBP, .229 ISO, 137 wRC+ and team-high 50.6 hard-hit percentage. Ahmed's been excellent, as well, with a .342 OBP, .231 ISO, 124 wRC+ and 43.6 percent hard-hit percentage that's second only to Kelly's mark.

The Marte's, Ketel Marte ($4,000) and Starling Marte ($3,800), slot in the top two spots in Arizona's order and will likely rightfully be chalky options tonight. Rookie Andy Young ($2,500) is worthy of consideration if he's in the lineup tonight, and ditto for Eduardo Escobar ($3,700) and Christian Walker ($3,500).

Joshua Shepardson is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Joshua Shepardson also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username bchad50. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.