3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/24/20

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.

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a tantalizing pitching matchup tonight against Ryan Castellani. The other shoe somewhat dropped in his last start after two fluky good starts to open his 2020 campaign. He allowed 8 hits, 1 walk, 2 homers, and 5 earned runs in 5 and 2/3 innings at home against the Houston Astros his last trip to the hill.

Still, his 3.77 ERA this year is in stark contrast to his 4.70 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA). He also has a sizable gap between his .299 weighted on-base average (wOBA) and his .366 expected wOBA (xwOBA), according to Baseball Savant. More regression should be on the way for Castellani, and the Diamondbacks could be poised to provide some of it tonight.

Kole Calhoun ($3,200) will get the first crack at doing damage against him from the leadoff spot. His punch makes him worth a look. In 1,373 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers since 2017, he owns a .203 isolated power (ISO), per FanGraphs.

Ketel Marte ($3,500) is also in a table-setter position from the second spot in the order and is worth a look at second base. Starling Marte ($3,600) is up next in the order and is in the midst of a solid first season with the Diamondbacks posting a .402 OBP and 134 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) while showing off his wheels for five stolen bases in seven attempts.

The cleanup through the sixth spot in the order are held down by David Peralta ($2,900), Christian Walker ($3,000), and Eduardo Escobar ($2,900). They're each worth a look along with their previously touted teammates. Additionally, they make for their own interesting bargain stack collectively -- namely for gamers looking to pay up for Trevor Bauer and his slate-high $12,000 salary.

Los Angeles Angels

The Los Angeles Angels are my co-favorite stack of the night with the caveat it's a very narrowly focused stack. Andrelton Simmons ($2,200) brings a wrap-around stack into the picture if he remains at the bottom of the order. Further, using him at his near-minimum salary helps offset the salaries of the studs in the lineup and opens the door to using this stack with Bauer.

Leadoff hitter David Fletcher ($3,300) is hitting well this year with a .372 OBP and 129 wRC+, but it's the bump from the correlation of using him with the two studs hitting in the third and cleanup spot that gets him the nod. Anthony Rendon ($4,000) owns a .416 OBP, .309 ISO and 159 wRC+ against lefties since 2017. He's the first of the two must-use studs in an Angels stack.

The other is, obviously, Mike Trout ($4,600). Trout's amassed a .431 OBP, .251 ISO, and 156 wRC+ against lefties since 2017. Both Rendon and Trout are raking this year, too. Rendon's the owner of a .451 OBP, .242 ISO and 178 wRC+ in 113 plate appearances after getting a slightly late start on the year. Trout missed some time for the birth of his child, but he's been his excellent self when on the diamond with a .342 OBP, .340 ISO, and 151 wRC+.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are my other co-favorite stack squaring off with the Angels. They have a more desirable pitching matchup against Patrick Sandoval and are a deeper stack. The lefty's been a bit lucky this year in the wOBA department with a .329 wOBA allowed to hitters and a .355 xwOBA. Having said that, his 5.40 ERA is markedly above his 4.81 SIERA. Although, his SIERA is still a tasty number to stack against.

As for the stacking options, it starts at the top with George Springer ($3,900). Teammate Jose Altuve ($3,700) was briefly dropped in the order, but the combination of injuries and his own play have helped him climb back to second in the order. He's having a rough year, but he could be settling into form with four multi-hit efforts in his last five games. Also, it would be foolish to overreact to his poor start and ignore his gaudy .375 OBP, .213 ISO, and 142 wRC+ against southpaws since 2017.

Carlos Correa ($3,100) is one of my favorite hitting options on the slate and is my favorite option in this stack. He's been moved up to the third spot in the order and handles lefties with aplomb owning a .419 OBP, .183 ISO, and 154 wRC+ against them since 2017.

Yulieski Gurriel ($3,400) is the other right-handed-hitting Astro who I like in their stack. However, don't overlook lefty Kyle Tucker ($3,100). He hit cleanup yesterday with a lefty starter opposing the Astros, and the youngster's been excellent in same-handed matchups. In his 76 plate appearances against lefties in the Majors, he has a .355 OBP, .214 ISO, and 137 wRC+.

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.