Stacks are the backbone of cashing daily fantasy baseball lineups. Correlation drives upside, creating the potential to place high or even win GPPs when your selected stacks explode offensively.
This column will do the digging and the dirty work to determine which stacks are worth rostering each day. Scoring upside will fuel the stacks that get the nod. Sometimes that will lead to chalky selections, but contrarian stacks will get their fair share of love too.
In addition to utilizing the touted daily stacks in handbuilt lineups, numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. Our hitting heat map tool is also available to premium members looking for more stacking options. It provides valuable info such as implied total, park factors, and stats for identifying the quality of the opposing pitcher.
Let's take a look at the top stacks on today's main slate.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been the second-best offense against righties this year with a 115 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) in the split, per FanGraphs. They've also been a top-10 offense over the last 30 days, ranking 10th with a 106 wRC+.
They should build on those marks in a plus matchup tonight. Mike Foltynewicz's 4.75 ERA isn't anything special. Yet, it's still a pinch better than his 4.79 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA). He's also been homer-prone, ceding 1.76 homers per nine innings to opponents. Further, Folty's pitch-to-contact approach has resulted in only a 16.4 percent strikeout rate, and the Dodgers' offense is capable of punishing that approach.
There are a number of aces toeing the slab tonight, so my favorite Dodgers stacking options are a salary-cap-friendly group that provides the upside of exposure to this stack as well as the cap relief needed to roster an ace. Will Smith ($2,600), Gavin Lux ($2,500), and A.J. Pollock ($2,400) slotted fifth, seventh, and eighth, respectively, on June 8 when all three were in the lineup. That gives them lineup-spot correlation to enhance scoring upside. Further, each has been an above-average hitter against right-handed pitchers this year.
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are home against a below-average pitcher. That's a recipe for stacking Cincy.
According to the park factors at FantasyPros, Great American Ball Park has the second-highest park factor for runs (1.106) and ranks first for homers (1.347). The Reds have taken advantage of their dreamy hitting conditions, sitting fifth in home wRC+ (120), second in home isolated power (.213 ISO), and first in home weighted on-base average (.355 wOBA).
As for the pitching matchup, Kyle Freeland has a 6.23 ERA, 6.12 SIERA, 2.08 WHIP, 12.7 percent walk rate, and 11.1 percent strikeout rate through three starts (13 innings). The lefty's poor control and inability to miss bats should fuel an offensive explosion for the Reds. And after Freeland, the Colorado Rockies rank 29th in bullpen ERA (5.40).
There's an appeal to using hitters from up and down the order. However, my two favorite options are lefty-killers Nick Castellanos ($4,200) and Tyler Stephenson ($2,500). The former has a .408 on-base percentage, .264 ISO, and 171 wRC+ against southpaws since 2018. The latter has a .320 ISO and 129 wRC+ in an admittedly small sample of 47 against lefties since debuting in 2020.
Houston Astros
On a night when more than a handful of aces are taking the mound, avoiding them and stacking against bad pitchers is the goal. The Houston Astros might be facing the worst pitcher getting the ball tonight. Matt Shoemaker has the highest ERA (7.28), third-highest homers per nine innings allowed (1.95), and second-highest SIERA (5.25) among tonight's probable starters.
He's been beaten up by right-handed batters and demolished by lefties, too, yielding a .333 wOBA to the righties and a .545 slugging and .406 OBA to left-handers. When Shoemaker exits, he'll hand the ball off to one of Major League Baseball's worst bullpens as the Minnesota Twins rank 25th in bullpen ERA (4.62).
Houston is stackable from top to bottom, as they rank first in wRC+ (116) against righties this year and first over the last 30 days with a jaw-dropping 131 wRC+. Having said that, I'm enamored with the idea of loading up on left-handed hitters who have the platoon advantage against Shoemaker.
The two lefties I'm more infatuated with are Yordan Alvarez ($3,700) and Kyle Tucker ($3,200). Versus righties since debuting in 2019, Alvarez has ripped them for a .398 on-base percentage, .306 ISO, and 169 wRC+. Tucker debuted in 2018, and he has a .223 ISO and 119 RC+ against righties for his career. Tucker has kicked things up a notch this year, muscling up for a .231 ISO and 144 wRC+ against righties.
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.