3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 6/16/21

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.

Houston Astros

I'm prioritizing rostering Jacob deGrom tonight. Even with that being the case, it's possible to stack my favorite offense tonight, the Houston Astros. They have a fantasy-friendly implied total in a plus matchup.

According to FanGraphs, among tonight's probable starters, Jordan Lyles has the highest ERA (5.37), third-highest homers per nine innings allowed (1.61 HR/9), and third-highest skill-interactive ERA (4.70 SIERA). He has proven himself inept against either handedness of hitter this year, ceding a .335 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to lefties and a .381 wOBA to righties in 2021.

The Astros are stackable from top to bottom. However, since I'm looking to save cap space for deGrom and avoid punting numerous hitter spots, I'm likely to fade Jose Altuve ($4,000) and Yordan Alvarez ($3,700). Both have merit for usage if you're fading deGrom.

My favorite options from the Astros are headlined by Michael Brantley ($3,000) and Yulieski Gurriel ($3,100). The former has a .426 on-base percentage and 171 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against righties this year. The latter has a .382 on-base percentage and 138 wRC+ against righties in 2021.

New York Mets

The New York Mets are facing fill-in starter, Robert Stock. Stock has never started a game in the majors, amassing all of his 63 and 2/3 innings in relief. He's a 31-year-old hurler who's spent most of his career in the minors, and he has a 7.13 ERA and 4.81 SIERA in his last 24 big-league innings.

The sample is small. Still, it's unimpressive. Further, if talent evaluators thought Stock had untapped potential, it's unlikely he would have been toiling at the Triple-A level as depth for the Chicago Cubs.

Jonathan Villar ($3,000), Francisco Lindor ($3,000), Pete Alonso ($3,500), and Dominic Smith ($2,700) are all great stacking options, slotting in the top four spots in the order. However, my favorite option, Billy McKinney ($2,400), hits fifth and looks like a steal. The left-handed-hitting outfielder has above-average power against righties, recording a .223 ISO against them since 2018 and a .262 ISO this year.

Seattle Mariners

Listen, I recognize the Seattle Mariners aren't an offense to get excited about stacking. Regardless, they look like a bargain option in a potentially plus matchup. Opposing starter Bailey Ober checked in 22nd on the Minnesota Twins' top prospects lists at FanGraphs prior to the season. Prospect evaluations are imperfect, and players outperform expectations. Still, Ober's 4.85 ERA and batted-ball numbers in three starts totaling 13 innings don't inspire confidence he'll make evaluators look foolish for underrating him.

Ober's faced only 25 lefties in the bigs, but he's been flummoxed by them, yielding a .560 on-base percentage, .909 slugging, .610 wOBA, and a pair of taters. The righty's struggles with lefties fuel my preference for attacking him with Seattle's left-handed hitters.

It starts at the top with J.P. Crawford ($2,700). Over the last 30 days, he's raked to the tune of a 132 wRC+. He also homered last night. Jake Fraley ($3,500) is playing like a man possessed since being recalled from the minors on May 31. In 54 plate appearances since his big-league return, he has a .481 on-base percentage, .317 ISO, and 206 wRC+. I also dig veteran Kyle Seager ($3,000), owner of a .238 ISO against righties this season.

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.