3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 6/24/21
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.
Pittsburgh Pirates
There aren't many offenses I can distinctly say I haven't touted stacking this season. However, the Pittsburgh Pirates are one. That changes tonight, as I'm stoked about stacking them against Carlos Martinez.
C-Mart has a 6.62 ERA and 5.01 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) in 13 starts totaling 68 innings. Remarkably, his full-season totals fail to tell the whole story, as the wheels have come off of late. In his last five starts, he's been rocked for a 12.19 ERA and 4.52 SIERA.
The Pirates are one of the worst offenses in baseball versus righties, ranking 26th in weighted runs created plus (84 wRC+) against them, per FanGraphs. However, the top of their order features a handful of hitters who are raking against righties. Adam Frazier ($3,000) is among those hitters right off the jump from the leadoff spot, doing his job as a table-setter with a .399 on-base percentage against them. Ke'Bryan Hayes ($3,100) is worth a look from the two-hole.
Although, it's the third and cleanup hitters I'm locked in on, Bryan Reynolds ($3,200) and Colin Moran ($2,500). The former has a .385 on-base percentage, .212 isolated power (ISO), and 143 wRC+ against righties in 2021. The latter has amassed a .361 on-base percentage and 131 wRC+ against them this season.
Houston Astros
Jose Urena is one of the worst starting pitchers on tonight's slate. For the year, he owns a 5.79 ERA, 5.31 SIERA, and 1.59 WHIP. He struggles to strike batters out with a 13.9 percent strikeout rate, and he's free-pass prone, walking 10.2 percent of the batters he's faced. The veteran righty has pitched to a 5.21 ERA or higher each season since 2019.
As is the case with the previous pitcher I suggested stacking against, Urena's in a tailspin. In his last four starts lasting only 16 and 2/3 innings, he's been beaten up for a 9.18 ERA and 6.72 SIERA. He's also walked a higher percentage of batters than he's struck out, with marks of 13.6 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. He's in roaring-tire-fire form.
The Houston Astros have been Major League Baseball's best offense against righties this year, recording a 122 wRC+. Yes, they're without Alex Bregman. Regardless, this is a loaded offense that just got Kyle Tucker ($3,000) back yesterday -- and he is someone I'm interested in using in stacks.
My two favorite options from the 'stros, though, are left-handed-hitting outfielders Michael Brantley ($3,700) and Yordan Alvarez ($3,800). Urena's had no answers for left-handed hitters this year, yielding a .500 slugging percentage and .381 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to them.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Zach Davies' four-leaf clover began wilting in his last start. He coughed up eight runs on seven hits, three walks, two homers, and two strikeouts in six innings against the Miami Marlins. Still, he has a sizable gap for the year between his underwhelming 4.66 ERA and ghastly 5.63 SIERA.
Davies combination of striking batters out at a poor 13.9 percent clip and walking too many batters at an 11.1 percent rate is a recipe for disaster. The Los Angeles Dodgers have an offense capable of ramping up the regression process, ranking second in wRC+ (119) against right-handed pitching in 2021. They're also in good form, ranking seventh in wRC+ (110) over the last 30 days.
The Dodgers have remarkable lineup depth, making them stackable from top to bottom. Still, some of my favorite options include Max Muncy ($3,500), Will Smith ($2,700), and Justin Turner ($3,300). Muncy's lit righties up for a .399 on-base percentage, .252 ISO, and 151 wRC+. Smith's been even better, recording a .410 on-base percentage, .269 ISO, and 171 wRC+. Turner's lineup spot bolsters his case for inclusion in this stack, but his 135 wRC+ against righties this year is nothing to sneeze at, either.
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.
