3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 6/29/21
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
It appears the Baltimore Orioles are going to deploy a bullpen game tonight. I'd likely advise stacking the Houston Astros against a team with even a slightly above-average bullpen in a bullpen game, and the O's fall well short of that mark. According to FanGraphs, they have the sixth-highest ERA (4.89) for relievers in 2021.
Houston's offense has been the best in baseball by a wide margin this year. Their 125 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) is the highest by 14 points above a two-team tie for second. The lineup is chock full of elite hitters throughout.
I wouldn't begrudge anyone for using the hitters in the premium spots in the lineup, including leadoff hitter Jose Altuve ($4,000), Michael Brantley ($3,400) from the two-hole, and Yulieski Gurriel ($3,000) from the third spot in the order. However, my preference is to fully stack starting in the cleanup position with Yordan Alvarez ($3,700), followed by Carlos Correa ($3,800), Kyle Tucker ($3,200), and Abraham Toro ($2,700).
For the year, Correa leads the team with a 160 wRC+ and has the second-highest isolated power (.234 ISO). Alvarez ranks fourth on the team in wRC+ (151) and third in ISO (.233). Meanwhile, Tucker's .226 ISO is excellent, and Toro's hitting at an above-average clip since tasked with filling in for an injured Alex Bregman.
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics flubbed a golden opportunity offensively the last time they faced Mike Foltynewicz. Will they do so again? I don't think so. Is it possible gamers who didn't get the offensive outburst they hoped for allow recency bias to cloud their judgment, resulting in a contrarian stack? Maybe. It's also possible they slip through the wickets a bit as a product of all 30 teams playing tonight.
Folty's a pitcher to go out of your way to stack against. He's been bad all year. However, he's been terrible of late. Over his last five starts, he's been roughed up for a 7.40 ERA, 5.06 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), and yielded 2.59 homers per nine innings. The veteran's been below average against righties, ceding a .325 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to them. Yet, he's been even worse against lefties, getting rocked for a .642 slugging percentage and .434 wOBA.
You can stack the A's from top to bottom given Folty's struggles with all hitters -- saying nothing of the bullpen, which has the ninth-highest ERA (4.55). However, I'm fixated on the left-handed-hitting duo of Tony Kemp ($2,400) and Matt Olson ($4,200). The former has a .400 on-base percentage and 142 wRC+ against righties this season, and he should hit leadoff. The latter has been better against righties in 2021, with a .377 on-base percentage, .273 ISO, and 156 wRC+.
Los Angeles Angels
This might feel like deja vu for those of you who read yesterday's article, as the Los Angeles Angels rejoin the Astros here again today. Opposing starter Jameson Taillon's first season with the New York Yankees isn't going to either's liking thus far. The righty's 4.03 SIERA this year isn't awful. However, his 5.18 ERA is ugly. Homers have been problematic, surrendering 1.54 per nine innings.
Further, rather than pitching closer to his SIERA of late, it's eroded as he's struggled more lately. In his last five starts, he has a 5.40 ERA and 4.90 SIERA. One thing that's plagued Taillon this season is his struggles with lefties. They torched him for a .375 wOBA.
I'm once again locked in on the duo of Shohei Ohtani ($4,300) and Jared Walsh ($3,400). Ohtani reached the seats last night with his Major League Baseball-leading 26th homer. He has a .376 on-base percentage, .380 ISO, and 177 wRC+ against righties for the year. Walsh has obliterated righties for a .411 on-base percentage, .326 ISO, and 188 wRC+.
If you're running a full, four-person stack with the Angels, I don't see a reason to get cute. Go ahead and stick in leadoff-hitter David Fletcher ($2,500) and number-three hitter Anthony Rendon ($3,000) for a straightforward stack of their top-four hitters.
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.
