3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Monday 8/2/21
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.
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees added serious firepower to their offense at the trade deadline, bringing in Anthony Rizzo ($4,400) and Joey Gallo ($3,500). The left-handed duo is among my favorite stacking options tonight, as they're treated to a park factor of 1.140 for left-handed homers at Yankee Stadium, per FantasyPros. Further, Rizzo and Gallo possess the power to take advantage of the park-factor boost, with the former tallying a .201 isolated power (ISO) and the latter ripping a .260 ISO against righties this year.
Obviously, the stacking options don't end there in a mouthwatering matchup against Jorge Lopez. The 28-year-old righty's responsible for a grotesque 6.19 ERA, 4.61 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), and 1.50 homers per nine innings in 21 starts lasting 96 innings pitched in 2021. Further, Lopez has been blasted by lefties and righties alike, yielding a .369 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to lefties and .376 wOBA to righties.
Beyond Rizzo and Gallo, I love Aaron Judge ($4,000) and Giancarlo Stanton ($3,600) from the Bronx Bombers. Judge owns a .356 on-base percentage, .212 ISO, and 130 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against righties this year. Stanton hasn't been as great against righties as Judge, yet his .351 on-base percentage, .206 ISO, and 125 wRC+ are appealing.
Tampa Bay Rays
Chris Flexen has made a surprisingly successful return stateside from the Korean Baseball Organization, where he pitched in 2020. However, Flexen's 3.81 ERA greatly exaggerates his excellence, as evidenced by his 4.74 SIERA. He'll have his hands full tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Tampa Bay's offense is a top-five unit against righties, ranking tied for fourth in wRC+ (110). Additionally, the offense is more potent now with the addition of slugger Nelson Cruz ($3,700), who's an excellent stacking option. In addition to their top-five rank in wRC+, the Rays ranked tied for fourth in ISO (.187), which means they have the power to take advantage of Flexen's pitch-to-contact approach.
As much as I love Cruz tonight, the trio of Joey Wendle ($2,500), Brandon Lowe ($3,300), Austin Meadows ($3,800) is most appealing. All three hitters have the platoon advantage as lefties. They're responsible for a 144 wRC+, 153 wRC+, and 154 wRC+ against righties this year, respectively. Lowe and Meadows have also muscled up for a .282 ISO and .320 ISO.
San Francisco Giants
Coincidentally, the San Francisco Giants are the team tied with the Rays in wRC+ against righties this season. On top of that, they rank first with a .202 ISO against right-handed pitchers this year. Like the Yankees and Rays, they added some firepower at the trade deadline, too, acquiring Kris Bryant ($4,200). Bryant's a defensible stacking option. Still, his salary is a little higher than I like paying without the platoon advantage tonight.
Righty Taylor Widener toes the slab for the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight, and he's a below-average starter. The righty's 4.42 ERA is adequate to stack against. Meanwhile, his 4.80 SIERA and 1.96 homers per nine innings allowed are mouthwatering numbers to stack against, using San Francisco's power-packed lineup. The righty's been most susceptible against lefties this year, coughing up a .520 slugging percentage and .366 wOBA to the 84 of them he's faced in 2021.
With that in mind, Mike Yastrzemski ($3,500) and Brandon Crawford ($3,200) are the two hitters in San Franciso's offense I'm most enamored by tonight. Yastrzemski has creamed righties for a .304 ISO and 135 wRC+ this year. However, Crawford's been even better, unloading on them for a .394 on-base percentage, .272 ISO, and 158 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.
