3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 8/3/21
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.
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are at home tonight. That's great news for their daily fantasy outlook, as they're one of the best offenses in Major League Baseball at home. According to FanGraphs, Cincinnati ranks seventh in weighted runs created plus (108 wRC+), seventh in isolated power (.190 ISO), and tied for second in weighted on-base average (wOBA) at home this season.
Speaking of wOBA, opposing starter Kenta Maeda hasn't been impressive by that measure against lefties or righties this year. He's coughed up a .329 wOBA to lefties. Meanwhile, he's allowed a .323 wOBA to righties. Neither mark is horrendous, screaming to stack against it, nor is his 3.98 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) in 17 starts lasting 86 innings. Regardless, they're not numbers to go out of your way to avoid, either.
As far as who I'm most enamored with from the Reds, Kyle Farmer ($2,600), Jesse Winker ($4,400), and Joey Votto ($4,400) get the nod. Votto's been excellent against righties all year, and he's been a man on fire of late. Votto's excellence has allowed Farmer's heater to take place in the shadows. The right-handed hitting infielder has roughed up righties for a .421 on-base percentage, .239 ISO, and 164 wRC+ in 76 plate appearances since July 1. Finally, Winker's been a thorn in the side of righties this year, too, recording a .415 on-base percentage, .286 ISO, and 175 wRC+ against them.
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox will likely be the most popular stack tonight. Thankfully it's a full slate, so I'm not overly concerned with the percentage of rosters they're on. The love they'll presumably receive tonight is warranted, as the other shoe has dropped for opposing starter Wily Peralta.
The veteran righty's underlying statistics didn't support his surprising four-start stretch of excellence from late June through the middle of July, and the wheels have come off in his last two turns. He's coughed up 11 runs on 11 hits, 4 homers, 5 walks, and only 4 strikeouts in his last two starts lasting a mere nine innings. Boston should have little trouble roughing him up tonight.
Rafael Devers ($4,100) is my favorite option from the Red Sox. He's creamed righties this year for a .362 on-base percentage, .359 ISO, and 163 wRC+. Fellow stars Xander Bogaerts ($3,400) and J.D. Martinez ($3,800) are elite picks as well. However, Franchy Cordero ($2,000) is a sneaky option at the bottom of the order with the minimum salary. He feasted on minor-league pitching after initially struggling in The Show earlier this year, and his raw power has a chance to show up in tonight's game against a pitcher who struggles to miss bats.
San Francisco Giants
Madison Bumgarner was a homegrown talent and World Series hero for the San Francisco Giants, but don't expect their bats to greet him warmly in Arizona tonight. The 32-year-old lefty is a shell of his former elite self, responsible for a 4.87 ERA and 4.33 SIERA this year. Also of note, he's struck out only 22.3 percent of the hitters he's faced while inducing a grounder on only 30.2 percent of balls put in play against him.
Bumgarner's lackluster strikeout rate and struggles coaxing worm burners could bite him in the butt tonight. San Francisco's above-average against lefties this year, ranking tied for 11th in wRC+ (102). Their offense also received a big boost at the trade deadline, acquiring lefty-killer Kris Bryant ($4,200). He's one of San Francisco's top stacking options, ripping lefties for a .429 on-base percentage, .367 ISO, and 199 wRC+ this season.
In addition to Bryant, I love Buster Posey ($3,100) and Darin Ruf ($2,400). Posey's having a resurgent season and wrecking lefties, amassing a .462 on-base percentage, .217 ISO, and 183 wRC+ against them. Ruf has destroyed southpaws this year as well, with a .420 on-base percentage, .329 ISO, and 171 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.
