3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 8/25/21
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.
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox hung 11 runs on the Minnesota Twins, and I don't see a reason to expect Minnesota's misery to end tonight. Bailey Ober's 4.38 ERA isn't special, and his lackluster 33.5 percent groundball rate, per FanGraphs, may prove problematic against Boston's powerful lineup.
To that point, the Red Sox rank fifth in isolated power (.190 ISO) against righties this year. Further, the Red Sox rank tied for 11th in ISO (.184) since the Major League Baseball trade deadline and sixth in ISO (.189) at home this year. Regardless of what split you choose to apply to tonight, Boston boasts above-average power.
Revisiting Ober, the righty's at his worst against lefties. He's yielded a .525 slugging percentage and .379 weighted on-base percentage (wOBA) to 130 lefties faced. Unsurprisingly, my favorite options from the Red Sox are left-handed hitters.
It starts with Kyle Schwarber ($3,500). He's tattooed right-handed pitchers for a .385 ISO this year and .295 ISO since 2018. Rafael Devers ($4,000) is an elite option, too, with a .339 ISO in 2019 and .277 ISO since 2018 versus righties. Finally, Alex Verdugo ($3,000) is responsible for a 128 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against righties since 2018 and 145 wRC+ this season.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers represent a high-risk, high-reward stack against Blake Snell. The veteran lefty's found his footing of late. In his last 10 starts, he has a 3.60 ERA and 27.7 percent strikeout rate. He hasn't been bulletproof, though, as evidenced by his 14.4 percent walk rate and 4.61 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) during that stretch. In addition, Snell has an ugly 4.82 ERA and 4.32 SIERA overall this year.
As for the Dodgers, they're a middle-of-the-pack offense against lefties this year. However, they're Major League Baseball's second-best offense since the trade deadline, recording a gaudy 125 wRC+. My preference for stacking the Dodgers is to utilize their righties, taking advantage of Snell's susceptibility against them. Snell's coughed up a .366 to 372 righties faced in 2021.
My favorite righty, Trea Turner ($4,400), sits atop the order. Turner has blazing speed that's helped him steal 24 bases this campaign. Further, he's unloaded on lefties for a .448 on-base percentage, .278 ISO, and 198 wRC+. His namesake, Justin Turner ($3,900), is a stellar option, too.
However, the trio of Chris Taylor ($3,600), A.J. Pollock ($3,100), and Albert Pujols ($2,200) cap off my favorite four-person stack. No, your eyes aren't failing you. Pujols is an intentional inclusion. He has a .308 ISO against lefties in 2021 and a .241 ISO against them since 2018. Obviously, that kind of top-shelf power is a steal at his near-minimum salary.
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians oppose rookie Jake Latz for his big-league debut. The debuting southpaw doesn't carry much prospect cache, and he's pitched fewer than 75 innings in Double-A and Triple-A combined. Further, his 4.98 ERA with 13 homers allowed in 16 appearances (15 starts) at those minor-league levels suggests he's a great target to stack against.
I don't see a reason to get cute with stacking the Indians. Their projected top-four hitters, Myles Straw ($3,300), Amed Rosario ($3,200), Jose Ramirez ($4,500), and Franmil Reyes ($3,200), are the most attractive options. Out of that group, Ramirez and Reyes are the apples of my eye.
The switch-hitting Ramirez has a .350 on-base percentage, .248 ISO, and 131 wRC+ against lefties since 2018. Additionally, he bolsters his upside with 16 stolen bases in 19 attempts this season. Finally, Ramirez has been a man on fire this month, recording a .381 ISO and 155 wRC+ in August.
Reyes doesn't bring speed to the table. However, he boasts above-average power. Reyes has a .210 ISO against lefties since 2018 and .212 ISO this year. Overall, he's slugged 22 round-trippers in 330 plate appearances 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.
