Stacks are an integral part of daily fantasy baseball. They can push a team to the top of a GPP by driving upside. However, they're also viable in cash games, namely smaller (two-person or three-person) stacks that mitigate the volatility of a full four-person stack.
This article is your home throughout the 2022 Major League Baseball season for the day's top stacks. The primary goal is to identify the highest-scoring upside stack. Still, game theory will play a role in contrarian stacks making the cut as GPP options. Nevertheless, chalky stacks will make appearances in this space, too.
Beyond my analysis in this space, I strongly suggest numberFire premium members using our DFS Sharpstack tool and hitting heat map tool. The DFS Sharpstack helps plug stacks into optimized lineups, allowing you to change parameters and lock or exclude players and teams. Meanwhile, the heat map offers a one-stop-shop for the opposing starting pitcher, implied total, park factor, and other notable goodies.
Now, let's look at the top stacks on today's main slate that starts on FanDuel at 2:20 pm ET.
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals have terrorized southpaws this year. According to FanGraphs, they lead Major League Baseball with a 150 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) against lefties. Moreover, they lead the way in Isolated Power (ISO) by a wide margin, recording a .248 ISO versus a .205 ISO in second place.
A peek at Madison Bumgarner's 1.00 ERA in four starts totaling 18 innings would suggest he's a pitcher to avoid stacking against. However, his 4.74 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP). 17.3 percent strikeout rate and 13.3 percent walk rate indicate he's due for swift regression. The Red Birds are precisely the team to jack MadBum's ERA up closer toward his ERA estimators.
My two favorite options from the Cardinals are their most accomplished lefty-killers, Paul Goldschmidt ($3,500) and Nolan Arenado ($4,000). However, I also adore Tyler O'Neill ($3,200) and Albert Pujols ($2,400) as a sleeper. O'Neill has enormous power, evidenced by his .316 ISO against lefties since breaking out last year. Meanwhile, Pujols has tagged lefties for a .329 ISO since last year.
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are drawing southpaws on consecutive days. The Bronx Bombers were blanked for the first four innings yesterday before erupting for 10 runs. They're positioned to keep it rolling against Kris Bubic and the Kansas City Royals tonight.
Bubic has been a disaster this year. He's gotten rocked for exactly five runs in two of three starts, allowing 11 runs on 12 hits, 9 walks, 1 homer, and only 5 strikeouts in just 7 innings. The young lefty has pitched progressively worse since debuting in 2020. In addition, he's struggled with right-handed batters, yielding a .342 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) to 493 faced since 2021.
I'm leaning into the Yankees with the platoon advantage in the stack, focusing on Aaron Judge ($3,900) and Giancarlo Stanton ($3,100) as my core picks. Judge blasted a homer yesterday, and Stanton ripped a dinger on Wednesday. But, more importantly, both Statcast darlings have been lefty-killers throughout their careers.
Minnesota Twins
I reluctantly suggested the Minnesota Twins as a viable stack yesterday. They rewarded my lukewarm faith with a seven-run effort. I'm more excited to recommend them tonight against Corey Kluber.
Kluber has been solid if unspectacular this year, with a 3.68 ERA in three starts. However, all of his ERA estimators have been worse. For instance, he has a 4.53 Expected ERA (xERA), and all of his other ERA estimators are north of 4.05.
Your intuition might say to stack against Kluber with Minnesota's left-handed hitters. While I don't think you should avoid them, I'm more drawn to the righties, thanks to Kluber's struggle in same-handed matchups since last year. Kluber has allowed a .359 wOBA to righties since 2021.
As a result, Byron Buxton ($4,400) and Carlos Correa ($3,000) are the must-use players in a Minnesota stack. Thankfully, the duo has excelled against righties. Since 2019, Buxton has had a .318 ISO and 137 wRC+ against right-handed pitchers. Correa hasn't been as great. Nevertheless, his .223 ISO and 120 wRC+ have been nothing to sneeze at.
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.