MLB

Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 5/19/22

Josh Shepardson  —  @BChad50 May 19th, 2022
The Astros are the top stack on tonight's small main slate. Which other offense is worth stacking?

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.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are loaded on offense, and opposing starter Glenn Otto has been no match for big-league hitters. In his first 10 starts for the Texas Rangers, Otto has a putrid 7.99 ERA, yielding 1.30 homers per nine innings.

Further, the 26-year-old righty has been destroyed by lefties and righties. According to FanGraphs, he's allowed a .343 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) to 125 right-handed batters. Yet, lefties have done more damage. The 67 lefties Otto has squared off against have crushed him for a .509 slugging and .406 wOBA.

There's no shortage of stacking options on the Astros. The top picks are Jose Altuve ($4,000), Yordan Alvarez ($4,500), and Kyle Tucker ($3,700). Since 2019, versus righties, Altuve has had a 126 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+), Tucker's had a 151 wRC+, and Alvarez has had a 162 wRC+.

Arizona Diamondbacks

There are two driving forces for suggesting stacking the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight. First, they're a cap-friendly stack that blends brilliantly with the Astros. Second, they face Marcus Stroman off a layoff of more than two weeks.

Will the veteran righty be rusty after last pitching on May 1 and not partaking in a rehab trip? Maybe. He did throw a bullpen on Tuesday, but that's not the same as game action. As a result, the Diamondbacks could greet him rudely if he's shaky.

A few options are worth consideration on the Diamondbacks. Daulton Varsho ($2,800) and Alek Thomas ($2,500) are the most enticing selections.

Varsho has demonstrated exciting power against righties. In 411 plate appearances against righties since debuting in 2020, he has had a .222 Isolated Power (ISO). Thomas has transitioned from a highly successful minor-league hitter to raking in the bigs. In his first 24 plate appearances against righties for the Diamondbacks, he's thrived to the tune of a .375 OBP, .391 ISO, and 209 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.