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.
New York Yankees
Jordan Lyles doesn't stand out as an obvious option to stack against based on his 4.11 ERA in eight starts totaling 46 innings this year. However, according to FanGraphs, he's had a less impressive 4.31 Expected ERA (xERA). Moreover, today's probable starter for the Baltimore Orioles has been dreadful looking back at a larger sample.
In 283 and 2/3 innings pitched since 2020, Lyles has had a 5.36 ERA, 4.83 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP), 1.42 WHIP, and allowed 1.75 homers per nine innings. He's also been crushed by lefties and righties. Since last year, he's allowed a .353 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) to lefties and a .349 wOBA to righties.
Thus, the New York Yankees are an excellent stack tonight. The Bronx Bombers have many strong stacking options. Nonetheless, Aaron Judge ($4,400), Anthony Rizzo ($3,800), and Giancarlo Stanton ($3,800) are the top dogs. The trio has shown off top-shelf power against righties. Since 2019, against righties, Rizzo has had a .228 Isolated Power (ISO), Stanton has had a .246 ISO, and Judge has had a .259 ISO.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers have the best matchup tonight. Joan Adon has had a putrid 6.38 ERA, 6.44 xERA, 5.02 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA), 13.5 percent walk rate, 1.64 WHIP, and allowed 1.23 homers per nine innings in 36 and 2/3 innings this season.
Additionally, the Washington Nationals' relievers have pitched poorly this year. Washington's bullpen has had the seventh-highest ERA (4.12). Circling back to Adon, he's had no answers for righties or lefties. The right-handed pitcher has allowed a .341 wOBA to righties and a .394 wOBA to lefties.
Adon's and the bullpen's struggles are unlikely to cease against the Dodgers. Los Angeles is tied for the highest Weighted Runs Created Plus (123 wRC+) against righties in 2022. They're legitimately stackable from top to bottom. Yet, if reserve Edwin Rios ($2,300) gets a spot start after homering yesterday, he's an amazing source of salary-cap relief with elite power.
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants aren't as deep or attractive a stacking option as the Yankees or Dodgers. So instead, this stack is suggested with a specific trio in mind against lefty David Peterson.
The young lefty has allowed a ho-hum .324 wOBA to right-handed batters since last year. Therefore, a few lefty-killers merit consideration tonight. Specifically, Darin Ruf ($2,900), Wilmer Flores ($3,000), and Evan Longoria ($2,400) are appealing picks.
Since 2019, against lefties, Flores has had a .243 ISO and 131 wRC+. Longo has been even better, recording a .381 OBP, .223 ISO, and 138 wRC+. Finally, Ruf has been the best in the trio, hammering lefties for a .386 OBP, .300 ISO, and 158 wRC+. As a bonus, using the trio frees up significant cap space for other stud hitters and one of the aces starting tonight.
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.