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 should feast against a pitcher they roughed up the only time he's faced them.
Cole Ragans is getting the ball for the second time in his career against the Astros after opposing them on August 11. The rookie lefty coughed up a pair of homers en route to allowing five runs in only 4 1/3 innings.
Ragans has a 4.42 ERA and 6.09 ERA in four big-league starts totaling 18 1/3 innings, and the southpaw has been a tire fire against righties. Ragans has faced 71 righties in The Show, yielding four homers, a .541 slugging, and .389 wOBA. Thus, it makes sense to stack Houston's righties against him.
It starts atop the lineup with Jose Altuve ($4,100). Since 2019, the veteran second baseman has torched lefties for a .357 OBP, .258 ISO, and 147 wRC+.
Alex Bregman ($3,500) has also smashed lefties, amassing a.395 OBP, .238 ISO, and 150 wRC+ versus them since 2019.
Meanwhile, Trey Mancini ($2,700) and Chas McCormick ($2,500) are exciting options near the bottom of the order, providing cap relief to boot.
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs have an excellent matchup tonight. Among starters with at least 80 innings pitched in 2022, Mike Minor has had the second-highest ERA (5.98), xFIP (5.10), and homers per nine innings (2.13 HR/9).
Minor has been at his worst against righties. The veteran southpaw has allowed a .575 slugging and .404 wOBA to 291 right-handed batters in 2022.
Further, the Cubs have a great matchup against the Cincinnati Reds' pathetic bullpen. Cincinnati's relievers have had the highest ERA (4.81) this year.
As a result, Chicago's offense should shine tonight. My favorite stacking choices from the Cubs are a couple of right-handed-hitting outfielders.
First, Seiya Suzuki ($2,800) has had a .349 OBP and 115 wRC+ in 106 plate appearances against lefties in the Majors. Second, Franmil Reyes ($2,800) is a great power source. Since 2019, he's had a .201 ISO against lefties.
Beyond those two, the ineptitude of Minor and Cincinnati's bullpen makes the Cubs stackable from top to bottom.
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.