4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 6/24/15
Each day here on numberFire, we'll be providing you with four potential offenses to stack in your daily fantasy lineups. These are the offenses that provide huge run potential on that given day based on matchups and other factors.
After reading through these suggestions, make sure to check out our daily projections. These can either let you know which players to include in each stack, or which guy best complements said stack.
Another great tool is our custom optimal lineups, which are available for premium subscribers. Within the tool, we've added the option to stack teams -- you choose the team you want to stack, show how many players you want to use within the stack, and the tool will create a lineup based on this that you can then customize.
Now, let's get to the stacks. I'll note that this does not include the Rockies and the Diamondbacks at Coors. With that match-up and an over/under of 11, you know you need that tastiness on your roster; I don't need to tell you that. Here are other the teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Cleveland Indians
I was all set to stack the Indians today with Justin Verlander on the bump. I was going to feel bad about it because I used to love watching him pitch, so I, for one, welcome Buck Farmer, our new stacking overlord.
In 68.1 innings at Triple-A this year, Farmer had a respectable 3.58 ERA. He had some control issues in issuing 2.90 walks per nine innings. He certainly wasn't bad, but he wasn't lights out enough to scare me off of a stack like this in such a rushed situation.
The Indians have four batters with a wOBA of .340 or higher against right-handed pitchers: Jason Kipnis, David Murphy, Carlos Santana and Michael Brantley. Farmer has shown regular platoon splits this year, so all of the top-notch left-handed Indian bats are in play. This is the stack I'd be most inclined to use in cash games on the early slate.
Boston Red Sox
All right, fine, I'll cave. I've been resisting stacking the Red Sox this year because of their sluggish start, but they have started to turn the corner. They are now eighth in the league in wOBA against righties, sixth in wOBA at home, and third in wOBA over the past 30 days. Let's ride.
Bud Norris has been the victim of some tough luck this year, but that does not make his peripheral stats all sunshine and daisies. Norris has only managed to strand 57.1 percent of batters that have reached base. The lowest among qualified starters is Andrew Cashner at 61.2 percent, meaning this number should regress a bit. Even so, Norris holds a 4.79 FIP and a 4.64 xFIP. Some of the struggles in his 7.57 ERA are due to more than luck.
As with the Indians, you've got plenty of good options for Red Sox batters today. Six batters have a slugging percentage of .460 or higher against righties. Norris has gotten hammered by lefties with a .342/.416/.568 slash and a 44.3 percent hard-hit rate. With no Red Sox batters priced higher than $4,700 on DraftKings, this is an affordable stack that provides some delectable upside for the late slate.
Texas Rangers
To say that I hate this slate would be a gross understatement. I am hesitant on a lot of the match-ups that Vegas loves, and this is one of them. The over/under is nine with the moneyline at Texas -115. They know better than I do, so here's my attempt to justify that high projected total.
As I mentioned in this week's season-long waiver adds, Kendall Graveman has been a different pitcher since his re-promotion. Over six starts, Graveman has a 2.27 ERA with a 3.99 FIP and a 3.54 xFIP. Over his last three starts, that xFIP drops even further to 2.99. However, this could all be a small sample size, thus the Vegas optimism around the Rangers' offense.
Additionally, the Athletics' bullpen is nothing short of garbage. They have a 4.77 ERA, the worst in the league. They also rank 26th in bullpen FIP and 25th in xFIP, worse than even the Colorado Rockies in both categories. That gives this stack a considerable bump, even if Graveman fares well. I, personally, may not roll this one out, but there are enough factors working in favor of a stack to justify some of Vegas's outlook.
Houston Astros
This is very similar to the match-up earlier in the week between Hector Santiago. That, uh, could have gone better. I still like the match-up of a fly-ball pitcher against a fly-ball team when it comes to tourneys.
As I've mentioned before, I am a big believer in Matt Shoemaker. He could end up with a complete game tonight and 13 strikeouts. But there's so much dirty potential with his 45.0 fly-ball percentage against the Astros' league-leading 38.4 fly-ball rate against righties. This stack has a low floor, but oh baby does it have a high ceiling.
Left-handed batters have hit fly-balls 48.2 percent of the time off of Shoemaker. Luis Valbuena, who is left handed, has a 53.7 fly-ball percentage against righties, and 38.6 percent of his hits this year have been home runs. Dude is a money tournament play tonight with double-dong (and triple-strikeout) potential.
