4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 6/25/15
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 10, you know you need that tastiness on your roster; I don't need to tell you that. Here are the other teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Boston Red Sox
Miguel Gonzalez doesn't exactly get the kindest welcome back party in his first start off the disabled list. As I mentioned in yesterday's stacks, the Red Sox offense has been much improved as of late. He'll need to be balling out right away.
Prior to his injury, Gonzalez had been the benefactor of some solid fortune. Opponents had only a .235 BABIP, and he had managed to strand 82.8 percent of base-runners despite averaging 7.27 strikeouts per nine. With a below-average 40.2 ground-ball rate, that leaves him open to stacking here.
I would love to include Pablo Sandoval in this stack. He's hitting .335/.392/.522 off of righties this year, following last year's impressive .317/.363/.461 slash. But if he doesn't hit higher than seventh, it's hard for me to do so. I'd basically rule him out completely in cash games if he hits there. It's a bit easier in a tourney, but you lose out on the stacking goodness of the guys higher in the order. His pricing helps soften the blow, but I may not be able to pencil him in unless the lineup sees some modifications.
Houston Astros
I've been pumping the Astros on here a lot lately, and the success has been very hit or miss. That's simply the nature of this team's composition. They seem more likely to succeed, though, when the effect of their strikeout tendencies is minimized, as should be the case today.
Adam Warren averages only 5.84 strikeouts per nine with a 7.8 swinging-strike percentage. He should rack up some strikeouts against this offense, but the third strike isn't a large enough part of his repertoire to neutralize this offense totally.
He's only been with the Astros since early May, but I believe Preston Tucker is one of my most-used DFS guys this year. He's a left-handed bat who hits third in an offense like this and has a .260 isolated slugging mark against righties. At $3,600 on the DraftKings late slate, I am more than happy to accommodate him with a spot on my roster.
St. Louis Cardinals
Vegas doesn't seem to be feeling this one with the over/under at 7 and a moneyline of the Cardinals -121. I'm a bit more optimistic with Dan Haren's low ground-ball rate and the Cardinals' consistent dismissal of right-handed pitching.
Haren's 3.19 ERA is deceptive to say the least. His walk rate is low at 1.85 per nine, but that's coupled with just 6.60 strikeouts per nine and a 31.4 ground-ball rate. Eventually, that should lead to an inflated ERA as indicated by his 4.45 FIP and 4.41 xFIP. The Cardinals are the perfect team to capitalize, ranking fifth in the league in wOBA against righties.
The difficult issue with this stack is deciding which St. Louis bats to pick. In both 2013 and 2014, Haren showed reverse platoon splits with righties slugging .471 and .464 respectively. This year, however, that has flipped a bit with lefties slugging .474 to just a .331 mark by righties. It's possible this is because Haren is using his split-finger less (5.3 percent usage this year compared to 15.7 last year), but it could also be a small sample size. I'd say that, either way, Jhonny Peralta appears to be a must-have part of this stack at $4,300 on the DraftKings late slate.
Detroit Tigers
This one is very much less about Carlos Rodon than it is about the Tigers. They do a great job of drawing walks against left-handed pitching, and though Rodon has been better his past five starts, he is still susceptible to the base on balls. That could lead to an early exit and increased exposure to Chicago's 25th-ranked bullpen ERA.
On the season, Detroit ranks fourth in wOBA against lefties, third in on-base percentage and ninth in slugging percentage. They do also strike out 23.8 percent of the time, so this has complete bomb potential, but it also could be straight cash, homie, if Rodon is off a bit.
There's upside to be had with the Tigers' offense. They have three separate batters who have an isolated slugging of .250 or better against lefties (Miguel Cabrera, James McCann and Rajai Davis). Davis is $4,100 on the DraftKings early slate while McCann is $2,800. I can most definitely live with that.
