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. Here are the teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Toronto Blue Jays
I am quite sad that this Blue Jays-Phillies series only lasts two games. There is just so much beauty in this pairing that it is important for us to savor it while we can. Now, last night's game may not have gone as well as we had hoped, but you're just playing with fire if you decide to fade the Blue Jays' offense tonight.
Our old friend Jerome Williams gets the start tonight. He wasn't bad in his first start off the disabled list, but overall, dude has a 4.59 SIERA. With the Blue Jays sitting fourth in the league in wOBA against righties, all y'all veteran stackers out there should be dripping with drool.
A quick glance at Williams' platoon slashes would tell you to load up on righties, who are slashing .335/.365/.599 against him. However, he has higher strikeout and lower walk totals against lefties, leading to an xFIP that is over a full run and a half higher. For this reason, I am praying beyond all things holy that Justin Smoak is in the lineup. He's $2,600 on DraftKings, he'll swing from the left-hand side, and his ownership should be significantly lower than many of the other Jays' bats. Please do me this solid, John Gibbons, and I will bestow upon you the most extravagant of Canadian delicacies.
New York Yankees
I went back and forth on this one a couple of times. On the plus side, the Yankees rank fifth in the league in wOBA against right-handed pitchers. On the negative side, Colby Lewis's ERA is deceptively high, which could unnecessarily drive up ownership in Yankees bats. At the end of the day, I decided to not get too cute with it and just roll with a team that should have a decent floor tonight.
The big reason that Lewis has been able to stay a starter with the Rangers this year is that he has essentially overpowered right-handed batters. He has a 25.7 percent strikeout rate against them compared to just 13.0 percent against lefties. That's all well and good, but not against Joe Girardi, who's basically a platoon genius. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Yankees roll out exclusively left-handed batters today (as they did against Kyle Gibson over the weekend). If they do, then Lewis could be in for a long (or very short) afternoon.
When I'm stacking against a guy with a 35.4 ground-ball percentage, I want to find a batter who has the potential to unload multiple extra-base hits. Tonight, I'm going with Brian McCann. He has a 48.0 percent fly-ball rate against righties this year and just a 12.2 percent soft-hit rate. I think Mark Teixeira has a higher likelihood to rack up the bases, but he's also $1,000 more expensive on DraftKings. If you can swing it, grab both. Otherwise, I'll roll the dice with McCann and see what happens.
Chicago Cubs
Like I said in the last section, I'm trying really hard not to be too cute today. Eddie Butler enters with a 5.07 xFIP (it's 5.08 at home at 5.07 on the road), meaning he is exactly what we are looking for in a stack. The Cubs are a risk because they have struggled against righties this year, but it's really hard to pass this one up.
The main root of Butler's struggles is he has no freaking idea where the ball is going. He has an 11.4 strikeout percentage and 11.7 walk percentage. Yes, the walk number is higher. No, that is not a good thing. The Cubs rank third in walk percentage against righties, so we shouldn't have a lack of base runners tonight.
Kris Bryant's numbers against righties this year would probably be a lot better if he didn't strike out 31.0 percent of the time. But, when he has made contact, he has smacked that puppy. He has a .187 isolated slugging and a 37.9 percent hard-hit rate. When he's facing a pitcher who hates strikeouts, I'm far more willing to pay up for his lofty price tag ($5,100 today on DraftKings). He's more rosterable on FanDuel because they have headshots with his dreamy gaze, but I suppose he's fine on DraftKings, too.
Washington Nationals
Apparently I'm indecisive today. This is another spot which required a lot of thought. I initially had the Baltimore Orioles penciled in here, but I decided against it because of their high strikeout rate and the 3.95 SIERA and strikeout abilities of Mike Foltynewicz. Also, Foltynewicz is hard to spell, so I'm not about to type that out five to seven times. Let's instead roll with their buddies across the Beltway in the Washington Nationals.
Tom Koehler's SIERA and strikeout percentage are much more stack friendly at 4.36 and 17.1 respectively. The only real difference between righties and lefties against Koehler is that lefties draw more walks and strikeout a bit less. I see no problem with rolling some righties in the Nationals' lineup against him if you do decide to go with a full stack.
The only reason this is a viable stack is the deluge of returns the Nationals saw last night. With Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman all back (and Jose Fernandez not on the mound), the value of both Bryce Harper and Yunel Escobar increases significantly. They're not safe enough to be a cash-game stack tonight, but I do think there's upside in these bats for the first time in about a month.