4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/10/15
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. Here are the teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Arizona Diamondbacks
To his credit, Aaron Harang has made me look dumb several times in the past by pitching well when I have recommended stacking against him. He's just not in a great situation here, facing the Diamondbacks in a hitter's park on a short slate.
On the season, Harang has found much more success against righties than lefties. His strikeout percentage against righties is a very respectable 19.9 percent, but it drops down to 10.3 percent against lefties. That 10.3 percent mirrors his walk rate, which is generally a bad thing, me thinks? I'd prefer the lefty bats in this one, but Harang's success against righties isn't enough to rule them out by any means.
A guy I have found myself using a lot recently is Welington Castillo, and I'm sure many of you have been doing the same. I started using him because of his high fly-ball rate in tourneys, but he also has a 39.5 percent hard-hit rate against righties on the season. His price is starting to catch up to his usage as it bumps up to $3,600 on DraftKings tonight, but that's really not an outrageous sum given his recent surge and the match-up.
Baltimore Orioles
I am a big endorser of Vidal Nuno the reliever. That Vidal can rack up the strikeouts rull quick. But starter Vidal does not conjure the same fuzzy feelings. That Vidal is strikeout-averse, making him of interest to us stackers.
Just to show you how drastic these differences are, I present to you the following chart. The numbers shown are based on Nuno's career as we really don't have a ton to go off of for him as a starter this year.
| Role | K% | BB% | xFIP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 18.1% | 6.9% | 4.24 |
| Reliever | 25.1% | 6.2% | 3.56 |
With this in mind, we can feel free to invest in Orioles bats tonight. Yes, this includes Adam Jones, who apparently has become an undesirable overnight. His price is down to $4,100 on DraftKings, even though he still has a .373 wOBA against lefties this year. Part of this might be park-factor related, but don't let Jones's recent cold streak scare you off of rostering him when he's as crazy cheap as he is tonight.
Kansas City Royals
Listen, y'all. I don't even stack the Royals when they're facing John Danks, and I love stacking against him. It takes a great match-up for me to deal with the piddly little scores Royals batters generally post. But on a short slate, their high floor might be too much to ignore. Sigh.
A big part of what made Matt Boyd effective in the minors was that he could pick up a good chunk of strikeouts. He's not going to get that against the Royals. Their 14.7 strikeout percentage is over two percentage points lower than the next-best team. That should lead to plenty of balls in play and plenty of chances to add some DFS points. Even if they are singles.
This is a stack that doesn't work unless you're willing to pay up for Lorenzo Cain's $5,100 price tag on DraftKings. He's the exception to the singles-only mentality the rest of the team possesses with his .246 isolated slugging against lefties. Add in Ben Zobrist's .333/.408/.506 slash against lefties, and you have got a decent option. The ceiling may be frustratingly low, but you're not going to find the dependability of these Royals anywhere else tonight.
New York Mets
Welcome to the show, New York Mets! I did an extensive/not really that extensive Google search to see if I had recommended a Mets stack this year. I couldn't find anything. This is partially because it's a short slate as Jon Gray doesn't seem that bad, but the Mets are also clicking along right now. So let's christen these bad mamma jammas.
Prior to his promotion, Gray had a 4.33 ERA and a 3.89 FIP in his time at Triple-A. He racked up the strikeouts with a 21.7 strikeout percentage, but he also was prone to walks at an 8.1 percent rate. The Mets are right in the middle of the league in walk rate (14th at 7.3 percent), so there should be a few free passes tonight. That could open the door to crooked numbers with the extra-base potential the Mets suddenly possess.
I don't think the pricing on Lucas Duda has quite caught up to his actual production. He may strike out a bit too much, but he also has a .233 isolated slugging against righties with a 41.8 percent hard-hit rate. Now, you add in that he's not 100 percent dependent on himself to accumulate fantasy points, and his value only increases. Even with that, he'll only cost you $4,100 on DraftKings tonight. He's a better tourney play than cash game because of the strikeouts, but he is intriguing and presents you with some saucy upside tonight.
