4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/19/15
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. As always, the Coors game between the Nats and Rockies is not on this list. However, again, it's Bryce Harper in reduced atmosphere. It would be smart to have ownership there. Here are the other teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Toronto Blue Jays
So, uh, you're going to want to save some salary tonight. I don't care what you have to do, find a way to fit some Jays bats into your order. It should be worth it.
The reason should be quite obvious: the best team in the league against left-handed pitching is facing a left-handed pitcher with a 5.30 SIERA in Adam Morgan. He allows fly balls galore, so the dongs could be plentiful in Philly, especially when you've got the boppers the Jays have.
Because the pricing on both FanDuel and DraftKings is sure to be bonkers, you may be forced to stick with a mini stack in this one. If you can couple three or so big bats from Toronto with cheaper high-upside bats in other games, you could give yourself similar upside without totally handcuffing yourself with your pitching options.
New York Yankees
Shocker: I'm going back to the well with the Yankees again. Basically, the Twins' pitching is just not good, and that fact is even better fleshed out in a park like Yankee Stadium. With how Ervin Santana has performed this year, that might not change today.
Through his first eight starts since coming off of a performance-enhancing drug suspension, Santana's ERA, FIP and xFIP are all at 5.13 or higher. This is despite having two starts in which he allowed zero runs. He has induced ground balls just 37.6 percent of the time, which is a dangerous little formula in New York.
This stack loses quite a decent chunk of value if both Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann sit. They'd be my top two targets (as usual), so the absence of them makes the other bats a bit less alluring. That doesn't mean I'd totally brush aside ownership in guys like Carlos Beltran or Greg Bird, but it might scare me off of an all-out stack.
Seattle Mariners
I'm really not opposed to a stack of either the Mariners or Rangers in this one, as Mike Montgomery hasn't been too hot as of late. The Rangers have struggled against left-handed pitching, though, so I'm more inclined to roll out the Mariners' bats against Derek Holland in his return to the rotation.
You kind of have to feel bad for Holland with all of the bad luck he's had. After just appearing in six games last year, he gets hurt just one inning into 2015. That kind of makes him an unknown entering the start. But regardless of how close to full-strength he is, Holland is going to face a challenge against some of these Mariners bats.
As most of you are probably aware, Nelson Cruz is questionably human. He has a .479 wOBA against lefties this year 40.6 percent hard-hit rate. Not only does this put him on the border of unfadable, it also gives a crazy bump to the hitters ahead of him in the lineup and a bump to those behind him, though less so. Additionally, Kyle Seager can hold his own against lefties despite the platoon disadvantage, posting above-average hard-hit rates off of them each of the past three seasons.
Chicago Cubs
In yesterday's version of the stacks, we focused on how great the Cubs' lineup has been with Kyle Schwarber's addition. Today, I want to again look at Schwarber, but as a plea to keep him in the lineup against left-hander Daniel Norris.
In the majors, Schwarber only has 35 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers, so it's hard to draw too much. Additionally, those 35 plate appearances probably haven't come against the best of the best, as he did sit against Chris Sale over the weekend. But still, dude has a 41.7 percent hard-hit rate against lefties in the majors. If you look at his season-long numbers (including time at Double-A and Triple-A), Schwarber has a .288/.368/.548 slash against lefties this year. Let homie eat, yo!
As for Norris, he has had his struggles this season, both back at the onset of the season with the Jays and now since he has joined the Tigers. Overall, through 40.1 innings, Norris has a 4.89 SIERA. He has had troubles racking up strikeouts, and that has been the Achilles heel of the Cubs' offense both against righties and lefties. This one isn't as sure of a thing as some of the others on a slate, but there is plenty to like here, especially if Schwarber gets a chance to face the lefty.
