4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/12/20
In the world of daily baseball, stacks are often the backbone of the most successful -- and profitable -- lineups. Correlation is the key.
When an offense hangs runs in bunches, it means hitters are scoring runs and teammates hitting behind them are driving them in. By rostering stacks, you’re maximizing the fantasy scoring by essentially double dipping on a run-scoring event.
This is your daily home for the top stacks on the daily fantasy baseball slate. Whether you’re looking to identify the projected highest-scoring stacks or contrarian stacks that can help you separate from the pack in GPPs when they explode, they’ll be thrown under the spotlight here.
Gamers who are numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. The tool allows you to select the team and number of players from that team you’d like to include in your lineup. If you’re looking to identify other potentially high-scoring stacks beyond those featured in this space, check out our hitting heat map, a tool that provides valuable info such as implied total, park factor, and stats to identify the quality of the opposing pitcher.
Without further ado, let’s dive into today’s main slate’s featured stacks.
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies have a delectable matchup with lefty Wade LeBlanc tonight. Through three starts totaling 14 and 1/3 innings this year, LeBlanc has been knocked around for a 6.91 ERA and 4.83 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), according to FanGraphs. Also of note, he's coughed up 2.51 homers per nine innings thus far after yielding 2.08 homers per nine innings last year. His penchant for serving up taters should be further enhanced tonight at Citizens Bank Park, home of the highest park factor for homers at 1.251, per FantasyPros.
Going back to last year, LeBlanc's been rocked by lefties and righties alike. The 122 lefties he's faced since last year have totaled a .595 slugging and .369 weighted on-base average (wOBA), while the 410 righties he's faced have racked up a .516 slugging and .356 wOBA. The lefty's struggles against all hitters helps make the entire Phillies lineup stackable tonight.
Andrew McCutchen ($2,400) has a depressed salary thanks to struggles out of the gate this year, but his spot atop the order and lengthy track record of crushing lefties makes him one of my favorite bargain plays and a great option to use in Phillies stacks. J.T. Realmuto ($3,500), Rhys Hoskins ($2,900), and Bryce Harper ($4,000) all make for great selections, too, owning a .220 isolated power (ISO), .230 ISO, and .239 ISO, respectively, against lefties since 2017. Also consider Jean Segura ($2,600) and Roman Quinn ($2,300) if you're looking to differentiate from others stacking the Phillies.
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres' lineup is filled with lefty mashers, and they draw southpaw Julio Urias tonight. Urias is a talented young pitcher, but he hasn't lit the world on fire for the Los Angeles Dodgers since making the transition back to full-time starter after having his innings limited last year by splitting time in the bullpen and starting. His 2.40 ERA through three starts totaling 15 innings is obviously good, but it flies in contrast to his 5.12 SIERA. The young lefty has served up line-drives and hard contact at high rates while lagging in the punch out department with just a 16.4 percent strikeout percentage.
Urias will have his hands full right out of the gate with my favorite big-ticket hitter on tonight's slate, Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,400). After an electric rookie season, Tatis Jr. has kicked things up a notch this year. Further, he's been out of this world against lefties in his young career with a .520 OBP, .324 ISO, and 218 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) in his first 98 plate appearances in the Majors against lefties.
Slotting in behind him is Manny Machado ($3,200). Machado's probably a tick underpriced relative to his excellence against lefties. Since 2017, he's mashed them for a .366 OBP, .280 ISO, and 144 wRC+.
From the number-three spot in the order, Tommy Pham ($3,000) provides Urias a tricky out. While Pham's .177 ISO against lefties since 2017 lags behind Machado's top-shelf pop, he's actually been a more valuable hitter with a 153 wRC+, thanks in large part to his gaudy .434 OBP. With on-base stalwarts at the top of the order, Wil Myers ($3,100) could arrive to the batter's box tonight with plenty of ducks on the pond. With a .247 ISO and 123 wRC+ against lefties since 2017, he's more than capable of bringing those hypothetical ducks on the pond around to score if he's awarded that opportunity. As a useful side note, the Friars and Phillies can easily be stacked together. I'll be doing just that with some of my lineups tonight.
Tampa Bay Rays
Additionally, the positions of my favorite options to stack from the Tampa Bay Rays plays perfectly into folding them in with the previously two touted stacks. Zack Godley gets the ball on short rest after pitching four innings on Saturday, so there's already some potential for him being a bit off as a result from pitching on a different schedule. Regardless, Godley's merely a volatile starter who demonstrated his best stuff en route to a 3.37 ERA in 2017 but crumbling in 2018 and bottoming out last year with a 5.97 ERA.
The already-discussed Phillies and Padres have a bunch of stacking options, but I'm not as crazy about the depth of the Rays. Instead, I'm laser-focused on a specific trio from the top-four spots in their order. Leadoff hitter Austin Meadows ($3,200) is the first member of the trio. His season got off to a late start as a result of him recovering from Covid-19, and he's been slightly above average since his return. If he's inching closer to settling into a groove, he should start to perform more like the guy with a .370 OBP, .242 ISO, and 140 wRC+ in 552 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers since reaching the Majors in 2018.
Number-two hitter Brandon Lowe ($3,200) is easily my favorite option at second base. He's a great play as a standalone option, hooked with just Meadows, or part of a three-man stack with cleanup hitter Ji-Man Choi ($2,600). Lowe holds the power edge with a .236 ISO against righties since reaching the Majors in 2018, compared to Choi's .231 ISO against them since 2017, but Choi bests Lowe's .343 OBP and 126 wRC+ with his .372 OBP and 135 wRC+. These three don't make up a full-blown four-man stack, but I like it enough to include it in this space tonight.
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are in the midst of a rebuild, and they're facing the highest-priced pitcher on tonight's slate, Zack Greinke. This sounds like a recipe for an ugly offensive showing, right? Possibly. Greinke's working with a four-seam fastball with an average velocity of only 87.3 miles per hour this year after averaging 90.0 miles per hour last year. He's a cerebral pitcher who's pitched well with reduced heat in recent years, but this is a significant downturn from even what he was operating with last year.
Additionally, the Giants aren't entirely inept against right-handed pitchers, either. Leadoff hitter Mike Yastrzemski ($3,400) has proven to be a valuable find for the club with a .336 OBP, .248 ISO, and 122 wRC+ against right-handed pitchers since reaching the Majors last year. Ditto for two-hole hitter Alex Dickerson ($2,500). Dickerson's back troubles have limited him to just 212 plate appearances against righties since 2017, but he's made the most of them with a rock-solid .335, .207 ISO, and 116 wRC+.
Brandon Belt's ($2,500) under-appreciated best years are behind him, but his .353 OBP, .205 ISO, and 116 wRC+ against righties since 2017 show he's still an above-average hitter. After getting off to a late start as a result of opening on the IL, he's struggled to find his footing. However, his batted-ball profile is promising and could be hinting at improvement on the horizon. Greinke should be one of the highest-rostered pitchers (if not the highest-rostered pitcher) tonight, adding to the appeal of using the Giants in a GPP as a contrarian option.
Joshua Shepardson is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Joshua Shepardson also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username bchad50. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
