4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/26/20

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.

Tampa Bay Rays

The main slate on FanDuel includes the 6:40 PM ET contest between the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays, and that opens the door to using the latter as a high-upside stack. The O's are trotting out Asher Wojciechowski and his 4.84 ERA and 4.55 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), per FanGraphs, to oppose the Rays, and he's a plus matchup for Tampa Bay's hitters. Also of note, Wojciechowski has had major difficulties keeping the ball in the yard, coughing up 2.42 homers per nine innings.

Hiding in the bottom one-third of the order is Willy Adames ($2,800), but with a .354 OBP, .169 isolated power (ISO), and 122 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) in same-handed matchups against righties since reaching the Show in 2018, gamers should consider him in stacks. Further aiding his cause for usage in stacks is Wojciechowski's mediocre .330 weighted on-base average (wOBA) allowed to right-handed batters since last year.

Wojciechowski has been more giving to left-handed batters, however, yielding a .356 wOBA to them. With that in mind, the Rays' left-handed hitters in the top four spots in the order are of the most interest to me and include Austin Meadows ($3,600), Brandon Lowe ($3,800), and Ji-Man Choi ($2,500). All three are excellent stacking options, but Choi is notably underpriced with a .367 OBP, .231 ISO, and 132 wRC+ against righties since 2017.

Detroit Tigers

During the majority of Jon Lester's starts this year, I've advocated stacking against him. He enjoyed unreal -- and unsustainable -- good luck on batted balls through his first three starts before the pendulum swung in the other direction for his two most recent starts. He's now sporting a 5.06 ERA, 4.90 SIERA, 2.36 homers per nine innings allowed, and just a 15.2 percent strikeout percentage that's actually high relative to his tiny 5.1 percent swinging-strike percentage.

The extreme pitch-to-contact version of Lester taking this hill these days has struggled with either handedness of hitters. Since last year, he's allowed a .343 wOBA to lefties and a .341 wOBA to righties. His struggles with all hitters makes the entirety of a Detroit Tigers lineup lacking star power in the stacking mix.

Jonathan Schoop ($2,900) is my favorite stacking option due to his team-leading power. Schoop's .229 ISO against lefties since 2017 is the best mark among Detroit's likely starters tonight and a solid number. And, even though he's a shell of his peak self, Miguel Cabrera ($2,600) remains a viable fantasy option against lefties with a .426 OBP, .214 ISO, and 160 wRC+ against them since last year.

The other Tigers I'll specifically draw your attention to are Niko Goodrum ($2,800) -- especially if he's back at the top of the order tonight -- and JaCoby Jones ($2,700), if his premature exit from last night's game proves to be merely cautionary and not something that sidelines him tonight.

New York Mets

Elieser Hernandez has pitched brilliantly through four starts spanning 19 and 2/3 innings with a 2.29 ERA and 3.14 SIERA. Four starts isn't enough to distract me entirely from his 5.03 ERA and 4.43 SIERA totaled in 82 and 1/3 innings pitched in 2019. He's throwing a wee bit harder this year, but he hasn't added a pitch to his repertoire and has scaled back the usage of his changeup.

I'm leery of his ability to keep lefties in check without a reliable changeup. He's held the 35 lefties he's faced this year to a .187 wOBA, but his hard-hit percentage allowed has blown up from 45.5 percent last year to 57.9 percent this year. He's also allowed more fly balls, yet he hasn't surrendered a homer to a lefty yet this year. Yeah, that's an unsustainable formula for keeping the ball in the yard and avoiding extra-base hits in general. Last year, lefties creamed him for a .568 slugging and .372 wOBA.

Get yourself ample exposure to the lefties from the New York Mets tonight. It starts with the first spot in the order occupied by Brandon Nimmo ($3,000). He's an on-base machine with a .408 OBP against righties since 2017, but he also has some pop with a .212 ISO. Michael Conforto ($3,100) has also been a stud against righties with a .385 OBP and more thump than Nimmo, piling up a .244 ISO against them.

Speaking of power, Dominic Smith ($3,500) has a .251 ISO against righties since 2017. Additionally, he's thriving seeing regular playing time this year and has mashed six taters with a .406 ISO, .422 OBP, and 203 wRC+ in 83 plate appearances this year. A resurgent Robinson Cano ($3,300) and Jeff McNeil ($2,500) are a couple more lefties who warrant mixing into stacks. And, while I love the lefties, Pete Alonso ($3,600) and J.D. Davis ($2,900) are above-average hitters with plus pop in righty-righty matchups who shouldn't immediately be tossed from stacks due to not having the platoon advantage.

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies are frequently a fade when they're on the road, but the massive struggles of Robbie Ray make tonight a rare exception for using the Rockies away from Coors. Among pitchers who've pitched at least 20 innings, Ray's 8.33 ERA is fourth-highest, his 5.84 SIERA is tied for fourth-highest, and his 18.7 percent walk percentage is the highest mark by a whopping four percent. He's a mess, and the entirety of the Rockies' lineup is in the mix for stacking tonight.

Having said that, the duo of Trevor Story ($4,200) and Nolan Arenado ($3,800) should be the building blocks of any Rockies stack. In 343 plate appearances against lefties on the road in his career, Story has a .364 OBP, .218 ISO, and 131 wRC+. Arenado has transformed from a liability against lefties on the road to an asset against them. In 307 plate appearances against lefties on the road since 2017, he has a .417 OBP, .294 ISO, and 164 wRC+. If you're stacking the Rockies in this plus-plus matchup tonight, you'd be foolish to exclude Story or Arenado.

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.