3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 8/27/21
Stacks are the backbone of cashing daily fantasy baseball lineups. Correlation drives upside, creating the potential to place high or even win GPPs when your selected stacks explode offensively.
This column will do the digging and the dirty work to determine which stacks are worth rostering each day. Scoring upside will fuel the stacks that get the nod. Sometimes that will lead to chalky selections, but contrarian stacks will get their fair share of love too.
In addition to utilizing the touted daily stacks in handbuilt lineups, numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. Our hitting heat map tool is also available to premium members looking for more stacking options. It provides valuable info such as implied total, park factors, and stats for identifying the quality of the opposing pitcher.
Let's take a look at the top stacks on today's main slate.
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are in this space again. They wrapped up a home series last night by hanging a dozen runs on the scoreboard. They'll play at hitter-friendly Progressive Field tonight in a drool-inducing matchup against Logan Allen.
The left-handed pitcher has been a disaster by any measure. He's been creamed for a 9.13 ERA and 5.56 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) in seven starts for the Cleveland Indians, per FanGraphs. He's also served up 3.57 homers per nine innings. Further, he's been ripped for a 7.95 ERA and 5.17 expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) in 12 appearances (11 starts) at the Triple-A level.
Allen's been demolished by lefties and righties alike. Lefties have a .842 slugging percentage and .563 weighted on-base average (wOBA) against him. Righties have also clobbered him, amassing a .587 slugging percentage and .404 wOBA.
The entirety of Boston's lineup is in the mix for stacking. However, the two hitters I'm most interested in are Xander Bogaerts ($4,100) and J.D. Martinez ($3,800). Bogaerts has a .387 on-base percentage, .207 isolated power (ISO), and 136 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against southpaws since 2018. Martinez has been even better, tallying a .390 on-base percentage, .287 ISO, and 157 wRC+ in the split.
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are my second-favorite stack today as they are squaring off with a pitcher I've frequently suggested stacking against this year -- Matt Harvey. Despite a luck-driven stretch of decent starts, Harvey's ERA sits at an unsightly 6.27 with the ERA estimators to support it being that high. Further, he's reverted back to his season-long form in his most recent starts.
With the other shoe finally dropping again, Harvey remains a pitcher who gamers should salivate at the thought of stacking against. Predictably for a pitcher with his ERA, Harvey has struggled with lefties (.328 wOBA) and righties (.380 wOBA).
The Rays are stackable from top to bottom in this delightful draw. Wunderkind Wander Franco ($3,900) is among my favorite stacking options, and ageless wonder Nelson Cruz ($3,800) is a superb selection, as well. However, Brandon Lowe ($3,900) and Austin Meadows ($3,300) are my two favorite plays from Tampa Bay. Lowe owns a .266 ISO and 142 wRC+ against righties since 2018. Nearly equaling Lowe's excellence, Meadows has recorded a .257 ISO and 138 wRC+ in the split.
Houston Astros
Glenn Otto is being summoned from the minors to make his big-league debut. The right-handed pitching prospect has dazzled to the tune of a 3.20 ERA and 1.01 WHIP with a gaudy 35.3 percent strikeout rate in 95 and 2/3 innings pitched between Double-A and Triple-A this season. It's possible he'll hit the ground running, creating risk for stacking the Houston Astros.
Conversely, there's an upside to stacking MLB's best offense against righties (119 wRC+) versus a rookie making his first start in the majors. This is a monumental step up in competition for Otto. If he struggles to make a seamless transition climbing the ladder from the minors to The Show, the Astros are equipped to pummel him.
Righties Jose Altuve ($4,200), Yulieski Gurriel ($3,400), Alex Bregman ($3,600), and Carlos Correa ($4,000) are unquestionably great stacking options -- although my preference is to attack the right-handed Otto with lefties. I'm fixated on Yordan Alvarez ($4,300), Kyle Tucker ($3,300), and Michael Brantley ($3,200). Out of that trio, I suspect Tucker will be on the lowest percentage of rosters, increasing his GPP appeal as part of this stack. The young outfielder's kicked his game up to a new level against righties this year, crushing them for a .361 on-base percentage, .256 ISO, and 149 wRC+.
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.
