Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 5/5/22

Stacks are an integral part of daily fantasy baseball. They can push a team to the top of a GPP by driving upside. However, they're also viable in cash games, namely smaller (two-person or three-person) stacks that mitigate the volatility of a full four-person stack.

This article is your home throughout the 2022 Major League Baseball season for the day's top stacks. The primary goal is to identify the highest-scoring upside stack. Still, game theory will play a role in contrarian stacks making the cut as GPP options. Nevertheless, chalky stacks will make appearances in this space, too.

Beyond my analysis in this space, I strongly suggest numberFire premium members using our DFS Sharpstack tool and hitting heat map tool. The DFS Sharpstack helps plug stacks into optimized lineups, allowing you to change parameters and lock or exclude players and teams. Meanwhile, the heat map offers a one-stop-shop for the opposing starting pitcher, implied total, park factor, and other notable goodies.

Now, let's look at the top stacks on today's main slate that starts on FanDuel at 6:45 pm ET.

Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies get their third look at Taijuan Walker in 2022. He's made two starts this year, both against his National League East foe. Remarkably, Walker has held them scoreless through seven innings, yielding just two hits, two walks, and striking out five. Still, I dig the Phillies at home.

First, according to FantasyPros, Citizens Bank Park has the seventh-highest park factor for homers (1.120). Second, according to FanGraphs, Walker has had a mediocre 4.28 ER, 4.42 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP), and 4.40 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA) with 1.41 homers per nine innings allowed in 166 innings pitched since 2021. Thus, I'm putting aside Walker's lights out seven innings against the Phillies in 2022 and seeing the bigger picture.

Further, I'm not overthinking this stack. Instead, I'm locking in Kyle Schwarber ($3,800), Bryce Harper ($3,900), and Nick Castellanos ($3,400). The trio has massive power. Since 2019, Castellanos has had a .235 Isolated Power (ISO), Harper has had a .291 ISO, and Schwarber has led the way with a .312 ISO against right-handed pitchers. I'm all over their thunderous power in their homer-friendly park against Walker tonight.

Miami Marlins

Let's give some more love to the National League East. The Miami Marlins have a great matchup on tap tonight. Unfortunately, Nick Martinez's newfound success in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) hasn't traveled back across the pond with him. Frankly, his struggles in Major League Baseball after pitching well in Japan remind me of Matt Moore's similar back-to-back campaigns. Moore was outstanding in NPB in 2020 before getting destroyed back in MLB in 2021.

In four starts lasting only 19 and 2/3 innings for the San Diego Padres this year, Martinez has had a 4.12 ERA. However, he's allowed 2.29 homers per nine innings with a horrendous 6.69 Expected ERA (xERA) and 4.69 SIERA. Additionally, Martinez hasn't had any success against lefties or righties. He's allowed a .397 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) to lefties and a .447 wOBA to righties.

All of Miami's lineup is on the table for stacking against Martinez, given his unfettered struggles against all hitters. Still, I'm especially interested in Jazz Chisholm ($3,300), Jorge Soler ($2,900), and Jesus Sanchez ($2,900). Since last year, Chisholm has had a .217 ISO and 122 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) in 422 plate appearances against righties. Moreover, the dynamic infielder has stolen 27 bases in 143 games since 2021.

Sanchez and Soler are also power-packed players. The latter has had a .248 ISO in 244 plate appearances against righties since 2021. Finally, Soler has had a .243 ISO against righties in 1,177 plate appearances against righties since 2019.

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.