4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 4/16/15
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. Here are the teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
Kansas City Royals
Today is a day that ends in a "y," meaning you should probably stack the offense facing the Minnesota Twins. If Phil Hughes isn't on the bump, they will thump.
Tommy Milone started the year off in fine fashion as he threw 7.2 innings of shutout ball. That's all fine and dandy, but homie was projected to have a 4.84 ERA for a reason. Act accordingly.
If you do decide to roll with a Royals stack, Lorenzo Cain could be on track for some Gucci-ness. He had a .362 wOBA last year against left-handers as opposed to his .318 mark against righties. His .470 slugging percentage versus south paws coupled with his stolen base potential is a great place to start when building a lineup.
Tampa Bay Rays
A team facing a guy making his second career start in the Rogers Centre? That's pretty much an auto-stack.
Aaron Sanchez is pitching in the majors at the age off 22 for a reason, and it's probably because he has some sweet upside. That said, he got hammered in his first start, allowing three runs on a couple of dongs in just 3.1 innings. I'll take my chances against that in this one.
Steven Souza has gone off the rocker recently as he has hit a bomb in each of the past two games and is 6-13 in his past three games. Unfortunately, this means he could out-price his productivity soon, but it's a positive sign for the rest of the order if he keeps mashing. There may not be a lot of games where you're inclined to stack the Rays this year, but today should definitely be one of them.
San Francisco Giants
I really don't dislike Archie Bradley in the slightest. I actually advocated potentially adding him in season-long leagues earlier this week. I just could see the Giants having some success off of him today.
Bradley's ZiPS projection was for a 4.51 ERA this year; that was adjusted down to 4.25 following his season debut against Los Angeles. On a day like this, that's enough to make him stackable. This is further accentuated with the recent pricing on the Giants' lineup.
Pricing on DraftKings changes pretty drastically day-to-day, but lead-off guy Nori Aoki was only $3,400 yesterday. That's almost insta-start status, considering the projected number of plate appearances for a player at the top of the order. Matt Duffy has a pulse and was hitting from the two-hole with a $3,100 salary, though Joe Panik may slide back up there against the right-handed Bradley. Either way, you're going to have flexibility to spend high elsewhere with this stack, making it a decent option even if Bradley doesn't tank.
Miami Marlins
It's a short slate, okay? I'm not outchea trying to tell you to stack the Marlins every day, but there aren't a ton of choices, and a lot of those teams are facing quality pitching. I'm sorry.
Citi Field ranked 28th in ESPN's Park Factor last year, meaning you generally are going to try to avoid stacking there. If it weren't for the short slate, I would be doing the same here. But the fact remains that the Marlins have enough pieces that you can use on a day-by-day basis that they're never really a terrible option. They go against Dillon Gee, and there are far worse guys against whom to stack.
I would caution against over-reacting to Dee Gordon's hot start. He did this exact thing last year, only to falter the final few months with an OPS under .700. But at least in terms of fantasy, his success -- to a certain extent -- is very sustainable. As with Aoki, he'll get plenty of opportunities to stumble into some points. With his crazy stolen base tendencies, there's plenty to love day in, day out about Gordon and others on this roster.
