4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/3/15

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. As always, this does not include today's game at Coors. Eddie Butler has been abominable against left-handed batters, though, so don't forget to have some decent ownership. Here are the other teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.

Houston Astros

Colby Lewis has been really, really solid over his past three outings. That happens to include a start against these same Astros on July 18th, where he held them to just two runs on four hits over 7.1 innings. On a larger slate with more options, I might not recommend it. But here, the dong potential is enough for me to justify rolling out the Astros.

Not shockingly, Lewis's main struggles have been against left-handed batters. They strikeout just 13.4 percent of the time while logging a 45.0 fly-ball percentage. That's a strikeout percentage I can palate against a team as strikeout-friendly as the Astros.

With this in mind, I find Colby Rasmus to be a mighty intriguing option if he's in the lineup and batting sixth or higher. He normally strikes out over 30 percent of the time against righties, but with Lewis's declined strikeout abilities against lefties, he's more intriguing than he normally would be. Luis Valbuena falls under this same umbrella, and he usually hits higher in the order with a lower strikeout percentage.

Toronto Blue Jays

Can you figure out Ervin Santana? I've got no freaking idea which guy he is this year. In his five starts since coming off of a PED suspension, he has pitched into the eighth inning three times. The two times he hasn't, he has been lit up for 12 earned runs. Confusion aside, no matter which Santana shows up tonight, he'll have his hands full with the Blue Jays.

Even when we include Santana's quality starts, his SIERA sits at 4.42. He hasn't had (for the most part) the same strikeout abilities he showed last year, though the fly balls are still there. The Rogers Centre, which ranked third in ESPN's Home Run Park Factor last year (though that number is inflated because of the climate-controlled months of April and May), may not be the best venue for what Santana offers.

I've always gushed about how good the Blue Jays are against lefties this year, but they also rank third in the league in wOBA against righties. Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin and Justin Smoak all have isolated slugging marks above .200 against righties. This means that, even if Santana doesn't allow a bunch of runs, there should be extra-base hits, and that's a quick path to daily fantasy goodness.

Washington Nationals

This one, on its face, doesn't look great. The Nationals rank 15th in wOBA against righties, and Zack Godley has been pretty snazzy in his first two big-league starts. However, the Nats' low ranking is partially due to their walking dead roster, which is now almost fully healthy, and Godley's still just making his third start in the majors. There's upside to be had.

Another interesting aspect of Godley is that this will be only his sixth start above High-A and the 18th start of his professional career. He had worked in the pen in both 2013 and 2014 before transitioning to being a starter when he moved to the Diamondbacks. As the sample size increases on him, teams should be able to get a better idea of what he brings to the table. That's when he could get into trouble.

As I've mentioned before, you should never base stacking decisions off of price. That said, the DraftKings pricing for tonight is highly conducive to it. If they use the same lineup as last night, then Bryce Harper will be the only batter in the top five spots in the order who costs more than $3,500. This allows you to both roster Harper and maximize plate appearances without completely handcuffing yourself elsewhere. There is plenty of risk with this stack, but these healthy Nats can make it worth said risk.

San Francisco Giants

Last week when Mike Foltynewicz was on the bump, I mentioned that I didn't want to stack against him because of his high-strikeout potential. Doesn't that make it hypocritical for me to roll out the bats against him now? No, as this situation is pretty radically different. Then, he was facing the Baltimore Orioles, who have the third highest strikeout rate in the league against right-handed pitchers. Today, he's facing the Giants, who strikeout the fifth least against righties. That's a wide enough gap to warrant Foltynewicz on a case-by-case basis.

The dangerous thing about Foltynewicz in this match-up is that his strikeouts are much higher against right-handed batters than they are against lefties. His strikeout percentage leaps to 26.4 against righties as opposed to 17.3 percent versus lefties. That's not great news for a team like the Giants whose best bats are largely right-handed.

The reason that's not enough to scare me off of a stack is that some of those bats do a great job of avoiding strikeouts against righties. Buster Posey is chief among them, striking out just 8.0 percent of the time. The guy I'm targeting, though, is lefty Nori Aoki, assuming he's back to hitting either first or second again. He only strikes out 5.6 percent of the time against righties, gets on base with regularity, has the ability to swipe a bag, and has good bats behind him to drive him in. Once he gets back to full health, he'll be a solid under-the-radar play with regularity.