4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 9/30/15
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.
Los Angeles Angels
I would love to be wrong about this stack because the whole story behind Barry Zito being back in the big leagues is crazy cool for a kid who grew up watching his nasty hook. Plus the start against Tim Hudson over the weekend was superb, and both teams should be applauded for pulling that together. Despite nostalgia, I'm cool with rolling out the Angels tonight.
When Zito was down in Triple-A this year, he had issues with his control, issuing 3.91 free passes per nine innings. That was coupled with 5.93 strikeouts per nine, leading to plenty of base runners. The Angels as a whole don't do well against lefties, but their walk rate is slightly above average. They should be able to get people on with Zito hurling and on a 70-pitch limit.
The problem here is trying to find bats to use. Like I said, the Angels really haven't been that good against lefties this year, making the selection process a bit more difficult. Obviously, Mike Trout's a stud, but you also really need to make room for David Freese. His hard-hit rates against lefties over the last four seasons have been 34.0, 39.2, 36.1, and 37.3. There may not be a high volume of bats from which to choose, but Freese ensures there will be quality in at least a few of them.
New York Mets
I was big on the Mets last night, too, in a matchup against David Buchanan. Then Buchanan went out and scattered 6 hits and 2 walks over 4 2/3 innings to only allow one run. Mets lose, 4-3. Dope, guys. Hopefully everybody else (those who didn't have Lucas Duda, at least) is feeling the same sadness I am and forgoes the Mets in what appears to be another positive billing -- on paper.
This time, it's Alec Asher throwing for the Philadelphia Phillies. Through his first 26 1/3 innings pitched in the Majors, Asher holds a 5.10 SIERA due to a low strikeout rate (5.13 per nine innings) and minuscule ground-ball rate (37.6 percent). His struggles don't really leap against either handedness with a 5.22 xFIP against lefties and 5.43 against righties. That's not a great formula for knocking this team off.
There had been a lot of talk about Yoenis Cespedes' slump, and boy was it wretched. However, he has snapped out of it as he had cut down on the strikeouts and started racking up hits again -- until he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts last night. Of course. He's already the Mets' best hitter against right-handed pitching, and giving him a pitcher who doesn't have drastic platoon splits should only help boost his production.
Texas Rangers
The Detroit Tigers are throwing Matt Boyd out today for what will likely be his final start to the year. If he can throw like he has in his past three starts, he can go out with at least a decent taste in his mouth. If he channels the Matt Boyd who threw in his previous nine outings, things may not be as pleasant. The Rangers are hoping for the former.
Boyd holds an xFIP of 5.12 through 54 2/3 innings this season thanks to a high walk rate and low ground-ball rate. He has, at least, brought it down to 4.52 over his past three starts, so he is showing improvement. Even at that number, though, we'd be warranted in investing in Rangers' sticks.
Adrian Beltre is one of those dudes who I overlook too often just because he's so insanely consistent. His hard-hit rate against lefties has dropped this year to 32.3 percent. The reason I'm mentioning that and using it to endorse him is that it's his lowest hard-hit rate versus southpaws since 2006, when George W. Bush was in office, and the greatest television show ever debuted (I could be referring to either Friday Night Lights or Psych -- you decide). The man is teeming with dependability, and he should be on your radar tonight. Texas forever.
Washington Nationals
I've been trying to avoid the Nationals lately because they have quite clearly gone full DGAF and no longer care about our DFS earnings. Selfish. But, regardless, they do have a great matchup today against Williams Perez.
Perez's last two starts actually haven't been bad with an 8:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 11 2/3 innings pitched. His xFIP is still up at 4.82 after those two starts, and one of those starts came against the juggernaut that is the Phillies, so this doesn't appear to be too great of an issue.
When looking at Perez, it's obvious that while right-handed batters fare well against him, the lefties do receive a considerable bump. They have a 23.1 line-drive rate against him with a 45.1 ground-ball rate that is over 10 percentage points lower than his mark against righties (55.3). This should mean that Clint Robinson is very much in play, and Bryce Harper is worth the price of admission. Assuming he doesn't get benched for being choked again.
