4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 7/31/19

Each day here on numberFire, we'll go through four offenses ripe for the stacking. They could have a great matchup, be in a great park, or just have a lot of quality sticks in the lineup, but these are the offenses primed for big days that you may want a piece of.

Premium members can use our stacking feature to customize their stacks within their optimal lineups for the day, choosing the team you want to stack and how many players you want to include. You can also check out our hitting heat map, which provides an illustration of which offenses have the best combination of matchup and potency.

Now, let's get to the stacks.

Houston Astros

The Cleveland Indians are starting righty Zach Plesac tonight, and despite what his 3.10 ERA may suggest, that makes the Houston Astros a top stacking target.

Plesac has pitched 11 games (61 innings) in the majors, and he has only put up a 5.21 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) and 5.11 xFIP in that sample, getting tagged for a 36.8% hard-hit and 37.8% fly-ball rate.

George Springer ($4,300) ranks top-10 among qualifying hitters in both wOBA and ISO this season, and he fares just as well in same-sided matchups as he does against southpaws -- he should be your top target in the offense.

Alex Bregman has beaten up on righties for a .384 wOBA and .238 ISO on 38.3% hard-hits and 43.2% fly-balls since 2018, and he's priced very reasonably at $3,800.

You do have to make some tough choices to stack the Astros though. With Springer and Bregman virtual auto-includes in the stack, Jose Altuve ($4,200), Michael Brantley ($4,100) and Yordan Alvarez ($4,000) are probably not all affordable.

Alvarez has absolutely dominated in his 151 major league plate appearances, with a .449 wOBA and .356 ISO, and even though he's likely to experience some regression, he's a tough fade. Altuve has a more modes .369 wOBA and .226 ISO, and Brantley has a .380 wOBA and .197 ISO on the year. Altuve's wOBA plummets to .327 against righties on the year, and he's the easiest fade of the group.

Yulieski Gurriel isn't exactly cheap still, at $3,500, but pretty cost-effective when you consider the .361 wOBA and .224 ISO he's put up against righties this year. Josh Reddick ($2,600) is the best way to get true cheap exposure, despite his struggles from the dish in 2019. He gets the platoon advantage here, and against righties, he's sporting a career-high 34.6% hard-hit rate to go with a 37.5% fly-ball rate on the year.

Boston Red Sox

With the highest implied total on today's main slate (5.96 runs), it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to see the Boston Red Sox on here.

This could be a tricky spot, as the Tampa Bay Rays will open with right-hander Andrew Kittredge before moving to a southpaw long reliever in Ryan Yarbrough, but Boston's top bats aren't overly reliant on the platoon advantage to offer big upside.

J.D. Martinez ($4,100) is making his usual incredibly contact, ranking 7th among qualifying hitters in expected wOBA and 6th in expected slugging percentage per Baseball Savant, and he's long been a guy who can knock around pitchers of either handedness, with a .390 wOBA and .254 ISO in same-sided matchups since coming to Boston.

Mookie Betts ($4,300) and Xander Bogaerts ($4,200) have both been terrific against righties this year (.388 wOBA and .229 ISO for Betts, .403 wOBA and .247 ISO for Bogaerts), so even before they get the platoon advantage against Yarbrough there's nothing to be concerned about.

The other top-priced bat in the lineup, Rafael Devers ($4,300) bats left-handed and has slaughtered right-handed pitching for a .427 wOBA and .281 ISO on the season. Beware, though, his .320 wOBA and .171 ISO in same-sided matchups.

You're obviously going to need some cheap bats to off-set playing three or four Sox north of $4k, and Jackie Bradley, Brock Holt, and Mitch Moreland are all available for $3,000 or less and will at least kick off the game with the platoon advantage.

Our models have Sam Travis ($2,500) and Christian Vazquez ($2,600) projected as the top point-per-dollar values in the Boston lineup.

Tampa Bay Rays

On the other side of that game, the Sox are starting righty Rick Porcello.

Porcello is having a down season overall, but this matchup is particularly good for the Rays lefty-heavy lineup.

Porcello's 5.02 SIERA is a career-worst, but his .359 wOBA and 6.21 xFIP against left-handed hitters are really his most egregious marks, making Tampa's offense easy to like.

Ji-Man Choi ($2,600 and likely batting leadoff) and Nate Lowe ($2,800) are great value plays even if you're not stacking the Rays, but including them in the stack keeps it nice and cheap. They're both left-handed hitters, and both can rake. Lowe only has 110 plate appearances to his name in the majors, but he dominated in Triple-A and has so far opened up with a .378 wOBA and .224 ISO in the bigs. Over his career (597 plate appearances) Choi has also shown plenty of power against righties, turning a 39.3% hard-hit rate into a .347 wOBA and .209 ISO.

Austin Meadows ($3,500) is priced reasonably and is also easy to include. As a left-handed hitter, he's clobbered right-handed pitching with a .391 wOBA and .247 ISO on 45.9% hard-hits and 42.4% fly-balls in his first full season in the majors.

Tampa's right-handed hitters aren't without value either. Tommy Pham ($3,900) has never had much trouble in same-sided matchups and has a .198 ISO in the split in 2019, while Avisail Garcia ($3,000) is quite cheap and has a respectable .337 wOBA against righties in 2019. We also see a similar .340 wOBA from Willy Adames ($2,500).

Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins are less budget-friendly to stack than the Rays, but they consistently bring some of the highest home run upside around.

A matchup with the Miami Marlins and right-hander Sandy Alcantara doesn't hurt, either. Alcantara has pitched 34 games in his major league career, struggling to the tune of a 5.50 SIERA. His recent work isn't at all encouraging either, with 20 of those games coming in 2019, where he's posted a 5.60 SIERA.

Even without Nelson Cruz or Jason Castro in the lineup, it's easy to like the upside here.

Mitch Garver ($3,200), Eddie Rosario ($3,700) and Miguel Sano ($3,600) all rank top-70 in expected slugging percentage among the 389 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances this season. All carry that power in matchups with right-handed pitching, ranking 1st (Sano; .309), 3rd (Garver; .293) and 8th (Rosario; .247) on the team in ISO against righties.

Max Kepler ($4,100) is second in that measure, with a .295 ISO and a .372 wOBA in the split this season, and he's set to bat leadoff tonight.

To save some cash, Jonathan Schoop ($2,600) and Marwin Gonzalez ($2,800) are both viable. Schoop has a low floor in a same-sided matchup, but he's still sporting a .195 ISO in the split this season. Marwin might be a bit more consistent, with a 9.3% walk rate in the split, though his upside (.145 ISO) isn't as interesting.

Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.