MLB

4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/5/20

In the world of daily baseball, stacks are often the backbone of the most successful -- and profitable -- lineups. Correlation is the key.

When an offense hangs runs in bunches, it means hitters are scoring runs and teammates hitting behind them are driving them in. By rostering stacks, you’re maximizing the fantasy scoring by essentially double-dipping on a run-scoring event.

This is your daily home for the top stacks on the daily fantasy baseball slate. Whether you’re looking to identify the projected highest-scoring stacks or contrarian stacks that can help you separate from the pack in GPPs when they explode, they’ll be thrown under the spotlight here.

Gamers who are numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. The tool allows you to select the team and number of players from that team you’d like to include in your lineup. If you’re looking to identify other potentially high-scoring stacks beyond those featured in this space, check out our hitting heat map, a tool that provides valuable info such as implied total, park factor, and stats to identify the quality of the opposing pitcher.

Without further ado, let’s dive into today’s main slate’s featured stacks.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros were my favorite stack last night, and they delivered eight runs. Jose Altuve ($3,600) and Carlos Correa ($3,300) both reached the seats. George Springer ($3,500) didn't join them in tater mashing, but he did drive in three runs and ripped a double. All three are among my favorite stacking options in a second straight contest against a southpaw starter.

Robbie Ray has the unenviable task of quieting the lefty-mashing lineup of the Astros. He's likely to have trouble given his lackluster performance against right-handed hitters. Since last year, Ray's coughed up a .341 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to 611 right-handed batters faced, per FanGraphs. He's already served up two dingers and walked a whopping seven of the 32 right-handed batters he's faced this year, and he's been a total mess overall with 8 earned runs, 9 walks, and 3 homers allowed in 2 starts lasting just 8 and 1/3 innings combined.

Barely making a dent in last night's contributions was Alex Bregman ($3,900), but he boasts the most impressive numbers against lefties since 2017 on the club -- and some of the best numbers against southpaws in that time span across all of Major League Baseball. In 570 plate appearances against lefties since 2017, he owns a .418 OBP, .296 isolated power (ISO), and 178 weighted runs created plus (wRC+).

Yulieski Gurriel ($2,900) is the least accomplished hitter from the Astros I'm interested in stacking, but he hit cleanup yesterday and carries an affordable salary. Further, it's not like he's been bad against lefties. On the contrary, he has a .331 OBP, .189 ISO, and 115 wRC+ against them. Once again, I'll gladly fire up an Astros stack instead of the Colorado Rockies despite the advantageous hitting conditions offered to Colorado's hitters at Coors Field.

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs will be facing rookie lefty Kris Bubic tonight. Bubic avoided a total disaster in his first start in the Majors after making the leap from High Single-A, but it was hardly a good start. Bubic pitched just 4 innings, yielding 3 hits, 1 homer, 1 walk, and hitting 2 batters. I fully expect him to get knocked around by a Cubs lineup with some talented lefty-killers.

Kris Bryant ($3,700) is my favorite member of a Cubs stack. In 392 plate appearances against lefties since 2017, he's tattooed southpaws to the tune of a .434 OBP, .292 ISO, and 170 wRC+. Javier Baez ($3,700) and Willson Contreras ($3,000) are my next two favorite stacking options owning a .286 ISO and 141 wRC+ and .237 ISO and 136 wRC+, respectively, against lefties since 2017.

Anthony Rizzo ($3,800) can be included in the stack for lineup correlation purposes and the potential for the Cubs chasing Bubic early and awarding Rizzo some looks at a righty or multiple righty relievers later, but I'm also fine with pitching him from the stack due to his mediocre .180 ISO and 109 wRC+ against lefties since 2017. David Bote ($2,900), Nico Hoerner ($2,500), and Steven Souza ($2,600) are contrarian options for gamers to consider mixing into their Cubs stacks to differentiate from other Cubs stackers, but the key players are Bryant, Baez, and Contreras.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are reportedly considering putting Ozzie Albies ($3,100) on the injured list, and there are pros and cons for a Braves stack depending on what they do. The obvious con of Albies potentially hitting the injured list or simply being out of the lineup is removing a switch-hitter who rakes against lefties from the lineup. It reduces the talent level of the lineup. However, it could also serve to throw other gamers off the scent of what should still be a strong stack.

Ronald Acuna ($3,700) is a stud who's teed off on lefties for a .368 OBP, .266 ISO, and 137 wRC+ since reaching The Show in 2018. Unlike the aforementioned left-handed-hitting first baseman Rizzo, Freddie Freeman ($3,600) makes for a strong stacking option even in a lefty-lefty matchup. He's been a well-above-average performer against lefties since 2017 with a .352 OBP, .211 ISO and 120 wRC+.

Free-agent addition Marcell Ozuna ($3,300) calls the cleanup spot home and matches Freeman's 120 wRC+ against lefties since 2017. Sneakier options such as Johan Camargo ($2,200), Travis d'Arnaud ($2,700), Adam Duvall ($2,100), and Austin Riley ($2,200) all offer varying degrees of appeal as stacking options, too.

In recent years, the idea of stacking against Hyun-jin Ryu would be unappealing and likely result in lighting your money on fire. This year, however, he's struggling out of the gates in his first season with the Toronto Blue Jays. Ryu's failed to deliver even a modest five-inning performance, pitching 4 and 2/3 innings in his first turn and 4 and 1/3 innings in his second start. He's been quite hittable thus far allowing 13 hits, and he's been uncharacteristically giving with free passes, issuing four walks. He's also hit a batter.

Toronto Blue Jays

I suggested stacking the Toronto Blue Jays last night against lefty Max Fried, and they were held to only one run. Yuck. That was a miss, but they have a much less imposing matchup on tap tonight against Sean Newcomb. Newcomb's made two starts this year, both against the New York Mets. In the first start, he allowed only one run, but did so in just 3 and 1/3 innings. The second time was a disastrous start in which he coughed up 6 earned runs on 6 hits, 2 homers, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts in 4 and 1/3 innings.

Taking a longer view and larger sample approach to analyzing Newcomb is also promising for stacking against him. His swinging-strike percentage has dropped every year since reaching the Majors in 2017, and it sits at a new low 7.4 percent through two starts this year. Last year, his 9.2 percent swinging-strike percentage was well below the league average of 11.1 percent.

Pitching to contact could have ugly results for Newcomb and superb results for a Blue Jays stack. Bo Bichette ($2,800) has a .266 ISO against lefties since reaching the Bigs last year, Lourdes Gurriel ($2,500) has a .283 ISO against them since debuting for the Blue Jays in 2018, and Teoscar Hernandez ($2,800) and Randal Grichuk ($2,400) have an ISO of .242 and .218, respectively, against lefties since 2017. Other hitters from the Blue Jays to consider stacking include Cavan Biggio ($3,200), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($2,800), and Danny Jansen ($2,600).


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.