3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/27/20

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.

Washington Nationals

Rookie Spencer Howard has made three starts spanning 11 and 2/3 innings for the Philadelphia Phillies, and he's been knocked around for a 6.17 ERA, 5.04 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), and allowed 3.09 homers per nine innings, according to FanGraphs. He'll have a tough challenge tonight pitching at hitter-friendly Nationals Park against the Washington Nationals. Nationals Park has the second-highest park factor for runs (1.096) and fourth-highest park factor for homers (1.158), per FantasyPros park factors.

Howard's been at his worst facing left-handed batters. Yes, he's faced only 30 lefties to date in the Majors, but they've rocked him for three homers, an .846 slugging and .549 weighted on-base average (wOBA). The first lefty he should see is Adam Eaton ($2,700) from the second spot in the order. He's an outstanding table-setter with a .385 OBP against righties since 2017, which has helped fuel a solid 121 weighted runs created plus (wRC+). He and right-handed hitting shortstop Trea Turner ($3,900) are worth a look from the top-two spots in the order.

Asdrubal Cabrera ($3,000) is another piece of left-handed hitting exposure to Howard and should be hitting in the third spot. The switch-hitting veteran infielder has been just a pinch above average against righties since 2017, but he's in the midst of a solid season overall this year with a .333 OBP, .229 isolated power (ISO) and 117 wRC+.

The crown jewel of Washington's lineup, though, is cleanup stud Juan Soto ($4,500). He's the most expensive hitter on the slate, but he's earned that honor by playing out of his mind this year. Among hitters with a minimum of 80 plate appearances in 2020, Soto ranks tied for first in OBP (.476), second in ISO (.423), and first by an insane 40 points in wRC+ (230). He should be one of the chalkier options on tonight's slate.

Howie Kendrick ($2,900) and Eric Thames ($2,200) wrap up the hitters I'd consider using in a Nationals stack.

Oakland Athletics

As bad as Howard's been in his three starts, Jordan Lyles has been appreciably worse in his six appearances (five starts) across 24 and 1/3 innings. He's rocking an unsightly 9.25 ERA and 6.04 SIERA. He's also coughed up an eye-popping .389 expected wOBA (xwOBA), per Baseball Savant. The Oakland Athletics boast some depth with hitters who are above average against righties, and they can be stacked from top to bottom.

Having said that, those with the advantage of a favorable lineup spot, like leadoff hitter Marcus Semien ($3,000), are more desirable than the down-the-order options. Ramon Laureano ($2,800) hit seventh the last time the A's faced a righty, but he's typically hit second and would get a value bump from a move back up to his customary lineup spot. Matt Chapman ($3,700) was out of the lineup as a precautionary measure last night after getting hit in the head by a pitch on Tuesday night, but manager Bob Melvin indicated he believes his star third baseman will be back in the lineup tonight. If that's the case, fire him up in stacks.

The top option in an A's stack, however, by a wide margin is Matt Olson ($3,500). Olson has the platoon advantage against Lyles, and the veteran right-handed pitcher has been obliterated by the 318 lefties he's faced since last year, yielding a .520 slugging percentage and .371 wOBA to them. To Olson's credit, he's also a monster against righties with a .352 OBP, .291 ISO and 140 wRC+ in the split since 2017.

Minnesota Twins

Matt Boyd is coming off of his best start of the year, an outing in which he allowed only 2 earned runs on 1 walk, 5 hits and 6 strikeouts in 5 and 1/3 innings at the Cleveland Indians. But even with that modest showing, he's still the owner of a 8.48 ERA and 4.29 SIERA. The large gap in ERA and SIERA suggests Boyd's been extremely unlucky, but his batted-ball data has resulted in a .384 xwOBA. Further, he's been homer-prone, ceding 2.51 homers per nine innings. Boyd does a poor job of keeping the ball on the ground with a 37.4 percent ground-ball percentage this year.

Boyd's fly-ball tendencies, batted-ball struggles, and homer issues push a couple of players to the front of the line as the top-stacking plays from the Minnesota Twins. Nelson Cruz ($4,300) is one of those two players. He's one of the game's premier lefty-mashers with a .409 OBP, .324 ISO and 163 wRC+ against southpaws since 2017. He's also not slowing down at his advanced age -- at least "advanced" by baseball standards -- with a .444 OBP, .471 ISO and 211 wRC+ versus lefties since last year.

The other key cog in a Twins stack is Miguel Sano ($3,400). Since 2017, he has a .343 OBP, .297 ISO and 134 wRC+ against lefties. Looking at his numbers against lefties since only last year, those marks climb to a .347 OBP, .349 ISO and 149 wRC+. Sano's one of the most power-packed hitters in the game, trailing only the aforementioned Soto in fly-ball and line-drive exit velocity among qualified hitters -- blistering fly-ball and line-drives at 101.4 miles per hour.

Beyond these two, most of the other Twins can be used interchangeably in stacks. Marwin Gonzalez ($2,600) is a cheap option, and Eddie Rosario ($3,000) should have a good lineup spot directly behind the duo of Cruz and Sano.

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.