4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 9/2/20

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.

San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres were active at the MLB trade deadline, making win-now moves and enhancing their lineup with some of those moves. Tonight, their deeper lineup will take aim at Julio Teheran's unsightly 9.17 ERA and 5.67 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), per FanGraphs. Teheran's basically pitched batting practice in five appearances (four starts) spanning 17 and 2/3 innings, coughing up 3.06 homers per nine innings and striking out only 13.4 percent of the batters he's faced. Hitters have smashed him for a .406 weighted on-base average (wOBA) that's somehow actually lower than his .427 expected wOBA (xwOBA), according to Baseball Savant.

Teheran's likely to be beaten like a drum tonight. The Friars are stackable one through nine in the order. Having said that, I'm especially interested in the top power hitters in the lineup, given Teheran's long-ball woes. Trent Grisham ($3,200) starts things off with pop from the leadoff position with a .230 isolated power (ISO) against righties since reaching the Majors last year.

Electrifying second-year player Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,700) is tied for the most-expensive hitter distinction, and he's putting up the star-caliber numbers to justify the salary and usage as a one-off play or in this stack. Manny Machado ($3,800) slots in behind Tatis Jr. and owns a stellar .209 ISO against righties since 2017.

Then, the double-first base combo of Eric Hosmer ($3,700) and Mitch Moreland ($3,500) round out the top five hitters at cleanup and fifth, respectively. Both are mashing this year, with Hosmer tallying a .288 ISO against righties and Moreland bashing them for a .444 ISO. Both are strong plays. The other player I want to call special attention to is rookie Jake Cronenworth ($3,200) and his .412 OBP, .342 ISO, and 192 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against righties. The Friars are my favorite stack tonight.

Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins are nearly the co-favorite stack, but they're not quite as deep with high-end talent. Although, they're also facing a pitcher who's struggling mightily this year. Reynaldo Lopez is sporting a 9.00 ERA, 5.76 SIERA, and has coughed up 2.25 homers per nine innings in three starts spanning just eight innings. He was thoroughly trounced last year as well, and he's been crushed by lefties for a .496 slugging and .368 wOBA since last year and has ceded a .495 slugging and .338 wOBA to righties.

The righty's swinging-strike percentage has plummeted from 11.0 percent in 2019 to 7.0 percent this year, and his inability to miss bats plays into the hands of the Statcast darling duo of Nelson Cruz ($4,000) and Miguel Sano ($3,300). Out of 255 qualified hitters this year, Cruz ranks 18th in barrels per plate appearance percentage and seventh in fly-ball and line-drive exit velocity, while Sano bests him in both categories ranking sixth in barrels per plate appearance percentage and first in fly-ball and line-drive exit velocity, according to Baseball Savant. These two should be the cornerstones of Twins' stacks.

Other standout options include Max Kepler ($3,000), Eddie Rosario ($2,900), bargain second baseman Luis Arraez ($2,100), and Josh Donaldson ($2,600) in his expected return from the Injured List.

Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians hung a 10-spot on the Kansas City Royals last night. They chased Matt Harvey quickly and got into the bullpen early. Jakob Junis isn't as soft of a matchup as Harvey presented them last night, but the Tribe are in store for another favorable matchup. Junis's 4.26 ERA through 12 and 2/3 innings pitched in three starts overstates how well he's pitched. His SIERA is significantly higher at 4.95, and his .362 xwOBA is well above the league-average of a .334 xwOBA in 2020.

Switch-hitting leadoff hitter Cesar Hernandez ($2,800) isn't the sexiest play, but he's in the catbird seat sitting atop the order and is affordable. Number-two hitter Jose Ramirez ($3,900) is far more exciting with a .370 OBP, .269 ISO, and 137 wRC+ against righties since 2017. Francisco Lindor ($3,300) and Carlos Santana ($3,000) round out the top-four spots in the order with a couple more above-average hitters.

All four can be stacked together for a full stack. However, I believe omitting number-five hitter Franmil Reyes ($3,000) would be a mistake. Reyes recorded five hits in his five plate appearances last night, including a pair of doubles and a dinger. He's up to eight homers, a .246 ISO, and 151 wRC+ this year, and he ranks 22nd in barrels per plate appearance percentage and 14th in fly-ball and line-drive exit velocity to boot.

Tampa Bay Rays

Three factors largely drive the Tampa Bay Rays inclusion among tonight's touted stacks. First, they're playing at homer-friendly Yankee Stadium. It has the ninth-highest park factor for homers (1.075), per FantasyPros. This year specifically, Yankee Stadium has the fourth-highest park factor for homers (1.476) and also has the fourth-highest park factor for runs (1.426), according to ESPN's park factors.

Second, they're extremely affordable, with Brandon Lowe ($3,500) representing the most expensive salary. Further, Austin Meadows ($3,100) is the only other hitter with a salary of $3,000 or more. You can stack this group in order to afford one of the five-figure starting pitchers and one of the other top stacks in this piece, or a few of the top one-off options.

Third, this should be a low-owned stack. Jordan Montgomery isn't one of the punching-bag starters on the slate -- thus, gamers aren't likely to go overboard stacking against him. Although, he's also not even close to an elite starting pitcher who gamers should avoid like the plague. This isn't a stack I'm interested in using in cash games, but the ownership angle plays well in GPPs if the Rays blowup.

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.