3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 6/22/21
Stacks are the backbone of cashing daily fantasy baseball lineups. Correlation drives upside, creating the potential to place high or even win GPPs when your selected stacks explode offensively.
This column will do the digging and the dirty work to determine which stacks are worth rostering each day. Scoring upside will fuel the stacks that get the nod. Sometimes that will lead to chalky selections, but contrarian stacks will get their fair share of love too.
In addition to utilizing the touted daily stacks in handbuilt lineups, numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. Our hitting heat map tool is also available to premium members looking for more stacking options. It provides valuable info such as implied total, park factors, and stats for identifying the quality of the opposing pitcher.
Let's take a look at the top stacks on today's main slate.
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros have the largest implied total on tonight's main slate. That's a good starting point for identifying a top stack.
According to FantasyPros, Oriole Park at Camden Yards has the 11th-highest park factor for runs (1.022) and fourth-highest mark for homers (1.171). The pitching matchup is dreamy, as well. Jorge Lopez has the fourth-highest ERA (5.72) among tonight's starters. He's also been homer prone, coughing up 1.80 homers per nine innings, according to FanGraphs.
Enhancing the appeal of stacking the Astros is Lopez's ineptitude against both lefties and righties. He's surrendered a .353 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to lefties this season and a .362 wOBA to righties.
My favorite stacking options from Houston are headlined by outfielders Michael Brantley ($3,400) and Yordan Alvarez ($3,800). This year, the former has a .444 on-base percentage and 187 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against righties. The latter's touched up righties for a .348 on-base percentage, .214 isolated power (ISO), and 140 wRC+.
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics have a favorable matchup in a probable bullpen game opened by Taylor Hearn. Jordan Lyles was initially listed as the starter and could be used in a bulk-reliever role.
Among tonight's probable starters, Lyles' 5.68 ERA would rank sixth-highest, 4.80 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) would rank fourth-highest, and the 2.02 homers per nine innings he's coughed up would rank as the fifth-highest mark. Additionally, left-handed batters have recorded a .333 wOBA against Lyles this season. However, righties have been even more lethal, ripping off a .615 slugging percentage and .411 wOBA against.
As for Hearns and the bullpen, neither are formidable foes. The left-handed opener has a 4.84 ERA and 4.04 SIERA. Further, the Texas Rangers have the ninth-highest ERA (4.56) for relievers.
The A's have been in good form, ranking tied for fifth in wRC+ (114) over the last 30 days. They're also a top-10 offense against lefties and righties. As a result, they're a stackable group throughout the lineup. Although, I'm unsure of who my favorite options are in this stack due to the wide-open lineup construction possibilities.
San Francisco Giants
It's a 14-game slate tonight, and the San Francisco Giants don't have an eye-catching implied total or cupcake matchup. As a result, I suspect that will make them a contrarian stack, and I'm here for it.
Andrew Heaney has pitched acceptably with a 4.45 ERA. Still, he's in his normal form of underperforming his ERA estimators, and a 4.45 ERA certainly isn't a number to avoid stacking against.
The Giants make for an enticing stack for a couple of reasons. First, they're a top-10 offense against lefties this year. They rank tied for seventh in wRC+ (107) against lefties. Second, they're an extremely affordable stack. Only two of San Francisco's hitters have a salary above $3,000, topping out at $3,200.
Of course, my favorite option in their stack is the highest-salary option, Buster Posey ($3,200). The veteran backstop has turned back the clock after opting out of last year's season. Posey's unloaded on lefties this year with a .456 on-base percentage, .241 ISO, and 201 wRC+.
Austin Slater ($2,200) projects as a leadoff hitter who's in danger of getting lifted for a pinch-hitter against a righty reliever later in the game. Still, he's a GPP-worthy option, despite the risk, because of his .225 ISO and 124 wRC+ against southpaws this year.
Darin Ruf ($2,000) is another platoon option I'm intrigued by in GPPs, boasting a .364 on-base percentage, .301 ISO, and 144 wRC+ in 110 plate appearances against lefties since returning stateside from the Korean Baseball Organization last year.
Although he's not having a banner year in his small sample against lefties, Wilmer Flores (2,500) is a viable stacking option, too. He's hit lefties at an above-average clip for most of his career, and he should hit in the heart of the order.
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.
