3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Monday 6/28/21
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 are Major League Baseball's best offense. Namely, according to FanGraphs, they lead the way in weighted runs created plus (125 wRC+) against righties in 2021 and over the last 30 days (148 wRC+). Thomas Eshelman was no match for them in his last start, surrendering six runs on eight hits, one walk, one homer, and one strikeout in four innings.
The 27-year-old right-handed pitcher isn't a big-league caliber starter, despite the Baltimore Orioles using him in their rotation. In 24 appearances (10 starts) in his career, he has a 5.45 ERA, 5.62 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), allowed a jaw-dropping 2.38 homers per nine innings, and been tattooed by lefties and righties alike. Left-handed batters have teed off for a .516 slugging percentage and .362 weighted on-base average (wOBA), and righties have pummeled him for a .561 slugging percentage and .366 wOBA.
This will be the chalkiest stack tonight. There's no doubt about it. I'm not fading it, though. You can stack Houston from top to bottom, and deviating from the top of the order is one way to separate from the other Houston stacks used tonight. My favorite stack is a three-person one, using the cleanup through number-six spot in the order, stacking Yordan Alvarez ($3,700), Carlos Correa ($4,200), and Kyle Tucker ($3,300). The trio is dialed in, with Tucker's 168 wRC+ representing the lowest mark among the group over the last 30 days, bested by Alvarez's 176 wRC+ and Correa's 239 wRC+.
Los Angeles Angels
The Los Angeles Angels don't boast the depth of the Astros. So my interest in stacking them is much more centralized in a tantalizing matchup with Michael King. In five starts lasting only 20 and 1/3 innings this year, he has a 5.75 ERA and 5.15 SIERA. He's struck out only 17.2 percent of the hitters he's faced as a starter and walked 10.8 percent of them.
The right-handed King has been at his most giving to lefties. He's yielded a .344 wOBA to them this season — his shortcomings with the platoon disadvantage fuel my two favorite selections from the Angels.
Shohei Ohtani ($4,100) and Jared Walsh ($3,600) are the apples of my eye. The left-handed-hitting duo rock righties. Ohtani's hammered them for a .372 on-base percentage, .365 isolated power (ISO), and 171 wRC+ this year. But, perhaps surprisingly, Walsh has been better. He's obliterated righties for a .413 on-base percentage, .328 ISO, and 190 wRC+. Others who warrant consideration fleshing out the stack include David Fletcher ($2,500), Max Stassi ($2,900), and Anthony Rendon ($3,000).
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks have been the butt of many jokes lately, embarrassing themselves en route to a historic losing streak on the road. Perhaps the stink emanating from them will make them contrarian in a tasty matchup.
Wade LeBlanc is getting the start tonight for the St. Louis Cardinals, sporting a 6.75 ERA and 2.03 homers per nine innings allowed in 13 and 1/3 innings totaled in 10 appearances (one start) this year. In 157 innings pitched since 2019, he's been a punching bag, coughing up a 6.13 ERA, 4.83 SIERA, and 2.12 homers per nine innings allowed.
If Ketel Marte ($3,600) returns to the lineup tonight, he's the top stacking option. He's amassed a .514 on-base percentage, .333 ISO, and 265 wRC+ against lefties this year. Others I'm interested in including in a stack include Eduardo Escobar ($3,400), Josh Rojas ($2,800), and Nick Ahmed ($2,200).
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.
