3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 7/8/21

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.

Cincinnati Reds

I haven't often touted stacking the Cincinnati Reds away from their hitter-friendly home this year. However, tonight's an exception in a plus matchup. Adrian Houser's 3.94 ERA is notably better than his 4.34 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) in 2021. Further, both his ERA and SIERA have been worse of late. In his last five starts, he sports a 4.08 ERA and 4.61 SIERA.

This year, the right-handed pitcher is somewhat tough on right-handed-hitting foes, holding them to an underwhelming .302 weighted on-base average (wOBA). However, he hasn't enjoyed as much success against lefties, yielding a .346 wOBA to them.

Righties Jonathan India ($3,600) and Nick Castellanos ($4,000) are usable stacking options. However, when factoring in Houser's struggles with lefties, Jesse Winker ($4,200), Joey Votto ($3,700), and Tyler Naquin ($2,900) are the focal points of my favorite Reds stack. Winker's torched righties this year for a .422 on-base percentage, .321 isolated power (ISO), and 190 weighted runs created plus (wRC+).

Votto's turning back the clock against righties, ripping them for a .383 on-base percentage, .254 ISO, and 150 wRC+. Naquin's not nearly as accomplished against righties as Winker and Votto are. Still, his .229 ISO and 111 wRC+ are quite good.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays punked the Baltimore Orioles last night, hanging 10 runs on them. They'll have a chance to unload on them again tonight. Opposing starter Keegan Akin has the dubious distinction of owning the highest ERA (7.46) and second-highest SIERA (4.58) in 2021 among tonight's probable starters.

The young southpaw hasn't had an answer for lefties or righties this season. He's yielded a .580 slugging percentage and .406 wOBA to lefties. Also, he's ceded a .500 slugging percentage and .373 wOBA to right-handed batters. When Akin exits, the onslaught's likely to continue. Baltimore's relievers are responsible for the seventh-highest relief ERA (4.88) this year, per FanGraphs.

The stacking possibilities are limitless. You can stack the Blue Jays from top to bottom. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($4,700) is always an elite option in a Blue Jays stack or as a standalone play. However, Bo Bichette ($3,900) is actually my favorite player in Toronto's stack tonight. He has a .419 on-base percentage, .218 ISO, and 171 wRC+ against southpaws this year. Marcus Semien ($4,200), Teoscar Hernandez ($3,500), and Randal Grichuk ($3,600) are three more hitters who've hammered lefties this year, and all warrant stacking consideration.

Detroit Tigers

No one's going to confuse the Detroit Tigers for a juggernaut offense. Similarly, no one's going to declare J.A. Happ a quality big-league starter. In fact, the veteran lefty has the second-highest ERA (6.09) on tonight's slate. Further, he has the highest SIERA (4.97) and lowest percentage of called strikes plus whiffs (22.6 percent) this season among tonight's probable starters.

Happ's been hapless -- bad pun obviously intended -- against righties this year. They've teed off on him for a .588 slugging percentage and .397 wOBA. Also, as is the case with the aforementioned O's, when the game gets to the bullpen, it's unlikely to provide them relief. The Minnesota Twins have the fifth-highest ERA (4.94) for relievers this season.

I'm not enamored with this stack to the point of declaring it stackable from top to bottom. Instead, I'm focused on one table-setter and the middle of the order. Jonathan Schoop ($3,000) is the table-setter in question. He's one in the sense of hitting second. Though, he's not the traditional punch-and-Judy hitter. Schoop's crushed lefties this year for a .267 ISO and 134 wRC+.

Jeimer Candelario ($2,800) is appealing thanks to his .388 on-base percentage against lefties in 2021. Robbie Grossman ($3,300) is an excellent option as well with a .392 on-base percentage, .207 ISO, and 137 wRC+. However, Eric Haase ($2,900) has been the most prolific lefty-killer for the Motor City Kitties this year, pummeling them for a .456 ISO and 204 wRC+.

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.