3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Monday 7/26/21

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.

Toronto Blue Jays

When the Toronto Blue Jays face a right-handed pitcher, they're always in the discussion for stacking. According to FanGraphs, they're tied for second in weighted runs created plus (114 wRC+) against right-handed pitchers in 2021. They've also muscled up for the second-highest isolated power (.197 ISO) against righties.

While they're always a stacking consideration against a righty, they're especially intriguing tonight because of the caliber of righty they're facing and the park factors presented to them. Nick Pivetta is merely a run-of-the-mill righty, sporting a 4.37 ERA, 4.20 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), and ceding 1.31 homers per nine innings to opponents. Further, the righty hasn't been any great shakes in same-handed matchups, yielding a .327 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to righties in 2021.

As for the park factors, Fenway Park is one of Major League Baseball's premier hitting venues. According to FantasyPros, it has the third-highest park factor for runs. Looking at the right-handed park factors, it slightly depresses homers, with a park factor of 0.970. However, it greatly boosts doubles, owning a park factor of 1.290.

I don't intend on getting cute when stacking the Blue Jays tonight. My favorite options are their top four hitters, Marcus Semien ($3,600), Bo Bichette ($3,800), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($4,500), and George Springer ($4,300). Bichette's numbers pale by comparison to the other three touted hitters. Yet, he's a stellar correlation play. Semien has a .258 ISO and 137 wRC+ against righties this year, bested by Springer's .338 ISO and 142 wRC+ and led by Guerrero's .375 ISO and 203 wRC+.

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox will be treated to the same hitter-friendly park factors I noted above in their home digs tonight. Boston's thoroughly enjoyed hitting at home this year, tying for seventh in wRC+ (108) at home and for fourth in wOBA (.341). They also have an unimposing pitching matchup. Mike Wilner tweeted that Tom Hatch will toe the rubber for the Blue Jays tonight.

Hatch hasn't thrown a pitch in the majors this year. Last year, he recorded a 2.73 ERA, largely in relief. The righty made 16 relief appearances and only one start lasting 26 and 1/3 innings. His ERA overstates his quality of work, as his 4.80 SIERA is much less impressive. He has a sterling 2.15 ERA in eight Triple-A starts this year. However, his 4.88 expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) underwhelms.

The Red Sox are equipped to pose fits for the inexperienced righty. Rookie outfielder Jarren Duran ($2,600) is an enticing option from the second spot in the order. However, teammate Rafael Devers ($4,000) is my favorite piece of the stack. The left-handed-hitting third baseman has a .360 ISO and 164 wRC+ against righties this year. Xander Bogaerts ($3,500) and J.D. Martinez ($3,900) are obviously great picks, too.

If you're looking for a sneaky piece of this stack, though, consider Franchy Cordero ($2,000). A slow start to his 2021 campaign earned him a demotion to the Triple-A level. Nevertheless, Cordero made the most of his minor-league stay, smashing right-handed pitching. According to MiLB.com, he slugged 6 homers with a .462 on-base percentage and .661 slugging percentage in 112 at-bats against righties. Hatch is arguably a minor-league caliber pitcher, adding significance to Cordero's excellence against righties in the minors this year.

Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers aren't world-beaters against righties. Factor in that Michael Pineda is an adequate starter with a friendly salary for rostering star hitters, and I suspect he'll be a popular pitching option tonight. Let's leverage that popularity to our advantage.

Pineda basically epitomizes a middle-of-the-road hurler. The veteran righty has a 3.93 ERA and 4.27 SIERA in 13 starts this year. He's also coughed up 1.49 homers per nine innings. In addition, he's not especially tough on righties, allowing a .312 wOBA. Also, he's downright giving to lefties, coughing up a .500 slugging percentage and .334 wOBA. In summation, he's not the caliber of pitcher you avoid stacking against.

As far as who to stack from the Tigers, I'm fixated on three players. Detroit's probable one through three hitters, Akil Baddoo ($3,500), Jonathan Schoop ($3,600), and Robbie Grossman ($3,400), are my favorite options. Baddo's my favorite out of that group. The club's leadoff hitter has hammered righties for a .377 on-base percentage, .273 ISO, and 155 wRC+ in his rookie season. He also boosts his ceiling with his speed, stealing 14 bases in 17 attempts this year.

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.