3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 9/29/21
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.
Los Angeles Dodgers
In the midst of a division-winning push, the Dodgers have a pristine matchup for offense at home.
Los Angeles draws southpaw Ryan Weathers of the Padres, and Weathers has had an up-and-down 2021. Weathers has been in the bullpen since August 16th but will return to the rotation on Wednesday. Weathers has a 4.51 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) on the whole season, which is not an automatic target in daily fantasy, but his peripheral batted ball data is worth stacking against.
Since the All-Star break, Weathers has a 38.7% hard-hit rate allowed and a 37.0% fly-ball rate. With two of his post-break starts coming at Coors Field, it is easy to see how that led to disastrous results. While Dodger Stadium is not nearly the hitting environment, the LA lineup is also just much more fierce.
With left-handed bats only making hard contact 28.3% of the time against him, the righties are the priority of the stack. Luckily, Los Angeles has a boatload of them. Justin Turner ($3,200) is the cornerstone of this stack with a ridiculous 51.4% hard-hit rate against lefties since the trading deadline at a reasonable salary. Will Smith ($3,300) has a .387 isolated power (ISO) against lefties in that same time frame, and Trea Turner ($4,300) and Mookie Betts ($4,000) will always work if their salaries fit, as well.
Boston Red Sox
The Zac Lowther breakout campaign may have to pause for at least one start.
Lowther burned plenty of daily fantasy players last start against Texas on a short main slate, but his overall numbers still remain a goldmine for potential stacks. Lowther had a 4.78 xFIP in Triple-A Norfolk that did not inspire much confidence in his 6.53 ERA getting substantially better, and then out of necessity, he was yanked to the big leagues. Lowther's 7.66 ERA is actually a little unlucky, as his SIERA is just 4.67, but that may not hold on much longer given a 37.8% flyball rate that is attached to a whopping 41.9% hard-hit rate in his limited MLB action thus far.
Lowther has allowed a .477 wOBA and a 46.7% hard-hit rate to lefties, which is no issue with the Boston Red Sox. Hunter Renfroe ($3,600) and Bobby Dalbec ($3,000) should be gettable in most Red Sox stacks, and the pair have ISOs of .323 and .310, respectively, against left-handed pitching since the trade deadline.
Enrique Hernandez ($3,600) and J.D. Martinez ($3,900) are likely the next best options but beware of including Xander Bogaerts ($3,700). Bogaerts has just a .258 wOBA and .073 ISO since August 1st against lefties.
Cleveland Indians
The Dodgers and Red Sox come with large salaries in most spots, but there is a solid value stack, as well, for those with Scherzer on the brain.
The Cleveland Indians draw Daniel Lynch of the Royals on Wednesday, and Lynch has been a fine daily fantasy target for a while. Lynch left his September 16th start early due to calf tightness, but in his other three September starts, he has ceded at least four earned runs. The results likely will not get better according to his peripherals. Lynch has a 6.73 xFIP with a mammoth 52.7% fly-ball rate in September, and that means way too many balls are being launched into the air for the lefty. His 16.9% strikeout rate also does not help curb that issue.
The new additions to the Cleveland lineup have them stronger against lefties than the version that was no-hit twice. Cleveland has a 114 team wRC+ since the trade deadline, and Yu Chang ($2,700) and Austin Hedges ($2,200) are a huge part of that at the bottom of the lineup. The pair have a .450 ISO and a .200 ISO against lefties since the start of August.
Myles Straw ($2,800) is under-salaried as the leadoff man hitting for more power recently, and Harold Ramirez ($2,400) is a great value, as well, due to his batting spot in conjunction with a .315 wOBA against lefties since the trade deadline. Don't forget about Jose Ramirez ($4,400) and Franmil Reyes ($3,400) if the salary is available, too.
