4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 7/17/15
Each day here on numberFire, we'll be providing you with four potential offenses to stack in your daily fantasy lineups. These are the offenses that provide huge run potential on that given day based on matchups and other factors.
After reading through these suggestions, make sure to check out our daily projections. These can either let you know which players to include in each stack, or which guy best complements said stack.
Another great tool is our custom optimal lineups, which are available for premium subscribers. Within the tool, we've added the option to stack teams -- you choose the team you want to stack, show how many players you want to use within the stack, and the tool will create a lineup based on this that you can then customize.
Now, let's get to the stacks. Here are the teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.
New York Yankees
As we saw earlier this week, the Yankees have one of the best DFS offenses in the league this year. This is even more true at home, where both their wOBA and isolated slugging are a crazy amount higher than they are on the road. This team was built for the Bronx.
Today, they are matched up with Mike Montgomery, who is a mighty interesting case. He has had success in his basic statistics despite a low strikeout rate and a lack of swinging strikes. His SIERA isn't dramatic at 4.22, but with the Yankees' amped-up results in situations like this, it's enough to warrant stacking considerations.
The Yankees as a team rank fifth in the league in wOBA against lefties. Chris Young is a huge part of that with his silly-dope .646 slugging percentage. But Alex Rodriguez and Brett Gardner also have slugging percentages greater than .470 against southpaws this year. You've got options with this stack, and not all of them will run your remaining salary into the ground.
Houston Astros
What to do, what to do, what to do with Martin Perez. Perez didn't have the greatest of control or strikeout numbers prior to his Tommy John surgery. Now, he's coming back for a date with the Astros. If nothing else, he'll have himself a good little test.
The Astros enter this game ranked 10th in the league in wOBA against lefties and second in isolated slugging at .173. This isolated slugging mark spikes to .201 when they are playing at home. If there's a team that could ruin Perez's triumphant return, it would be these guys.
You're probably shouting at your screen (I can't hear you, FYI), "But Perez is a ground-ball pitcher! That's bad news bears for the Astros, yo!" Ah, yes. Seemingly, that would be correct. However, the Astros collectively have a higher batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage against ground-ball pitchers this year than they do fly-ball pitchers. Their isolated slugging is a bit smaller, so the upside is reduced, but their floor is higher than one we generally see with this boom-or-bane team.
Miami Marlins
This probably seems dumb considering Giancarlo Stanton is out. It's possible that this one will end up falling flat on its face for that very reason. But Adam Morgan has really struggled mightily this year, and that gives the Marlins blow-up potential even without Stanton.
In his three starts this season, Morgan has faced the offenses that currently rank 14th, 25th and 29th in wOBA against left-handed pitching. He has still limped to a 4.97 xFIP through those starts with low strikeout totals and a high ground-ball rate. If the Marlins can't take advantage of even that, then they may as well abandon ship.
Stanton wasn't the only Marlin who was finding success against left-handed pitchers this year. I'd assume that, because it's a lefty on the bump, Mike Morse would get a crack in the lineup. He has had a hard-hit rate of 35.0 percent or higher against lefties every year since 2009 except for last year. His results haven't been great this year, but he's making solid contact, so that should eventually normalize. Adeiny Hechavarria, Jeff Baker and Martin Prado all have positive batted-ball numbers. This stack carries its risk, but that risk doesn't come without some sweet potential.
Los Angeles Angels
I had to decide between the Angels and the Royals here. Stacking the Royals and their .116 isolated slugging would be death by a thousand bee bees. John Danks will most definitely allow two runs on eight hits over five innings tonight. Y'all can roll with that in your cash games, but personally, I'd rather roll with the team with the higher upside, and that's the Angels.
For the longest time this year, the Angels' offense was one to avoid. Over the past month, though, things have picked up considerable. They now rank 11th in the league in wOBA against left-handed pitchers and ninth in isolated slugging. That should be enough to capitalize on Wade Miley's low strikeout total and 4.36 SIERA.
All of you could have guessed that Mike Trout leads the Angels in wOBA against lefties. Who's second, though? That would be Chris Iannetta. He has posted a wOBA of .360 or higher against lefties each of the past three years. Don't sleep on C.J. Cron, either, who is only $3,200 on DraftKings and has been destroying baseballs recently.
