4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/24/15
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 Mets
Last week, I about jumped out of my britches with excitement when Adam Morgan was facing the Blue Jays. He had seen his struggles this season, and they demolish left-handed pitching. He gave me the big ol' middle finger by holding the Jays to two runs over seven innings. Tip of the cap to you, Adam. Now let's tango again: this time against the surging Mets.
Despite the seemingly dominant performance, Morgan still had a 4.73 xFIP in that game, largely because of his low strikeout and ground-ball totals. His SIERA for the season sits at 5.29, a number that forces you to take notice when stacking. Even if the Mets can't launch a bunch of bombs, they should at least provide worth with balls in play due to the lack of strikeouts.
Unfortunately with Jacob deGrom starting, we probably won't be able to include Matt Harvey and his 50.0 percent hard-hit rate against lefties in our stack. Sad day. I'll choose to wipe those tears with my Juan Uribe shares. Uribe saw his numbers sag against lefties last year, but in general over the past three seasons, Uribe has crushed them to the tune of a 35.9 percent hard-hit rate. Plus, he'll only run you $2,800 on FanDuel, giving you flexibility to pay up elsewhere.
Detroit Tigers
The Reds are actually favored in this puppy, meaning you may want to lend them some consideration, as well. I'm just digging the Tigers more with the matchup, but either side is a viable option with the over/under at nine.
Based on what he did earlier this year at Double-A, it looks like Keyvius Sampson will form into a decent big leaguer eventually. He's still working through some kinks right now, though, issuing walks at a 9.9 percent rate while striking out 18.7 percent of batters. When you toss in his below-average ground-ball rate, Sampson's SIERA through his first 20.1 innings sits at 4.48.
The Tigers' offense was able to stay afloat (partially) without Miguel Cabrera because a bunch of their dudes picked their performance up big time after the All-Star break. Two of these players have hard-hit rates above 40.0 percent in the second half of the season. The first is -- not shockingly -- J.D. Martinez. The second is Nick Castellanos. I had mentioned Castellanos last week as well, and I still view him as a great tourney option. His price is starting to inflate ($3,300 on FanDuel), but his ownership should be low if you're trying to catch some sneaky points.
New York Yankees
Scott Feldman is a great pitcher to have in Yankee Stadium simply because he generally keeps the ball on the ground and, thus, in the park. Unfortunately, ever since he came off the disabled list following a knee surgery, he hasn't quite been able to maintain the success he had found before it.
Over his first 10 starts of the season, Feldman had a 3.69 xFIP thanks to the ground-ball rate and a good 5.6 walk percentage. After that 10th start, though, is when he landed up on the disabled list. In the six starts since, he has a 4.43 xFIP. The ground balls and walks are still at good rates, but his strikeout percentage has plummeted to 10.2 percent, roughly half the league average. That leaves the Yankees open as a stack that can come through for both cash games and tourneys.
Feldman doesn't have extreme platoon splits to either side as he has been slightly better against lefties this year after having a minor edge against righties in the previous two years. For this reason, I'm going to gravitate towards value bats I can get at a low price, regardless of handedness. Both Brett Gardner and Greg Bird are $3,000 on FanDuel. Those would be my targets on FanDuel within an offense that presents a great floor and a decent ceiling tonight.
Pittsburgh Pirates
On a full slate, this one probably would not make the cut because Tom Koehler is much better at home than he is on the road. But, with the options on the board, this stack looks as though it could present some solid room for upside.
Koehler sports a decent ground-ball rate, but where he has struggled is with strikeouts and walks. His 16.6 strikeout rate is well below average, and he's walking 8.6 percent of the batters he faces, a couple notches above the league average of 7.5 percent. That combo makes it hard to record outs, giving the Pirates a bump on sites like FanDuel that deduct for those.
Normally, I have difficulty (as a plate appearance hog) stacking the Pirates against righties with some of their best lefty bats stuck at the bottom of the order. That's not a concern with Koehler, though, as he has nearly identical platoon splits. This would force me to value guys such as Andrew McCutchen and Jung Ho Kang -- who already hit righties well -- an even higher valuation than normal in a plus matchup.
