MLB

4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 4/12/16

Jim Sannes  —  @JimSannes Apr 12th, 2016
The Boston Red Sox popped off for seven runs on Monday, and they could be in line for another big offensive output on Tuesday.

Stacking can be a controversial topic in many daily fantasy sports, but you can count baseball as a glaring exception. Here, it's universal.

Using multiple players on the same team on a given day presents you with the opportunity to double dip. If one of your players hits an RBI double, there's a good chance he drove in another one of your guys. When you get the points for both the run and the RBI, you'll be climbing the leaderboards fast.

Each day here on numberFire, we'll go through four offenses ripe for the stacking. They could have a great matchup, be in a great park, or just have a lot of quality sticks in the lineup, but these are the offenses primed for big days that you may want a piece of.

Premium members can use our new stacking feature to customize their stacks within their optimal lineups for the day, choosing the team you want to stack and how many players you want to include. You can also check out our hitting heat map, which provides an illustration of which offenses have the best combination of matchup and potency.

Now, let's get to the stacks. Just like last year, we won't be including the game at Coors Field in these recommendations. If you're going out of your way to read this, you likely already know you need exposure at Coors. You don't need me to tell you. Still, try your hardest to load up on those bats in a juicy matchup like this. Here are the other teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.

Boston Red Sox

Baltimore Orioles starter Mike Wright had a quick stint in the Majors last year, logging 44 2/3 innings over 9 starts and 12 appearances. It didn't go well, including in his final start of the year against these Boston Red Sox.


Wright allowed at least three runs in seven of his nine starts on his way to a 5.28 SIERA. With a strikeout rate of 12.8% and a walk rate of 8.8%, it's safe to say he'll need to improve dramatically this year to keep his spot in the rotation. When you're pitching in a place with a park factor like Fenway Park, things get a wee bit tougher.

Stacking the Red Sox and also getting exposure to the aforementioned Gucciness at Coors Field will not be easy, but Hanley Ramirez can help ease the pain. It seems as if the transition to first base has helped him erase last year's struggles as Ramirez has struck out only four times in 28 plate appearances. When you put him behind guys like Mookie Betts and David Ortiz, he's going to get chances to drive in runs. That's some nice fluffiness for only $3,200 on FanDuel and $4,500 on DraftKings.

Houston Astros

Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch hates your stacks and will not make it easy on you by putting cheap batters near the top of the order. That should clearly be his top priority. Still, I suppose we can forgive him and check back on that big-bopping lineup.

Kansas City Royals starter Kris Medlen is one of those guys you want to root for as he has come back now from two separate Tommy John surgeries to pitch again in the Majors. His time as a starter last year wasn't a breeze as he posted a 4.58 xFIP with a 13.8% strikeout rate, and the Astros aren't the most inviting foe for his 2016 debut. He'd ideally prove us wrong, but this is not the simplest task he has faced.

This is one of the stacks you'll have to wait to formulate until the lineups come out. If Luis Valbuena is batting high in the order, you'll want to pluck him. The same is true for Preston Tucker. Thankfully, the pricing has been scaled back a bit on guys like Jose Altuve and George Springer to loosen the grip, but you'll still need to try to scrounge for value here wherever you can find it.

Washington Nationals

The Washington Nationals were a semi-chalky stack last night and didn't end up burning everyone. I cannot remember the last time that happened. We're probably playing with fire by going back again, but alas. Here we go.

The Atlanta Braves will start righty Jhoulys Chacin today after he spent most of last year (and his first 2016 start) in Triple-A, likely because his last major tryst in the big leagues didn't go too well. With the Colorado Rockies in 2014, he had a 4.77 SIERA over 11 starts with a 15.4% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. When the Nats have the healthy bats they do now, those are some juicy numbers.

After finally having a quality outing last night, Michael Taylor is likely to come with some hefty ownership today. However, snagging his $2,200 price tag on FanDuel and $3,500 on DraftKings at the top of an order like this is a must when you want to squeeze in high-priced sticks. The Nationals showed last night that they are more than willing to run on Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski, so even if Taylor is heavily owned, he'll give you some much needed upside and flexibility on a slate like this.

New York Yankees

I wouldn't do this in cash just because Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez might be on the verge of a breakout and could bust out another line like this.


That said, Sanchez is still a young pup, and if last week's performance is fresh in people's minds, we could snag the Yankees at lower ownership. Leggo.

Sanchez was spewing straight filth against the Tampa Bay Rays with an average fastball velocity of 95.6 miles per hour mixed with a curveball at 77.7 miles per hour. That's almost an 18 mile-per-hour difference. Can you blame people for not wanting to touch the Yankees?

That's not enough to rule out a Yankees stack, though. Outside of the allure of low ownership, we also may want to target the Yankees because they were the second-best team against fastballs in 2015, and Sanchez threw the heater 69.2% of the time in his first start. Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira were the top two fastball hitters on the team, and this may be worth a roll of the dice if you're looking to differentiate for tonight's slate.