Hey everyone CeeGee here again to break down my favorite stacks for today’s MLB Main Slate. If you have any questions hit my up in the DFS Army VIP Slack chat @CeeGee and we can chat. Follow me on Twitter @DailyRotoSharks and if you decide to sign up here at the DFS Army make sure you use my coupon code CEEGEE and you’ll save 10% on your membership.
In MLB stacking is a near MUST if you want to give yourself a chance to take down a Large Field GPP. There is no other way in MLB DFS to increase your upside more than stacking. With that in mind I’ll do my very best to point in the right direction each day with my favorite MLB Top Stacks on Fanduel and Draftkings
I’ll be using various resources daily but most of my info will be directly from our MLB Research Station. If you’re not familiar with it Ben (the mastermind behind the RS) did a great job with the MLB Research Staion Tutorial so click here to check it out.
I’ll usually list my favorite 4 or 5 Top Stacks each day, these may be chalky some days but we’re not worried as much about Ownership in MLB as we are with some other sports like NBA and NFL. Along with to the Top stacks I’ll do my best to identify 1 or 2 value stacks that are in good spots each day. These value stacks could be a good to combine with your Top rated stacks. For example, you may get a Red Sox stack (generally more expensive bats) and a Padres stack (generally less expensive).
Since I’ve been with the DFS Army I’ve be utilizing the Domination Station aka the “DS” to run my 150 lineups daily in NBA and now in MLB. I’m hoping you’ll find my Stack Picks useful each day and use them in combination with the the settings within the DS. With the like, love, adore, dislike, hate and enrage (along with Lock and Exclude) features you can completely customize your player pool so that its truly unique. If you want some more info on the Domination Station check Kevin’s Domination Station MLB Tutorial HERE.
Before we get started, lets talk about the Types of stacks we have in MLB. First and foremost we have to understand that no matter how perfect a matchup looks on paper MLB is a fail first sport, meaning, even the best batters will fail nearly 70% of the time. Mike Trout (lefty masher) vs John Dank (slow pitch lefty) is a perfect matchup for Trout, but he can (and will) go 0-4 in that matchup more times that the numbers “that day” would lead you to believe. Knowing this, we can’t go “all in” on any 1 stack or 1 value stack for the day. I suggest about 30% to 35% max for teams you want to stack each day. 30% across 150 lineups would give you 45 lineups maximum on that single team. If you want exposure to more teams, drop that number to 20% – 25%
Types of Stacks
4-4 – this gives you 4 players from 1 team and 4 players from another. This gives you the highest upside and high downside
(note this Season Fanduel added the SP option to this stack so you can have 4 bats and 1 SP, last year you could only have 4 total players from 1 team)
4-3-1 – this stack is my favorite because it gives me the ability to snag a superstar “one off” player.
Example, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper as one off bats with my Red Sox / Padres (4×3) stack
3-3-1-1 – Similar to 4-3-1 but this stack gives you 2 “one off” batters. I’m not a huge fan of this as I feel like only having 3 bats from 1 team lowers my upside overall
In my article I’m not going to specify which stack you should or should not use. I’ll may mention from time to time “I am playing all 4 of these guys” or something like that. However I recommend you dig into the MLB Research Staion every day and combine that info with the tools of the MLB Domination Station along with this articles and stack as you see fit.
One final note before I get into today’s top stacks. Stacking is not recommended in your Cash Games. This is a GPP Specific strategy
My Favorite Stacks Today
(note stacks article is written early in the day so projected lineups are based on the lineup each team usually has vs the handedness of today’s opposing SP)
Brewers @ Reds Brandon Finnegan (L)
Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun, Travis Shaw, Jesus Aguilar
Total Cost $13.6k
Total DFSA Grade 313.3
Reds SP Brandon Finnegan is a below average Lefty who throws a Fastball (93mph), Slider, Changeup and Sinking Fastball. This Brewers stack is built to attack these pitches and they have several people in the lineup that should do well today.
Against fastballs in this speed range which Finnegan throws 26% of the time, Yelich, Braun and Shaw have a 400+ woba. Yelich makes contact with this pitch 93% of the time while Braun and Shaw have ISO Ratings over 300. If Finnegan decides to throw his Slider, a pitch he only throws 13% of the time, look out because all of these hitters do well against the Slider. One player in particular that stands out is Jesus Aguilar who has a 394 woba and a 369 iso with a 53% hard contact rate. Finnegan would be wise to limit the amount of Sliders he throws today
His most thrown pitch is his Sinking Fastball 43% and this is where this stack becomes a boom or bust stack. Outside of Yelich who has a 434 woba 207 iso the rest of the stack struggles vs the particular pitch. Braun, Shaw and Aguilar all have whiff% between 13-15% vs this pitch with rather low woba and iso scores ranging from 320-350 and iso ranging from 130-180. This doesn’t scare me off this stack completely but it shows me that if Finnegan can keep his Sinking Fastball down and hit his spots he could do well vs this team. I like the Braun the best out of everyone in this stack, he does really well vs 3 of the 4 main pitches that Finnegan throws
Rays @ Tigers Jordan Zimmerman (R)
Denard Span, CJ Cron, Carlos Gomez, Brad Miller + Wilson Ramos (on fire)
Total Cost $12.7k
Total DFSA Grade 307.3
Stacking the Rays is not something we typically look to do but they’ve actually be solid this year and they’re in the midst of an 8-2 run in their last 10 games. Today they get a juicey matchup vs the Tigers Jordan Zimmerman who is equally bad vs Righties and Lefties.
Zimmerman vs RHB 370 woba 211 iso 40% Fly Ball and 37% hard contact
Zimmerman vs LHB 374 woba 218 iso 42% Fly Ball and 42% hard contact
As you can see we can cherry pick nearly any hitter out of this Rays lineup since Zimmerman is so bad against virtually everyone. It wouldn’t be any fun to simply take the highest rated DFS Grade players in the MLB Research Staion So lets take a look at what pitches he throws and who hits those pitches well.
Zimmerman throws a Fastball (92mph) Slider, Change, Sinker and Knuckle Curve. He throws his fastball 43% of the time and his Slider 25% of the time so 68% he throws these two pitches. Lets take a look at which Rays hitters do well vs those.
Against Fastballs between 90-92mph
Denard Span 374 woba 180 iso
CJ Cron 391 woba 289 iso 44% hard contact
Brad Miller 382 woba 277 iso 45% hard contact
Wison Ramos 489 woba 362 iso 65% hard contact (this is not a typo that says 65% hard contact 👀
Against Sliders the Rays are significantly worse all with woba scores ranging from 275-310. Brad Miller still has a solid 283 iso but he makes far less contact on the slider vs the contact on the fastball. It would be wise for Zimmerman to mix it up today, throw less fastballs and more sliders vs this Rays team. I think the Rays full stack is in play and I think they’ll get to Zimmerman early and often but just remember stacking is risky and volatile so if Zimmerman is successful mixing it up this team could struggle.
Reds vs Brewers Jhoulys Chacin (R)
Jesse Winker, Joey Votto, Eugenio Suarrez, Adam Duvall + Scooter Gennett
Total Cost $12.9k
Total DFSA Grade 303.5
Oh well, look what we have here. I wrote up the Brewers above vs Red SP Finnegan and now I’m writing up the Reds vs Brewers SP Chacin. This is what you call a GAME STACK ladies and gentleman. Look for some fireworks tonight in Cincinnati. Lets take a look and see which Reds hitters we can target tonight vs Chacin.
Chacin throws Fastball (90-92mph) Slider, Change, Sinker, Knuckle Curve (only 5% of the time. He throws his Fastball 28% Slider 34% and Sinker 26% which is 88% of the time. Joey Votto is going to be a very popular play today and for good reason. Against fastballs of this speed range Votto has a 477 woba 373 iso and 55% hard contact rate. Those numbers are absurd. Scooter Gennett is another player that we should target he brings a 505 woba 393 iso and 50% hard contact rate. These two guys that I’ll be building most of my Reds stacks from this evening.
Both Votto and Gennett are a little less amazing vs Chacin’s most popular pitch, his Slider, but have no fear we have Adam Duval who can pick up the slack there. Duval comes into tonight with a 410 CXwOBA, what is CXwOBA you ask? Its the “expected” woba based on Launch Angle and Batted Ball speed of past events. Along with a 410 CWwOBA Duval has a 262 iso and 40% hard contact rate vs Sliders.
All of these numbers lead me to believe the Reds and Brewers double stack is going to be very popular tonight. As I’m writing this its 9:30am so we don’t know the exact starting lineups. I think a solid strategy here will be to go with a few players from the Reds and Brewers in Cash and for GPP just play as many of them as you can fit into your lineups tonight.
Other Stacks
Diamondbacks @ Dodgers Brock Stewart (R)
Paul Goldschmidt, Daniel Descalso, David Peralta, AJ Pollock
Blue Jays @ Twins Lance Lynn (R)
Justin Smoak, Yangervis Solarte, Curtis Granderson, Teoscar, Hernandez
My Favorite Value Stacks
Giants vs Padres Eric Lauer (L)
Evan Longoria, Buster Poser, Andrew McCutcheon, Austin Jackson + Gorkys Hernandez,
Total Cost $11.2k
Total DFSA Grade 377.1
Highest Rated DFSA Grade stack today and also one of the best values on the board. These guys are historically Lefty mashers so lets see how they match up to vs the Padres young left hander Eric Lauer. Sadly we don’t have much pitch data on Lauer, the Rookie LHP from Elyria Ohio only a few minutes down the road from me in Cleveland. The data we do have though is from the Giants batters vs Left Handed Pitchers.
Buster Posey vs LHP 413 woba 207 iso 39% hard contact rate
Andrew McCuthceon vs LHP 474 woba 382 iso 43% hard contact rate
Austin Jackson vs LHP 432 woba 227 iso
These three players along with some sprinkling of Evan Longoria will be my main targets tonight for the Giants. We know they hit lefties well, we just don’t know a lot about Lauer quite yet. I think they get to him early and often and I expect him to be out of the game early so that could hurt this stack overall unless they hang a big number on the board early. That being said I’ll be picking a choosing my spots with Giants bats tonight. I expect Cutch, Posey, Long and Jackson to find there way into quite a bit of my lineups as One Offs with other 4-3 stacks of Brewers and Reds.
Thanks for taking the time to check out the article. If you’re in the slack chat, hit me up with any questions @CeeGee
Follow me on Twitter @DailyRotoSharks
