MLB

4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 5/4/15

With R.A. Dickey's knuckleball on the down-turn, the Yankees could see an offensive explosion tonight.

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

R.A. Dickey's knuckleball just ain't what it used to be. Hitters have pounded him this year to the tune of a 5.23 ERA through his first 31 innings pitched.

The velocity on Dickey's knuckleball has dropped to 74.8 miles per hour this year from 76.3 last year according to PITCHf/x data. This has resulted in his knuckleball runs above average dropping to -0.61 from -0.13 last year in a stat where average is zero and positive is preferred. This is all understandable considering the dude is 40 years old.

Although knuckleballers can have reverse platoon splits (as Dickey did last year), that has not been the case this year. Left-handers are slashing .245/.383/.500 off of Dickey as opposed to a .246/.301/.394 mark by right-handers. This should mean more positives for the lefties in a generally lefty-heavy lineup for the Bronx Bombers.

Houston Astros

Scoring on DraftKings finally caught up to how sweet the Astros have been recently. Pour one out for your homies. Even so, their run potential for tonight helps make up for the loss in crazy value.

I'm going to go out on a limb and postulate that Ross Detwiler has not enjoyed the start of the 2015 season. He has an 8.66 ERA, an 8.12 FIP and a 6.37 xFIP due to his 31.0 ground-ball percentage. Additionally, right-handers have slashed .394/.459/.773 off of him. Not great, Bob!

With the jacked-up pricing, the guy batting second (whoever that may be) is probably going to provide you with some sweet value. I would assume that would be Marwin Gonzalez based on their lineup against J.A. Happ yesterday, and he has had positive splits against left-handers the past three seasons. He's not great individually, but just by batting between the other good hitters, he will benefit in the fantasy realm and should net you some points for the cool, cool price of $3,000 on DraftKings.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers have scored at least six runs in five of their past eight games. The Brewers are in disarray. Kyle Lohse has seen better days. It's all good in this stacking hood, y'all.

His last time out, Lohse allowed four runs over seven innings (a 5.14 ERA), and it brought his ERA down to 7.28. Baby steps! But his ground-ball percentage is down to only 36.7 percent, assisting him in allowing eight dongs this year. Six of those have been to right-handers, who are slashing .343/.382/.692 off of him.

The crazy cool part about this stack? Not a single batter on the Dodgers costs more than $4,300 on DraftKings. This includes Joc Pederson, who is romping at a .427 wOBA clip with six bombs. His Gucci-ness at the top of the order has been an absolute delight, and there's no reason that shouldn't continue today.

Arizona Diamondbacks

I normally don't want to include teams playing at Coors Field here because y'all already know that. But, frankly, there aren't a lot of other teams that I'd be comfortable with stacking outside of going contrarian in a tourney, and the pricing for the Diamondbacks is fairly reasonable on DraftKings. So, let's do it.

Last year, the biggest thing that Tyler Matzek had going for him was his 49.7 ground-ball rate. That's exactly what you want from a pitcher at Coors. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to sustain that this year so far, instead inducing ground balls 39.7 percent of the time. If that's not simply a product of a small sample size, then Matzek could be in trouble.

Thus far, Matzek's FIP has jumped to 4.89, and his xFIP is at 5.79 as he has only a 4.3 home run to fly ball ratio. That number won't stick at Coors. We could see a whole boatload of badness if Matzek can't reclaim that plus ground-ball percentage.

I know he's going to cost you an arm, foot and the blood of a unicorn, but Paul Goldschmidt is a straight-up assassin against left-handed pitching. After posting a .384/.526/.589 slash off of lefties last year, he has decided to amp it up to .400/.455/.900 through his first 22 plate appearances this year. Small sample size? Yes. Small production? Heck naw. If you can afford him, treat yoself and do so.