MLB

4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 8/18/20

Tonight's top stacking options have an affordable feel to accommodate rostering the priciest hurler, Yu Darvish, and are headlined by the Mets.

In the world of daily baseball, stacks are often the backbone of the most successful -- and profitable -- lineups. Correlation is the key.

When an offense hangs runs in bunches, it means hitters are scoring runs and teammates hitting behind them are driving them in. By rostering stacks, you’re maximizing the fantasy scoring by essentially double dipping on a run-scoring event.

This is your daily home for the top stacks on the daily fantasy baseball slate. Whether you’re looking to identify the projected highest-scoring stacks or contrarian stacks that can help you separate from the pack in GPPs when they explode, they’ll be thrown under the spotlight here.

Gamers who are numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. The tool allows you to select the team and number of players from that team you’d like to include in your lineup. If you’re looking to identify other potentially high-scoring stacks beyond those featured in this space, check out our hitting heat map, a tool that provides valuable info such as implied total, park factor, and stats to identify the quality of the opposing pitcher.

Without further ado, let’s dive into today’s main slate’s featured stacks.

New York Mets

The New York Mets laid a beatdown on the Miami Marlins last night, and at the time of writing this piece late Monday night, the Marlins still hadn't announced a starting pitcher but have teased Humberto Mejia as the guy to get the ball.

Mejia is a rookie right-handed pitcher who's made the leap from High Single-A to the Majors for one start this season spanning 2 and 1/3 innings. The leap is obviously a sizable one, and his short start was a mixed bag featuring a whopping six strikeouts but also a pair of walks, a pair of hits, and a homer yielded. The Mets are a tough assignment for any righty, and they're a high-upside group the inexperienced Mejia.

Both Pete Alonso ($3,400) and Robinson Cano ($2,900) clubbed a pair of homers last night from the sixth and fifth spots in the order. They should see an ownership bump from point-chasing gamers but also warrant stacking usage based on their hitting ability against righties in general. Alonso offers top-shelf pop and Cano's in the midst of a renaissance season at the dish.

Brandon Nimmo ($3,000) continues to find himself nestled in the cozy leadoff gig and was followed up by a returning Jeff McNeil ($2,700) in the order against a righty starter last night. Both are excellent stacking options, with Nimmo ripping off a .406 OBP, .207 isolated power (ISO) and 141 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against righties since 2017 and McNeil tallying a .386 OBP, .198 ISO and 144 wRC+ against righties since debuting for the Metropolitans in 2018, per FanGraphs.

Number-three hitter J.D. Davis ($2,800), cleanup hitter Michael Conforto ($3,100) and Dominic Smith ($3,200) also all warrant stacking consideration. The Mets offer a deep group of stacking options, and gamers entering multiple GPPs tonight should consider mixing and matching Mets stacks.

Washington Nationals

Josh Tomlin has largely served as a multi-inning reliever since joining the Atlanta Braves last year, making only one start in 59 appearances. He's being pushed into starter duties tonight, and that's probably extending him beyond his usefulness as a hurler. When he last served as a full-time starter in 2017, he amassed a 4.98 ERA and 4.17 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA). He split his time between starting (seven starts) and relieving (23 relief appearances) in 2018 and was appreciably worse as a starter with a ghastly 7.17 ERA and 5.14 SIERA starting that year.

Tomlin's a pitcher with a fly-ball tendency. His proclivity for allowing fly balls resulted in an unsightly 3.20 homer per 9 innings in 2018 and even resulted in 1.59 homers per 9 innings operating basically exclusively as a reliever last year. Juan Soto ($4,700) is playing out of his mind this year and carries the highest salary of any hitter tonight. Yet, he's worth every penny as the key piece in a Nationals stack.

Trea Turner ($3,400) and Adam Eaton ($2,600) are the table setters who stand to come around and score if they're able to get on base for wunderkind Soto. Both are above-average hitters, with Turner recording a 112 wRC+ and Eaton owning a 120 wRC+ against righties since 2017.

Despite his slow start to the season, I'm also a fan of using down-order thumper Eric Thames ($2,300) in Nationals stacks. The lefty slugger reached the seats for the first time this year -- perhaps a sign of him turning it around -- and boasts a .270 ISO against righties since 2017.

Philadelphia Phillies

Zack Godley's been a mess this year with a 8.16 ERA, 4.70 SIERA and eye-popping 3.14 homers per nine innings allowed. He's also proven to be completely inept getting lefties and righties out since last year. The right-handed hurler's coughed up a .505 slugging and .359 weighted on-base average (wOBA) to 243 lefties faced since last year while yielding a .478 slugging and .361 wOBA to 235 right-handed batters faced.

Jean Segura ($2,700) and Jay Bruce ($2,700) are banged up and left Sunday's game early, but the severity of their injuries is unclear since the Philadelphia Phillies were off yesterday. If either or both are back in the lineup, they're usable in stacks. Really, the entirety of the lineup is usable given Godley's struggles against all hitters.

Bryce Harper ($4,200) is the unquestioned top dog in a Phillies stack. In 1,357 plate appearances against righties since 2017, he's mashed to the tune of a .400 OBP, .266 ISO and 140 wRC+.

Rhys Hoskins ($2,900), J.T. Realmuto ($3,700) and Didi Gregorius ($2,900) each deserve consideration, as well, with each recording an ISO north of .200 against righties since 2017.

And, if Andrew McCutchen ($2,400) is back in his familiar role as the leadoff hitter after getting a day off on Sunday, he's worth a look based on lineup spot and expected blowup from the Phillies' offense tonight.

Toronto Blue Jays

Even with Bo Bichette on the injured list, the Toronto Blue Jays have a stackable group in a mouthwatering matchup against Wade LeBlanc.

Simply put, LeBlanc isn't rotation material. He doesn't miss bats (12.5 percent strikeout percentage and 10.8 swinging-strike percentage), fails to avoid hard contact (27.0 percent line drive percentage and 42.2 percent hard-hit percentage allowed this year), and has no answers for left-handed batters or right-handed batters, having allowed a .570 slugging and .363 wOBA to lefties since last year and a .520 slugging and .357 wOBA to righties.

He's sitting on a 7.13 ERA and 5.49 SIERA after four starts spanning 17 and 2/3 innings this year following getting knocked around for a 5.71 ERA and 4.73 SIERA in 121 and 1/3 innings split between starting (eight starts) and relieving (18 relief appearances) in 2019.

Feel free to attack LeBlanc with anyone penciled into Toronto's lineup card tonight. However, specifically rostering some of the top power hitters to take advantage of LeBlanc's inability to miss bats makes a lot of sense.

On that note, I'm fixated on Randal Grichuk ($2,400), Teoscar Hernandez ($3,200) and Lourdes Gurriel ($2,400). Grichuk is the trailer in the group with only a .216 ISO against lefties since 2017, while Hernandez has a .254 ISO against them in that time frame, and Gurriel leads the pack with a .273 ISO against southpaws since reaching the Majors in 2018.

Look for the Blue Jays to flex their muscles tonight against LeBlanc. As an added bonus, their fence-clearing pop will get a pick-me-up from playing at Oriole Park at Camden Yards tonight. According to the MLB park factors at FantasyPros, Camden Yards has the third-highest park factor for homers at 1.209.


Joshua Shepardson is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Joshua Shepardson also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username bchad50. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.