MLB

Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 9/14/20

Josh Shepardson  —  @BChad50 Sep 14th, 2020
On tonight's small four-game slate, the Braves are a likely chalky stack worthy of usage, while the Padres could actually be contrarian even with their big bats.

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.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are my favorite stack on tonight's four-game slate in a mouthwatering matchup with Jorge Lopez. In seven appearances (three starts) spanning 24 innings this year, Lopez has been rocked for a 6.38 ERA and 4.56 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA), per FanGraphs. The righty's also been quite lucky to allow only a .305 weighted on-base average (wOBA) given his significantly higher .363 expected wOBA (xwOBA), according to Baseball Savant. In 147 and 2/3 innings pitched dating back to the beginning of last year, he's been roughed up for a 6.34 ERA and 4.64 SIERA, begging the question, how's he still in a big-league rotation? I'm not sure, but I know I'll continue to stack against him while he inexplicably is.

The Braves have been one of the most potent offenses against righties this year, ranking second in weighted runs created plus (wRC+) with a 127 wRC+, and third in isolated power (ISO) with a .231 ISO. The top options to stack from the offense are Ronald Acuna ($4,900) and Freddie Freeman ($4,300). Acuna and Freeman boast a 166 wRC+ and 180 wRC+ this year, respectively.

Slugger Adam Duvall ($3,000) makes for another attractive stacking option with 14 dingers and a .345 ISO in 154 plate appearances this year. Nick Markakis ($2,700) isn't the sexiest stacking option, but he's been an above-average hitter against righties since 2017 with a 107 wRC+, and Marcell Ozuna ($4,100) warrants consideration due to his spot hitting cleanup and .212 ISO and 123 wRC+ against righties since 2017. If you're looking to differentiate from the other gamers stacking the Braves, consider a wrap-around stack utilizing Austin Riley ($2,900) and Ozzie Albies ($3,700).

San Diego Padres

Usually, going out of your way to stack against Clayton Kershaw would be foolish. He's dazzled this year with a 1.98 ERA and 3.25 SIERA. Frankly, stacking against him is only a consideration tonight due to the size of the slate and the talent level of the top hitters on the San Diego Padres.

I'll often call top stacks against bad pitchers stackable from top to bottom. That's not the case in this challenging matchup for the Friars. Instead, I'd suggest sticking with only their studs -- Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,800) and Manny Machado ($4,300) -- and/or the power-packed duo of Austin Nola ($3,100) and Wil Myers ($3,600).

All four touted hitters from the Padres have top-shelf power with Nola bringing up the rear with a strong .239 ISO against southpaws since reaching the Majors last year. Tatis Jr. headlines the quartet with a .294 ISO against lefties since debuting last year. Sandwiched between them are Myers and Machado with a .246 ISO and a .274 ISO, respectively, against lefties since 2017. Stacking this group is essentially rolling the dice on them collectively hopping on a few mistakes from Kershaw and reaching the seats.

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.