3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 7/16/21
Stacks are the backbone of cashing daily fantasy baseball lineups. Correlation drives upside, creating the potential to place high or even win GPPs when your selected stacks explode offensively.
This column will do the digging and the dirty work to determine which stacks are worth rostering each day. Scoring upside will fuel the stacks that get the nod. Sometimes that will lead to chalky selections, but contrarian stacks will get their fair share of love too.
In addition to utilizing the touted daily stacks in handbuilt lineups, numberFire premium members can throw these highlighted stacks into an optimized lineup using our DFS Sharpstack tool. Our hitting heat map tool is also available to premium members looking for more stacking options. It provides valuable info such as implied total, park factors, and stats for identifying the quality of the opposing pitcher.
Let's take a look at the top stacks on today's main slate.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers kick off the second half with a trip to Coors Field to face the Colorado Rockies. According to the park factors at FantasyPros, Coors Field has the second-highest park factor for homers and doubles, leading the way for runs, singles, and triples. The hitting conditions couldn't be dreamier.
The pitching matchup is a plus for their offensive outlook tonight, too. According to FanGraphs, Antonio Senzatela has a 4.58 ERA and 4.32 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) this year. Further, he has a 4.68 ERA and allowed a .333 weighted on-base average (wOBA) at home in his career across 280 and 2/3 innings pitched. Additionally, he's below-average against both lefties and righties, ceding a .330 wOBA to the former and a .354 wOBA to the latter this season.
The Dodgers have been Major League Baseball's second-best offense against righties this year, sporting a 114 weighted runs created plus (wRC+) against them. Moreover, they're stackable from top to bottom. Gamers looking to swerve from the masses can hunt down the order for the likes of Chris Taylor ($3,700), A.J. Pollock ($3,500), and Gavin Lux ($3,000).
Still, picking out favorites, Max Muncy ($4,400) and Will Smith ($3,200) get the nods. Muncy has a .401 on-base percentage, .282 isolated power (ISO), and 158 wRC+ against righties in 2021. Smith lags just a pinch behind him, sporting a .397 on-base percentage, .235 ISO, and 151 wRC+.
New York Mets
The Pittsburgh Pirates haven't announced a starting pitcher at the time of writing. Regardless, their options are middling. Further, the New York Mets are becoming a formidable offense with recent and forthcoming reinforcements returning from the injured list. With most of this year's lineup on last year's squad, the Mets finished second in wRC+ (121). That's representative of the caliber of offense they're capable of being the rest of the year.
They could start to resemble that offense as soon as tonight, given Pittsburgh's pitching shortcomings. The Pirates have the sixth-highest team ERA (4.88) this season. Pittsburgh's starters are responsible for the fourth-highest ERA (5.31), and their bullpen ranks in the middle of the pack in ERA. However, Pittsburgh's bullpen's ERA has been greatly aided by closer Richard Rodriguez's 2.29 ERA in 35 and 1/3 innings. By stacking the Mets, the presumption and hope are that they'll beat up on Pittsburgh. Thus, they won't see Rodriguez. The rest of the bullpen is less imposing.
The top stacking options from the Mets are contingent on the handedness of Pittsburgh's starter. For instance, right-handed-hitting catcher James McCann ($2,500) is more enticing against a southpaw. Conversely, left-handed-hitting outfielder Dominic Smith ($3,500) is a stronger play with the platoon advantage against a righty.
The two hitters I'm locked in on regardless of the handedness of the probable starter for the Buccos are back-to-back Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso ($4,000) and returning J.D. Davis ($2,500). Alonso has a .228 ISO and 121 wRC+ this year. Davis, in an admittedly small sample of 48 plate appearances, has a 199 wRC+ this year. He also mashed to the tune of a 212 wRC+ in 49 plate appearances rehabbing at the Triple-A level.
San Francisco Giants
The St. Louis Cardinals haven't announced a starter. However, ESPN lists Adam Wainwright, and he makes logical sense. Stacking the San Francisco Giants isn't an indictment of Waino's skills. Rather, it's buying into the legitimacy of San Francisco's offense being one of the best in 2021. The Giants rank tied for fourth in wRC+ (110) and first in ISO (.195) against right-handed pitchers in 2021.
While the Giants, like the Dodgers, are stackable from top to bottom, I'm fixated on a couple of hitters in particular. Namely, Mike Yastrzemski ($2,900) and Brandon Crawford ($3,200) are the two must-use options from San Francisco's offense. They both have the platoon advantage against Waino, and they've each hammered right-handed pitching this year. Yastrzemski has a .296 ISO and 143 wRC+. Using a new batting stance in 2021, Crawford has crushed righties for a .389 on-base percentage, .288 ISO, and 165 wRC+.
I'm not expecting the Giants to be a chalky stack tonight. So, the lack of attention from gamers would be a boon for their GPP appeal.
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.
