MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 4/15/22

Josh Shepardson  —  @BChad50 Apr 15th, 2022
The New York Yankees have a dreamy matchup tonight. Which other stacks are worth a look?

Stacks are an integral part of daily fantasy baseball. They can push a team to the top of a GPP by driving upside. However, they're also viable in cash games, namely smaller (two-person or three-person) stacks that mitigate the volatility of a full four-person stack.

This article is your home throughout the 2022 Major League Baseball season for the day's top stacks. The primary goal is to identify the highest-scoring upside stack. Still, game theory will play a role in contrarian stacks making the cut as GPP options. Nevertheless, chalky stacks will make appearances in this space, too.

Beyond my analysis in this space, I strongly suggest numberFire premium members using our DFS Sharpstack tool and hitting heat map tool. The DFS Sharpstack helps plug stacks into optimized lineups, allowing you to change parameters and lock or exclude players and teams. Meanwhile, the heat map offers a one-stop-shop for the opposing starting pitcher, implied total, park factor, and other notable goodies.

Now, let's look at the top stacks on today's main slate.

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees should live up to their "Bronx Bombers" nickname tonight. By every measure, their opposing pitcher, Jordan Lyles, is bad. According to FanGraphs, in 180 innings in 2021, he had a 5.15 ERA, 5.40 Expected ERA (xERA), 5.82 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA), and coughed up 1.90 homers per nine innings. This year, Lyles has made one start, allowing a whopping seven hits, three walks, one homer, and five runs in only five innings.

Further, Lyles is a punching bag for lefties and righties. Since last year, he has ceded a .495 slugging and .358 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) to lefties and a .511 slugging and .357 wOBA to righties. As a result, New York's best lefties and righties are in the mix for stacking consideration.

I'm drawn to their biggest power hitters. Specifically, Aaron Judge ($3,900), Anthony Rizzo ($3,600), Giancarlo Stanton ($3,700), and Joey Gallo ($2,700) have the top-shelf power to exacerbate Lyles' homer struggles. Rizzo has come out of the gate hot, swatting three homers with a .500 Isolated Power (ISO). Meanwhile, Judge, Stanton, and Gallo are annually near the top of Statcast's exit velocity leaderboard. Since 2019, against righties, Stanton has had a .244 ISO, Judge has had a .246 ISO, and Gallo has had a .260 ISO.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers will likely be in this piece more often than not. They have exceptional lineup depth, making them an attractive stacking option to blend with another stack. However, they're also an excellent stack tonight because of the matchup.

Vladimir Gutierrez had a 4.74 ERA, 4.54 xERA, 5.08 SIERA, and allowed 1.58 homers per nine innings in 22 starts as a rookie last year. He has allowed a .507 slugging and .357 wOBA to 251 lefties. The righty hasn't been good in same-handed matchups either, surrendering a .337 wOBA to righties.

Since Gutierrez has been worse against lefties, Freddie Freeman ($3,600) and Max Muncy ($3,100) are my favorite stacking options from the Dodgers. However, dare I say Cody Bellinger ($3,100) is also worth a look? Yes, I do! He's striking out a lot, but his bat has been showing signs of life this week. But, of course, I won't talk anyone out of using anyone on the Dodgers in their stacks. They're a juggernaut.

Seattle Mariners

I was looking for two things with this third stack. First, I wanted to find a cap-friendly stack to mix with the studs from the Yankees and Dodgers while leaving cap space for Carlos Rodon or Dylan Cease. Second, I aimed for a potential contrarian stack that's GPP-friendly. Thankfully, the Seattle Mariners check both boxes.

This year, the M's haven't been tearing the cover off the ball yet, but Jake Odorizzi might help them shine tonight. The veteran righty has had an ERA under 4.10 only once since 2017. Further, he has had a below-average strikeout rate since his outlier 2019 campaign. I'm always compelled to stack against a pitcher with a profile like Odorizzi's.

Whittling down the options from the Mariners, I'm willing to chase J.P. Crawford's ($2,700) hot start at a near-punt salary. However, I'm also locked in on Seattle's most powerful hitters, Jesse Winker ($3,000), Mitch Haniger ($3,200), and Eugenio Suarez ($2,800). Winker has been elite with the platoon advantage, roughing up righties for a .398 OBP, .267 ISO, and 150 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) since 2019. Haniger and Suarez have less well-rounded statistical contributions, but they boast a .221 ISO and .275 ISO versus righties since 2019.


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.