MLB

3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Monday 5/9/22

The Arizona Diamondbacks have an enticing matchup tonight. Which other stacks are on the radar?

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.

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks should be licking their chops at the prospect of facing Elieser Hernandez tonight. Hernandez has been beaten like a drum this year. According to FanGraphs, he has a 6.66 ERA and 4.56 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP) in five starts.

However, two stats in his profile are more appealing for stacking against. First, Hernandez has coughed up 2.02 homers per nine innings in 249 2/3 innings in his big-league career. Second, since last year, the right-handed pitcher has been torched for a .649 slugging and .416 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) by 190 lefties.

The Diamondbacks should have at least seven players who will bat left-handed against Hernandez. I'm especially interested in them, headlined by Daulton Varsho ($3,100), Pavin Smith ($2,900), and David Peralta ($2,400).

Varsho has crushed righties for a .221 Isolated Power (ISO) since last year. Smith is blossoming into an excellent table-setter with a .340 OBP and 110 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) since last season. Finally, Peralta has overhauled his swing, hitting the ball more in the air this year. As a result, he's smacked four homers with a .233 ISO in 84 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers.

Miami Marlins

The Miami Marlins have a good matchup tonight, as well. So, there might be fireworks in the desert tonight. Righty Humberto Castellanos has had a 4.97 ERA and 5.04 xFIP in his career. Sure, his 4.12 ERA this year isn't as exciting to stack against, but his 4.72 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA) is a reason for excitement.

In addition, Castellanos hasn't fared well against lefties or righties. Since 2021, he has allowed a .338 wOBA to lefties. Meanwhile, righties have had a .324 wOBA against him. Therefore, Miami's lefties and righties are all in the mix for stacking.

The only must-use player in this stack is their electrifying leadoff hitter, Jazz Chisholm ($3,700). In 434 plate appearances against righties since last season, he's had a .213 ISO and 123 wRC+. Finally, he's stolen 29 bases in his last 148 games. Therefore, Chisholm boosts his scoring ceiling with his speed on the bases.

Chicago White Sox

It's hard to believe Zach Plesac was once an intriguing young hurler after the 2020 season. Since then, it's been all downhill. In Plesac's last 169 innings, he's had a 4.69 ERA, 4.74 xFIP, 4.74 SIERA, and allowed 1.44 homers per nine innings.

Intuitively, stacking the Chicago White Sox's righties against Plesac might feel suboptimal. However, Plesac has been worse against righties than lefties. The right-handed pitcher has allowed a .315 wOBA to righties in his career and a .483 slugging and .332 wOBA since last season. As a result, the best picks from the White Sox are their right-handed hitters.

Specifically, Tim Anderson ($3,600), Luis Robert ($3,600), and Jose Abreu ($3,500) are superb picks nestled within the top-four spots in the order. Anderson leads things off and has had a 118 wRC+ against righties since 2019. Meanwhile, Abreu and Robert should hit third and fourth and have had a 117 wRC+ and 114 wRC+, respectively.


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.