3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 6/1/22
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.
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox have scored only one run in their previous two games. Tonight, they have a golden opportunity to take out their frustrations on a promising pitcher finding the sledding tough in his rookie campaign.
According to FanGraphs, in nine starts spanning 44 and 1/3 innings, Hunter Greene has had a 5.89 ERA and 4.35 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP). The young righty has had two fatal flaws in his statistical profile. First, he's walked 11.8 percent of the batters he's faced. Second, Greene has coughed up an eye-popping 3.05 homers per nine innings.
Further, he has been mediocre against lefties and terrible against righties. Greene has allowed a .316 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) to lefties and .427 wOBA to righties. In addition, right-handed batters have crushed Greene for a .653 slugging.
Remarkably, the good news doesn't end there. The Cincinnati Reds' bullpen has had the third-highest ERA (4.79) in 2022. Therefore, Boston's boppers should eat. It will probably be a chalky four-person stack, but the most enticing quartet is Rafael Devers ($4,100), J.D. Martinez ($3,900), Xander Bogaerts ($3,900), and Trevor Story ($4,000). Gamers can also drop any of them from the four-person stack and pivot to an alternative to be different from others stacking Boston.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup is star-studded at the top. Tonight, they face resurgent Jose Quintana. However, the veteran lefty's 2.15 ERA has overrated how well he's pitched.
Quintana also has had a 4.01 xFIP and 4.24 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA). Thus, he's likely to regress to his ERA estimators, making him a fine pitcher but not an elite one. Additionally, the Pittsburgh Pirates' bullpen has been a bottom-10 group. So, even if Quintana's good luck continues, there's an escape hatch for the Dodgers piling up runs and delivering as a stack.
The best stacking option from Los Angeles is their righties. Since last year, Quintana has yielded a .356 wOBA to right-handed batters. It starts at the top with Mookie Betts ($4,500). Betts is having a fantastic 2022 campaign, and he's touched up southpaws for four homers, a .349 OBP, .250 Isolated Power (ISO), and 148 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+).
Trea Turner ($4,200) is a fantastic pick, too. Since 2019, he's had a .407 OBP, .249 ISO, and 165 wRC+ against lefties. Finally, if you're looking for salary relief and a sneaky way to stack the Dodgers, consider using Hanser Alberto ($2,000). The veteran infielder hit eighth the last time the Dodgers faced a lefty, making him a wrap-around option to attach to Betts and Turner from the leadoff and third spots.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a contrarian pivot in GPPs from the Red Sox and Dodgers. Michael Kopech has had a jaw-dropping 1.29 ERA in eight starts spanning 42 innings. Yet, his ERA estimators have been much less impressive.
Kopech has had a 4.60 xFIP and 4.44 SIERA. Moreover, he's had below-average control, resulting in an 11.8 percent walk rate that could backfire for him as soon as tonight. Additionally, while the Chicago White Sox's bullpen was expected to be a strength this year, it has been below average.
Sadly, the Blue Jays haven't been the offensive juggernaut most prognosticators projected for 2022, either. Regardless, they have a handful of hitters who are still punishing righties, even in a down year relative to Toronto's lofty offensive expectations. For instance, George Springer ($3,700) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,600) have had a 139 wRC+ and 142 wRC+, respectively.
However, gamers shouldn't sleep on Danny Jansen ($2,700). In an admittedly small sample of 31 plate appearances against righties, Jansen has had a .621 ISO and 261 wRC+. Still, since 2019, Jansen has had a .213 ISO that's worth a look in this stack.
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.
