3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 6/3/22
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.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays have a drool-inducing matchup tonight. Chi Chi Gonzalez is being summoned from Triple-A to start for the Minnesota Twins. Sure, he's pitched adequately in Triple-A, but that doesn't wash away his horrible numbers in the majors.
In 261 and 2/3 career innings in the bigs, Gonzalez has recorded a 5.64 ERA. But, remarkably, his most recent numbers are worse than his career-long marks. According to FanGraphs, in 121 and 1/3 innings pitched since 2020, he's had a 6.53 ERA, 5.17 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP), 5.31 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA), and allowed 1.56 homers per nine innings.
Excitingly, Gonzalez has been a trainwreck against righties. The 209 right-handed batters he faced last year crushed him for a .630 slugging and .415 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA). Toronto's righty-laden lineup should tee off on Gonzalez.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,600) is a great pick. However, Teoscar Hernandez ($2,900) is heating up and is a sweet choice, too, and he likely won't be as popular as Vladdy. Meanwhile, Bo Bichette ($3,400) is in a groove and roughing up righties during his heater. In 103 plate appearances against righties since April 30, he's launched four homers with a .340 OBP, .214 Isolated Power (ISO), and 145 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+).
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves opened their series in Coors Field by making themselves at home, hanging 13 runs on the host Colorado Rockies. Tonight, they face a reeling starter and Colorado's MLB-worst bullpen.
In Chad Kuhl's last four starts, he's had a 6.38 ERA, 4.94 xFIP, 4.86 SIERA, 1.96 WHIP, and allowed 1.47 homers per nine innings. Oddly, only one of his last four starts has been at home. So pitching at Coors Field could be the equivalent of adding an accelerant to a flame. Plus, circling back to Colorado's bullpen, they've had the highest ERA (5.28) this year.
Honestly, the Braves are stackable from first through ninth in the order. Still, Austin Riley ($4,200) is an especially delightful pick from the cleanup spot. Since breaking out last year, in 668 plate appearances against righties, he's had a .361 OBP, .244 ISO, and 138 wRC+.
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Blue Jays and Braves are obviously outstanding stacks and will surely be chalky. The Arizona Diamondbacks are a sneaky-good alternative or complement. At first blush, JT Brubaker doesn't seem like a pitcher to go out of your way to pick on.
In his previous five starts, he's allowed two runs or fewer four times. However, Brubaker has been feasting on bums, facing three teams (one twice) in that time that in the bottom seven in wRC+ against right-handed pitchers this year. In short, Brubaker's recent stretch may be a fluke.
Since last year, Brubaker has a 5.02 ERA, 4.07 SIERA, and allowed 1.73 homers per nine innings. Moreover, he's been below-average against righties and lefties. Right-handed batters have had a .320 wOBA versus him, and lefties have had a .343 wOBA.
Additionally, the Pittsburgh Pirates' bullpen is below-average. They've had the ninth-highest bullpen ERA (4.18). As a result, the Diamondbacks have the potential to pummel Brubaker and then feast on Pittsburgh's bad bullpen.
Some of the standouts from the Diamondbacks are Daulton Varsho ($3,300), Ketel Marte ($3,200), Christian Walker ($3,100), and David Peralta ($2,700). The entire quartet has been on fire over the last 30 days. They've been above-average hitters against righties since 2019, with Walker's 104 wRC+ representing the lowest mark of the foursome and Marte's 119 wRC+ leading the group.
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.
