MLB

4 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for 9/1/15

The Astros' offense put up eight runs last night and is starting to regain their stroke. They find themselves in a good matchup again tonight.

Each day here on numberFire, we'll be providing you with four potential offenses to stack in your daily fantasy lineups. These are the offenses that provide huge run potential on that given day based on matchups and other factors.

After reading through these suggestions, make sure to check out our daily projections. These can either let you know which players to include in each stack, or which guy best complements said stack.

Another great tool is our custom optimal lineups, which are available for premium subscribers. Within the tool, we've added the option to stack teams -- you choose the team you want to stack, show how many players you want to use within the stack, and the tool will create a lineup based on this that you can then customize.

Now, let's get to the stacks. As always, these stacks do not include today's games at Coors between the Diamondbacks and the Rockies. In the first game (if it's on any slates?) I might shy away from Rockies hitters because Patrick Corbin is a beast. The night cap is fair game. Here are the other teams you should be targeting in daily fantasy baseball today.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Blue Jays may not provide their typical long-ball potential into tonight's matchup with Cody Anderson, but I don't think there's any question that they are the safest cash-game stack on the board.

Anderson has two things that are going for him through his first nine Major League starts: he doesn't walk a bunch of dudes, and he's able to get ground balls at around a league-average rate. Unfortunately, strikeouts have evaded him thus far as he is averaging 4.13 per nine innings and is yet to strikeout more than four in a single game. When you bring that to a team that has the sixth-lowest strikeout percentage in the league against righties, you're going to have a solid floor in daily fantasy.

As long as Ben Revere continues to hit at the top of the order, I will continue to consider him a top-of-the-line cash-game play. His pricing doesn't yet reflect his spike in plate appearances as he's only $2,700 on FanDuel. He's not going to get dongs, but he has a .343 on-base percentage and the ability to swipe a bag and score a whole lotta runs. Until his price comes up to reflect his leadoff status, you'll find Revere on my rosters with great regularity.

New York Mets

Happy day, Aaron Harang. It's not August anymore, buddy. You have been rid of those demons that ushered in a new level of suffering on the mound that no human should have to endure.

In his five starts last month, Harang threw 28 innings. He allowed 25 earned runs, walked 14, and struck out 10. His xFIP was a sub-Gucci 6.18, elevating his season-long number to 4.95. Let's hope for his sake that September is a wee bit friendlier.

The Mets are obviously hoping otherwise. My top target on this team is -- once again -- Curtis Granderson. He holds a 37.2 percent hard-hit rate against righties, and every ball in play is a candidate for an extra-base hit. He only has a 28.2 percent ground-ball rate. Granderson also brings the volume of batting at the top of the order and the speed to potentially swipe a bag. There are plenty of bats that are intriguing, but none more so for me than good ol' Granderson.

Houston Astros

Don't look now, but somebody done woke up the Astros' offense. Starting with their 15-run outburst last week against the Yankees, the Astros are averaging 6.33 runs per game over their past six. That even includes a shutout, and they have scored at least five runs four times in those six games. They're getting back to their early-season ways.

That's an ominous sign for Roenis Elias. Whether he has been at Triple-A or in the Majors, 2015 has been a struggle for the lefty. He has a 4.29 xFIP in 85 2/3 innings in the Majors to go with a 5.04 FIP in 61 1/3 innings in the minors. Compared to his 3.95 xFIP last year in his rookie season, this looks like a year to flush for Elias.

As mentioned yesterday, I'm a big fan of using Jed Lowrie against lefties. Carlos Correa is the other obvious selection, but Marwin Gonzalez has been mighty interesting of late. He is batting second in the order thanks to a .316/.369/.463 slash since the All-Star break. Gonzalez has also posted better batted-ball and plate discipline numbers against lefties. These factors combine to make him a guy to watch at $2,200 on FanDuel.

New York Yankees

Every morning, I wake up, look in the mirror, and remind myself, "Vegas is smarter than you." It's best just to accept things such as this and move on.

Personally, I'd be a bit worried about stacking against Rick Porcello after how well his first start off of the disabled list went against the Chicago White Sox. Vegas has no such reservations, pinning the over/under at nine and the Yankees -120. They're basing their stance off of Porcello's season-long work, while I'm going on one game. I submit to the powers that be.

When Porcello is at his best, he is able to induce a bunch of ground balls. Because of this, I want to find at least one batter who is not dependent on fly balls to rack up points. To me, Chase Headley seems like an intriguing tourney option for this reason. He has a 30.8 line-drive percentage against right-handed pitchers this year, and he is cheaper than most others on the roster, though his salary has spiked to $3,700 on FanDuel. He's not my favorite Yankees' hitter of the night, but I do think he could bring some solid point totals.