Minnesota Twins' Trevor Plouffe watches the flight of his grand slam off Chicago White Sox starting pitcher John Danks during the third inning a baseball game in Minneapolis, Sunday, May 3, 2015. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
Welcome to our new daily article breaking down some of the other stacking targets on this slate. We covered our system's top value plays in our daily picks article and our updates articles but here we will look at other dudes to consider.
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Stacking in DFS MLB is such an important concept if you’re looking to take down a big tournament on FanDuel or DraftKings. It’s also a good way to diversify cash games because the variance in baseball can mean wild swings (ahem) in the scoring on a particular slate. The concept is easy. You want to pile players from one or two teams into your lineups because those guys compound scores by helping each other score runs when the going is good.
Note - The Rockies and Diamondbacks are in Coors Field and are the top 2 stacks on the board. Let's look at some stacks that will go a lot less owned.
New York Yankees vs. Chris Young (Royals)
Park - Yankees Stadium
The New York Yankees are facing off with Chris Young and the Kansas City Royals tonight. The Royals are going from one of the worst hitters park to one of the absolute best in Yankees Stadium. In 2015, Chris young had some very impressive surface stats for a 35 year old. However, his peripherals suggest a completely different story. With an xFIP of 5.37, a hard contact rate of 34.7% and a .235 BABIP in 2015, you can expect insane regression this year. The regression has already begun as Young has given up 19 earned runs and 8 home runs in 29.2 innings. This is going to be the worst ballpark he has pitched in and the Yankees are going to take advantage of that. Let's get into my favorite hitters in this Yankees lineup.
The Yankees are likely going to run out a lineup of 4 lefties, 2 switch hitters and a couple righties. I will be targeting the guys that hit from the left side of the plate in this one for a multitude of factors. For one, the short porch in right field gives a huge bump to lefties as flyballs can make their way out in 10 MPH wind.Secondly, Chris Young is much worse vs lefties due to his useless changeup and slow fastball. My favorite 5 are going to be Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann. If you want to go super contrarian, replace Teixeira with Castro and get a 1st baseman with equal upside.
Chicago White Sox vs. Colby Lewis (Rangers)
Park - Globe Life Park
Colby Lewis went out and nonchalantly threw a 7 inning 7 K game against the Blue Jays last time out. While Colby Lewis is a lot better than people make him out to be, he is nowhere near that good. Lewis is a guy who struggled mightily against both sides of the plate and is atrocious at holding runners on base. Over the last 3 years, Lewis has given up a combined wOBA of .344 and a hard contact rate of 38.8% to lefties. There is no reason to think he is going to improve as he is nearing age 40. As for the White Sox bats, I am going to be targeting all of them in different stack combos. This ballpark in Arlington sets up extremely well for this team as the wind is blowing in 15 MPH. However, that is actually a bump up for hitters as this ballpark creates a jet stream out to left when the wind is blowing in. My 5 favorite Sox are Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, Melky Cabrera, Jimmy Rollins and Todd Frazier. All of these guys have upside on their lonesome and can produce together as well. Todd Frazier and Jose Abreu are the power bats here and I give them a huge upgrade due to their ability to hit it out to right field. Adam Eaton is in a great spot to get a stolen base or two as Colby Lewis had an average stretch of 1.5 seconds last year, which is atrocious. This entire lineup is in lay and they should go under owned as people will be scared off of Colby Lewis and his dominant performance against the Jays.
Minnesota Twins vs. Tyler Wilson (Baltimore Orioles)
Park - Target Field
The Minnesota Twins are a righty heavy team that hits both lefties and righties extremely well for power. Tyler Wilson on the other hand, has sported reverse splits in his 2 year major league career. Over the past 2 seasons, Wilson has given up a .329 wOBA and a 5.08 xFIP to righties. I believe this is due in part to his inability to throw a quality curveball or slider to righties. He consistently throws a fastball and changeup to righties and they continue to mash the ball. The Twins power comes from the right side of the plate in Miguel Sano, Byung-ho Park and Trevor Plouffe. Those 3 named are my favorite of the bunch followed by Danny Santana and Eduardo Nunez. While this ballpark is not ideal, the power bats have proved their ability to hit home runs anywhere as evidenced by their 85 home runs in Target Field last season. Another thing to note, both Sano and Park hit the fastball much better than any other pitch and Wilson throws it 67% of the time. When targeting Sano, I like to look for guys that don't have a slider as that is the pitch he struggles with most. This match up sets up perfectly for him and I am going to make a bold prediction here and say 2 of these 3 guys hit one out to left field tonight.
Some other GPP stacks to consider - Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins
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View Comments
Strong wind in from right center at globe life used to mean jet stream out the same way because wind would bounce of facade and carry right back out but made some changes a year or 2 ago so it's not as drastic but any game played there is always in play regardless of conditions
Yes, I've heard that as well. However, a few guys that know their stuff told me the scoreboard size change doesn't make a big difference.
Agree not big a difference except a pop up to shallow right doesn't end up in seats like they use to
Belran is listed as a switch still, but only bats rh now.
No, he still is a switch hitter. Where did you get that information? he has 68 at-bats this year left handed
You sure he's still not switch hitting
Didn't get to watch last night's game but he may have last night since it's fairly common for switch hitters to bat RH vs knuckle ballers why I asked because have seen him enough this year to know he still is switch hitter