3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 4/22/22

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.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are crushing lefties in the early going. According to FanGraphs, they have had a 122 Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) in 2022 against southpaws. Obviously, the sample has been tiny less than one month into the 2022 season. Still, Atlanta's offense is jam-packed with hitters that have crushed lefties in recent years.

Meanwhile, the lefty opposing them, Trevor Rogers, has struggled early after an underwhelming finish to his 2021 breakout campaign. In Rogers' last 11 starts totaling 47 and 1/3 innings, he has had a 4.94 ERA, 4.07 Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP), 4.14 Skill-Interactive ERA (SIERA), and 1.52 WHIP.

As a result, I believe he's ill-equipped to slow Atlanta's roll against lefties. The Braves are stackable from top to bottom. Still, my favorite options are Ozzie Albies ($4,000), Matt Olson ($3,900), and Marcell Ozuna ($3,300). The switch-hitting Albies has been the most accomplished of the trio against southpaws. Since 2019, he has had a .369 OBP, .269 Isolated Power (ISO), and 153 wRC+. Nonetheless, no one should turn their nose up to Olson's .286 ISO and 133 wRC+ or Ozuna's .287 ISO and 125 wRC+.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers' all-star caliber offense has been doing all-star things against right-handed pitchers. They've had a .361 OBP and 138 wRC+ against right-handed pitchers this year. To put their excellence in perspective, among qualified hitters in 2021, Yordan Alvarez and Paul Goldschmidt tied for 16th with a 138 wRC+. So, they've been hilariously amazing offensively.

It's going to take an exceptional pitcher to tame their offense. But, quoting the kids, Nick Martinez isn't it. The 31-year-old righty turned his career around in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in the last few years, but it hasn't been a seamless stateside return. In two starts for the San Diego Padres, he has had a 4.50 ERA, 4.92 xFIP, 6.52 Expected ERA (xERA), and 4.42 SIERA.

Martinez has also walked 11.1 percent of the batters he's faced, struck out only 20.0 percent of them, and surrendered three homers. Further, he's been drilled by lefties and righties. Left-handed batters have teed off on Martinez for a .632 slugging and .445 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA). In same-handed matchups, righties have smashed him for a .684 slugging and .462 wOBA.

Typically, I'd close a stack's write-up with a few specific hitters I'm locking in on. However, I'm not engaging in hyperbole when I say the Dodgers are an elite stack anywhere in the lineup. So, I'm mixing things up however they fit around my other favorite stacks and under the salary cap.

Seattle Mariners

Let's get potentially contrarian with this last stack. The Seattle Mariners stand in against Brad Keller tonight. The 26-year-old pitcher has allowed only two runs in a pair of starts spanning 13 innings. However, I'm not fully convinced of the sustainability of his success.

Last year, Keller was drilled for a 5.39 ERA, 6.47 xERA, and 4.84 SIERA. In addition, he coughed up 1.21 homers per nine innings and was beaten like a drum by lefties and righties. Since 2021, he has allowed a .342 wOBA to lefties and .351 wOBA to righties. Keller will probably improve on last year's dreadful numbers. However, I don't see anything that screams continued success at his present rate when looking at his batted-ball profile, pitch-by-pitch usage, plate discipline numbers, or anything else for that matter.

Therefore, I believe he'll turn into a pumpkin sooner rather than later. This year, Seattle has had a few offensive outbursts, and they've scored five or more runs in five of their last seven games. So, why can't they be the team that swiftly issues regression to Keller's numbers?

Unlike the Dodgers, I have a couple of favorite picks for an M's stack. Specifically, I love Jesse Winker ($2,600) and Eugenio Suarez ($3,100). Sadly, Winker has been killed by bad luck on his balls in play. Nevertheless, he's continuing to exhibit an elite feel for the strike zone by working walks at a high rate. Winker's approach will lead to better days, and I refuse to ignore his .397 OBP, .262 ISO, and 149 wRC+ against righties since 2019 because of a slow start to 2022.

Finally, Suarez's power has been on display, and he has had a .277 ISO against righties since 2019. The Mariners are a GPP-specific stack anyway, so I'll embrace Suarez's volatility for the chance he puts a charge into a pitch or two tonight.


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.