MLB GPP Stacking & Ownership: 7-7-15

Welcome to MLB GPP Stacking & Ownership. In this article I will give you three options to stack. Remember that winning a GPP isn't always about maximizing points but instead maximizing some form of points and ownership. As always, plays will be listed from favorite to least favorite of the stack.

Today is an incredibly fun day to be responsible for the stacks article. There are elite pitchers such as Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Johnny Cueto, Francisco Liriano and Sonny Gray getting the ball and elite on their good days starters Tyson Ross and Taijuan Walker are also in the fold. There are also a number of awful pitchers set to start. The beauty of the good pitching is that there will be gamers who forgo pricier stacks in favor of using the top arms, and those who pass on the top arms for the top stacks. I'm in the latter group, but that's largely because there are a few pitchers who I like at cheapish prices.

I'll start by highlighting them. The spirit of this article is creating top lineups using stacks, and in my mind, that means including pitcher. I love Brett Anderson tonight. He's a huge betting favorite (-281, per Pinnacle Sports) who has pitched well this year (3.47 FIP and 3.30 xFIP), has a soft matchup with the Phillies and isn't expensive. Yovani Gallardo (3.47 FIP and 3.82 xFIP) also makes for an affordable non-awful option. A third solid option is Edinson Volquez (3.70 FIP and 4.11 xFIP) thanks in large part to facing the Rays. All three pitchers are under $8,000 on DraftKings and Anderson and Gallardo are $8,000 or less. The pitcher who I'm most excited about using with my pricey stacks, and who I believe is going to be low owned, is Kevin Gausman. The O's starter has yet to tally as many punchouts as gamers would expect from a power pitcher of his ilk, but his splitter has a healthy 18.42% whiff rate, per Brooks Baseball, giving him a nice out pitch that should eventually result in an uptick in strikeouts. He's coming off of a solid start in which he struck out seven in 6.1 innings while allowing just four hits, two walks and zero earned runs. He has a nice matchup tonight facing a Twins offense that ranks 23rd in wRC+ (88) against righties, according to FanGraphs, and strikes out in 20.0% of their plate appearances. Gausman is extremely cheap and he'll help award you the freedom to mix your favorite stacks, even the priciest ones.

With the pitchers aside out of the way, I'm expecting the white hot Angels to be the most popular stack at Coors Field tonight. The combination of recency bias (they just hammered the Rangers) and star power (Mike Trout and Albert Pujols) should drive ownership up for them. The Rockies will see their share of ownership as well, but I'm of the belief you can run them out there and compete against a smaller percentage of Rockies stacks than we typically see. The Blue Jays are facing a lefty, and while they aren't at Rogers Centre, U.S. Cellular Field is a nice alternative for homers at least. The final stack is an affordable one coming off a monster effort on Monday. There were tough cuts from the top three options, so I'm expecting a wild mix of stacks tonight. The beauty of so many great options is that you can roll with your top options and be less concerned with everyone deploying the same strategy and similar lineup as you.

Option 1

Rockies v Angels - Game Total 10.5

Young starter Andrew Heaney is being headed to a house of horrors that has gotten the better of even the best pitchers in the game. Heaney isn't at at that level, and ...