MLB Stacking To Win It: 4-11-18

Stacking has been a popular way to bring down tournaments, and some stacks are even cash game viable. We offer three free top stacks of the night and will provide stacks in a wide range of price tags. We do want to make it known that stacks in Colorado are often fairly obvious and popular stacks. We don't feel the need to break down Colorado stacks and will be more focused on other stacking options. Unless we are struggling to find three others, Colorado stacks will be a top choice but not broken down. We tend to look at park factors, Vegas numbers, starting pitcher and bullpen numbers, and various offensive stats. Feel free to shoot us questions on Twitter at @BrentHeiden1, @JGuilbault11, and @dfcafe.

With Travis d'Arnaud hitting the DL, Wilmer Flores becomes the fourth member of this stack.

The New York Mets will play their third game of their series against the Marlins and they will be facing off against left-handed pitcher Jarlin Garcia. Garcia is a young arm in the Marlins system that has done most of his work in relief, tossing 63.1 innings dating back to last season, and has allowed a 4.26 ERA while striking out 19% of batters faced during that time. He has a decent four-seam fastball that he tosses about 48% of the time, averaging 94 MPH, while tossing his changeup 37% of the time to right-handed hitters and his slider almost 50% of the time to left-handed hitters. His fastball is his bread and butter pitch, while his curveball, slider, and changeup all grade out as about average, and he generally pitches to contact while limiting walks. His lack of a good go-to secondary pitch, and the inability to put batters away consistently, makes him a great pitcher to stack against tonight. That starts with Asdrubal Cabrera (12.4% K-rate, .441 OBP, .415 wOBA, 162 wRC+) who is projected to bat lead off for tonight's game. Asdrubal has been outstanding to start the season, getting on base safely in each of the Mets games this season, and has always been great against southpaws. Rounding out the stack with Todd Frazier (21.4% K-rate, .338 OBP, .372 wOBA, .339 ISO), Yoenis Cespedes (26.8% K-rate, .320 OBP, .294 ISO, .342 wOBA), and Travis D'Arnaud (18.8% K-rate, .211 ISO, .366 OBP, .364 wOBA) is a great way to go. The duo of Todd Frazier and Yoenis Cespedes represents the most power out of the bunch, as each posted great ISO numbers against four-seam fastballs, with Frazier posting a .700 ISO against the pitch last season. Even though Wilmer Flores is not listed above, he can be sprinkled into stacks as a value option, as well, as he has historically been a great hitter against southpaws.

The Angles, once again, find themselves in prime stacking position as they face off against left-handed pitcher Matt Moore in the somewhat friendly confines of Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. Moore is a pretty mediocre arm at this point, posting a 18.7% strikeout rate and 37.3% groundball rate dating back to last season, allowing contact 81.6% of the time and giving up hard contact 35.5% of the time. Most of the damage for Moore is done by lefties, oddly enough, as he has allowed a .438 wOBA and 1.95 home runs per nine, but he is also allowing a .333 wOBA and 36.2% hard contact to right-handed hitters. His statcast data after two starts is terrifying as opponents have posted an average exit velocity of 91.9 MPH and an average batted ball distance of 228 feet against him. Moore is a three-pitch guy, tossing his 94 MPH four-seam fastball about 48% of the time, while mixing in a slider almost 50% of the time to left-handed hitters and a changeup to right-handed hitters 37% of the time. Moore does generate a decent amount of swinging strikes with his changeup, as right-handed hitters swing at it about 22% of the time, and the Angels hitters do swing at the pitch between 15-20% of the time, but Trout (.688 ISO) and Justin Upton (.348 ISO) have an insane amount of power against the pitch, as well. Overall, the Angels are excellent hitters against southpaws with Justin Upton leading the charge. Dating back to last season, Upton has posted a .372 ISO, .465 wOBA, .422 OBP against them, while striking out just 19.7% of the time. Zack Cozart (14.3% K-rate, .287 ISO, .431 wOBA, .436 OBP), Mike Trout ( 14.5% K-rate, .209 ISO, .392 wOBA, .436 OBP), Andrelton Simmons (11.6% K-rate, .320 wOBA, .353 OBP, 102 wRC+) all hit southpaws extremely well. Sprinkling in a low-owned Ryan Schimpf, Albert Pujols, or one of the catchers is a great option, as well, and even some exposure to Shohei Ohtani is advised.

Even though the Cubs, for the most part, have been an offensive disappointment to start the season, they are in a prime spot to erupt tonight against Steven Brault and the Pirates. Brault put together a strong performance against the Reds in his last game, tossing five innings of one run ball, he did issue four walks and allowed three hits. He has posted some alarming numbers against right-handed hitters dating back to last season, as he has allowed a .336 wOBA and 40.9% hard contact to them, but he has limited home runs to both sides of the plate fairly well. He does give up almost 40% fly balls to right-handed hitters as well and his xFIP and SIERA suggest that his 4.01 ERA should regress a little but further. He gets in trouble with his four-seam fastball, a 92 MPH pitch he throws to right-handed hitters 60% of the time, and a pitch that Kris Bryant (15.9% K-rate, .228 ISO, .420 wOBA, .447 OBP) posted a .476 ISO against last season. Willson Contreras (17.9% K-rate, .231 ISO, .389 wOBA, .403 OBP) posted a .818 ISO against four-seam fastballs of Brault's velocity, as well, while Javier Baez (25.3% K-rate, .244 ISO, .354 wOBA, .342 OBP) had a .538 ISO against it. Feel free to round out the stack with Albert Almora (12.6% K-rate, .381 wOBA, .403 OBP, 134 wRC+) who had power against four-seam fastballs much like the others.