MLB Stacking To Win It: 6-25-18

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.

Seattle gets a park bump in back-to-back series here, moving from Fenway Park to Camden Yards. Cashner is also a major upgrade to these bats, given the numbers he has allowed above to both sides of the plate. Cashner's main pitch is his sinker, throwing it 39% of the time. Hitters have a .432 wOBA, .238 ISO, and 36% hard-contact off of it. His offspeed pitches still are very pedestrian, and he is throwing them under 15% of the time. With fastballs and sinkers being thrown over 50% of the time, it usually spells trouble. There are a handful of bats that standout here, and I want to start with Nelson Cruz who has been absolutely mashing of late. While it isn't a lefty on the hill, Cashner is allowing more hard-contact to right-handers, and Cruz grades out well against the sinker, with a .422 wOBA, .282 ISO, and 42% hard-contact rate. Kyle Seager is in that mix as well with a .401 wOBA, .257 ISO, and only a 40% groundball rate. Jean Segura has been battling an injury, missing games over the weekend. If he is back, he has a .386 wOBA off sinkers, and a .354 wOBA off right-handers this season. Dee Gordon isn't one for power, but has an 85% contact rate against right-handers this season, and his speed gives him some promise. Mitch Haniger has been raking right-handers with a .247 ISO and 40% hard-contact rate this season. Denard Span has a .399 wOBA and .187 ISO against sinkers, and Camden Yards gives a bump to him given he isn't known for his power. Chris Herrmann is a cheap catching option, that owns a .356 wOBA and .188 ISO against sinkers.

Tyler Mahle isn't an awful arm, but his struggles against left-handers make the Braves an attractive stacking option. The real downside to the Braves tonight is their price tags, but that could keep their ownership down as well. Mahle's power numbers allowed to left-handers already make the Braves bats standout, but him throwing a fastball nearly 70% of the time is something to note as well. Mahle hovers around 92-93mph, which a lot of bats standout against. Freddie Freeman is an expensive first base option, but has a .434 wOBA and .359 ISO against Mahle's fastball range. Ozzie Albies is also in the same boat with a .506 wOBA and .488 ISO. He also has a whopping 53% hard-contact rate. Nick Markakis and Ender Inciarte are never the most attractive DFS options, but have over 85% contact rates against the fastball. Markakis has shown the ability to to drive in runs this year. Inciarte isn't a must in the stack if you wanted to use their catching options. Kurt Suzuki is projected in the lineup, and has a .350 wOBA and .189 ISO against Mahle's fastball range. Johan Camargo has been someone to use this year, with a .404 wOBA and .167 ISO against this fastball range, but a .358 wOBA and .178 ISO against right-handers in general. Dansby Swanson has a .379 wOBA and .258 ISO against this range of fastball. June has been a power month for Swansby with a .272 ISO, but only a .238 OBP.

Texas is not a team that makes it into the stacking article often, but getting healthier I don't mind taking a chance on them in GPPs tonight. Joey Luchessi is a young left-handed arm who has flashed some potential this season. His last start was his first one back, allowing four earned runs and two homers in 1.2 innings pitched. Luchessi uses two pitches, his sinker, and curveball. He throws his sinker 65% of the time, while the curve is the rest. His curve does generate a 38% whiff rate and gives hitters trouble. There are not a lot of contact bats against the curveball, which is a concern for Texas, and one of the reasons why they are just in play for GPPs. When contact is made, Elvis Andrus has a .391 wOBA and .194 ISO off it. Robinson Chirinos has a .429 wOBA and .315 ISO off the pitch, but a 62% contact rate. The rest are rather poor against it. Against sinkers, things turn around in the contact department, and there are a lot of natural upper cut swings that can negate the groundballs, but even Luchessi's sinker isn't generating over a 50% groundball rate. Adrian Beltre has a .411 wOBA and .234 ISO against sinkers, and just a 45% groundball rate. Nomar Mazara and Shin-Soo Choo both have over a .400 wOBA and .200 ISO against sinkers, but Luchessi has been tough on left-handed bats leaving me little interest. Chirinos matches up well with a .357 wOBA and .228 ISO against sinkers. Jurickson Profar has over a .284 ISO against lefties, which is a bit lucky, but if he cracks the lineup he is a contact bat that is cheap.