Three MLB Stacks to Target: Friday, July 28th
Stacking has become a common strategy used in tournaments on FanDuel. The concept is simple – roster multiple players from teams with the best MLB odds to score the most runs.
This article will take a closer look at the three teams on FanDuel’s main slate with the highest implied run totals.
Los Angeles Dodgers (7.4 implied run total)
This one isn’t hard. It’s not at all shocking that the Los Angeles Dodgers are projected to be the highest owned stack on Friday by a wide margin as they own the slate’s highest implied run total at 7.4 runs. The combination of power, Coors elevation, good hitting weather, and a poor opposing should lead to an offensive explosion for a team that went deep six times last night in the series opener.
The Dodgers have some ridiculous individual power as all three of Joc Pederson (.294 ISO), Cody Bellinger (.241 ISO), and Max Muncy (.329 ISO) have killed right-handed pitching over the last couple of seasons. While Justin Turner (.190 ISO), Chris Talor (.188 ISO), and Alex Verdugo (.119 ISO) haven’t shown nearly as much power against right-handed pitching they all have shown strong on-base skills that should translate well to Coors’ massive outfield that helps inflate extra-base hits.
In order to roster a full out Dodgers stack, you’re going to have to sacrifice quite a bit of salary at the pitching position. Fortunately, this appears to be the slate to do so as Jacob deGrom is the only truly attractive high-priced pitching option. Wade Miley’s price tag stands out as simply too cheap on FanDuel and fits well with Dodger stacks.
Milwaukee Brewers (5.9 implied run total)
Long gone are the days of being able to roster Chris Archer in confidence. These days we have more interest in targeting Archer with opposing hitters and that is the case on Friday night as the Brewers have one of the higher implied run totals on the slate at 5.9 runs. Archer is the owner of a 5.56 ERA this season and amazingly one advanced run prevention metric, FIP, views him even less favorably than that with a 6.01 FIP. To be fair to Archer, his xFIP (4.78) and SIERA (4.82) are more palatable but either way you slice it Archer has been well below average this season. Perhaps most troubling for Archer is the amount of hard contact he’s allowing this season as lefties own a 46.7% hard-contact rate against him and righties have been hitting him hard as well with a 40.2% hard-contact rate. Archer has maintained a solid strikeout rate this season (23.9%) but the contact he is allowing has been bad contact as it’s been hard-hit and off the ground (38.9 GB%).
As Archer does give up a ton of hard-contact to both sides of the plate, I’m fine rostering Brewers of either handedness. Notably, Francico Liriano is well rested and is the likeliest candidate to eat some innings if need be which could help neutralize some of Milwaukee’s lefties throughout the middle of the game. Keston Hiura is a mere $2,300 on FanDuel and is an excellent salary relief option regardless of where he bats in the order.
Houston Astros (5.9 implied run total)
The Houston Astros are finally starting to get healthy and we know what kind of damage a healthy Houston lineup can do to left-handed pitchers. Houston led the league last year with a 123 wRC+ and was third with a .184 ISO against southpaws. Tommy Milone has been extremely solid for the Mariners this season but has been a bit susceptible to the long ball, already giving up six HRs over 37.2 innings pitched this season.
Individually, Alex Bregman leads the way (.252 ISO) in terms of power against left-handed pitching but both Robinson Chirinos (.218 ISO) and George Springer (.220) have also shown plenty of muscle over the last two years. Chirinos specifically has tremendous power upside in this matchup but is currently projected to be just 2% owned on FanDuel and is an excellent way to differentiate your Houston stacks.