Digging into today’s MLB DFS slate to highlight your best bats to stack.
This article will cover two to three teams that we think are the most stackable for MLB contests. If you are newer to DFS or MLB or want a general refresher on the impact of stacking in MLB, check out our MLB Lineup Strategy refresher article.
St. Louis Cardinals (vs. Chicago Cubs)
We are on a stretch right now where any bat against the Cubs is going to be in play. Over the last five games, the Cubs have allowed 37 total runs and 31 of those were in a four-game stretch against the Pirates. Aside from a starting staff with no real stopper or ace, the Cubs have the fourth-worst bullpen ERA in the Majors. The Cardinals just split a series with Milwaukee, but was still able to generate some runs against some good Milwaukee pitching – including a big series from Nolan Gorman. The Cubs trot out Kyle Hendricks on Friday who has been super inconsistent all year with a 5.43 ERA. Hendrick’s numbers in general are a bit weird as he has a higher WHIP on the road, yet is allowing a higher batting average at home by over .50 points. As we know by now, Hendricks is a sinkerball pitcher who has maintained around a 44-50% groundball rate over the last five seasons. This year however that number has nosedived to just 37% and the flyball rate is up 4% on his career average. Lefties have really been the bats to get the best of Hendricks this year with a .294 average and a.601 slugging. Over Hendricks last five starts, he has allowed three or more in four of the five and has surrendered 18 hits over his last 14 innings pitched. More importantly, Hendricks hasn’t made it out of the sixth inning in his last six starts which the more time we have against the Cubs bullpen the better. The Cubs used four bullpen arms on Thursday.
Chicago White Sox (vs. Baltimore Orioles)
UPDATE: The Orioles placed Kyle Bradish on the IL ahead of today’s start. Austin Voth will now take the ball for the Orioles. The White Sox still carry the second-highest implied team total on the board for today.
When it comes to great matchups on paper against a weak pitcher we don’t need to look further than the Orioles trotting out Kyle Bradish. Bradish has been badish recently, allowing 20 hits and 11 earned runs over his last 8.2 innings pitched. On the year, Bradish has a 7.38 ERA and a 1.77 WHIP. Bradish has not got out of the fifth inning in four straight starts and has allowed 11 homers in 46.1 innings as well as 64 hits. Bradish is still a young arm, but he metrics have not been good sitting in the bottom 5% of the league in Avg Exit Velocity, xERA, xBA, xSLG, and xwOBA. Bradish leans on his 4-seam fastball for 52.3% of his pitches and it is being hit at a .374 average and .626 slugging. The White Sox have scored seven or more runs in three of their last five, and 30 runs total over their last five. The sample size isn’t incredibly large here, but righties have gotten the best of Bradish with a .402 batting average and .696 slugging. These numbers are just too high to ignore right now and the leash on Bradish to continue to receive starts is going to hinge on the Orioles’ willingness to lose right now. The White Sox are battling some injuries right now, but Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, Andrew Vaughn, and Jake Burger are going to be guys I am eyeing up on Friday.
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