For this edition of the “Stack the Deck” article, you stacking lovers can feast your eyes on what I like to call a Power Stack. Sounds like we’re at the gym, huh? Well, in DFS circles we are referring to loading up with as many power hitters in positive situations to increase the odds of belting a jack tonight to help you win your DFS contests. Filling out a full team is the challenge as our friends at DraftKings and FanDuel don’t let you just load up on the heaviest hitters in the game. So, we’ll identify some more under-the-radar power guys to build up our lineup.
Keep in mind that when doing a power lineup, you’re better off playing this in a tournament (GPP) contest as the chances of everybody coming through are still remote - at least you’re in a good situation to cash in at a higher level (while risking less) when and if it does.
So, let’s first look at the factors we’ll take into consideration to develop our power stack:
Ballpark
ISO rating (season + last week)
FB% for both pitcher and hitter
Opposing starter
Weather (wind)
We start narrowing down with the homer-friendly ballparks that are in play tonight - of which there are plenty.. These include:
Note: we’ll throw out the early games and focus on the main slate (meaning no BOS/MIL or KC/TB).
Yankee Stadium - NYY vs. HOU
Nationals Ballpark - WSH vs. BAL
Coors Field - COL vs. LAD
Chase Field - ARZ vs. PIT
So, these are the eight teams we’ll focus on.
Of those eight teams, here are the top 20 ISO ratings among qualifiers:
Aaron Judge | OF |
Ryan Zimmerman | 1B |
Marwin Gonzalez | 3B/OF |
Cody Bellinger | 1B/OF |
Trey Mancini | 1B/OF |
Bryce Harper | OF |
Mark Reynolds | 1B |
Adam Lind | 1B |
Charlie Blackmon | OF |
Nolan Arenado | 3B |
Matt Holliday | OF |
Yasmany Tomas | OF |
Manny Machado | 3B |
Franklin Gutierrez | OF |
Seth Smith | OF |
Paul Goldschmidt | 1B |
Jake Lamb | 3B |
George Springer | OF |
Daniel Murphy | 2B |
Trevor Story | SS |
From this list we can start to identify the higher-priced, must plays and then fill in with the lesser known quantities to complete our stack. You’ll notice no catchers on this list, so we’ll have to search for one.
C - Brian McCann (HOU) -- day off yesterday and heading back to his old home where he was very comfortable hitting. DK: $3,300 / FD: $3,100
1B - Cody Bellinger (LAD) -- Playing at Coors, this is a great time to get him in there and watch him lift off. Wish we got that introductory price though. DK: $4,900 / FD: $3,600
2B - Daniel Murphy (WSH) -- He’ll cost us a pretty penny but at a position with a little less power, we’ll want a guy that gives us a shot. DK: $5,100 / FD: $4,200
3B - Nolan Arenado (COL) -- He’s had success against Ryu in the past and he’s at home and, well, that’s plenty for us. DK: $5,300 / FD: $4,700
SS - Chris Owings (ARZ) -- Need to save a little moo-lah here and with 5 HR playing at home, we’ll give Owings a shot here. DK: $3,900 / FD: $3,200
OF - Marwin Gonzalez (HOU) - we’ll play Marwin on our DK lineup at $3,500. His nine homers has us liking him. He doesn’t qualify at OF for FD, so we’ll go with Adam Jones facing Cole at Nationals Park and hope for the best there.
OF - Seth Smith (BAL) -- not the first name you think of when setting up a power stack, but lately he has been putting a charge in it with a .263 ISO over the last week and facing the RHP Cole at a GREAT price (and we need to save those dollars).
OF - Josh Reddick (HOU) -- his ISO over the last week sits at a healthy .300 even. We like him at Yankee Stadium facing the RHP in Pineda.
This puts us in a position to fill in with SP’s...though, we need to go cheap with them. We’re buying (and crossing our fingers) on Clayton Richard keeping the Rangers at bay. He’s just $4,500 on DK and we can fit him in at the cap exactly on FD. Then the second pitcher on DK, we can afford the Tigers Michael Fulmer to complete our power stack.
Good luck today - and let’s hit some DINGERS!