Oakland Athletics

Yankee Stadium is always a great place to start if you’re looking for stacks. Using a three-year weighted average of ESPN’s HR Park Factor, Yankee Stadium is the most homer-friendly park in the league. Yes, even more homer-friendly than Coors by that metric, which, by the way, we often ignore here simply because you don’t need to be told stacking Coors is an option.

Starting for the Yanks tonight will be Masahiro Tanaka who currently owns a 6.56 ERA on the season. Tanaka has really struggled to keep the ball in the yard this season with a 2.44 HR/9. The only pitcher going today who has made more than one start and has a HR/9 higher than Tanaka is A.J. Griffin. And the only pitcher with a higher pull rate against this season is Tim Adleman. That’s less than desirable company. In his career, Tanaka has unsurprisingly struggled more with the long ball at home with a 1.51 HR/9 at Yankee and a 0.99 HR/9 on the road.

Oakland has hit right-handers well this season with a 109 wRC+ vs. RHP that ranks eighth in the league.  They only rank 13th in wOBA, but that’s because wRC+ is park-adjusted and wOBA is not. That bodes well for them given that they’re getting a massive positive park shift tonight as their home park is the third least homer-friendly park in the league.

Yonder Alonso is obviously a good place to start an A’s stack if he’s back in the lineup as he’s got a plus-1.000 OPS in 113 PA against right-handers this season. Right-hander Khris Davis tends to follow Alonso in the order and doesn’t have issues without the platoon advantage with a 126 wRC+ vs. RHP since 2015. The same goes for Mark Canha who has a 122 wRC+ vs. RHP in the same time frame. The switch-hitting Jed Lowrie has been good from the left side this season with a 159 wRC+ in 146 PA.

The last time Oakland faced a right-hander with Alonso in the lineup, those four hitters hit two through five in the order, which would make for a nice stack. Other options to include in an Oakland stack are Matt Joyce and Ryon Healy.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona’s offense has the best wOBA in the league against right-handed pitching, which, sure, is aided by their hitter-friendly home park. But they rank fourth in wRC+ vs. RHP and have the second highest hard hit rate, so their success is way more than just the ball park. Plus, even though they’re on the road tonight, they’re in Milwaukee, which is an even more homer-friendly park than Arizona according to the weighted HR Park Factors as the third most homer-friendly park.


The right-hander the D’Backs will be facing is Junior Guerra who is making his first start in more than seven weeks after being on the DL with a calf issue. The individual D’Backs with an established history of being good against righties are Paul Goldschmidt and lefties Jake Lamb and David Peralta. And this season, Yasmany Tomas, who has been below average without the platoon advantage in the past, has a 142 wRC+ vs. RHP this season with a healthy 46.5 percent hard hit rate against righties.

A hip issue has periodically kept Tomas out of the lineup, as it did on Thursday night, but when he’s in the lineup, two through five in the order against righties is often Peralta, Goldy, Lamb, and Tomas. If Tomas doesn’t play tonight, Brandon Drury and Chris Owings are options to extend an Arizona stack past only Goldy and the lefties.

Cleveland Indians

Cleveland is a very hitter-friendly park that ranks ninth in weighted HR Park Factor and third in weighted Runs Park Factor. Tonight, the Tribe will host the Royals who will send right-hander Ian Kennedy to the hill. Cleveland has been solid against righties this season with a 105 wRC+ vs. RHP that ranks 10th in the league and the seventh highest hard contact rate against righties.

Kennedy is an appealing guy to stack against given his fly ball tendencies. There are seven pitchers tonight with a decided fly ball lean, and Kennedy is one of them with a 0.80 GB/FB ratio so far this season. He’s extremely fly ball heavy against lefties with a 50.4 percent fly ball rate vs. LHH between this year and last, but he also leans fly ball heavy against righties with a 44.5 percent fly ball rate.

The other thing about Kennedy is that he has really been struggling lately. In his last two starts he has lasted only a combined 6.1 innings with nine earned runs allowed and only four strikeouts compared to four walks. His velocity was also off in his last start, so you wouldn’t be wrong to wonder if Kennedy is completely healthy right now.

Cleveland also has stack appeal given the number of switch hitters they have in their lineup. Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana and Jose Ramirez all hit both ways, and all three are better from the left side, which makes them more appealing against Kennedy.

In addition to the switch hitters, there is Michael Brantley who has a 139 wRC+ in his last 500-plus PA against righties since 2015 and a 148 wRC+ vs. RHP this season. There’s also Edwin Encarnacion who does not struggle without the platoon advantage given his 139 wRC+ vs. RHP since 2015. And finally, there’s Jason Kipnis who’s scorching hot right now with a .444 wOBA in his last 10 games. Given all the Indians in play, there are plenty of ways to go with a Cleveland stack.