For today’s Stack The Deck article, we’ll be preparing ourselves for Sunday’s 15 game All-Day slate. 

While 15 games are scheduled, weather has been a pain in the rear end lately. It doesn’t matter what route you decide to take in your GPP tournaments today, but it’s going to be necessary to keep an eye on the weather. It looks like there could be some rain in St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Detroit, so if you decide to play anyone in those games, you better be sure that the game is going to go through. 

Again, I will be providing you with my five favorite stacks of the day and will be arranged in order of preference. Let’s get things started!

PREFERRED STACKS (ARRANGED IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE)

CLEVELAND INDIANS

Vegas currently has the Indians scoring well over five runs today, which gives them the highest expected run total of the day. This is basically because there’s not much love for Seattle’s Chase De Jong, The bad news with De Jong is that throughout his five plus seasons in the Minor Leagues, he has been a true FLY BALL pitcher. As long as the weather cooperates, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Indians hit a handful of balls out of the yard. 

The Tribe have a few guys who are hitting the ball well, and they also have quite a few guys who have the ability to hit some bombs in any given game. While you’d expect the bombs to be coming from guys like Edwin Encarnacion and Carlos Santana, as of right now, the team leader in home runs belongs to Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez, who each have six. Both Lindor and Ramirez are the best cash game options, but obviously with a matchup like this, I am more willing to take a shot on some of the big boppers. 

Players to consider: Carlos Santana, Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Ramirez, and Lonnie Chisenhall

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

The D-backs are currently 2nd in Major League Baseball in runs scored, and 1st in the league in stolen bases. Those two statistics are two of the biggest reasons why they’ve been outstanding GPP options throughout the month of April. 

We are totally going to pick on German Marquez of the Rockies today. Marquez is only 22 years of age, and thus, he’s very raw. He made his 2017 debut earlier this week against the Nationals, and he got torn apart for eight runs in just four innings. We’ll see how he develops down the line, but at this point, he’s just a three-pitch pitcher who hasn’t been able to develop any semblance of a reliable breaking pitch. 

This is going to benefit the D-backs considerably. I wouldn’t be surprised if a regular gets the day off, so this might put the Jeremy Hazelbaker’s of the world in play again. Otherwise, the usual suspects are in play, like A.J. Pollock, who I wouldn’t be surprised if he stole 50 bases under Torey Lovullo’s aggressive managing style. Stolen bases are so huge, I can’t emphasize it much more. Basically two Pollock stolen bases (which is totally possible) and a run scored gets you as much as you would get for a home run. Unfortunately, outside of D-backs, there aren’t as many teams as aggressive this season, which for the most part,  keeps the stolen base targeting out of play.

Players to consider: A.J. Pollock, David Peralta, Paul Goldschmidt, Jake Lamb, Chris Owings, and Brandon Drury

ATLANTA BRAVES

Over the past four games, the Braves have combined to score THIRTY-SIX (36) RUNS. What the heck?

To say that they’re hot would be a a severe understatement. When a team scores 36 runs over four games, it’s pretty clear that it’s not just one or two guys doing all the damage. I could make a case that their lineup, from 1 through 8, have been able to do damage at one point or another. Still, they are headlined by Freddie “The Beast” Freeman, who is having a career season, and has gone 7-for-18 (.389 AVG) with a homer, two doubles, two walks, five runs, and TWO STOLEN BASES over these last four games.

Dansby Swanson might have started the season slowly, but even he’s shown a spark of life in Milwaukee, having hit his second home run of the season last night. 

Players to consider: Ender Inciarte, Freddie Freeman, Matt Kemp, Nick Markakis, Dansby Swanson, and Brandon Phillips

CHICAGO WHITE SOX

It’s safe to say that I have no confidence in Jordan Zimmermann. Yes, the former reliable Nationals right-hander is 2-1 this season, but he has done so maintaining a 6.35 ERA, 5.97 xFIP, and a 4.37 K/9. That’s right, his swinging strike percentage is currently the lowest of his nine year Major League career, and there hasn’t been much I’ve seen that’s encouraging, either. The Fly Ball rate is approaching 50%, and is currently 10% higher than at any point of his career. His Hard Hit Rate is at 47.5%, which is 18% (!!) higher than at any point of his career.

So yes, I am definitely surprised to see that the White Sox are rather low in the expected runs department. They began the year full of struggles, but both Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier have actually been formidable over the last week or so, and in Abreu’s case, he actually went DOUBLE DONG in yesterday’s matinee against the Tigers. Abreu is definitely my favorite play for today’s game, but it should also be noted that Avisail Garcia is 4-for-6 (.667 AVG) with a homer off of Zimmermann. Even Cody Asche had a lot of success against JZ back from his days with Philly, having gone 7-for-18 (.389 AVG) with a homer, double, and three RBIs. 

Players to consider: Tyler Saladino, Tim Anderson, Melky Cabrera, Jose Abreu, Avisail Garcia, and Cody Asche

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

One week ago today, Bronson Arroyo screwed over a good number of the DFS community by putting together a very good outing against the Chicago Cubs of all teams. Don’t be a fool. Arroyo is still terrible, and he still remains a great target today against a Cardinals team that has had plenty of success against him.

This is highlighted by Aledmys Diaz, who hit two homers off of Arroyo in the first week of the season. I’m also encouraged by both Dexter Fowler and Jedd Gyorko, who are swinging two very hot bats. Fowler has actually gone 9-for-18 (.500 AVG) with two homers, two doubles, six runs, and four RBIs over his last four games. 

Players to consider: Dexter Fowler, Aledmys Diaz, Matt Carpenter, Jedd Gyorko, Yadier Molina, and Matt Adams (if he plays)