In Monday’s Stack the Deck, Mike Wayman asked a great question in the comments: “What order would you put these stacks for use in GPP play? I feel everyone and their mother will own Indians and Braves. Best sneaky stacks for a mid to large tourney?” While I answered Mike’s question in the comments Monday, There are several layers to this question I feel like it is useful to unpack before we get to my favorite stacks of the day below.

The first thing I want to note from Mike’s question, and something I had never made explicit until now, is that stacking is, in general, a GPP strategy. Stacks tend to be high variance, and while you hope the lineup goes off and everyone gets a bite at the apple, a more likely result, as with two of the main lineups I highlighted Monday, is that one or two players have big days while a couple of others do very little. In cash lineups, I am far more likely to pick and choose from several matchups I like rather than playing a stack.

Secondly, I want to address the idea of ownership as it relates to stacking. Mike was right to point out the Indians and Braves were likely to be popular Monday, as they were facing Kyle Gibson and Jered Weaver, respectively. Beyond the obvious stacks like those, I’m not sure I trust anyone’s ability to forecast the popularity of certain stacks. Will Yankees stacks be popular Wednesday because they are the Yankees and they are facing a Rule 5 pick who has made one big league start? Or will they be sneaky because Brett Gardner and Matt Holliday are struggling and that Rule 5 pick allowed one run over 5.1 innings in his debut? My guess is the former, but it is really just an educated guess.

Perhaps more importantly, I’m not sure how much we should care about ownership when it comes to stacks. If there are two stacks I like equally, by all means, give me the one with lower ownership. That being said, I would hate to pass on a stack I really like for fear it will be highly owned.

To bring the discussion back to Monday, I cashed in DraftKings using all three of my stacks, even though my stacks didn’t wind up doing particularly well. My pitchers, Danny Salazar in particular, came through, and I played Freddie Freeman in all three lineups since I could use Carlos Santana in the outfield. My point, though, is that Freddie Freeman was 37.1 percent owned in the contest I entered, while Salazar was 31.4 percent owned. In the end, it didn’t matter all that much, because you pretty much needed one or both of them in your lineup if you were going to make any money in that slate.

If your stack goes off, you probably won’t care that it was popular. My Dodgers stack was, as predicted, less popular, but that didn’t help anybody because the Dodgers only scored two runs. And that Braves stack Mike and I both thought would be really popular? Brandon Phillips and Nick Markakis were both owned in fewer than 10 percent of entries in the DraftKings MLB $350K Four-Seamer. If those guys had hit, that stack would have done quite well.

All of this is my long-winded way of saying potential ownership should be just one factor to consider, but not the main factor. The stacks listed below are in my order of preference for a GPP.

New York Yankees vs. Dylan Covey

Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Starlin Castro, Matt Holliday, Chase Headley, Aaron Hicks

As I stated above, I suspect this is a pretty popular stack, though I’m hoping players are scared away by the fact they haven’t seen Covey fail yet. I see that Covey allowed eight baserunners and had just one strikeout in 5.1 innings and suspect those baserunners will start scoring sooner than later. Covey had a 4.14 FIP at Double-A last season, and there is little reason to believe he is actually ready to get big league hitters out consistently. Starlin Castro and Chase Headley are both batting over .400 over the last week, and Aaron Hicks would be very interesting if Brett Gardner or Jacoby Ellsbury get the day off.

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Jordan Zimmermann

Corey Dickerson, Kevin Kiermaier, Evan Longoria, Brad Miller, Steven Souza Jr., Tim Beckham

This stack has a chance at low ownership as well since Jordan Zimmermann still carries some name recognition and no one is ever excited to play a Tampa Bay stack. Zimmermann has as many walks as strikeouts on the young season, which continues a trend from last season when he had his highest walk rate since 2010. Steven Souza Jr., Evan Longoria and Brad Miller all have walk rates over 13 percent this season, while Kevin Kiermaier sits at 10.6 percent. Souza is 3-for-5 against Zimmermann while Corey Dickerson is 4-for-6 and Rickie Weeks is 5-for-9. All three have hit one homer against Zimmermann. Souza is 7-for-17 with a homer over his last five games, while Dickerson is batting .320 over the last week and Tim Beckham is 5-for-12 with two homers in his last three games. Kevin Kiermaier is 5-for-13 with two steals in his last three.

Chicago Cubs vs. Tommy Milone

Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist, Albert Almora Jr., Javier Baez, Willson Contreras, Addison Russell

With just four games in the early slate, this figures to be a ridiculously popular stack. The Cubs look like they may have busted out of their early-season slump Tuesday, and they scored 11 runs on 17 hits when they faced Tommy Milone 11 days ago. Every Cub starter is in play Wednesday.

Others receiving votes:

Cincinnati Reds vs. Ubaldo Jimenez

Minnesota Twins vs. Trevor Bauer