In my second Stack the Deck article of the year I recommended two stacks of batters with high walk rates facing pitchers with high walk rates. It worked out even better than I could have hoped, and I am going to roll out that strategy again for this edition of Stack the Deck. Before we get to the actual stacks, let’s take a look at the pitchers we are targeting.

Five of Wednesday’s starting pitchers rank in the top 25 in walk rate since the start of 2016 among pitchers who have thrown at least 100 innings: Blake Snell, Adam Conley, Nathan Karns, Robbie Ray and Hector Santiago. Kevin Gausman is ninth among qualified pitchers with an 11.6 percent walk rate this season. Matt Boyd’s walk rate is slightly higher at 11.7 percent, but he has only thrown 25.2 innings. Julio Urias has a 9.8 percent walk rate in 82.2 career innings. Rookie Davis has surrendered seven walks in 9.2 innings this season. Those are the pitchers we will target with our stacks.

DraftKings Stack:

P- Jacob deGrom

P- Marcus Stroman

C- Matt Wieters

1B- Edwin Encarnacion

2B- Jose Ramirez

3B- Miguel Rojas

SS- Francisco Lindor

OF-Giancarlo Stanton

OF- Jayson Werth

OF- Carlos Santana

FanDuel Stack:

P- Jake Arrieta

C- Matt Wieters

1B- John Jaso

2B- Adam Rosales

3B- Trevor Plouffe

SS- Francisco Lindor

OF- Giancarlo Stanton

OF- Jayson Werth

OF- Steven Souza Jr.

I didn’t intend to go quite so heavy with Indians in the DraftKings stack, but middle infield and outfield were difficult to fill, and I didn’t see any reason to avoid an Indians stack. If Wieters is out, there aren’t many catchers with great walk rates to target, especially since Francisco Cervelli looks iffy to play as well. If both of those guys are out I will probably just take Yasmani Grandal, even though Jeff Samardzija doesn’t surrender as many walks as the pitchers listed above.

If Miguel Rojas is out I will probably move Jose Ramirez to third base and use Adam Rosales at second. Rosales is a strong value play regardless, but hopefully he will move up in the lineup with Oakland facing a lefty.

The one player who didn’t make any of my stacks who easily could have is Todd Frazier. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Frazier is riding a nine-game hitting streak. Unfortunately for Frazier, none of his teammates walk much, which may help explain why only five teams have scored fewer runs than the White Sox this season.  

Other stacks to consider:

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Rookie Davis

John Jaso, Josh Bell, Francisco Cervelli, David Freese, Andrew McCutchen, Chris Stewart

All of the Pirates listed above were considerations for the lineups listed above, but only Jaso made the final cut. If Matt Wieters is out again I will probably replace him with whoever starts at catcher for the Pirates, especially if it is Cervelli.

Washington Nationals vs. Robbie Ray

Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth, Matt Wieters, Jose Lobaton, Ryan Zimmerman

Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon nearly made the stacks above, but I couldn’t afford them. That is, of course, the problem with stacking Nationals. Lobaton is a reasonable pivot if Wieters is out, though his walk rate isn’t as impressive. This stack has a chance to be relatively low-owned because it is expensive and because Robbie Ray has been pretty good this season, especially on the road.