Chalk Stack(s)

Kansas City Royals vs. Lucas Giolito

It’s only a four-game slate and the options are minimal and other than Giolito you can’t exactly point out a pitcher everyone is going to stack against. Giolito has been horrible this season allowing three earned runs or more in all four of his starts including nine earned last time out. He already faced off against the Royals once this year and allowed 10 base runners and was only able to strike out one.

Giolito has been absolutely horrible against left-handed batters this year. He hasn’t been able to throw strikes against them walking 11 batters in just 8.2 innings and allowing 11 earned runs over the same amount of frames. Mike Moustakas leads the pack of Royals we want to play here. He went deep on Wednesday night and has been simply incredible against right-handers all year long. He’s hit six homers and driven in 13 runs while hitting .346 and notching a .488 wOBA. Lucas Duda has been great as well, posting an .847 OPS and .375 wOBA. To complete the lefty side of this stack, Jon Jay should lead off and is super cheap at 3.2K on DraftKings and 2.6K on FanDuel.

The righties are honestly in play as well, I just prefer the left-handers. Whit Merrifield has solid upside here, especially if he gets on base because it’s easier to steal a bag against a RHP. Salvador Pérez likely sits out here after playing two games in a row off of an injury, putting Drew Butera in play. If Perez plays, he’s a reverse splits guy as he had a .333 wOBA versus RHP compared to a .319 against southpaws last year.

Primary Play(s): Mike Moustakas , Jon Jay , Lucas Duda , Salvador Pérez

Secondary Play(s): Whit Merrifield , Drew Butera (if Perez sits)

 

Contrarian Stack(s)

Baltimore Orioles vs. Chris Archer

There aren’t going to be many contrarian stacks that I feel comfortable with suggesting and that’s partly due to the fact I won’t suggest stacking against Chris Sale . I understand elite pitchers do get bit sometimes (Clayton Kershaw just last night) but it’s not something I suggest putting real money on to happen again.

Archer has been susceptible to the long ball this year, especially versus left-handed hitters. Lefties have actually just raked against Archer this year as a whole slashing .362/.431/.702 (!) with a .477 wOBA. He’s allowed four balls to leave the yard to LHH while giving up 16 earned runs in just 12.1 innings. The hard hit rate for LHH against Archer sits at a whopping 39.2-percent as well.

The O’s offense has been non-existent outside of Manny Machado for a better part of this season, but that’s what makes this stack so contrarian. Right off the bat, Chris Davis , Pedro Alvarez and Chance Sisco stick out like a sore thumb as the team’s primary left-handed bats. Cisco went deep last night and would be a great punt at the position if he drew the start tonight once again. Davis and Alvarez have been both less than average this year, but Davis has taken Archer deep three times in their meetings while Alvarez has hit two and is hitting .353 against him.

Obviously Manny Machado and Adam Jones get some consideration here too. Just because they hit from the right side doesn’t mean they both can’t go off at any point in time. Machado has a .453 wOBA against right-handed pitching and has five homers while Jones has three bombs against righties. Trey Mancini is a secondary play, especially if he can nab the leadoff spot.

Primary Play(s): Chris Davis , Pedro Alvarez , Manny Machado , Chance Sisco

Secondary Play(s): Adam Jones , Trey Mancini

 

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Kyle Hendricks

The Cubs are -150 favorites in this spot and there are going to be plenty more people stacking against Chase Anderson than Kyle Hendricks . With that knowledge in mind, we continue on with why Milwaukee is viable here! Hendricks is worse against lefties and although Milwaukee doesn’t have many outside of Travis Shaw , Jonathan Villar and Christian Yelich now that Eric Thames has hit the disabled list, the righties are in play too.

Hendricks slash to LHH is .286/.368/.676 while allowing four of the five bombs he’s given up this year. Hendricks FIP to lefties...get ready because this is a real number...is 9.19 on the year. He’s allowed a 33.3-percent hard hit rate and allows a 46-percent fly ball rate compared to just 20-percent vs. RHH.

Travis Shaw sticks out like a sore thumb as he’s hit well against Hendricks in the past notching a .333 average with three bombs in 15 at-bats. Shaw has a .450 wOBA against righties on the year and comes into this game hot homering in three of his last five games. Christian Yelich and Jonathan Villar are also intriguing with what they can do on the baseball diamond. Villar is hitting .311 from the left side and has four stolen bases on the year. Yelich has a mini three-game hit streak going on and has a .944 OPS this season, which is second on the Brew Crew behind only Eric Thames .

Jesus Aguilar has been so good when given the time this year we should expect to see him a lot more with Eric Thames out. Ryan Braun , Lorenzo Cain and Domingo Santana are all secondary plays but they would complete the stack and should all be considered.

Primary Option(s): Travis Shaw , Christian Yelich , Jonathan Villar , Jesus Aguilar

Secondary Option(s): Lorenzo Cain , Ryan Braun , Domingo Santana