Chalk Stack

Cleveland Indians vs Chris Tillman 

This is easily the most obvious stack of the slate as the Indians, despite their slow start, should have little trouble against Chris Tillman who is 0-3 with an ERA of 11.91 and a WHIP of 2.82.  I can probably just stop the analysis there right?  This season left-handed hitters are hitting .550 with an OPS of 1.617 which means Francisco Lindor , José Ramírez , Michael Brantley , Bradley Zimmer , Jason Kipnis , Yonder Alonso and Tyler Naquin could all be in for a very nice day.  The Baltimore bullpen hasn’t been great this season either, going 3-4 with a 4.54 ERA which is important seeing as Tillman likely is not long for this game.

 

Contrarian Stack

New York Yankees vs Marcus Stroman

Stroman has really struggled to begin the year and some have to wonder if the shoulder injury that limited him to just one spring appearances is still an issue as he is 0-1 with a 7.98 ERA and a 1.91 WHIP.  The Yankees offense has not lived up to expectations to this point in the season and are very expensive which is why I think they could be a bit contrarian compared to the rest of the slate. Stroman pitched against the Yankees in his first start of the season and was tagged for four runs over five innings.  If stacking the Yankees I am looking at any of their first five hitters, starting with Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius .  Giancarlo Stanton homered on Friday night which could mean he is about to bust out of his slump.  Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner are also solid options as both are lefty bats hitting in Yankee stadium.

Toronto Blue Jays vs Jordan Montgomery

The Blue Jays have historically hammered left-handed pitching and though that roster has turned over and they do not have Josh Donaldson in their lineup at the moment the team has still managed to score runs in bunches.   Toronto is going with an entire lineup of right-handed bats this afternoon which has been the plan of attack by most teams this season as he has only faced a left-handed bat six times this year.  Righties are hitting .315 with an OPS of .846 against him this season.  Some popular players to stack against Montgomery today will be Steve Pearce who is hitting .325 with an OPS of 1.010 against southpaws this season, Lourdes Gurriel who made his MLB debut last night, going 2-for-5 with three RBI and Teoscar Hernandez who is hitting .370 with six runs, two home runs and nine RBI to begin his season.  This stack gives you exposure to the Blue Jays 9-1-2 hitters which is a stack I like to play with certain teams because the No.9 hitter is typically cheaper in price and has solid run scoring potential with the top of the lineup hitting behind him.