Chalk Stack(s)

Kansas City Royals & Texas Rangers

Generally I break down stacks against single pitchers, but this entire game is JUICY and will garner a lot of ownership and likely a lot of runs scored. I know the Rangers have a lot of lefties in their lineup, but they just squared off with CC Sabathia on Wednesday and chased him for seven runs and put up a 12 spot for the entire game. I think they’ll be OK. Danny Duffy has been just putrid this year. It’s been even worse of late as he’s allowed at least four earned runs in five of his last six outings. Just in those previous six games, he’s given up 11 home runs.

On the flip side of things, Austin Bibens-Dirkx is making his season debut on Thursday. We saw Bibens-Dirkx appear in 24 games last year including six starts. In those outings he was shaky as he posted a 4.67 ERA and a 5.68 FIP. He allowed a bunch of long balls as indicated by his 1.82 HR/9. Bibens-Dirkx is 33-years old and averages 90 MPH on his fastball. This could become batting practice rather quickly.

When talking about the Rangers, let’s start right at the top with Delino DeShields . DeShields is hitting .357 off of southpaws this year and swiped his second bag over his last six games on Wednesday. If DeShields gets on, expect him to run. Following him, Isiah Kiner-Falefa comes in with back-to-back multi-hit games. Jeff Banister continues to run him out third in the order and as long as he stays there, there will be many run producing opportunities for him. If we’re talking about run producing, nobody on the Rangers has been better of late than Jurickson Profar . Profar had a bases clearing double on Wednesday that turned out to be the game winning hit and that was one game after belting a three-run homer on Tuesday. He has six RBI over his last two games and continues to hit in the middle of the Rangers order at a cheap price tag across the industry.

Even some of the lefties are in play here. Nomar Mazara now has 31 RBI on the year, ranking him 14th in the entire American League, tying him with teammate Joey Gallo actually. Mazara hits southpaws pretty well too, posting a .274 AVG and .351 wOBA. If Ronald Guzman draws another start, I actually like him more than the aforementioned Joey Gallo . Guzman hit a homer in all three games against the Yankees and now has four bombs over his last nine games. Shin-Soo Choo is always interesting in GPP’s as he has massive upside due to his duel threat ability to hit homers and steal bases. Robinson Chirinos is the last Ranger I’ll jot down here. He hit .366 versus left-handed pitching last year with an OPS of 1.113 so the potential is there.

Turning it over to the Royals side, Bibens-Dirkx was slightly worse to righty bats last season, but he was poor against both sides of the plate. Jorge Soler , Salvador Pérez and Whit Merrifield lead the charge from the right-hand batters box. After going into beast mode in late April and early May, Soler has struggled over his last 10 games hitting just .175. That said, he has a respectable .337 wOBA vs. RHP on the year and gets a massive park upgrade playing in Texas. Merrifield actually comes in Kansas City’s hottest hitter posting a .306 AVG over his last 10 games. He’s also swiped three bags in that span and it’s nice that we have a RHP on the mound, making it a little easier for Merrifield to take another bag or two here. Perez homered in his last two games and now has eight on the year in just 29 games. Perez hit a career high 27 bombs last season and posted a .495 SLG which is exactly the number he has so far this season. He could launch one for a third straight game here.

Flipping it over to the other side of the dish we have Mike Moustakas as the obvious lead man for a Royals stack always. He’s destroying righties this year at a .301 clip with nine homers and a .411 wOBA. Believe it or not Alex Gordon has shown some signs of life offensively as well. He has back-to-back multiple hit games with a home run mixed in. He’s just 3.1K on DraftKings and makes for an excellent salary saving punt.

Primary Play(s): Mike Moustakas , Whit Merrifield , Isiah Kiner-Falefa , Jurickson Profar , Delino DeShields , Salvador Pérez

Secondary Play(s): Jorge Soler , Ronald Guzman , Nomar Mazara , Alex Gordon , Robinson Chirinos , Shin-Soo Choo

 

Alternative Stack(s)

New York Mets vs. Zach Davies

We don’t have many options seeing how this is just a four game slate, so with Davies just coming off the disabled list after not pitching since April 29th, this could be something the Mets take advantage of early and often. Davis has been a reverse splits pitcher this year allowing only a .292 wOBA to left-handed hitters while righties have notched a .344 mark. His success against LHH seems a bit lucky, however, as his xFIP sits at 5.00 and he’s gotten away with a 13.6-percent BB-rate.

Since he’s been worse against righties, we will start there. Asdrubal Cabrera is the best hitter the Mets have to offer from the right side. He’s slashing .314/.362/.559 on the year from the right side of the plate and has a .392 wOBA. He also has a small 3-for-6 sample off of Davies, so take that for what it’s worth. Moving right on along we land at Wilmer Flores who, surprisingly enough, has hit better against RHP than LHP. We’ve known Flores to be a southpaw smasher -- I will be copyrighting that phrase so don’t steal it -- but yet he’s hitting .296 with three homers, seven RBI and a .407 wOBA against righties! Last, and probably least...kidding...maybe? is José Bautista and Devin Mesoraco . Manager Mickey Callaway already come out and said Bautista is likely going to play three times a week in the outfield spelling the regular guys when they need a breather. Throw him in a GPP if you must. It’s only a four game slate. Mesoraco is definitely intriguing however. He hit fifth for the Mets on Wednesday and although he went 0-for-4, we could see him right back there once again Thursday. He has a very respectable .435 SLG and .735 OPS on the year. He’s not cheap by any means, but worth the look depending on where he hits in the lineup.

Righties aren’t the only one’s in play as I mentioned at the top, however! Michael Conforto has begun to swing the bat nicely as he’s hitting .289 over his last 10. Davies has allowed a 34.5-percent hard-hit rate to LHH on the year, which is another check in the column for Conforto. I prefer Conforto slightly to Brandon Nimmo , just like I did on Wednesday even though Nimmo went deep and it bit me in the ass. If Nimmo leads off again here, he’s undoubtedly in play. He has a very impressive .288 average and .427 wOBA off of righties on the year and has now hit two homers and swiped two bags in his last seven games. Jay Bruce and Adrián González are both secondary options, but prefer Bruce to Gonzalez.

Primary Option(s): Brandon Nimmo , Asdrubal Cabrera , Michael Conforto , Wilmer Flores

Secondary Option(s): Devin Mesoraco , José Bautista , Jay Bruce