In my first “Stack the Deck” article for 2017, I identified several lineups I liked to stack for that day and identified multiple players from each lineup who I believed were especially worth considering. Today I will take a drastically different approach. Instead of stacking a team, I will stack a category.
One thing that stands out in Wednesday’s slate is the number of starting pitchers who struggled with walks last season. Brandon Finnegan, James Shields and Hector Santiago were in the top six in BB/9 among qualified pitchers last season. Cole Hamels was 11th. Dan Straily was 14th. Matt Moore was 19th. Trevor Cahill was worse than all of those guys but only threw 65.2 innings.
With that in mind, I constructed two lineups stacked with batters with high walk rates facing the aforementioned pitchers. By all means, if you want to use a more traditional stack of Nationals or Dodgers feel free, but there could be some added value to finding batters especially qualified to take advantage of this glaring weakness shared by several pitchers in Wednesday’s slate.
DraftKings
P – Rich Hill (LAD)
P – Tyler Chatwood (COL)
C – Matt Wieters (WSH)
1B – Edwin Encarnacion (CLE)
2B – Cesar Hernandez (PHI)
3B – Anthony Rendon (WSH)
SS – Francisco Lindor (CLE)
OF - Joc Pederson (LAD)
OF – Bryce Harper (WSH)
OF - A.J. Pollock (ARI)
FanDuel
P – Jacob deGrom (NYM)
C – Yasmani Grandal (LAD)
1B – Carlos Santana (CLE)
2B - Cesar Hernandez (PHI)
3B - Anthony Rendon (WSH)
SS - Francisco Lindor (CLE)
OF – Michael Brantley (CLE)
OF – Michael Saunders (PHI)
OF – A.J. Pollock (ARI)
When I put these lineups together it felt like I was using too many expensive hitters, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I could still afford pitchers I really like even though the only real value play is Cesar Hernandez. If anything, I could have even paid up at a couple of positions. Speaking of which…
Bryce Harper led all qualified hitters in BB% last season, while Carlos Santana was ninth and Edwin Encarnacion was 16th. I could have easily used Harper in my FanDuel lineup and downgraded at pitcher. The main omission from these lineups was Paul Goldschmidt, who had a 15.6 BB/% last season. I simply didn’t think I could afford him. I was probably wrong. Corey Seager was a strong consideration as well. There aren’t many value plays in these lineups, but that could change when lineups are announced. Stephen Drew and his 9.7% walk rate last season would be great if he plays, but we don’t expect that as of this writing.
As always, I encourage you to leave me a note and let me know what you think of this format. I will probably continue to change it up as we go along, but I will of course default to whatever my readers find most useful. Leave me a comment below, post in the FANation boards or hit me up on Twitter.