Let’s have a little fun with this edition of Stack the Deck, shall we? We’ve left the Playbook and Optimal Lineups in the more-than capable hands of Steve Pimentel today and he’s doing a fantastic job here. I’m a big fan of his - you should be too. So, I’m shifting over to the Stack the Deck article today and after writing up the Hitting Coach notes for today and after writing the first few Playbooks of the year, we have one more day of some pretty great hitting parks to take advantage of. Not to mention, some pretty powerful lineups doing batting inside of them. So, I figured, why not come up with some “Ballpark Stacks” with a focus on power numbers.
The way I will attack this is simple:
Identify the three best venues for today’s action (regardless of teams/SP and taking into consideration wind + rain chances).
Identify the best power hitters from the six teams at each position. We won't be able to afford them all, but we are just trying to build our foundation.
Find two value plays at the weakest power positions (likely SS and 2B).
Fill in the starting pitchers last.
Sometimes, it’s just fun to come up with a strategy before actually starting to plug in players into lineups:
So, here is what I came up with for each of these steps…
Three best venues: Arizona (Chase Field), Milwaukee (Miller Park) & Cincinnati (Great American Ballpark)
Six teams: ARZ, SF, MIL, COL, CIN, PHI
Top three from each (no three at the same position) - using ISO as the lead indicator:
C - Jett Bandy (MIL); Buster Posey (SF); Tucker Barnhart (CIN)
1B - Paul Goldschmidt (ARZ); Joey Votto (CIN); Brandon Belt (SF)
2B - DJ LeMahieu (COL); Jonathan Villar (MIL); Cesar Hernandez (PHI)
3B - Nolan Arenado (COL); Jake Lamb (ARZ); Travis Shaw (MIL)
SS - Zack Cozart (CIN); Brandon Crawford (SF); Orlando Arcia (MIL)
OF - Yasmany Tomas (ARZ); Ryan Braun (MIL); Charlie Blackmon (COL); Michael Saunders (PHI) and Adam Duvall (CIN)
Here are the results for each of the three providers:
DraftKings
SP - Marcus Stroman - TOR
SP - Matt Harvey - NYM
C - Jett Bandy - MIL
1B - Paul Goldschmidt - ARI
2B - Cesar Hernandez - PHI
3B - Nolan Arenado - COL
SS - Zack Cozart - CIN
OF - Ryan Braun - MIL >> Pivot: Charlie Blackmon
OF - Michael Saunders - PHI
OF - Yasmany Tomas - ARI
FanDuel
SP - Marcus Stroman - TOR
C - Jett Bandy - MIL
1B - Joey Votto - CIN
2B - DJ LeMahieu - COL
3B - Nolan Arenado - COL
SS - Zack Cozart - CIN
OF - Ryan Braun - MIL >>> Pivot: Carlos Gonzalez
OF - Charlie Blackmon - COL
OF - Yasmany Tomas - ARZ
Yahoo!
SP - Marcus Stroman - TOR
SP - Matt Boyd - DET
C - Jett Bandy - MIL
1B - Brandon Belt - SF
2B - Jonathan Villar - MIL
3B - Jake Lamb - ARZ
SS - Brandon Crawford - SF
OF - Adam Duvall - CIN
OF - Charlie Blackmon - COL
OF - Yasmany Tomas - ARI
Good luck today!