As I mentioned in the previous post, stacking is possibly the most common strategy used in MLB DFS Tournament contests. Perhaps a more accurate statement is that it is very common in winning Tournament lineups. If you want to win a large Tournament, your best bet is to employ this strategy.
It works.
At this point, you’re probably asking the first question most of us asked in our lives: why? Good question, let’s talk about it. There are several reasons why stacking can give you an advantage, but two main reasons carry more weight than the others.
Take Advantage of Bad Pitching
One thing stacking allows you to do is select multiple batters that are going to be facing off against a bad pitcher. Bad pitchers give up more hits and runs, which results in more fantasy points. It should be obvious why this is a good reason to consider stacking. But it goes even further than that.
If you consider yourself a baseball fan and watch games often, think about what happens when a pitcher performs poorly. If a pitcher starts the game by giving up a lot of hits and runs in the first few innings, his pitch count gets too high early in the game. This usually leads to that team going to the bullpen to use relief pitchers a couple innings before they intended. On top of that, if they are already down by several runs, they probably won’t be using their best relievers.
Why is this important?
If you stacked 4 players in your lineup going against the starting pitcher that performed poorly, gave up a lot of runs, and got replaced early, your lineup is likely to see two main benefits.
- The players in your lineup were likely a part of the fun against that starting pitcher. This means that they likely racked up a few hits, RBI, runs, or stolen bases just in their first 2 – 3 plate appearances. So, you already have a good chunk of fantasy points with a lot of game left to be played.
- When a team is down by several runs early and has to replace their starter in the 3rd or 4th inning, they usually don’t put in their best bullpen pitchers. If this is the case, your players that you stacked go from seeing a bad starting pitcher to bad relieving pitchers. Bad relievers are typically even worse than bad starters. So, you get even more opportunity for high fantasy scores in the late innings. It really snowballs in your favor.
What’s Next?
In the next post, we’ll talk about the other big reason why stacking is a good strategy. Then we’ll touch on some of the other reasons as well.
If you want to play along and enter some FanDuel lineups of your own, you can use my FanDuel referral link here to get a deposit bonus. You should just need to deposit at least $15 within 30 days of signing up, and you’ll get a $15 bonus added to your account if you use that link.
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Click here for next post: Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategy: Stacking (Part 2)
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