So Archie Bradley pooped his pants during a baseball game last year…nice.
If you haven’t heard this story, just Google it or search on Twitter, you will find it quickly. It’s quite humorous and peels back the curtains a bit to give us a deeper view of a baseball player.
Anyway, we are back at it again, this time for Wednesday night’s 11-game jamboree.
Tuesday night saw many of the stud pitchers go nuts plus fireballer Freddy Peralta showcased his electric stuff.
Tonight we don’t have the luxury of playing top-of-the-line starters, so we have to pick our stacks and one-offs that we like and maybe fit our pitchers around what we like out of that. I don’t think there’s really a clear cut pitcher you have to play top to bottom.
But there are plenty of stacks we can look at today. Before we get to those, I really like the Mariners/Orioles game, but it is really hard to stack considering 3 of the guys I like are 3B (Valencia, Beckham and Seager). Because of that, I didn’t put any of them in the stack today. I also like Manny Machado as a one-off.
As for tonight….good luck and may the Force be with you!
GAME STACK – San Diego Padres @ Texas Rangers
PADRES
1. Christian Villanueva
2. Hunter Renfroe
3. Manny Margot
RANGERS
1. Adrian Beltre
2. Jurickson Profar
3. Elvis Andrus
4. Robinson Chirinos
Analysis: Back at it again with this stack as two more lefties take each other on in Arlington. And again, we are going to target the same players. As you know, I have mad love for Villanueva and Renfroe against lefties. And the fact they are facing off in hot, humid Globe Life Park. Villanueva crushes lefties – .487 wOBA, .479 ISO, 44% hard contact rate and faces an organization that once housed him in their farm system. Renfroe also crushes lefties with a .393 wOBA, .239 ISO and 52% hard contact rate. Margot is here again in hopes of riding the hot streak again. He does have a .203 ISO and 43% hard contact rate against lefties. The Padres take on Mike Minor, who has a .353 wOBA, 43% hard contact rate allowed and 1.54 HR/9 rate against RH bats this season.
As for the Rangers, Beltre and Elvis Andrus are hitting lefties hard (40% and better). Chirinos is hot at the plate and he’s hits lefties very well in his career. He might be my favorite catcher today, though I actually like a lot of catchers today. Right now, Chirinos has a hard hit rate of 52%, .336 wOBA and .244 ISO. Lastly, Profar is a switch hitter and can hit bombs from both sides of the plate. Against lefties, Profar owns a .357 wOBA and .275 ISO.
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
1. Paul Goldschmidt
2. Nick Ahmed
3. J.R. Murphy
4. Ketel Marte
Analysis: Goldy is one of my favorite plays on the board today because he’s taking on a southpaw and a bad one at that. The D-Backs face off against Wei-Yin Chen, who has been dreadful against RH bats this season, allowing a .398 wOBA and has a 1.89 HR/9 rate to go along with a 1.89 WHIP. We don’t need to talk about Goldy, but how about the other three in this stack. I told you I liked a lot of catchers today and J.R. Murphy is another one. He’s second on the team in wOBA against lefties at .397. He has a .327 ISO and 54% hard contact rate. Ahmed and Marte are cheaper options to fit in this stack and you can play them both. Each has a wOBA of at least .365 and ISOs above .210. Both have 42% or better hard contact rates against them, too. This team is a cheap stack outside of Goldy.
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
1. Andrew McCutchen
2. Buster Posey
3. Nick Hundley
4. Gorkys Hernandez
Analysis: Here we are back to stacking the Giants against a lefty. It didn’t work last time, but I don’t care. There are cheap options with lots of power in this lineup. Hundley continues to lead the team in wOBA against southpaws at .401, an ISO of .345 and a hard hit rate of 50%. Posey is right behind him with a .390 wOBA, .210 ISO and 46% hard hit rate. Hernandez, who also has BvP against Rockies’ starter Kyle Freeland, owns a .326 wOBA, .169 ISO and 40% hard contact rate. Lastly, we have McCutchen, who sports a .352 wOBA, .194 ISO and 46% hard hit rate.
BOSTON RED SOX
1. Mookie Betts
2. J.D. Martinez
Analysis: Look no further than this two-man stack as the more popular options tonight. They take on another lefty in Andrew Heaney, who is a better pitcher than last night’s hurler John Lamb. But even though Heany has solid peripherals, this is Fenway and these two guys mash LHP. The rest of the team, as a whole, struggles with lefties. Betts owns a .461 wOBA and .379 ISO against them while J.D. carries a .352 wOBA and 50% hard hit rate.
