The following Spotlight Stacks were selected by Awesemo.com writer Jake Hari. For more analysis on the slate, check out Awesemo’s Rankings and Ownership Projections.
COL (vs. SEA)
Anytime the Rockies are in Coors, they’re likely going to find their way into this article, and Mike Leake will only help their cause. He’s struggled with hard-contact against both righties (37%) and lefties (40%) on the year, and is only striking lefties out at a 10.8% rate. Charlie Blackmon is my favorite play here, and one of the best plays on the slate, followed by Carlos Gonzalez and Gerardo Parra, but I’m not leaving out the righties (Arenado, LeMahieu, Story) either.
HOU (vs. DET)
The Astros get a very favorable matchup against Francisco Liriano, who clearly can’t handle righties, as evidenced by his 5.27 xFIP and 1.61 WHIP. Obviously, the Astros are stacked with lefty-mashers and will present an enormous challenge for Liriano, but I don’t like his chances to survive, as they have hitters with a 100+ wRC+ against southpaws this year. Once they get by Liriano, they’ll have a chance to tee off on the Tigers bullpen, which has the 3rd-worst xFIP this year.
ARI (@ATL)
The Diamondbacks will have a matchup with the boom-or-bust Julio Teheran in a park that favors lefty-power. Teheran is great against righties, but has a lot of issues with lefties, allowing 41.5% hard-contact with a 5.93 xFIP and 18% K-rate. Peralta, Lamb, and Jay are my favorite lefties to target versus Teheran, but it’s not like he’ll get a break with the righties in the Arizona lineup like Goldschmidt and Pollock, who have 137 and 138 wRC+ ratings against righties on the year. Their total isn’t close to the Astros or Rockies, but they will be low-owned, making them an excellent tournament stack.