Who didn’t love stacking the Athletics in 2014? You had some power guys who crushed lefties in particular, they hit a ton of home runs, Vegas loved them, it was great. Fast forward to 2015 and things are a lot different now. They are currently 10 games below .500, lost Donaldson, lost Cespedes, lost Norris and Moss, and yet, you look up at the offensive stats, and there they are in the top five for total runs scored so far this year.
The A’s will do anything if they feel it will give them an edge – bat a guy who has been hitting ninth for two weeks leadoff one night? Sure. Call a guy up and bat him in the middle of the order immediately? Why not? If there were ever a team made to be profiled for mini-stacks, it’s the Athletics. So let’s roll up our sleeves to find out what these crazy Athletics have been doing lately and how to best deploy their players in stacks.
Overall, the Athletics are currently sitting just inside the top 10 in terms of DraftKings Plus/Minus, having collectively added 0.49 points:
The Athletics are another team with a pretty wide split depending on the handedness of the opposing pitcher. They have also been notably better on the road this season than at O.co:
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the Athletics’ recent lineups.
vs. L:
- Burns
- Canha/Semien
- Vogt/Zobrist
- Zobrist/Butler
- Phegley/Butler/Lawrie
- Reddick/Vogt/Lawrie
- Lawrie/Phegley/Vogt
- Canha/Semien
- Sogard/Semien
Well, you have to give them credit in a way – they have been struggling against lefties all year and they are going to just keep switching things around until they find something that works eventually. Unfortunately, here are the only Athletics that have currently added value this season against lefties:
Lawrie’s individual numbers are very good against lefties at the moment and Josh Phegley can be a cheap source of power. Due to the relatively small sample size, I checked Lawrie’s and Phegley’s Plus/Minus numbers against lefties going back to 2014 and both finished over +1.00 that season as well. Luckily for us, Lawrie and Phegley also bat in the same area of the Athletics’ lineup when facing a lefty. Although Marcus Semien and Stephen Vogt are both currently in the red against lefties this season, both added value in 2014. The A’s top stacks against lefties then would be Lawrie-Phegley-Semien and Lawrie-Phegley-Vogt.
Against righties, the Athletics have recently looked like this:
Vs R:
- Burns
- Sogard/Semien
- Vogt
- Zobrist
- Reddick
- Butler/Davis
- Davis/Lawrie
- Phegley/Canha
- Sogard/Canha/Fuld
And the top performers against righties are:
The Athletics will still move players around at the bottom of their order against right-handers, but have been surprisingly stable one through five over the past few weeks. The most valuable mini-stack against righties has actually been another bottom-of-the-order stack for Oakland this season, although there’s also a decent middle-of-the-order combo. Here are the top mini-stacks I’ve identified vs. R:
Phegley-Canha-Burns (+8.87)
Vogt-Zobrist-Reddick (+6.97)
These are pretty high scores, and actually, I believe the Phegley/Canha/Burns combo has the highest Plus/Minus I’ve come across so far in the mini-stacks series, although this is only the third entry. Don’t let Oakland’s poor record and relative lack of pop (ranked near the middle of the pack in total home runs) fool you; this is still an offense that can score runs in bunches, particularly against righties. You’ll have to keep an eye out for their lineup, but catching them on the right night can add significant value to your DFS team.
