Stacking is an integral part of daily fantasy baseball. Correlation drives upside, giving your lineups a slate-winning ceiling when your stacks explode.
This piece will do the digging and the dirty work each day to determine which stacks are worth rostering on FanDuel's main slate. While we want upside, we also need to factor in game theory, especially in a sport as random as baseball.
Our MLB DFS heat map is a quick way to get a feel for the overall slate and which offenses are in a good spot. You can also check out our daily fantasy baseball projections to identify the slate's best bats.
Let's look at the top stacks for this main slate. We won't cover the Coors offenses. The Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers have two of the night's top implied totals, but you don't need me to tell you to get exposure to Coors.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers have left Coors, but you wouldn't know it by their implied total -- which sits at 5.83 for a date with Alec Marsh and the Kansas City Royals. That 5.83 clip is the top non-Coors mark (as of early Friday).
A word of warning: rain might be an issue for this game, so just be sure it plays.
This will be the MLB debut for Marsh. While the rookie recorded some electric strikeout numbers in the minors this season, including a 17.7% swinging-strike rate in a brief Triple-A stint, the Dodgers are a brutal first matchup, and given that we have some viable pitchers at mid-range salaries, it shouldn't be too hard to get to LA's high-salary studs.
Mookie Betts ($4,100), Freddie Freeman ($4,200), J.D. Martinez ($3,700) and Will Smith ($3,800) are all top-tier plays if you have the coin. Our model has Betts as the slate's number-one bat, and he's so easy to find a place for now that he's eligible at second, short and outfield.
The Dodger stick I'm most into is Max Muncy ($3,300). The salary is lovely, and he's tagged righties for a .361 wOBA, 45.4% hard-hit rate and 51.5% fly-ball rate. Sign me up.
David Peralta ($2,400) is back down to a true value salary after getting bumped up for the Coors series. He's a great salary-saver whenever the Dodgers are facing a righty. James Outman ($2,500) and Miguel Vargas ($2,200) fit in the value bucket, too. Also, Jason Heyward ($2,400) would be on the value radar if he gets a start.
Los Angeles Angels
Sticking with L.A. teams, the Los Angeles Angels are in a smash spot versus Tommy Henry and are holding a 5.18 implied total. With so many good offensive spots on this slate -- eight teams with an implied total above 4.70 -- I could see the Angels getting lost in the shuffle a bit. If that looks like it'll be the case, I'll be overweight on them.
The Arizona Diamondbacks' southpaw is one of my favorite arms to stack against. For the year, he's struggled to a 5.29 SIERA and 15.4% strikeout rate while allowing a 43.4% fly-ball rate and 1.58 dingers per nine. Both lefties (45.5% fly-ball rate) and righties (42.7% fly-ball rate) are making loud contact against him, so we have plenty of flexibility with the Halos.
Shohei Ohtani ($4,600) and Mike Trout ($4,000) are fantastic options; you didn't need me to tell you that. Our model has Ohtani as the slate's number-three bat despite the lefty-lefty matchup.
After those two stars, I'm super into Brandon Drury ($3,200), Taylor Ward ($2,800) and Hunter Renfroe ($2,900). All three will have the platoon advantage against Henry, come at easy-to-like salaries and figure to be in a meaty spot in the lineup. Renfroe owns a 51.0% fly-ball rate versus left-handers this year, although the sample is small.
Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers are set to face righty Ronel Blanco and have been handed a 5.26 implied total.
Blanco -- a former reliever who has made just four starts in 2023 -- has big-time strikeout numbers if we look at his overall output. But if you zoom in on only his time as a starter, he becomes a lot less scary as he's got a 22.7% strikeout rate and 5.02 xFIP across 23 innings. He's faced a very tough stretch of opponents (Dodgers, Angels, Reds and Blue Jays) and gets no respite today versus a Rangers offense whose active roster is fourth in wOBA against righties (.343).
Corey Seager ($4,200), Adolis Garcia ($4,000) and Marcus Semien ($3,700) are the stars of the show for Texas. They've been monsters this year, particularly Seager, who has a silly .442 wOBA against right-handers.
While all three of those guys are superb options, I'm very interested in the Rangers' mid-range bats -- Josh Jung ($3,400), Nathaniel Lowe ($3,100) and Jonah Heim ($3,200). Lowe and Heim will have the platoon advantage against Blanco and are forecasted to hit third and sixth, respectively. Our model actually ranks Heim as the Rangers' second-best hitter tonight.
Other top options -- Atlanta Braves (vs. Bryan Hoeing ), St. Louis Cardinals (vs. Luis Severino), New York Yankees (at Matthew Liberatore),