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.
Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers are in a smash spot tonight versus Trevor Williams -- just make sure rain isn't an issue.
Williams, a righty, checks about every box in terms of the type of pitchers we want to stack against. He struggles to miss bats (16.9% strikeout rate), allows a lot of fly-balls (41.4% fly-ball rate) and gives up a bunch of homers (1.91 per nine innings). All of that has resulted in a 4.95 SIERA, and Texas has a juicy 5.37 implied total, the slate's second-best clip.
Lefties (.360 wOBA) and righties (.342 wOBA) are both finding a lot of joy against Williams, so anyone in the Rangers' lineup needs to be on our radar.
Adolis Garcia ($3,900), Corey Seager ($4,200), Marcus Semien ($3,600) and Josh Jung ($3,400) are forecasted to occupy four of the first five spots in Texas' lineup. Seager stands out from that group thanks to his insane numbers -- .459 wOBA and 55.6% hard-hit rate -- versus righties. Our model ranks him as the night's number-six bat.
Nathaniel Lowe ($3,000) and Jonah Heim ($3,100) will be core pieces to my Texas stacks. Both come at modest salaries, should be in a nice spot in the lineup and will have the platoon advantage. We project Heim as the second-best Rangers bat tonight.
Brad Miller ($2,000) is a viable dart throw if he gets a start.
Boston Red Sox
The night's top implied total -- by a sizable distance -- belongs to the Boston Red Sox. Boston is showing a 6.04 mark for a home clash with Luis Medina.
A right-hander, Medina has permitted some very stackable numbers, including a 5.07 SIERA, 12.7% walk rate and 1.84 homers per nine. He's actually showing reverse splits, surrendering a .399 wOBA and 2.48 jacks per nine to righties.
Unlike the Rangers, Boston can be stacked pretty economically as they've got only one hitter with a salary above $3,400.
That one high-salary guy is Rafael Devers ($3,700), and he's easy to like tonight despite Medina's reverse splits. Devers is on fire over July's small sample, racking up a .518 wOBA and 44.4% hard-hit rate so far this month. Against righties for the season, he's posted a 42.2% hard-hit rate and 41.9% fly-ball rate. Our projections have him ranked fourth among all hitters on the slate.
Elsewhere on Boston, Masataka Yoshida ($3,200), Justin Turner ($3,400), Christian Arroyo ($2,400) and Adam Duvall ($2,900) also rate out very well, per our model, with each sitting among the seven best point-per-dollar bats. Their salaries make a Boston stack a nice fit alongside an ace or a high-salary stack.
Lastly, Triston Casas ($2,600) is always a decent value play whenever the Red Sox see a righty.
Minnesota Twins
I haven't been right on the Minnesota Twins very often this season, but they are an appealing stack today in a home matchup with Cole Irvin.
The left-handed Irvin has more or less been the same guy we've gotten used to in recent seasons. He's pitched to a 4.96 SIERA and 19.0% strikeout rate in 2023, and righties are mashing against him to the tune of a .384 wOBA, 45.6% fly-ball rate and 1.69 homers per nine.
Carlos Correa ($3,300) and Byron Buxton ($3,500) are a high-upside pairing. Correa is beginning to emerge from a slow start to the year and owns a .362 wOBA over July's small sample. A season ago, Correa recorded a .402 wOBA and 43.5% fly-ball rate against southpaws. Buxton is in the same boat, picking up the slack of late -- .364 wOBA in July -- after a meh start to the year. For the campaign, he's got a 46.5% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage.
Willi Castro ($2,900) is a handy piece. He's eligible at third, short and outfield, and he swings from both sides of the plate. Castro brings stolen-base upside to the table, swiping 18 bases for the year, including three over his past three appearances.
Donovan Solano ($2,600), Michael Taylor ($2,500), Kyle Farmer ($2,500) and Jose Miranda ($2,400) are viable values. Solano (second) and Farmer (fourth) are projected to be in sweet spots in the lineup. Farmer has put up a 44.4% hard-hit rate and 42.2% fly-ball rate against left-handers this year.
Other top options:New York Yankees (vs. Jameson Taillon), Los Angeles Dodgers (at Griffin Canning), Arizona Diamondbacks (vs. Rich Hill),