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.
Baltimore Orioles
I want in on the Baltimore Orioles today.
Baltimore is at home against lefty Brandon Williamson. Not much is going well for the rookie. Through his first 36 2/3 MLB frames, he's been tagged for a 5.13 SIERA and is striking out just 17.3% of hitters. He's also allowing a 45.8% fly-ball rate, which has led to 1.96 dingers per nine.
Not only do the O's have a gaudy implied total -- 5.05, the night's second-highest -- they have just one bat salaried above $3,200, so it's possible to load up on Baltimore and still get to Spencer Strider ($11,100) or Luis Castillo ($10,600).
With Williamson permitting a .366 wOBA and 2.43 homers per nine to righties, I'll focus on the Orioles who will hit from the right side -- Anthony Santander ($3,200), Austin Hays ($3,000), Adley Rutschman ($3,000), Ramon Urias ($2,500) and Jorge Mateo ($2,700). Hays is a standout on this slate and is forecasted to hit leadoff. Our model has Hays as the night's top overall bat and the second-best point-per-dollar play.
It's possible Ryan McKenna ($2,100) gets a start, and he'd be a sweet value option if he does. We could also see top prospect Jordan Westburg added to the player pool as he's expected to be called up. If Westburg is added, he'll be in play immediately. He is a righty who popped 18 jacks with a .404 wOBA across 301 Triple-A plate appearances.
We don't need to fully fade lefties Gunnar Henderson ($3,200) and Cedric Mullins ($3,600), but they won't be priorities for me.
Texas Rangers
The Texas Rangers boast the night's top implied total (5.15) for their home date with Matt Boyd.
Boyd is always a little scary to stack against because he can miss bats, especially when he's dialed in. For the season, he's got a 13.9% swinging-strike rate and 23.7% strikeout rate. But there are a lot of warts in his profile, too, including a 43.0% fly-ball rate overall. Against right-handers, he's surrendered a .341 wOBA and 1.49 homers per nine.
Texas' righties are worth loading up on, and that leads me to Adolis Garcia ($3,900), Josh Jung ($3,400) and Marcus Semien ($3,800). Jung has been immense as a rookie and sports a .430 wOBA and 48.3% hard-hit rate with the platoon advantage. Garcia (.363 wOBA, 41.2% fly-ball rate) and Semien (44.2% fly-ball rate) are also making plenty of noise in the split.
Jonah Heim ($3,200), Mitch Garver ($3,100), Robbie Grossman ($2,500) and Leody Taveras ($2,800) will bat from the right side versus Boyd. Garver is hammering lefties for a .476 wOBA over a small sample while Grossman owns a .337 wOBA and 48.8% fly-ball rate in the split.
Given his salary and the lefty-lefty matchup, Corey Seager ($4,500) could go overlooked a bit. He's been good versus southpaws (.398 wOBA) and will likely hit second, making him a savvy play.
Seattle Mariners
As I mentioned earlier, we have two top-tier aces on this slate in Strider and Castillo. Finding stacks that allow us to have enough salary to get to those two will be paramount tonight, and the Seattle Mariners are a perfect fit.
Seattle has only one hitter above $3,000, and they're showing a 4.81 implied total, the night's fourth-highest mark. The M's are at home versus Trevor Williams. A meh pitcher for a while now, the veteran Wiliams has seen his numbers plummet pretty much across the board this year. He's struggled to a 4.81 SIERA and 17.6% strikeout rate. He's giving up loud contact, too -- a 40.9% fly-ball rate and 1.66 homers per nine.
Julio Rodriguez ($3,700) is the lone high-salary bat on Seattle. Rodriguez's counting stats -- 13 homers and 17 swipes -- are solid, but his wOBA is just .314. I'll mostly stay away in favor of stacking Seattle's modest-salaried hitters.
Jarred Kelenic ($3,000), Teoscar Hernandez ($3,000), Ty France ($2,900), J.P. Crawford ($2,800), Eugenio Suarez ($2,600) and Cal Raleigh ($2,600) give us a six-hitter group to mix and match from. Kelenic has cooled since his red-hot start to the campaign, but he's still an appealing play in this matchup. Raleigh is someone else I'll prioritize. He's put up a 46.8% fly-ball rate against righties.