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 Los Angeles Dodgers have two of the night's top implied totals, but you don't need me to tell you to get exposure to Coors.
Texas Rangers
We have a ton of quality stacking options available to us. In all, there are 10 teams with an implied total of at least 4.70. Outside of the Dodgers at Coors, the Texas Rangers might be the best of the bunch. Texas didn't come through last night, but we shouldn't hesitate to go back to them today. The Rangers boast the night's top non-Coors implied total (5.17) in a superb matchup with Matt Manning.
Coming off an injury, Manning has thrown only 11 2/3 MLB innings this year. That's obviously a small sample, but things really aren't going well for Manning, who has mustered a mere 14.6% strikeout rate and 5.47 SIERA. Across 160 career innings, the righty has a 4.97 SIERA and 16.1% strikeout rate. He's got a tall task in front of him today against a Rangers offense that has been elite.
After Manning is out of the game, Texas will take its hacks versus a Detroit bullpen that was overworked last night due to a first-inning injury to starter Matt Boyd.
Adolis Garcia ($3,900), Corey Seager ($4,500) and Marcus Semien ($3,700) are all up there in salary, but they're outstanding options if you can find the coin -- something that won't be easy to do on a slate with seven pitchers carrying a five-digit salary. Our model ranks Seager as the night's sixth-best bat.
After those three, Josh Jung ($3,300), Jonah Heim ($3,200) and Nathaniel Lowe ($3,100) are more modest-salaried plays. Lowe and Heim will have the platoon advantage against Manning. Lowe owns a .346 wOBA in the split.
San Diego Padres
The San Diego Padres have an enticing 5.04 implied total for a road matchup with lefty Rich Hill.
Hill is putting up attackable numbers, including a 4.58 SIERA and 7.6% swinging-strike rate. Righties have tagged him for a 40.8% fly-ball rate and .338 wOBA, and the Padres have the right-handed bats to take advantage of that. San Diego's offense will also benefit from the wind blowing out today in Pittsburgh.
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,400), Manny Machado ($3,300), Xander Bogaerts ($3,200) and Ha-Seong Kim ($3,000) will likely be in four of the top-five spots in the order, and all of them will hit from the right side. Kim is forecasted to lead off and is easy to like at the salary. Tatis is one of the top power/speed threats in the game, and our model projects him as the night's seventh-ranked hitter. Bogaerts and Machado offer nice pop at midrange salaries.
Gary Sanchez ($2,900) and Nelson Cruz ($2,400) are two more right-handed hitters, both of whom have excellent track records versus southpaws. Sanchez is stinging the ball since coming to San Diego, posting a 47.2% hard-hit rate and 41.5% fly-ball rate over 87 plate appearances.
Juan Soto ($3,700) gets dinged a bit by the lefty-lefty matchup but is still worth a look. Hill has just a 21.6% strikeout rate against left-handed hitters in 2023, and Soto is wrapping up a June in which he's mashed his way to a .401 wOBA.
Baltimore Orioles
On a night when we have so many viable options, you may not need to go too far off the radar to be different as the plethora of good offensive spots should help spread out draft percentages. So while acknowledging that I may be getting too cute with this one, I am intrigued by the Baltimore Orioles in their home game against Andrew Abbott.
Abbott, a rookie lefty, has opened his career with a sparkling 1.14 ERA over 23 2/3 innings, and he absolutely dealt in the minor leagues before getting the call, recording a 34.8% strikeout rate at Triple-A. But once you dive into the advanced numbers, Abbott doesn't look nearly as good. He's got a 4.65 SIERA and is allowing a 56.7% fly-ball rate. His strikeout rate was only 16.9% prior to his last outing -- when he took advantage of a delightful home matchup with Colorado and punched out 10 over six frames.
On top of being in a sneaky-good spot, the Orioles come at pretty friendly salaries, which is huge on a night with so many high-salary pitching options.
I'll be focusing on the O's who will swing from the right side against Abbott -- Anthony Santander ($3,200), Austin Hays ($2,900), Adley Rutschman ($2,900), Jordan Westburg ($2,600), Ramon Urias ($2,500), Aaron Hicks ($2,400) and Jorge Mateo ($2,700).
Of that group, Santander and Hays are my priorities, and I love them as a mini-stack. They'll likely hit third and first, respectively. I like Westburg and Hicks, too. Westburg looked the part in his debut last night and shredded Triple-A this year (.404 wOBA, 18 homers). Hicks has been fabulous since coming to the Orioles, recording a .401 wOBA, and is projected to hit fourth.
If Ryan McKenna ($2,100) is in the lineup, he needs to be on our radar as a salary-saver.
Other top options: Cleveland Guardians (at Brady Singer), Toronto Blue Jays (vs. Ryan Walker/Alex Wood), Seattle Mariners (vs. Jake Irvin), Philadelphia Phillies (at Jameson Taillon)