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
Another day, another slate where the Texas Rangers are in a sublime spot. The Rangers are taking on lefty Joey Wentz and are sporting a 5.56 implied total, the top non-Coors mark by a half-run.
Wentz owns a 4.75 SIERA over 67 frames this year. He's allowing a 41.5% fly-ball rate and 1.88 homers per nine overall. Against right-handed hitters, Wentz is surrendering a .371 wOBA, 2.08 dingers per nine and a 45.1% fly-ball rate. Yes, please.
Adolis Garcia ($3,900), Marcus Semien ($3,700) and Josh Jung ($3,300) will be core pieces to my Texas stacks. Considering salary, Jung might be my favorite play on the slate. He's absolutely destroying left-handed pitching this year, amassing a .425 wOBA and 47.5% hard-hit rate in the split. Garcia is hammering lefties, too, to the tune of a .379 wOBA, 39.6% hard-hit rate and 43.4% fly-ball rate.
Jonah Heim ($3,200), Mitch Garver ($3,000) and Ezequiel Duran ($2,800) will also hit from the right side -- as will Robbie Grossman ($2,500), who may get a start.
We certainly don't need to outright fade left-handers Corey Seager ($4,400) and Nathaniel Lowe ($3,100). Our model actually has Seager as the highest-projected Texas bat.
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays draw a delightful matchup with Zach Davies, and they're showing a 4.82 implied total.
Davies is pretty much the same guy he's been for a while, someone who struggles to miss bats and relies on inducing weak contact. His swinging-strike rate is only 8.3%, and his hard-hit rate is up to 34.4%, his worst mark since 2019. Lefties have been great against him in this season's small sample, racking up a .388 wOBA, but righties boast a 40.0% fly-ball rate.
So, in short, anyone in the Rays' lineup is worth a look.
The big issue with stacking Tampa Bay is salary as the Rays have seven bats listed at a salary of at least $3,000 -- Wander Franco ($3,700), Jose Siri ($3,500), Isaac Paredes ($3,300), Josh Lowe ($3,400), Luke Raley ($3,000), Yandy Diaz ($3,800) and Randy Arozarena ($4,000). That's not ideal, and with this being a Coors slate, the Rays' salaries push me more toward Lowe, Padedes and Raley, the latter of whom can be deployed at first base or outfield and has -- at times -- been in a juicy spot in the lineup against righties.
Vidal Brujan ($2,100) would be a handy value piece if he gets a start.
Baltimore Orioles
I liked the Baltimore Orioles as an under-the-radar stack yesterday. They flopped as Andrew Abbott stayed hot. I want to go right back to the O's today in a date with Luke Weaver.
Weaver has struggled to a 4.55 SIERA and 19.3% strikeout rate -- both of which are career-worst numbers. He's getting smashed by everyone as lefties (.368 wOBA) and righties (.411 wOBA) are finding plenty of joy against him. He's been tagged for 2.09 homers per nine overall, and given the dimensions in Baltimore, I'm going to mostly focus on the Orioles' lefties.
Not only does Baltimore offer a 4.95 implied total, the second-best non-Coors mark, but the Orioles' salaries are fairly modest across the board.
With a righty on the bump, Cedric Mullins ($3,400) is a sweet play. He's got 8 homers and 13 steals, and he'll likely be atop the order. Adley Rutschman ($2,900), Gunnar Henderson ($3,200), Anthony Santander ($3,300) and Ryan O'Hearn ($2,400) will also have the platoon advantage against Weaver. O'Hearn catches my eye with his friendly salary.
Righties Austin Hays ($2,900) and Jordan Westburg ($2,700) bring nice upside to the table at easy-to-get-to salaries.
Other top options: New York Mets (vs. Wade Miley), San Diego Padres (at Mitch Keller)