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 will not talk about the Coors game between the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins. Those two teams own the highest implied totals of the night, but you don't need me to tell you to get exposure to Coors.
San Diego Padres
The highest non-Coors implied total belongs to the San Diego Padres, who boast a juicy 5.45 implied total for their matchup with Trevor Williams.
Williams is pretty much exactly the kind of pitcher we want to stack against. So far this season, he's not getting many strikeouts (16.9% strikeout rate) while allowing a lot of fly-balls (45.1% rate). It's led to a 4.75 SIERA and 1.42 homers per nine. The Padres can feast.
Remember when Juan Soto ($3,400) was struggling? His salary still reflects those early-season woes, but Soto is up to a .389 wOBA with nine jacks and five steals while walking (19.9% rate) almost as much as he's striking out (21.8%). He's a monster, and his salary will probably be up in the $4,000 range pretty soon. Pounce while you can.
Fernando Tatis Jr. ($3,700) and Xander Bogaerts ($3,000) are also a little lower in salary than what we're used to. Both are excellent plays in this matchup. Tatis already has seven homers and three swipes through 129 plate appearances. He's the number-two bat tonight, per our model. Bogaerts owns a .344 wOBA with seven jacks and four steals.
Jake Cronenworth ($2,800) will be a core piece of my Padres stacks. He'll have the platoon advantage versus Williams -- a split in which he's posted a 44.0% fly-ball rate -- and is projected to hit fifth.
Ha-Seong Kim ($2,700), Matt Carpenter ($2,600) and Trent Grisham ($2,800) are viable mid-range options, too.
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are at home tonight against Tony Gonsolin, and while this might not seem like a smash spot, it is just that.
A righty, Gonsolin's numbers have taken a big step back in 2023 as he's sporting a 4.80 SIERA and 20.0% strikeout rate while allowing a 42.4% fly-ball rate. The Braves have a 4.79 implied total, and there's a chance Gonsolin's name value keeps the Braves from being as popular as they should be -- something that seems likely as of early Wednesday, according to early draft percentage projections around the industry.
Ronald Acuna ($4,700) is Atlanta's top bat. While the salary is way up there, Acuna has earned the tag as he's averaging 16.3 FanDuel points per night with 11 jacks and 20 steals. His power/speed upside is unmatched. He's a fantastic play each and every day.
Matt Olson ($4,200) and Sean Murphy ($3,900) are sweet options, too -- especially Olson, who has mashed his way to a .414 wOBA and 46.3% fly-ball rate against righties this season.
Those three are the lone Braves salaried above $3,200, so you can stack Atlanta economically if you want to. Austin Riley ($2,900) is easy to get behind at this salary despite his slump while Ozzie Albies ($3,200), Marcell Ozuna ($2,800), Eddie Rosario ($2,500) and Michael Harris II ($2,700) make a lot of sense, too. Rosario is a solid value play whenever Atlanta is facing a righty.
Boston Red Sox
Much like Gonsolin, Tyler Anderson is a hurler who is having a much worse season this year than he did in 2022. He's got an ugly 5.21 SIERA and 13.7% strikeout rate so far in 2023, with righties popping him for a .380 wOBA and 1.64 dingers per nine.
While most of the top hitters for the Boston Red Sox are lefties, their 4.82 implied total is the slate's fifth-highest clip, and Boston -- like Atlanta -- could go a little overlooked if the masses flock to San Diego and the Coors' offenses.
Justin Turner ($3,000) has a nice track record versus southpaws, and the same goes for Rob Refsnyder ($2,500). Those two are projected to hit second and third, respectively, and are a nice salary-saving mini-stack. Enrique Hernandez ($2,600) will also hit from the right side, and he's eligible at short, second and outfield, making him a handy puzzle piece.
We don't need to fade Boston's lefties, especially Rafael Devers ($3,700) and Masataka Yoshida ($3,800). Yoshida has thrived in lefty-lefty matchups, putting up a .371 wOBA in the split. Devers is killing it, too, hammering left-handers for a .379 wOBA.