3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 4/5/23

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.

With just one night game on the menu today, we've got an early afternoon main slate beginning at 1:05 pm ET on Wednesday. Let's look at the top stacks.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays are fresh off a 10-run explosion from the plate, half of which came in the ninth inning to complete a comeback win over the Nationals. We shouldn't rule out another big performance this afternoon because their matchup might be even better on Wednesday.

Left-hander Patrick Corbin is getting the ball for the Nats today, and he left little room for optimism following his Opening Day performance. He lasted only three frames, allowing four runs (two earned) and seven hits, and his velocity was down, a common issue for him at the beginning of seasons. Hey, at least he didn't give up a home run?

Well, chances are the dingers will come soon enough. In 2022, Corbin was punished by right-handed batters for 1.79 homers per nine innings off a 41.1% hard-hit rate and 35.0% fly-ball rate, and this is hardly a new trend for him.

Today will be great hitting weather to send a few balls into the seats, as well. We're looking at temperatures in the 80s and double-digit mph winds blowing out to left at Nationals Park this afternoon.

Tampa Bay projects to counter Corbin with an entire lineup of righties and switch-hitters, but the best power options should come from the top of the order through Yandy Diaz ($3,000), Wander Franco ($3,900), Isaac Paredes ($2,300), and Randy Arozarena ($3,900). Paredes is a risk to get lifted late for a pinch-hitter, but he's been hitting third against southpaws, which is hard to complain about at this punt salary.

While Harold Ramirez ($2,200) and Manuel Margot ($2,300) lack much punch at the plate, they're expected to bat fifth and sixth, and the latter has stolen base upside.

Houston Astros

Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez had a mixed 2023 debut against the Rays, and things will only get tougher this time out against Houston.

While Rodriguez ultimately finished his first campaign in Detroit with a 4.05 ERA, his underlying numbers were mediocre across the board, including a 4.56 SIERA, 18.4% strikeout rate, and 8.7% walk rate. E-Rod was always known for bouts of inconsistency when he was with the Red Sox, but at least he was someone you could count on for punchouts, and they just weren't there last year. Both that strikeout rate and his 7.5% swinging-strike rate were career lows.

Until Rodriguez proves he's closer to the Boston version of himself, he's someone we're going to attack. Righties Jose Abreu ($3,300), Alex Bregman ($3,200), and Jeremy Pena ($3,100) should occupy three of the first four slots in the order, and we're getting them at pretty good salaries here.

Chas McCormick ($2,700) is one of the better value right-handed sticks who'll bat in the bottom half. McCormick owns a career .172 ISO, and that jumps to .235 ISO versus left-handers.

Making matters even better for Houston, Rodriguez performed poorly in a limited sample in same-sided matchups last year (4.80 xFIP), so that's all the more reason to plug in our favorite Astros lefties in Yordan Alvarez ($4,500) and Kyle Tucker ($4,000).

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox has had a high implied team total pretty much every game to start the season, and they've been coming through consistently. But yesterday was finally the first time they truly fell flat. Well, here they are with the slate's second-highest total (4.59) against Mitch Keller, and they're very much in play yet again.

Keller didn't get the result he wanted on Opening Day against the Reds, allowing 4 earned runs and 4 walks in just 4 2/3 innings -- but he also managed 8 strikeouts with a 17.4% swinging-strike rate. He was working on a new cutter in spring training, so it's possible he'll be a different player in 2023.

However, while that's a promising sign for the right-hander, he owns a career 21.4% strikeout rate and faced a whiff-happy Cincinnati lineup, so it remains to be seen how much his punchouts will improve. The free passes were also a negative sign, and he also allowed a home run.

Overall, Keller looks like someone to keep an eye on early in case the positives stick, but this still looks like a stacking opportunity more than anything else.

Given this new pitch mix, it doesn't make much sense to look at last year's splits, so we should probably just play Boston's best bats without nitpicking it too much. That always begins with Rafael Devers ($4,100), and we're still getting lower salaries for Justin Turner ($3,100) and Triston Casas ($2,800). Alex Verdugo ($3,600) and Masataka Yoshida ($3,500) are getting up there in salary but continue to bat high in the lineup.