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.
San Francisco Giants
It's not a good night for offense as we have just two implied totals above 4.63 runs. Let's start with the San Francisco Giants, who boast a slate-leading 4.98 implied total for their home clash with Jake Irvin.
Irvin, a righty, made his MLB debut last week and recorded a 7.21 SIERA over 4 1/3 innings. He had a meager 20.4% strikeout rate in 22 1/3 Triple-A innings this season before being called up, and there's not much in his profile that hints at Irvin having a lot of big-league success.
The Giants are a handy offense to stack because they have no one salaried over $3,400, so they fit nicely alongside Zac Gallen ($11,300) if that's the route you want to go at pitcher.
LaMonte Wade Jr ($3,000) and Thairo Estrada ($3,400) are projected to be atop the order. Wade has been outstanding so far in 2023, putting up a .417 wOBA overall with a 41.5% fly-ball rate. A .433 expected wOBA (xwOBA) more than verifies the .417 wOBA. He's an excellent option at his modest salary and is the slate's fourth-ranked hitter, per our model.
Joc Pederson ($3,000) will be a priority for me. He always brings big-time power versus right-handers, and his slow start (.314 wOBA) is mostly due to bad luck, as he's got a .376 xwOBA, 38.5% hard-hit rate and 40.4% fly-ball rate.
Mitch Haniger ($3,000), J.D. Davis ($3,000) and Michael Conforto ($2,800) are quality options, with Conforto the only lefty of that group. Value bats Cal Stevenson ($2,000) and Brett Wisely ($2,000) offer a lot of cap relief and will hit from the left side.
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees' offense hasn't been good this season, and with Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on the shelf, this lineup lacks the firepower we've grown accustomed to. But they can have a big night tonight against JP Sears, and the Pinstripes hold a 4.95 implied total.
The left-handed Sears is a former Yankees' farmhand, and he's been underwhelming in his time in The Show, pitching to a 4.35 SIERA and 20.2% strikeout rate across 102 career frames. Righties have tagged him for 1.59 dingers per nine over his career, and Sears allows a 48.7% fly-ball rate in the split. While Sears hasn't been all that tough on lefties, either, right-handed hitters will be my focus. New York may have as many as eight guys hitting from the right side.
Due to their struggles, the Yanks have no bats salaried above $2,900.
Anthony Volpe ($2,700) has been leading off, and he's easy to like at this salary. He'll have the platoon advantage and brings with him a solid power-speed combo, notching 3 taters with 11 steals.
DJ LeMahieu ($2,800) and Oswald Peraza ($2,600) are both eligible at three positions. Gleyber Torres ($2,800) should be in the heart of the order while all of Harrison Bader ($2,700), Oswaldo Cabrera ($2,400), Jose Trevino ($2,400) and Aaron Hicks ($2,100) are either a switch-hitter or are right-handed.
Anthony Rizzo ($2,900) might be the lone left-handed hitter in the lineup, but he's well worth a look. Sears has struck out just 15.5% of lefties in his career.
Los Angeles Angels
The Los Angeles Angels have a tough matchup with Hunter Brown. You can justify using Brown at pitcher. He's been really good in his brief MLB career.
However, the matchup will likely result in Mike Trout ($4,300) and Shohei Ohtani ($3,900) going overlooked, and that piques my interest. Plus, with some quality pitchers salaried in the mid-range -- namely Nestor Cortes ($9,300), Dylan Cease ($9,100) and Logan Gilbert ($9,500) -- on this slate, we will have the necessary salary for Ohtani and Trout.
As I said at the jump, Brown is good, but there are also some blemishes in his profile. His SIERA is just 4.10 this season, and he's walking too many hitters (10.7% walk rate). He's also yet to allow a homer in 55.0 career MLB innings, and he won't run a 0.0% homer-to-fly-ball rate forever. The Angels' 4.37 implied total is the night's sixth-highest.
Even if you don't want to full-on stack the Halos, Trout and Othani are a two-hitter pairing with slate-breaking upside, especially when they're not expected to be popular.
Against righties this season, Ohtani has a .378 wOBA after posting a .386 wOBA in the split in 2022. Trout is off to a strong start, as well, registering a .404 wOBA with identical 40.0% clips in hard-hit rate and fly-ball rate.
Hunter Renfroe ($3,300), Anthony Rendon ($3,000), Taylor Ward ($2,900), Zach Neto ($2,400) and Brandon Drury ($2,900) are other viable Angels. Neto is projected to hit leadoff and comes at a friendly salary. If Jake Lamb ($2,600) cracks the lineup, he'd be a decent dart throw, although he'd be at risk of getting pulled for a pinch-hitter if he faces a southpaw later in the game.