3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 5/9/23

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.

Let's look at the top stacks for this main slate.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves boast the night's top implied total (5.17) in their home clash with Nick Pivetta, who owns a 4.19 SIERA this season and is permitting 2.05 dingers per nine. Both righties (47.1% fly-ball rate) and lefties (41.2% hard-hit rate and 41.2% fly-ball rate) have juicy batted-ball numbers against Pivetta in 2023, so we have a lot of flexibility with Atlanta stacks.

Ronald Acuna ($4,600), Matt Olson ($4,200) and Austin Riley ($3,500) are all top-10 bats tonight, per our model, with Olson holding down the number-two spot in our projections. They're great core pieces to a Braves stack if you have the salary. Olson has put up a .423 wOBA against righties this season. Acuna possesses an elite power-speed combination while Riley -- despite a slow start to the campaign -- is easy to like at his modest salary.

Sean Murphy ($3,900) won't be a priority for me at his lofty salary, and I can same the same for Ozzie Albies ($3,500). Instead, I'll save some coin by turning to Michael Harris II ($3,000), Eddie Rosario ($2,700) and Marcell Ozuna ($2,700). Rosario is a savvy value play whenever the Braves are up against a righty.

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are in the same kind of situation they were in last night as they're low in salary and can come through against an Oakland Athletics hurler -- except for one big thing: Aaron Judge ($3,900) is expected to be back in the lineup tonight.

After plating seven runs last night, the Yanks will see Drew Rucinski today and are carrying the slate's second-best implied total (5.14).

Rucinski, a righty, has made only two MLB starts, and they haven't gone well as he's got a 6.60 SIERA and 8.5% strikeout rate through 9 1/3 frames. He had a meager 17.0% strikeout rate in 9 2/3 Triple-A innings earlier this campaign.

Other than Judge -- who is obviously a stellar option despite this being his first game back from injury -- no New York hitter is salaried over $3,100, making them a perfect fit alongside Shohei Ohtani ($11,600) if you want to plug in the night's highest-salaried arm.

Anthony Rizzo ($3,100) will have the platoon advantage against Rucinski while Anthony Volpe ($2,700) is a low-salaried leadoff hitter who has swiped 11 bags. DJ LeMahieu ($2,800) and Gleyber Torres ($2,800) both donged last night. Those four are projected to make up the first four in the Bronx Bombers' lineup.

Willie Calhoun ($2,500) and Jake Bauers ($2,400) are viable value picks against a righty. Both have flashed an ability to hit previously in their careers and will likely be in the lineup tonight.

Chicago White Sox

It feels like we've been stacking against Jordan Lyles for a long time, and we can do it again today in Lyles' home date with the Chicago White Sox -- just make sure the rain stays away.

Lyles is off to a brutal start in 2023, recording a 5.58 SIERA and 16.8% strikeout rate through his first 40 1/3 innings. Righties have hammered him to the tune of a .399 wOBA and 2.55 homers per nine. Lefties are also doing work against Lyles, posting a .345 wOBA and 2.38 jacks per nine.

As such, Chicago is showing a 4.79 implied total, and much like the Yankees, the White Sox have easy-to-get-to salaries across the board, with no bats salaried above $3,200.

Our model ranks Andrew Benintendi ($2,800) as Chicago's top hitter despite Benintendi's poor start to the year. He'll have the platoon advantage against Lyles and had a .356 wOBA in the split in 2022.

Luis Robert ($3,000), Tim Anderson ($3,100) and Andrew Vaughn ($3,200) offer nice upside at modest salaries. Anderson is still looking for his first homer of the season, but his .340 expected wOBA is much better than his .286 wOBA. Robert is hot, notching an extra-base hit in five of his past six games and popping two taters in that span.

Yasmani Grandal ($2,700) and Gavin Sheets ($2,600) are solid plays, too. Grandal has mashed his way to a .361 wOBA versus right-handers in 2023 while Sheets owns a .349 wOBA and 50.9% fly-ball rate in the split.