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 spend time talking about the Coors teams. The Colorado Rockies and Philadelphia Phillies have two of the night's top implied totals, but you don't need me to tell you to get exposure to Coors.

St. Louis Cardinals

Because we have three enticing arms with five-digit salaries who we're going to want exposure to -- Gerrit Cole ($11,300), Spencer Strider ($11,500) and Corbin Burnes ($10,000) -- in addition to a pair of Coors offenses that are appealing, particularly the high-salaried Phillies (6.18 implied total), it's going to be crucial to find some value bats tonight -- which makes it hard to full-on stack certain teams (unless you're willing to fade the Phils and/or the night's big three arms).

The St. Louis Cardinals are there for us, and they have a juicy 5.17 implied total.

Due to their struggles this season, the Cards are pretty low in salary across the board outside of Paul Goldschmidt ($3,900), and they're taking on a lefty, which puts them in a good spot.

The Red Birds will see James Paxton, who hasn't pitched in the bigs since 2021 and hasn't thrown more than 21 innings in a season since 2019. While Paxton was a high-strikeout guy at his peak, it's hard telling what he'll look like tonight after such a long layoff, and he'll surely be on a tight pitch count, giving St. Louis a chance to go to work against a Boston Red Sox bullpen that has the ninth-worst xFIP (4.40).

Obviously, if you have the coin for Goldschmidt, go for it. He's by far the best bat on the Cardinals, and our model ranks him as the slate's number-two hitter.

But I'm going to zero in on Nolan Arenado ($2,800), Paul DeJong ($3,000), Willson Contreras ($2,800), Tommy Edman ($2,700) and Juan Yepez ($2,200). All five of these guys will hit from the right side against Paxton, and their salaries are very handy. Yepez is one of my favorite plays of the slate and is projected as the night's best point-per-dollar bat by our numbers. Arenado, Edman and Contreras also rank as top-10 point-per-dollar plays.

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are another team that fits what we're looking for tonight as they carry a lofty implied total (5.08) and have salaries that are easy to get to.

San Fran is taking on Ryne Nelson, a righty who has 5.02 SIERA and 13.9% strikeout rate.

The Giants can be a headache to stack because they pinch-hit so frequently later in games. That's a risk I'm willing to take on in this matchup, so I'm not going to be scared away from Joc Pederson ($2,900), LaMonte Wade Jr ($2,900) and Michael Conforto ($2,800) -- three left-handed hitters who may get pulled later in the game. Pederson always offers pop versus a righty, and Wade will likely be atop the lineup. Wade started against a southpaw last night, so he might play the full game today due to Austin Slater being on the IL.

Mitch Haniger ($2,800), Thairo Estrada ($3,600) and J.D. Davis ($2,900) are a trio of right-handed bats who should be a safe bet for nine innings. Brett Wisely ($2,100) is a viable dart throw. He's hit safely in six straight, popping one tater in that span.

Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers are showing a 5.01 implied total and have no projected starters salaried over $3,000. Yes, please.

The Kansas City Royals are going with a bullpen day, starting southpaw Josh Taylor, who hasn't worked more than two frames in an outing in 2023. That makes stacking Milwaukee a little tricky because we don't know the handedness of the hurlers who will follow Taylor, which adds pinch-hit risk for some of the Brewers' sticks. But given that KC's bullpen has allowed the 10th-highest walk rate (10.2%) and 2nd-highest hard-hit rate (36.5%), I want exposure to the Brew Crew.

Christian Yelich ($3,000), Willy Adames ($3,000), Brian Anderson ($2,800), Tyrone Taylor ($2,500) and William Contreras ($2,800) will likely play the whole game and hit in meaty spots in the lineup. Adames has started slowly this season but still has seven homers and two steals with a .341 expected wOBA (xwOBA). Contreras owns a .349 xwOBA and has donged twice in the last three games.

If the Brewers are willing to start Rowdy Tellez ($3,100) and let him face Taylor in his first plate appearance, Tellez might play the full nine innings. The same goes for Jesse Winker ($2,500).