3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 7/18/23

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. We won't talk about the Coors game. The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies -- especially the Astros -- have two of the night's better implied totals, but you don't need me to tell you that Coors is a top spot for offense.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves as a top stack? No way!

In what's become something of a daily routine in MLB DFS, the Braves are an elite stacking option once again, this time getting to face Zach Davies. Atlanta can crush in this spot, and their 5.95 implied total reflects that. Just make sure to check the weather as rain could be an issue.

Davies has a 4.93 SIERA and 18.9% strikeout rate. He should be in a world of hurt versus the game's best offense, and anyone in Atlanta's lineup is worth a look. The only knock on the Braves today is how high they are in salary.

Matt Olson ($4,300) and Ronald Acuna Jr. ($4,700) are outstanding plays if you have the coin. Acuna ranks as the top non-Coors bat, per our model, as we project him for 16.4 FanDuel points. Acuna's stats are comically great as he's sporting a .460 expected wOBA (xwOBA) with 23 homers and 43 steals -- all while striking out just 11.6% of the time. Get real.

Ozzie Albies ($3,900), Sean Murphy ($4,100), Austin Riley ($3,500) are top-notch plays, too. Riley is easy to like at the modest-ish salary, and he's got a 41.4% hard-hit rate and .353 wOBA at home in 2023.

Marcell Ozuna ($2,900) and Michael Harris II ($2,900) are nice salary-savers, and the same goes for Eddie Rosario ($2,800) if he's able to play. If Rosario is out, Sam Hilliard ($2,300) would likely draw a start and would be a welcome cap-relief option.

San Francisco Giants

We turned to the San Francisco Giants last night, and they didn't do much outside of a couple of taters. They're in a superb spot again today as they'll see Luke Weaver at homer-happy Great American Ball Park.

Weaver, a righty, is pretty much exactly the kind of pitcher we want to pick on. He doesn't miss many bats (8.3% swinging-strike rate), and he allows a lot of fly-balls (40.6% fly-ball rate). That's a bad combination in any park, and it's particularly troublesome when you pitch in Cincy. As such, he's permitted 2.76 homers per nine at home this season.

The Giants are a valuable stack because they have no expected starters over $3,000. I'll be loading up on Joc Pederson ($3,000), Mike Yastrzemski ($2,900), LaMonte Wade Jr ($2,900) and Michael Conforto ($3,000) -- all of whom will hit from the left side versus Weaver. While all four have some level of pinch-hit risk if they see a lefty later in the game, they are hard to pass on at these salaries. Our model has Wade and Yaz as two of the top four point-per-dollar bats on the slate.

Luis Matos ($2,400) is an appealing value target. The right-handed rookie is off to a nice start (.340 xwOBA) and absolutely mashed across two minor-league levels before getting the call. He's also a safe bet to play all game -- which you can't say about too many Giants. Patrick Bailey ($2,900) and J.D. Davis ($2,900) fit that bill, as well.

Chicago Cubs

I waffled for a bit on which team I should put in this third slot. On a night with so many good offensive options, I could've justified writing up more than a few teams, but I opted for the Chicago Cubs due to their salaries -- which make them a solid fit alongside Coors/Atlanta and a quality arm.

Chicago is at home versus Patrick Corbin. A regular in this piece for some time, Corbin has sunk to new lows this year, putting up career-worst clips in SIERA (4.91) and strikeout rate (15.2%). Righties are hammering him to the tune of a .365 wOBA and 1.62 dingers per nine.

Christopher Morel ($3,600), Seiya Suzuki ($2,700) and Patrick Wisdom ($2,700) will be core pieces of my Cubbies stacks. All three will own the platoon advantage against Corbin. Wisdom is one of my favorite plays of the night. He's low in salary, is eligible at two spots (third and outfield) and has an elite batted-ball profile in the split (45.2% hard-hit rate and 47.6% fly-ball rate). Morel does, too, racking up a 45.5% hard-hit rate and 42.4% fly-ball rate against lefties.

Yan Gomes ($2,600), Nico Hoerner ($2,900) and Trey Mancini ($2,500) are three other righty bats to have on your radar. Hoerner is projected to hit leadoff. While this is the lesser side for switch-hitter Ian Happ ($2,900), he'll likely be in the heart of the lineup.

Other top options: Cincinnati Reds (vs. Anthony DeSclafani), Boston Red Sox (at Luis Medina), San Diego Padres (at Alek Manoah), Baltimore Orioles (vs. Michael Grove)