MLB
3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 4/11/23

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 touch on Coors. The top implied totals for this slate belong to the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals, and you'll want pieces from that game. But you don't need me to tell you to stack Coors, so I'll dive into three other stacks.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves own the night's top non-Coors implied total (5.39) in their home clash with Luis Cessa.

Working mostly as a reliever in 2022, Cessa pitched to a 4.35 SIERA and 17.6% strikeout rate in 80 2/3 innings, and coming out of the bullpen is usually a boost to someone's numbers. Cessa showed reverse splits, giving up a .346 wOBA and 2.14 jacks per nine to righties.

That bodes well for Ronald Acuna ($4,200) and Austin Riley ($3,700), both of whom rank inside the top-six bats for tonight, according to our model. Acuna has been outstanding so far this year, racking up a .407 wOBA and 43.6% hard-hit rate while hitting two homers and swiping five bags.

Matt Olson ($4,300) slots in right behind Acuna and Riley, per our model, and is a smashing play despite hitting from the left side. The only issue with Olson, Acuna and Riley is that they're up there in salary on a slate where aces Jacob deGrom ($10,600) and Shohei Ohtani ($10,800) have mouth-watering matchups.

Sean Murphy ($2,400), Eddie Rosario ($2,200) and Sam Hilliard ($2,300) offer cap relief. Murphy is a righty who has been excellent early on, posting a .402 wOBA. Rosario had a 43.1% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage last year.

Toronto Blue Jays

Much like the Braves, the Toronto Blue Jays (5.20 implied total) are in a smash spot, but their top options might be hard to get to if you're using one of Ohtani or deGrom.

Toronto is at home versus Matt Manning. A former top prospect, Manning's MLB career has been very underwhelming so far. Across 154 career innings, he's recorded a lowly 16.2% strikeout rate, and of importance in this matchup, righties have tagged him for a 39.2% fly-ball rate.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,900), Bo Bichette ($3,900), Matt Chapman ($3,800) and George Springer ($3,700) are the Jays' top bats. Chapman's salary has risen $900 since April 3rd, but it's fully justified. He's been red-hot with a .560 wOBA and 64.5% hard-hit rate. Our model has bought in, ranking Chapman as the night's best Toronto hitter.

Toronto doesn't offer as many salary-saving options as Atlanta does, with Daulton Varsho ($3,400) and Alejandro Kirk ($2,800) and Brandon Belt ($2,200) the best of the bunch. Belt is off to a brutally slow start but is projected to hit sixth and has a solid track record versus right-handers.

Chicago Cubs

One of the big keys to this slate -- something I've touched on a couple of times already -- is going to be finding value bats that allow you to jam in one of deGrom or Ohtani (or even Corbin Burnes [$9,700] or Alek Manoah [$9,900]).

The previous two stacks -- as well as the Coors offenses -- have only a few value options. The Chicago Cubs don't have as many high-upside hitters as those lineups do, but they can come through tonight and are much lower in salary.

Chicago is at home against Chris Flexen. Not only is Flexen a meh pitcher -- 4.99 SIERA and 16.1% strikeout rate a campaign ago -- but it's pretty much ideal hitting weather at Wrigley as it's 70 degrees with the wind blowing straight out. While you can make a case for both Wrigley offenses, with each showing a 4.75-run implied total, I'm siding with the Cubbies.

Flexen has been a reverse-splits hurler throughout his career, permitting a .359 wOBA and 1.44 home runs per nine to righties. That puts me on Dansby Swanson ($3,400), Patrick Wisdom ($3,200) and Trey Mancini ($2,500). Wisdom can be very all-or-nothing, but he hit 53 taters over the previous two seasons and already has three dingers this year.

Nico Hoerner ($2,800) is a value leadoff bat. The rest of the lineup is likely to be a bunch of lefties, but I'm into Cody Bellinger ($2,700), Eric Hosmer ($2,300) and Edwin Rios ($2,300) as all three have the pop to do damage.

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