3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 4/19/23

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, which starts at 1:10 p.m. EST. We will not talk about the Coors game. Two of the main slate's top implied totals belong to the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates. You'll want pieces from that game, but you don't need me to tell you to stack Coors.

St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals have a righty-heavy lineup that can punish left-handers, and they'll see a bad lefty today. As such, the Red Birds have a 5.69 implied total, which puts them on the same tier as the Coors' offenses.

St. Louis is up against Madison Bumgarner, and it could get ugly. So far in 2023, MadBum is the owner of a 6.76 SIERA and has a higher walk rate (15.7%) than strikeout rate (11.4%). He stunk last year, too, ending the campaign with a 4.76 SIERA and 16.0% strikeout rate.

The Cards can be stacked economically if you want, and everyone in their lineup is viable.

Just two righties -- Nolan Arenado ($3,600) and Paul Goldschmidt ($3,700) -- are salaried above $2,900. Both are, of course, absolutely outstanding plays in this matchup.

After those two, St. Louis offers several modest-salaried righties who are very appealing, including Willson Contreras ($2,400), Dylan Carlson ($2,300), Jordan Walker ($2,900), Tyler O'Neill ($2,600) and Tommy Edman ($2,600). Contreras just double-donged last night while Edman and Carlson are projected to hit first and second, respectively.

Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners are another offense that should be very tough on lefties, and they're up against Eric Lauer today. Seattle sports a 4.45 implied total, which puts them right in the thick of a cluster of other offenses that are in a tier below the Pirates, Cards and Rockies.

Lauer certainly isn't Bumgarner-level bad, but he's not that good, either. Through 15 1/3 innings this season, he's pitched to a 4.65 SIERA and 22.7% strikeout rate. He's long struggled with fly-balls, posting a 40.1% fly-ball rate for his career -- including a 44.2% fly-ball rate in 2022, which led to 1.53 homers per nine. Righties had a 47.1% fly-ball rate against him a campaign ago.

Julio Rodriguez ($4,000) is the star of the show in this Seattle lineup, but I'll likely fade Julio and load up on the Mariners' lower-salaried righties -- a group that includes Ty France ($3,300), Cal Raleigh ($2,900), Teoscar Hernandez ($2,900), Eugenio Suarez ($3,000) and A.J. Pollock ($2,700). Hernandez mashed his way to a .413 wOBA versus southpaws in 2022.

Kansas City Royals

It's not often that we'll look to the Kansas City Royals as a stacking option this year, but it makes some sense today.

Weather is a big part of it as it's warm (75 degrees) with 19 MPH winds blowing out in Kansas City. Yes, please.

Lefty Martin Perez is the opposition. He's a pretty neutral matchup overall but has been wild so far this season, recording a 10.1% walk rate.

Because KC -- holders of a 4.59 implied total, fourth-best on the slate -- has been so bad offensively, they come at low salaries across the board, with no Royals hitter above $3,100. That makes them an easy stack to pack in alongside an ace, and even if you don't want to full-on stack the Royals, they're a good place to go for mini-stacks and one-offs.

If you want a one-off Bobby Witt Jr. ($3,100) is your guy. He checks a few boxes as a modest-salaried righty who is eligible at both third and short. He boasts a 42.1% fly-ball rate and has already swiped five bags, giving him a nice power-speed combo.

Salvador Perez ($2,700), Franmil Reyes ($2,300) and Edward Olivares ($2,300) will all hit from the right side and are decent dart throws at a dinger. In a sample of 50 plate appearances in this split in 2022, Olivares had a .387 wOBA.