3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Monday 4/24/23
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.
Los Angeles Angels
The Los Angeles Angels boast a 5.78 implied total, the night's highest, for their home date with Ken Waldichuk.
Waldichuk, a lefty, is struggling mightily this year, pitching to a 5.35 SIERA while giving up 3.15 homers per nine through his first 20 innings of 2023. For his career (54 2/3 frames), he's got a 4.49 SIERA and allows 1.98 dingers per nine.
Mike Trout ($3,900) and Shohei Ohtani ($3,800) are the obvious top options for LA. Despite the lefty-lefty matchup, Ohtani is the slate's number-two bat, per our projections.
Taylor Ward ($2,900), Hunter Renfroe ($3,700), Anthony Rendon ($2,800), Brandon Drury ($2,400) and Gio Urshela ($2,800) will all hit from the right side. We have Ward projected as the slate's 10th-ranked hitter, and as a modest-salaried leadoff guy for one of the night's top offenses, he checks a lot of boxes. Renfroe has a gaudy .587 wOBA this year in a small sample of 20 plate appearances versus southpaws. He posted a .361 wOBA in the split a year ago.
Arizona Diamondbacks
An important piece to stacking tonight is going to be our ability to find value so we can plug in Spencer Strider ($11,200), who could go berserk against the Miami Marlins. The Angels don't help us a ton in that regard, but these next two stacks can.
The Arizona Diamondbacks will see righty Brad Keller, and Arizona has a 5.25 implied total, the second-highest on the slate.
Keller has been a meh pitcher for a while. He put up a 4.57 SIERA last year and is off to a 5.08 SIERA so far in 2023. He's struggled against both lefties and righties, so we have flexibility with Arizona's hitters.
The Snakes have no bats over $3,200. You can stack the likely first four in the order -- Josh Rojas ($3,100), Ketel Marte ($3,000), Lourdes Gurriel ($2,800) and Christian Walker ($2,800) -- without breaking the bank. Walker, who sat out Sunday with a forearm issue, is my favorite of this group if he's back in the lineup. He's got an extra-base hit in five of his last seven games.
I'm also intrigued by Pavin Smith ($3,200) and Corbin Carroll ($3,200). Alek Thomas ($2,400) is a valuable salary-saver. Thomas owns a .358 expected wOBA (xwOBA) this season.
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics won't make many appearances in this article this year because they're one of the worst offenses in baseball. But they have a nice matchup today, and since we need to save some salary on offense, they're a decent place to look -- even if you just want mini-stacks or a one-off. Plus. Oakland, who is showing a 4.22 implied total, won't be popular.
The A's are facing left-hander Jose Suarez. Righties need to be our focus, as they got to Suarez for a 40.7% fly-ball rate and 1.21 homers per nine last season. So far in 2023, Suarez has a 6.22 SIERA and identical strikeout and walk rates (11.2%).
Brent Rooker ($3,100) is the only Oakland hitter salaried over $2,800, and he's super appealing in this spot. He's absolutely raking so far, recording a .452 xwOBA overall, and he put up a 41.7% hard-hit rate and 41.7% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage a year ago.
Esteury Ruiz ($2,800) should be atop the order and has three steals over his previous eight games. Jesus Aguilar ($2,500), Aledmys Diaz ($2,400) and Shea Langeliers ($2,700) are value righties who will likely be in a good spot in the lineup. Aguilar posted a 46.2% fly-ball rate versus lefties last season.
