3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 5/5/23

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.

New York Mets

The New York Mets have a sweet home matchup with Antonio Senzatela and are sporting a slate-best 5.07 implied total. There's a chance rain is an issue for this game, so make sure to check that before locking in the Mets.

Senzatela, a righty, is making his 2023 debut today after posting a 4.48 SIERA and 13.1% strikeout rate a year ago. He's someone we've picked on for a few years, and even though this game isn't at Coors, the Mets offer sky-high upside.

Pete Alonso ($3,900) and Francisco Lindor ($3,700) are the Mets' top bats, and they're salaried like it. Alonso might be embarking on the best season of his career, and that's saying something for a guy who has 77 dingers across the past two years. Alonso's .405 expected wOBA (xwOBA) and 46.1% fly-ball rate are career-best clips.

After those two, no other New York hitter is salaried above $3,200, and that's a big deal on a slate where eight hurlers carry a salary of at least $9,500.

Jeff McNeil ($2,900), Brandon Nimmo ($3,200), Starling Marte ($2,800), Mark Canha ($2,700) and Dan Vogelbach ($2,500) are solid picks at modest salaries. Vogelbach is my favorite of the bunch, as he owns a .386 wOBA against right-handers this season. The drawback to using him is that rostering both Vogelbach and Alonso takes up your utility spot.

St. Louis Cardinals

Whenever the St. Louis Cardinals face a lefty this year, they're going to be on the stacking radar unless said lefty is one of the game's elite pitchers. Matt Boyd is not one of those.

Boyd has a track record of getting whiffs, and that's held true this year, as he's got a 13.5% swinging-strike rate, making him a little scary to stack against. But he's walking too many hitters (10.0% walk rate) and is giving up a ton of fly balls (46.8% fly-ball rate). Plus, the wind is blowing out to left at Busch Stadium.

In all, the Cards are showing a 5.04 implied total.

The Red Birds have been pretty bad so far this season. That works in our favor, though, as it's dropped their salaries. Paul Goldschmidt ($3,800) is the lone St. Louis hitter salaried above $3,100.

Goldschmidt is one of the slate's best options and is going to be a priority for me. He's off to a stellar start -- putting up a .429 xwOBA, 46.9% hard-hit rate and 40.8% fly-ball rate -- and will have the platoon advantage.

Nolan Arenado ($2,900), Willson Contreras ($3,000), Tyler O'Neill ($2,500), Dylan Carlson ($2,400), Tommy Edman ($3,100) and Paul DeJong ($3,000) are all forecasted to be in the lineup and will hit from the right side versus Boyd. O'Neill, Contreras and Arenado are my favorites from that group, and DeJong would join that list if he gets bumped up in the order -- something that could be on the horizon given his .434 wOBA.

Taylor Motter ($2,100) is a viable dart throw if he starts.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals can be the value stack you need on a slate with so many high-salary arms -- especially if you're using Corbin Burnes ($10,800). Kansas City has no one salaried over $3,300, and they have the night's fourth-highest implied total (4.92) for their home matchup with Kyle Muller.

A lefty, Muller is off to a miserable start this season, pitching to a 5.50 SIERA and 14.5% strikeout rate. Righties are pummeling him to the tune of a .382 wOBA and 1.40 homers per nine. The wind is also blowing out to left in KC.

Bobby Witt Jr. ($3,100), Edward Olivares ($2,700) and Salvador Perez ($2,900) will be core pieces to my KC stacks. Oliveras has a 42.1% fly-ball rate against southpaws for his career. Witt is also excellent with the platoon advantage, holding a 42.9% hard-hit rate and 52.4% fly-ball rate in the split this campaign. Perez recorded a .354 wOBA versus lefties last season.

Matt Duffy ($2,500) and Hunter Dozier ($2,400) are quality value plays. Both hit from the right side and are eligible at two positions.

Vinnie Pasquantino ($3,300) and MJ Melendez ($2,800) may fly under the radar due to the lefty-lefty matchup, but they've been great in the split their careers, with Pasquantino boasting a .399 wOBA and Melendez registering a .366 wOBA.