3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 5/17/23

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.

Boston Red Sox

With Spencer Strider ($11,500), Gerrit Cole ($11,000) and Nathan Eovaldi ($10,800) available at pitcher on this slate, we need to be super conscious of salaries when building our stacks today.

The Boston Red Sox have some value bats that can help us out, and they just so happen to be right-handed hitters, which is exactly what we're looking for when we stack against southpaw Marco Gonzales. A lefty, Gonzales is a low-strikeout pitcher (16.1% strikeout rate this year) who isn't very good (4.99 SIERA). So far in 2023, right-handed hitters have a .352 wOBA and 40.4% fly-hit rate against him. As such, Boston leads the slate with a 4.84 implied total.

We can't totally ignore Boston's lefties -- Jarren Duran ($3,800), Rafael Devers ($3,700), Alex Verdugo ($3,600) and Masataka Yoshida ($3,600) -- but given the matchup and their salaries, that foursome won't be a priority for me.

Instead, I'll be focusing on Justin Turner ($2,900), Kiké Hernandez ($2,700) and Rob Refsnyder ($2,400) while mixing in those left-handed sticks. Hernandez has a long track record of success versus southpaws and is expected to return to the lineup today. Turner has a .348 wOBA, 41.0% hard-hit rate and 48.7% fly-ball rate in the split this season. Refsnyder owns a .377 wOBA this year with the platoon advantage.

New York Mets

The New York Mets carry a 4.54 implied total, the slate's fourth-best, into a home matchup with Josh Fleming and need to be on the stacking radar.

A left-hander, Fleming usually serves as a bulk guy for the Tampa Bay Rays but is listed as a probable starter for today. In 2023, he's got a 4.62 SIERA and 12.7% strikeout rate while permitting a .344 wOBA to right-handed hitters.

The Mets can be stacked economically. Pete Alonso ($3,700) and Francisco Lindor ($3,400) are the only New York bats salaried over $3,100. Alonso is a superb play if you have the salary. He's posted a .397 expected wOBA (xwOBA) so far this season and has put up a .384 wOBA and 43.9% fly-ball rate against lefties.

Mark Canha ($2,700), Tommy Pham ($2,400), Starling Marte ($2,700) and Eduardo Escobar ($2,400) will hit from the ride side versus Fleming. Pham's .275 wOBA is very misleading, as he's being killed by a .200 BABIP. He's sporting a .369 xwOBA overall and has a 42.1% hard-hit rate against left-handers. He's a sweet value piece.

Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers have lower salaries across the board, with no one above $3,300, so they can be useful tonight if you're rostering one of the high-salary arms.

While the Brewers are showing a meh 4.10 implied total for their clash with Matthew Liberatore, I'm a little more bullish on them than that. With the caveat that Liberatore has quality numbers this year at Triple-A (30.3% strikeout rate and 14.0% swinging-strike rate), he wasn't good when we saw him in the bigs in 2022, struggling to a 5.00 SIERA and 17.4% strikeout rate across 34 2/3 frames, with righties hammering him for a .425 wOBA and 1.72 homers per nine.

Righties Willy Adames ($2,900), William Contreras ($2,900) and Brian Anderson ($2,800) will be the pillars of my Milwaukee stacks. Adames recorded a 51.0% fly-ball rate versus lefties in 2022, and Contreras has mashed his way to a .419 wOBA in the split this campaign. Our model ranks Contreras as the night's best point-per-dollar hitter as well as the second-best bat overall.

Mike Brosseau ($2,300) and Darin Ruf ($2,000) hit fourth and fifth, respectively, against a left-hander last night but are at risk of being pinch-hit for once Liberatore is out of the game. Tyrone Taylor ($2,500) offers good pop at a modest salary.

Even if you don't want to full-on stack the Brewers, their salaries make them a great place to look for one-offs.