Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 6/8/23
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 6:05 p.m. EST.
Philadelphia Phillies
It's slim pickings on offense tonight on this five-game slate, as no team has an implied total above 4.80. While that means there are no true smash spots, it's also kind of fun because it's not a bad night to get weird.
The Philadelphia Phillies carry a 4.52 implied total into their home date with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers are starting reliever Tyler Holton, who has never made an MLB start, in what looks like either a full-blown bullpen game or a situation where Holton is serving as an opener for Reese Olson. Either way, it'll probably wind up being a solid spot for the Phillies.
Holton has only an 18.9% strikeout rate out of the 'pen this year, and the Tigers' bullpen as a whole has the 13th-worst xFIP (4.28). If Olson winds up serving as a bulk guy, that's not quite as juicy of a matchup, but we'll have to keep tabs on what Detroit's plans are.
One of the best things about loading up on Philly tonight is that you can do so economically, which can help you get to Zack Wheeler ($10,800) or Spencer Strider ($11,400).
Trea Turner ($3,000) and Kyle Schwarber ($3,000) offer gobs of upside at modest salaries. Turner just had a double-dong night two games ago while Schwarber did it last Sunday.
Bryson Stott ($2,900), J.T. Realmuto ($2,800), Brandon Marsh ($2,700) are worth a look, too. Our model has Realmuto as the night's sixth-best point-per-dollar stick. If you have the coin, Nick Castellanos ($3,400) and Bryce Harper ($3,600) are excellent plays -- particularly Harper, who owns a .397 expected wOBA (xwOBA).
Our model is a fan of the minimum-salaried Drew Ellis ($2,000), ranking him as the fourth-best point-per-dollar bat.
Los Angeles Angels
The Los Angeles Angels carry the night's top implied total (4.75) into a home matchup with Drew Smyly.
Smyly isn't a bad pitcher by any means, but he's not someone we should be scared of, either. For the campaign, the left-hander has pitched to a 4.34 SIERA and 9.8% swinging-strike rate.
Mike Trout ($3,600) is easy to love at a salary that's lower than what we're accustomed to for him, and Shohei Ohtani ($3,900) is an elite bat each and every night. Trout has put up a .388 xwOBA this year with 13 taters. Ohtani isn't as potent in lefty-lefty matchups, but our projections still rank him third among all hitters.
Brandon Drury ($3,000), Taylor Ward ($2,900) and Anthony Rendon ($2,900) make sense as mid-range options who will likely be slotted into good spots in the lineup. All three will have the platoon advantage versus Smyly.
Luis Rengifo ($2,500) and Jo Adell ($2,500) are quality value pieces. Adell might have turned a corner in Triple-A this year, as he's mashed his way to 18 homers and a .399 wOBA, although he also carried a 29.3% strikeout rate. I'm intrigued.
