3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Friday 7/14/23

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. We won't touch on the Coors game. The New York Yankees and Colorado Rockies have two of the night's top implied totals, but you don't need me to tell you to get exposure to Coors.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays have a gaudy 5.82 implied total for their home clash with Alec Marsh and the Kansas City Royals. It's the top non-Coors implied total. Just make sure rain doesn't wind up being too big of an issue.

Marsh, a righty, breezed through two minor-league levels this season, posting some impressive strikeout numbers. He's got just nine MLB innings under his belt, and while we obviously can't pull much from a sample that small, those nine innings reallllly haven't gone well as he's allowed three homers and seven walks en route to a 5.67 SIERA. Once Marsh is out of the game, he'll turn it over to a KC bullpen that owns the fifth-worst xFIP (4.67).

The only knock on the Rays is their high salaries, which make it tough to use them alongside an ace and some Coors bats, but this looks like a smash spot for Tampa Bay.

Randy Arozarena ($3,700) and Wander Franco ($3,800) are top options from the Rays, and you should plug them in where you have the coin. However, I'm more drawn to Tampa's midrange options, specifically Josh Lowe ($3,500), Isaac Paredes ($3,300), Luke Raley ($3,300) and Brandon Lowe ($2,700).

Our model is in love with Raley, ranking him as the night's sixth-best overall bat. Eligible at both first base and outfield, Raley will have the platoon advantage against Marsh and is easy to like. Both Lowes will have the platoon advantage, as well. Brandon is particularly appealing. His salary is low due to a long injury layoff, and he put up a 38.9% hard-hit rate and 50.0% fly-ball rate versus righties prior to going on the shelf.

Jose Siri ($3,200) is worth a look, too, and Jonathan Aranda ($2,000) could get a start with Yandy Diaz on the paternity list. The chance to get minimum-salaried access to this Tampa Bay lineup would be hard to turn down.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are very similar to the Rays on Friday. They sport a juicy implied total but have a lot of high salaries, making them a tricky fit if you're going big at pitcher and also trying to get some Coors exposure. But given the Braves' 5.69 implied total, you can justify loading up on them and fading Coors.

Atlanta is facing Michael Kopech. Admittedly, Kopech is scary to stack against. When he's on, he can be lethal. But he's not on all that much, which is reflected in his 4.64 SIERA. He's also permitting a 48.4% fly-ball rate and 1.78 dingers per nine. In short, there's a reason the Braves have a 5.69 implied total.

Ronald Acuna Jr. ($4,600) and Matt Olson ($4,400) are the slate's first- and fourth-ranked hitters, respectively, according to our projections. They've become top-shelf plays on an everyday basis. Acuna's ceiling is unmatched in DFS right now as he's running a ton (41 steals) and also hits for plenty of power (21 homers). Olson doesn't offer a speed threat but has smacked 29 long-balls.

Ozzie Albies ($4,000) isn't far behind those guys, per our model, as we rank him sixth tonight. He's been a stud this year -- no question -- but he's also been aided by some good fortune. His expected wOBA (xwOBA) is only .332, and he's benefitting from a career-best 17.5% homer-to-fly-ball rate. I'll mostly pass on Albies in favor of Sean Murphy ($4,200), Austin Riley ($3,600), Marcell Ozuna ($3,100), Eddie Rosario ($3,100) and Michael Harris II ($3,400).

Milwaukee Brewers

After going through two stacks with a lot of high salaries, I wanted to dive into one offense that can be stacked economically. The Milwaukee Brewers (5.16 implied total) are a perfect fit, and they can go nuts today in a clash with Graham Ashcraft.

Ashcraft is having a rough year, struggling to a 5.00 SIERA and 16.4% strikeout rate. While Ashcraft does a superb job of limiting fly-balls (28.4% fly-ball rate), he will have to toe the slab tonight at hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park. At home in his career, the Cincinnati Reds' right-hander has allowed a .356 wOBA and 1.52 homers per nine. Those are much worse than his road splits (.327 wOBA and 0.73 jacks per nine).

The Brew Crew have just one bat salaried above $3,100, and it's Christian Yelich ($3,700). Yelich is having his best campaign since 2020, racking up a .378 xwOBA with 11 homers and 21 steals. He's a priority for me, but if I need to save salary with Milwaukee, I have no problem stacking them sans Yelich.

Our model is into Willy Adames ($3,100), ranking him as the eighth-best bat, which is actually three spots in front of Yelich. Despite a blah .307 wOBA, Adames' xwOBA is up at .340, and he's popped 16 homers. Owner of a 45.0% fly-ball rate, Adames should be able to get the ball in the air in spite of Ashcraft's ground-ball ways.

William Contreras ($2,900), Brian Anderson ($2,600), Owen Miller ($2,500), Joey Wiemer ($2,500) and Jesse Winker ($2,200) all need to be on our radar. Do you dare fade Winker in a revenge spot?! Jokes aside, Winker is a pretty enticing value play, although he'll likely be pinch-hit for if he comes up against a lefty later in the game.

Weimer is the night's fourth-best point-per-dollar bat, per our numbers.