3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 4/13/23

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.

Toronto Blue Jays

If it feels like you keep seeing the Toronto Blue Jays in this piece, it's because you keep seeing the Blue Jays in this piece. I've written up Toronto in each of the past two days as they keep finding themselves in great matchups.

That's the case again tonight as they're hosting Spencer Turnbull and the Detroit Tigers.

Turnbull missed all of 2022 due to injury, and his first two outings of 2023 haven't gone well as he's struggled to a 10.0% strikeout rate and and 6.23 SIERA across 10 innings. As such, the Jays hold the night's top implied total (5.31).

The negative with stacking the Jays is how much salary it takes to get their top guys. While that's still a concern, there's not as much opportunity cost tonight with it being a meh pitching slate.

Matt Chapman ($4,500), Bo Bichette ($4,300), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($3,900) and George Springer ($3,700) are the headline bats for Toronto. But don't sleep on Daulton Varsho ($3,200), who owns a .356 expected wOBA so far and posted a .345 wOBA versus right-handers a year ago.

Alejandro Kirk ($2,700) is a modest-salaried bat with power while Brandon Belt ($2,200) makes a lot of sense as a salary-saver who will have the platoon advantage against Turnbull.

St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals are the only other offense with an implied total above 5.00 as they've been handed a 5.04 clip for a home date with Vince Velasquez.

Velasquez is off to a brutal start this year, amassing a meager 10.8% strikeout rate through his first 7 1/3 innings en route to a 6.66 SIERA. He showed reverse splits in 2022, giving up 1.73 dingers per nine to right-handers. That doesn't bode well for him against a righty-heavy Red Birds lineup.

Outside of Paul Goldschmidt ($3,800) and Nolan Arenado ($3,700), both of whom are superb options today, the Cards have no one over $3,300. Willson Contreras ($2,400) and Tyler O'Neill ($2,400) are low-salary righties who offer good power. Juan Yepez ($2,500) also fits that mold if he gets into the lineup.

Rookie Jordan Walker ($3,100) is eligible at third base and outfield. Despite getting off to a hot start (.371 wOBA), Walker hasn't hit higher than seventh in the lineup. That may change soon, and if/when it does, it'll be a boon to his fantasy outlook.

Lefties Brendan Donovan ($3,100) and Alec Burleson ($3,000) are forecasted to hit atop the order while Nolan Gorman ($3,300) is a modest-salaried source of power.

Cincinnati Reds

I was going to write up the New York Yankees (4.55 implied total), and while the Yanks are definitely on the stacking radar despite a not-so-easy matchup with Joe Ryan, I really like the Cincinnati Reds (4.26 implied total) on this slate.

Cincy is facing lefty Bailey Falter, and the Reds are at their hitter-friendly home park. Falter has put up fine numbers in 128 career innings, but he's not a high-strikeout guy, recording a 21.4% strikeout rate for his career, including a measly 12.5% strikeout rate through 10 innings this campaign. Over his career, right-handed hitters have tagged him for a .340 wOBA and 44.1% fly-ball rate. That's where I'm going focus.

Jonathan India ($3,200) and Spencer Steer ($3,000) are projected to hit 1-2 in the order. India has mashed his way to a .390 wOBA so far this season while Steer is at a .416 wOBA. The sample size is really small for Steer (34 plate appearances), but he's bashed southpaws to the tune of a .428 wOBA in his career.

Wil Myers ($2,400) is one of my favorite plays on this slate. He's way down in salary and put up a .350 wOBA and 40.3% fly-ball rate last year with the platoon advantage. He'll likely hit third and will be followed by two more right-handers in Tyler Stephenson ($2,600) and Kevin Newman ($2,500).

All in all, Cincy may go with a lineup full of righties, and their salaries are easy to get to, making them a nice fit alongside a high-salary stack and/or lineups that use Jordan Montgomery ($9,400) or Nick Lodolo ($10,800) at pitcher.