3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Tuesday 6/6/23
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 between the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants. The Rockies and Giants have two of the night's top implied totals, but you don't need me to tell you to get exposure to Coors.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers check all the boxes tonight. They've got a great matchup (against Luke Weaver), are in a hitter-friendly park (in Cincy) and boast a lofty implied total (6.01). Sign me up.
There are some positives in Weaver's profile, including a 3.96 SIERA and 11.0% swinging-strike rate, but he's giving up a ton of juicy contact -- a 38.8% hard-hit rate and 43.3% fly-ball rate -- and that's led to Weaver permitting 2.27 dingers per nine. In short, despite Weaver showing some life this year, there's a reason LA has a 6.01 implied total, the night's best non-Coors clip.
The Dodgers, per usual, offer stackable pieces from top to bottom. Weaver is giving up at least 2.11 homers per nine to both lefties and righties, so we have all the flexibility in the world here. Our model ranks three Dodgers among the slate's top-11 sticks.
The only negative with stacking the Dodgers is salary, as LA has five batters listed at $3,800 or above: Mookie Betts ($4,000), Freddie Freeman ($4,200), J.D. Martinez ($3,900), Will Smith ($3,900) and Max Muncy ($3,800).
While you can make a rock-solid case to play any of those five, Muncy is the one I'll prioritize. He's got a .385 wOBA, 44.6% hard-hit rate and 49.4% fly-ball rate versus right-handers this season. Putting that batted-ball profile in Great American Ball Park against a pitcher with a home-run problem could lead to a massive night.
James Outman ($2,900), Miguel Vargas ($2,800) and David Peralta ($2,400) are quality salary-saving options. Peralta is forecasted to hit sixth, and his salary is awfully handy.
Texas Rangers
I backed the Texas Rangers yesterday, and they underwhelmed in a great matchup. They're in another good spot tonight, and we shouldn't hesitate to go back to them.
Texas is taking on lefty Matthew Liberatore. A top prospect, Liberatore has posted some gaudy minor-league numbers -- especially this year in Triple-A -- but he hasn't had much success in The Show. Through 45 2/3 MLB innings, which dates back to his cup of coffee in 2022, Liberatore has struggled to a 5.04 SIERA and 17.5% strikeout rate. He figures to have a tough time with Texas' elite offense, and the Rangers' 5.13 implied total says as much.
Righties are going to be my focus as Liberatore has surrendered a .401 wOBA and 39.4% fly-ball rate in the split. That puts me on Adolis Garcia ($3,900) and Marcus Semien ($4,300). It takes a good chunk of salary to get this pair, but they bring sky-high upside to the table tonight. Garcia is crushing left-handers to the tune of a .379 wOBA while Semien has racked up a 42.9% hard-hit rate and 41.1% fly-ball rate in the split.
Josh Jung ($3,500) is an excellent choice, too. He's hammered lefties in his brief career, amassing a .470 wOBA and 54.8% hard-hit rate with the platoon advantage.
Jonah Heim ($3,400) and Mitch Garver ($3,000) are also worth a look, and Robbie Grossman ($2,800) needs to be on the radar if he gets into the lineup. Garver recorded a .430 wOBA and 41.9% fly-ball rate in the split a year ago.
Corey Seager ($4,400) and Nathaniel Lowe ($3,300) get dinged by the lefty-lefty matchup, but we shouldn't completely write them off. Seager is scorching-hot right now, slugging his way to a .473 wOBA over the past seven games.
Los Angeles Angels
The Los Angeles Angels might slip through the cracks a bit today. Their 4.95 implied total would be close to a slate-leading mark on some nights, but on Tuesday, it's only the eighth-highest implied total.
They're up against Hayden Wesneski. The Chicago Cubs righty is the kind of pitcher we love to pick on, as he doesn't get many strikeouts (17.6% rate) while giving up a lot of homers (2.09 per nine).
Mike Trout ($3,600) and Shohei Ohtani ($3,800) probably won't offer much of a draft-percentage discount tonight. They garner attention from the masses each time out. But their salaries are fairly modest by their standards, and both have double-dong upside versus Wesneski. With the platoon advantage, Ohtani has a .396 wOBA and 43.6% fly-ball rate. Trout is showing a .377 wOBA, 42.0% hard-hit rate and 47.3% fly-ball rate in the split. They're good.
The rest of the Halos are salary-friendly options as no one is above $3,000.
Mickey Moniak ($3,000), Brandon Drury ($3,000), Hunter Renfroe ($2,900) and Taylor Ward ($2,900) are expected to be in meaty spots in the lineup around the Angels' big two. If he's atop the order, Moniak makes a lot of sense as a mid-range play.
Matt Thaiss ($2,600) and Jared Walsh ($2,300) will have the platoon advantage versus Wesneski and are viable value pieces.