3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Thursday 6/15/23

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.

Atlanta Braves

On a main slate where offense might be hard to come by, the Atlanta Braves' 5.37 implied total is a welcomed sight. Atlanta is the lone team with an implied total above 4.70.

The Braves are at home against southpaw Kyle Freeland. At one point this year, the Colorado Rockies' starter looked as if he might be headed for an improved campaign. Well, that hasn't happened. In fact, his 4.90 SIERA is his worst mark since 2020, and his 40.1% fly-ball rate is a career-worst clip. He's still struggling to miss bats (15.7% strikeout rate), too, and really just doesn't have much at all going for him in this matchup with a top-notch Braves offense.

Ronald Acuna Jr. ($4,600) is way up there in salary, but based on what he's doing this year, the salary is fully warranted. Acuna has 15 jacks and 29 steals with a .452 expected wOBA (xwOBA). There's a reason he's a -150 favorite to win the MVP, per the National League MVP odds at FanDuel Sportsbook. Against lefties, he owns a .442 wOBA and 56.4% hard-hit rate. You're going to want to try to make room for him.

Something that can help in that regard is that outside of Sean Murphy ($3,700), the rest of the Braves' right-handed hitters are salaried modestly. Austin Riley ($3,000) is easy to love at this salary, although he'll likely be chalk. Ozzie Albies ($3,200), Marcell Ozuna ($3,000), Travis d'Arnaud ($2,700) and Kevin Pillar ($2,500) will also hit from the right side versus Freeland.

Matt Olson ($3,800) might slip through the cracks a bit due to the lefty-lefty matchup. While he's stunk in the split this year (.263 wOBA), Olson could get a couple of plate appearances against right-handers if Freeland doesn't last long.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros have been tough on left-handers for a while. Although they haven't been quite as potent in the split this year (13th in wOBA), Houston still has the pieces to make life hard for MacKenzie Gore on Thursday. Houston's 4.58 implied total is the night's fourth-best mark.

Gore is showing signs of a breakout season, boasting a 3.85 SIERA and 28.2% strikeout rate. That could keep the masses from being all over the Astros, and I hope that happens because there are some warts in Gore's profile -- namely a 39.1% fly-ball rate to righties. He's also giving up 1.43 dingers per nine overall. In short, Gore is a good pitcher, but I think there are reasons to back Houston.

Part of the reason for Houston's lower numbers on offense this year is that they've barely had their full team healthy at the same time. That's still plaguing them now as Yordan Alvarez is out. But Houston may have as many as eight righties in the lineup versus Gore -- Alex Bregman ($3,100), Jose Altuve ($3,900), Mauricio Dubon ($2,900), Jeremy Pena ($3,000), Jose Abreu ($2,600), Chas McCormick ($2,800), Corey Julks ($2,800) and Martin Maldonado ($2,200).

Factoring in salary, Dubon, Abreu and Bregman most interest me from that group. Dubon has been hitting leadoff and has mashed his way to a .440 wOBA against lefties this year (over a small sample). Bregman is putting up a 55.7% fly-ball rate with the platoon advantage while striking out just 6.3% of the time in the split. Abreu has a .386 wOBA in June and looks to be finally emerging from his brutally slow start. His $2,600 salary is super handy.

Kyle Tucker ($3,400) has actually been better against lefties (.401 wOBA) than righties (.312 wOBA) this year, so don't be afraid to turn to him in spite of the date with a southpaw.

San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres have only the fifth-best implied total, and it's an uninspiring 4.27 clip. But I think they can have a big day against Logan Allen.

Allen is off to a decent start as a rookie, sporting a 4.07 SIERA and 12.4% swinging-strike rate. However, the strikeout rate drops to 21.9% versus righties, and he's allowed 16 hits and 7 earned runs over his past two starts (12 innings). Teams may be starting to figure him out a bit.

In a year where not much has gone well for the Padres, Wednesday night was an example of how it's supposed to look as Fernando Tatis Jr. ($4,500), Juan Soto ($3,500) and Manny Machado ($2,900) all went yard. Tatis added two doubles and a pair of steals in a truly monster effort (48.9 FanDuel points), one which earned him a spot in the perfect lineup. It's not easy to jam in both Tatis and Acuna, but they offer truly elite upside tonight.

Soto has rebounded from his slow start and holds a .391 xwOBA with 11 homers and 6 steals. He's arguably under-salaried at $3,500. Machado has a long track record of success against southpaws and is heating up with a .358 wOBA in June.

Xander Bogaerts ($3,000) will be a core piece to my San Diego stacks. It's a little easier to get him in the lineup alongside Tatis with Tatis being outfield eligible, and Bogaerts will have the platoon advantage against Allen. He's swinging it better of late, registering a .349 wOBA in June.

Gary Sanchez ($3,100), Ha-Seong Kim ($2,800) and Nelson Cruz ($2,500) will also hit from the right side. Sanchez has posted a 45.7% hard-hit rate and 6 taters in 54 plate appearances with the Padres. Cruz might be running on fumes but has done a lot of damage against lefties in his career.

Other top options: Minnesota Twins (vs. Matt Boyd), Los Angeles Dodgers (vs. Dylan Cease)