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.

The MLB DFS heat map at numberFire 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 -- which are powered by numberFire -- to identify the slate's best bats.

Let's look at the top stacks for today's main slate.

MLB DFS Stacks

Texas Rangers

Implied Total: 4.84 | Opposing Pitcher: Carlos Carrasco

Cleveland Guardians veteran Carlos Carrasco has had a long and impressive career, but he's not the same pitcher he was when he was a Cy Young award contender between 2015 and 2017. While he's bounced back a bit from a particularly down 2023 season, he's still a pitcher we should target with our DFS lineups.

Carrasco's 5.36 ERA is pretty rough, and it's backed up by some underwhelming underlying metrics, as well. He has a 5.34 FIP and a 1.49 WHIP through 40.1 innings, and he has the 28th-worst skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) with his 4.67 mark. Batters are taking advantage of his dwindling 17.4% strikeout rate and have posted an .851 OPS on the season.

While he has been looking better recently, it's fair to note that those starts came against the Chicago White Sox and the Mike Trout-less Los Angeles Angels. He could be in for a much rougher outing against the Texas Rangers today.

The Rangers' star bats are all in play here. Adolis Garcia ($3,800) carries the highest FanDuel point projection on the team with 13.1, and he has the shortest odds to hit a home run (+265) by far of anyone in the game. He doubled and hit a home run just last night.

Corey Seager ($3,400) had a slow start to the season while recovering from offseason surgery but has begun to heat up lately. He has a .956 OPS with 2 home runs, 3 RBI, and more walks than strikeouts (5/3) over the last week. numberFire's projections have him slated for a solid 12.7 FanDuel points.

Marcus Semien is the highest-salaried player on the Rangers' roster at $3,900 but is also projected for a nice 12.3 FanDuel points. The iron man leads the American League in plate appearances and has 7 home runs with 28 RBI on the season.

The Rangers' lower-salaried options are also pretty interesting tonight. Even with their star-studded lineup, Nathaniel Lowe ($3,100), Josh Smith ($2,800) and Leody Taveras ($2,700) actually rank first, second, and third (respectively) in wOBA against right-handers on the team so far this season.

Taveras in particular seems to be flying under the radar. He started earning consistent playing time due to other injuries in the outfield and has since posted a .904 OPS over the last two weeks.

Houston Astros

Implied Total: 4.77 | Opposing Pitcher: Aaron Brooks

The Oakland Athletics -- who still lead the Houston Astros in the AL West even after last night's extra innings loss -- are calling on Aaron Brooks to start for them tonight. Brooks has not pitched in the Majors since 2022 and has not started in a game since 2019.

While it's always fun to root for a comeback, the 34-year-old wasn't exactly having a successful season in Triple-A to open the 2024 season. It's hard to have high hopes for him facing the Astros tonight after he threw for a 4.57 ERA with a 1.43 WHIP while striking out only 6.6 batters per 9 innings in the Pacific Coast League.

Jose Altuve ($3,700) and Kyle Tucker ($4,300) are projected for the second- and third-most FanDuel points among hitters on tonight's slate, trailing only National League MVP frontrunner Mookie Betts. Tucker has been too hot to ignore even with his elevated salary, but Altuve's $3,700 salary looks like a relative value by comparison.

Speaking of value, Alex Bregman is still carrying a low $2,500 salary despite hitting three home runs in his last two games. With that salary, he could arguably be the best value play on tonight's main slate. He's been batting fourth, fifth, or sixth consistently, putting him in a great position to knock in some runs tonight.

Yordan Alvarez has a $3,700 salary, meaning he should be on your radar today, as well. Alvarez took Brooks for a homer in their sole meeting back in 2019 and could pick on him again tonight.

If Jeremy Pena ($3,300) -- whose projected for a solid 12.4 FanDuel points -- is a little out of the budget and you're looking for another lower-salaried option on the Astros' lineup, consider Jon Singleton. The veteran has been batting fourth or fifth against righties pretty consistently since taking over the starting first baseman gig from Jose Abreu and has hit three of his four home runs against right-handed pitchers on the year.

St. Louis Cardinals

Implied Total: 4.37 | Opposing Pitcher: Griffin Canning

The St. Louis Cardinals are clearly still figuring things out this season, but a matchup with the down-bad Los Angeles Angels and struggling starter Griffin Canning could be exactly what they need to get things back on track.

Canning's 4.90 SIERA ranks 15th-worst among qualified starters this year -- and there has been some rough pitching out there to open the season. His 16.4% strikeout rate ranks in the 15th percentile, he's allowing barrels at a concerning 10.8% rate (14th percentile), and is forcing ground balls just 33.8% of the time (14th percentile).

He is somehow managing career-lows in home run rate allowed (3.4%) and homers per 9 innings (1.3), but considering his low ground-ball rate and a 91.5 MPH exit velocity allowed (7th percentile), it feels like it's only a matter of time before the home runs really start rolling.

The Cardinals' team-wide slump this year means their top hitters all have pretty depressed salaries, so you can stack them without putting too much pressure on your lineups. For instance, according to numberFire's model, Matt Carpenter ($2,000) and Lars Nootbaar ($2,900) are the two best values on the slate and are projected for 10.4 and 13.4 FanDuel points, respectively. Both players started the season out on the IL but have been making an impact since returning and hit high up on the order.

Behind them, even Paul Goldschmidt looks like a potential value with his $2,800 salary -- numberFire projects him for 11.1 FanDuel points off of Canning. The veteran has had a painfully slow start to the season, but his .683 OPS over the last week could be a sign that he's starting to get settled in. By no means is a .683 OPS a good thing in itself, but it is an improvement relative to his first month of action.

Nolan Arenado ($2,900) and Nolan Gorman ($2,700) have each played much better baseball than we've seen from them so far this season, so there's reason for optimism as they take on Canning tonight. Even Brendan Donovan is off to a slow start but could fare well tonight. He has a $2,900 salary and is projected for 9.3 FanDuel points.

Unlike most of his teammates, Ivan Herrera ($2,600) is actually having a nice season. The breakout catcher has stepped up in the absence of Willson Contreras and leads the team's qualified hitters in OPS (.723) on the season. He's rocking some exciting underlying metrics, including an 80th percentile barrel rate and an 89th percentile xwOBA.

The Cardinals have massively underperformed so far this season, but there's still plenty of time for them to get back on track. Several of the players in their lineups have been fantasy stars in the past while most of the rest have been much better than they're currently playing. With a strong matchup on tap and a whole roster under the $3,000 salary mark, the Cardinals are an extremely easy team to stack for tonight's slate.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.