 14 games on tonight's slate for MLB DFS, which means we've got to dig in and try to decide which of the options, the 28 pitchers and 28 potential stacks on the slate, have the upside to separate because in order to cash, in order to take down a tournament on a 14 game slate, you need a lot of points. So our job today is to identify sources of upside, whether it be a pitcher or at stacks. We need people who can separate from the pack and put up massive scores in a slate that will require it. So I think we got a good read on it. We shall see. We will find out later on tonight, but either way, it should be a fun slate to break down. Let's dive on in the get you said for Tuesday night. Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and numberfire.com. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for numberfire.com. Here to break down Tuesday's 14 a game main slate with locks out for 705 p.m. Eastern for today. The second game of the double header between the pirates and the Cardinals is not on the slate. So that game does start after 705. It's not in the slate though. So do not worry about that one. Just 14 games for today, just doing a lot of work there for sure. Only weather note is a pretty big one actually in Chicago for the Cubs and the Padres. It is hot and winds are blowing out. First pitch temperature is 89 degrees. Winds are out to center at 13 miles per hour. You combine wind out at Wrigley with 13 mile per hour or with 89 degree temperatures. That is a big time recipe for hitters in that game. So boost up the Cubs and the Padres a lot. And we'll talk about them in the stacking section for sure for today. We'll talk about stacks and pitching in just one second. But first a quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the numberfire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. Our PGA DFS preview of this week's US Open is up by self and Brandon Godulla breaking down our top options for DFS in each salary tier for this week at Brookline. We broke down what the course is, what you need to know, our top options, roster construction and so much more. Find that by searching for the numberfire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well. The PGA's third major championship is set to begin this Thursday and Fandolin Callaway Apparel are bringing you a free daily fantasy contest that gives you a chance to win a share of $20,000. Introducing the Callaway Apparel Major Style Contest. A free to play daily fantasy contest that gives you the opportunity to make this weekend's US Open even more exciting than it already is. All you have to do is draft your best roster six golfers while staying under the $60,000 salary cap and follow along using Fandolin's live scoring at the US as the US Open unfolds. If you scored at the highest of the top of the tournament, you'll walk away with the $5,000 first place prize. Again, it's free. Visit Fandolin.com slash league slash Callaway Apparel to enter and submit your line of today. Fandolin.com slash league slash Callaway Apparel lock for that is on Thursday. And again, if you want some tips check out the heat check fantasy podcast as well for more on that. Again, Fandolin.com slash league slash Callaway Apparel always take free entries when they are given to you. Pitching preview for this Tuesday main slate. Max Reed is the highest salary pitcher on Fandolin checking in at $10,500 followed by Garrett Cole at 10-4. We got Logan Gilbert at 10-2 with Sean Minaya at $10,000. Shane Bieber is $9,700. Dylan Cease 96. Tony Gonsolin comes in at $9,500. Nick Povetta is 93. Joe Ryan fresh off the aisle is 93. Logan Webb 92. Chris Bass at 9,000. With Tyler Malley, Corey Kluber, Zach Efflin, Dane Dunning and Zach Davies as the other guys at $8,000 or higher. Now, Garrett Cole got rocked last week. I used him against the twins. I grew up a twins fan. It's my fault. I think that that was karma, so I'm sorry. He got torched. It was truly awful. But I'm gonna go back again for today. It does help that Cole is at home for this one. And he's facing a less powerful team than he did last time out. He's going up against the Rays who have a one of 49 ISO against righty to the 24% strikeout rate. Cole didn't get those strikeouts last week, but he definitely has broadly. We are up to a seven start sample on Cole with more sliders and he has nine plus strikeouts and all but two of those games. He has a double digit strikeouts three times. And in that span, including last week's clunker, he has a 33% strikeout rate. His skill interactive VRA 2.44, which is the best on the slate in each pitcher's most relevant sample. Nobody else in the slate is below 3.23, whereas again, Cole is a 2.44. So it is a gap between Cole and the pack. When you put that in a decent matchup and good things can happen, I have Cole projected for 8.6 strikeouts tonight. Only one other guy is above 6.8. So I think we have to go back and I am very okay with that. Garrett Cole is my top option for tonight. The one guy who gives Cole a run for his money is Dylan Cease. And part of that is Cease, but a big part of it is the matchup. He's facing the Tigers here. They are both a high strikeout team and a good one beyond just the strikeouts. They have a 67 WRC plus against righties on their current active roster with an 0.97 ISO and a 24% strikeout rate. I could not concoct a better matchup for a pitcher than that. Another big key for them is that they don't have long plate appearances. They average us 3.82 pitches per plate appearance on the year against righties. And that's where Cease struggles because he's made eight starts with the velocity on his off speed stuff being up and he's averaged 4.27 pitches per plate appearance in that time. That's a really big number for a starter. So Cease is not efficient and he walks guys. He should be more efficient here due to the matchup. That's a big boost for him. He actually leads the slate and strikeout rates at 34% in each guy's most relevant sample. Cease has gotten eight plus strikeouts and five of those eight starts. He's hit double digits twice. So his upside is as good as Cole's. He's just higher variance than Cole. So I think it all depends on your rate of each guy's roster rate. If you think that Cole is tracking to be the chalk, I pivot to Cease. If it Cease will be matched the chalk, which I think it will be due to the matchup, I'm fine going Cole number one. That's how I do those two guys. Both elite options, both have high strikeout projections. No objections to either guy here. To me, it's Cole one, Cease two, but you can't allow roster rate projections to dictate where you go for tournaments. As far as the value play goes, I'm going to go use a Kikuchi. His salary is 73 and it's low for a reason. He's really in a bad spot right now. He has finished five innings just once and his past four starts seem bad. I've got Kikuchi projected for 87 pitches, which is very low. So things aren't great right now, but I do think he can get strikeouts. Kikuchi's facing the Orioles. They have a 25% strikeout rate against lefties with a 131 ISO and that part's key because Kikuchi is letting up a lot of hard contact. And he's also walking guys. The Orioles are not standouts in either department. The one thing that Kikuchi is doing well is he's getting some strikeouts. He has a 29% strikeout rate in eight starts since he ditched his cutter. That's the third best mark on this slate behind just Cease and Cole. And again, Kikuchi's salary is $7300. We think Kikuchi gets seven strikeouts and three of those eight starts. He had six and two others. So he can have a big game. Two of the seven strikeout games for Kikuchi came against the Yankees. They're a much tougher test than what we have here with the Orioles. I've got Kikuchi projected right around there at 6.6 strikeouts. It's probably too high, but it's a good number for a guy with a salary of $7300. I like him a decent amount here. I don't feel great about it, which means I might just stick to Cole and Cease but to be determined. I think that the way I might play things overall for tonight because there are a lot of good stacks I like is potentially just commit to two pitches I like Cole and Cease and then differentiate more than I typically do with my stacks. I could see myself playing things that way, which would mean no Kikuchi, no other guys for tonight, no Max Freed, stuff like that. But I think that might be the way I wanna go at the end of the day. So I said there's a lot of good stacks. Let's break them down now by starting off at Coorsfield. The Guardians are at Coors, facing Antonio, sends a taila and I think we can stack them in that spot. Sends a taila did just shut down the Giants last week. The peripherals aren't dazzling though. In nine starts, he has an 11% strikeout rate. The hard hit rate allowed is 43%. Sends a taila does get ground balls but it hasn't mattered too much. He has a 4.83 ERA with a 6.86 expected ERA and that does account well for the bad of balls he allows. And that's what most of the starts being at home. In those six starts, Sends a taila has had some really nice ones but last time out he let up six earned runs to the Marlins. I don't think he's someone who just has Coors figured out like there are some guys who have had that in the past. I'm not yet willing to put Sends a taila in that bucket. So I feel good stacking against him here and I will do that with Cleveland. We talked about this last week with the Giants but we can feel good about righties against Sends a taila. They have had much more hard contact against them this year than lefties have. So for me, that's the green light to load up in Oscar Gonzalez who has had great minor league numbers, got called up to the big leagues and has played pretty well so far. He's $2,800 at Coors Field against a guy who lets up a lot of hard contact to righties. Lock button kind of thing, you know, not a lot to do well but like, you're talking about exposures, that's gonna be pretty high for me. So Gonzalez $2,800, way too under salary for a place like Coors Field. I think that he's going to be a focal point, not just for stacks but also as a one-off. He is the second lowest salaried regular player on this team. So gonna be there quite a bit. I think that Oscar Gonzalez is under salaried for tonight. Now I wanna take advantage of the weather at Wrigley Field and I think you could do so via either side, honestly. As you know, I love Sean Minaya gets a lot of strikeouts but he lets up hard contact too. So I could fully justify the Cubs just a bit lower on them but no objections overall. Let's talk about the Padres though. I think the Padres are the number two stack of the night. They're facing Kyle Hendricks and he said he's dealing with shoulder fatigue which seems not ideal and it has seemingly been impacting him because Hendricks has let up three plus earned runs in three straight starts. He let up four home runs, home runs alone in one of those. That's pushes the R-Ray to 5.22 for the full year and is expected the R-Ray is 5.44 which is the highest of his career. We've seen Hendricks in the past, the press hard contact that is not happening right now. His fly ball rate allowed is 40% with a 39% hard hit rate. I wouldn't be shocked if he writes the ship because Hendricks is a very smart guy. He can navigate his way around not having good stuff but he's a guy that lets up a lot of balls and play at a park where you don't wanna do that for today. So I think it makes the Padres a prime stack to take advantage of this weather. Again, the Cubs are okay, just prefer the Padres if I want to get exposure to this game. Against Hendricks, I do wanna bump up the lefties, a few lefties that we have here. I mean, it's not a few I guess, but like the lefties who are here because the lefties have a 46% fly ball rate against Hendricks this year versus righties at 32%. So that leads me to Jake Cronoworth. He's not hitting well this year, but it is getting better. He has a 42% heart-hit rate in June with a 265 ISO. I think that allows us to buy into Cronoworth at $3,300. Jerks and Profar, a 170 ISO against righties. So I think you can use him too, him and Cronoworth. I think they're the primary guys. I will not use Zara Cosmer. Wind cannot loft a ball. So, I don't know, I'm probably not gonna go there myself. No more Razzara did hit the ball well in triple A before his promotion. He had a 273 ISO there. I'm fine with all those guys. Luke Voight is a righty, but he's a good value for 29. So to me, Cronoworth the primary guy followed by Profar. I'd go Voight, then Zara. I mean, obviously Machado is up there too, but like in terms of benefiting from Hendricks, Voight does not benefit, but he's a value play. So you'll be able to get to Machado for tonight for sure within these Padre stacks and you should try to. As far as our third stack, the Nationals are throwing out Jackson Tetrio for his debut tonight. He's starting in place of Steven Strasberg and it's a really tough assignment and I'm fine stacking against him here. Tetrio's facing the Braves. They have a 177 ISO against righties with a 40% fly ball rate, which means you want to limit balls and play. I'm not sure that he will. Tetrio had a 21% strikeout rate in triple A this year. His swing and strike rate is 9.2%. So he's not getting a lot of wins. The bow, which is Derek Hardy's projection system projects Tetrio to have a 15% strikeout rate as a starter in the majors, which seems about right and would not be a great thing in terms of his projection as a big leaguer. He does not have a leap added ball numbers, but they're not bad. A ground ball rate at 42% in triple A, 34% fly ball rate. When you combine that with a low strikeout rate and a decently high walk rate leads to a 4.65X flip in triple A for Tetrio. His ERA was 4.19. Now he's coming up to face a powerful team that can punish baseballs. That's a really tough ask for him. So I do think we can stack against him here, stacking the braze and see what they can do in this spot. With Ozzie Albee's being out, and I love Albee, so I'm sad about this, I'm guessing we'll see more Orlando Arcia going forward. And I'm willing to use him in DFS. Preferably against the lefty, but even against righties, it's a 38 plate appearance sample, but his ISO is 152. His expected Woba for the full year is 412. Lot of hard contact and 11% barrel rates. Arcia had a great year in triple A last year. So I'm open to buying into this. I think he could be a great value play. If you need help getting to the very good players on this team, he can be a pretty key way to get there because Arcia for tonight, checking in at $2,100. So if you wanna load up on some really good options, you can do so via that. Matt Olsen's not hard to get to anyway, but Marcel Lazuna has been moved down the order, should move up here with Albee's being out, he's $2,700. Can definitely get there. Maybe open some more playing time for William Ventreras and stuff like that. So the fun guys in the braids obtainable for tonight if you use Arcia at 21, which I'm very willing to do personally. Let's move now to things to watch. And there are a lot of good stacks today. So I wanna run through three more in things to watch for today. One of those is the Red Sox. They're facing Jared Koenig. We stacked against Koenig last week and it worked out pretty well. He let up four runs and four innings. He's a lefty, so I'd bump up the righties here. And honestly, you could even consider Robb ref Snyder at minimum salary. He's hit lead off in two straight games against lefties with Kike Hernandez being out. So if for a Snyder's first again, not the highest upside guys, I'd prefer not to if I can avoid it. You wouldn't be a focal point within the Red Sox stacks, but not totally opposed. Bobby Dahlbeck getting a little bit better recently could just be one of his Dahlbeck streaks, but open to him as well. The White Sox are facing Drew Hutchison. It seems like he's being stretched out to be a starter now. He went 44 pitches in his final triple A outing and he did pretty well while he was down there, but he really struggled in his first dent as a reliever this year. Let up a lot of hard contact and a lot of fly balls. So the White Sox, not a full health right now, but I'm okay stacking them into this situation. Finally, I don't mind the Giants against Chris Bubic. He struggled against Baltimore last week and he's had a rough year overall with a 9.13 ERA. So I'd stick to the righties you think will play the entire game. If you're stacking the Giants here, I think that Wilmer Flores should if he plays, Eva Longoria, Darren Ruff, all those are guys who will probably start and then play the entire game. Austin Slater, not so much. So stick to righties you think will play the entire game. I think this game gets bumped down from me because we have Coors. We have a wind out of Wrigley situation. So they're an option, but they're definitely sixth for me. Let's finish up with some Dinger calls for today. The boring one, I will go Manny Machado. I know I talked about using lefties against Kyle Hendricks, but I just feel better about Machado than I do about Cronoworth. So Manny Machado to me, the prime selection for the boring one. For the fun one, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to pick a Coors batter as being fun, but Oscar Gonzalez is below $3,000 on Fandall. He hasn't done a ton. He doesn't have a huge sample on him in the major so far yet. So I'm gonna kind of just fun. Hopefully you agree with me there. But the home run calls for today, Manny Machado, Oscar Gonzalez on a Dinger Tuesday, two fun options, I believe. That is all that we have here for today. And again, it's a 14 game slate. So got to streamline your research a bit, try to identify players who can score you a lot of points because you will need them for tonight. Just make sure you're getting guys with a path to major, major upside in order to keep up with the pack. Do not forget to check out our PGA DFS podcast, breaking down the US Open. Find that by searching for the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed, wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review, hit subscribe. We appreciate all of you who have done so thus far. If you've got any questions for me, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis. J-I-M-S-A-M-N-E-S, you can also follow the FanDuel Podcast Network at FanDuel Podcast. Big thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your MLB DFS lineup. So we'll talk to you once again tomorrow to break down Wednesday's slate. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.