 The starting pitching options for tonight and MLB DFS are shaky very shaky There are no guys available for tonight who have a blend of both floor and upside But a lot of guys have one or the other but no one really has both then that makes things pretty Complicated because ideally we're getting both, but I don't think we can find that for tonight So our job is to decide Can we tolerate the ceiling place and bank on that ceiling or are the odds they get to that ceiling? Low enough we should instead go towards a guy who we can feel pretty good about having a solid game It's a tough dilemma for sure. It's a tough slate But I think it's one we should have a pretty good idea of what to expect So let's dive on in and get you said for Monday night slate of MLB DFS Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim sawness. I am a senior writer and analyst for a number fire calm here to break down Monday's six game A main slate with lock set for 640 p.m. Eastern for tonight There are a couple rain spots on the slate the first one is in Cincinnati for the Reds and Diamondbacks It looks like there is a window to play around first pitch But it will depend on the timing of the first wave of rain and the timing on the second wave of rain It might just be kind of wet so check back on that later if you want bats there I'm gonna operate under the assumption that it plays but that is not a guarantee for sure tonight in Cleveland For the Guardians and the Rangers the rain looks like it will arrive in the later innings They should be okay more so than Cincinnati, but Definitely check back on Cincinnati again. I think that they'll play maybe but not totally sold We'll talk about them in the stacking section But just make sure if you want to use them you check back on the weather there We'll break down the dicey pitching options in just one second But first a quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed Wherever you get your podcast because we have MLB podcast every weekday We have PGA ever Tuesday Brandon is back for this week. We got NF. We got NASCAR We got USC a lot of good stuff all right here on the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed So search for it hit subscribe if you like what you hear It was a rating and review as well the NBA finals are in full swing And so is your chance to score big on fan dual sports book throughout the NBA finals Fandal is giving new customers two hundred dollars in free bets guaranteed when you place your first five dollar bet that the money line Point spreads player props and so much more plus you can combine your bets for an even bigger payday With the same game parlay if you haven't tried Fandal now is the perfect time to give it a shot Because the only thing sweeter than watching the finals is cashing in on all the action Make every game feel like game seven of Fandal sportsbook Fandal an official partner of the NBA must be 21 plus and in select states First online real money wager release five dollars ten dollar first deposit required Bonus issued is non-withdrawable free bets that expire 14 days after a seat see full terms at Fandal comm slash sportsbook gambling problem call 1 800 gambler of his Fandal comm slash RG in Arizona 1 800 next step or text next step the 533 4 2 in Connecticut 1 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Indiana 1809 with it in Louisiana 18077 770 stop in New York 1877 8 hope and wire text hope and why in Tennessee call the red line at 1 889 789 or in West Virginia hit 1 800 gambler Dot net pitching preview for this Monday main slate Robbie Ray facing the Astros is the highest salary guy at Fandal That tells you how risky the slate is he is $9,500 Christian Javier in that same game is 9,000 Carlos Carrasco 85 John Gray is 81 That should give you a good idea of how wild this slate is for sure with Robbie Ray being the highest salary guy But I've used Ray a lot this year It has not worked out for the most part a lot of earned runs and now facing a very good Houston team on the road For me personally, I don't think this is a spot to use Ray despite the fact It's it's a weird slate. So I'm personally not gonna be there for tonight This guarantees you will have 10 plus strikeouts and nowhere in runs But I think it's a good slate to look elsewhere for once and Christian Javier is also pretty risky in that same game Because he does leave early pretty often. They don't let him go super deep in games But I do still like him the most of this group. He's facing Seattle and they're a pretty good team They have a 114 WRC plus against righties, but they're not an overly powerful team Which is a good thing for Javier Javier through a lot of sliders It is first start in the rotation this year for the Astros and he scale back on that usage since then and if We look at the past six outings with fewer sliders He's letting up a 56% fly ball right that can get him in a lot of trouble It's a bit less risky against a lower power team Which is what Seattle is right now the upside of Javier is pretty good So he's one of those guys for the ceiling might or the the ceiling is good despite the fact the floor is not great Javier has a 32% strikeout right across that six outing sample He had nine strikeouts twice and both those games were at home, which is where he is for tonight He did face the Mariners back on May 3rd only four strikeouts in that game But no runs just two hits across five and a third innings So Javier is definitely not bulletproof. He issued four walks last time out left after four innings just 85 pitches They are okay pretty yanking him pretty quick Especially if that the walks jack of the pitch count, but I do think he's the top option here I would be willing to fade Javier if he's tracking to be extreme shock though So try to get a vibe and where people out on Javier first night And if you think that he's gonna be a bit popular I would be okay pivoting elsewhere because there are a lot of blemishes within his profile I'm gonna put Blake Snell number two for tonight. He's facing the Mets and The returns for Snell so far are pretty mixed It's not a lot of walks, but a good number of strikeouts to when I think those strikeouts They'll put him second on this list Snell has made three starts thus far He has walked multiple guys in all of them, but he does have five seven and six strikeouts respectively And he did face some pretty tough teams there He was up against the Phillies the Brewers and the Cardinals who just obliterate lefties and two of those my tips were on the road too Snell back at home tonight facing the Mets. They're a pretty solid team to 112 WRC plus against lefties, but they will strike out got a 22% strikeout rate against them this year and not a huge walk team and that walk aspect is huge because Snell has not been efficient with his pitches He is at 4.77 pitches per plate appearance so far this year the second highest mark on the slate is 4.28 each guys most relevant sample only three guys are averaging more than four pitches per plate appearance, so Snell is stretched out, but he's just not getting a lot of juice out of a hundred pitches Relative to what a lot of other guys do Snell's getting whiffs. He has a 14% swinging strike rates People are chasing his pitches outside the zone He's got to put it in the zone more often, you know a 36% chase rate doesn't matter as much if you're putting it outside the zone 70% of the time so it's not fun I don't feel great about it, but I do think that Snell is next up on our list Especially if you give me a salary discount at $7,500. So it's very risky I can say if you want to go don't want to go here, but for my process for tonight I think that Snell is the number two option and For that ceiling I will definitely be okay going there now for the third slot. I don't have a great read honestly I think you could honestly put hunter green here. I'm more inclined to stack against him, but you could also Sell him as a pitcher. I think very easily So I think I'm gonna go with Cal Quantrell even though he is fully opposite of what I typically do at the position That's because Quantrell is a low strikeout guy His velocity is up across his past four starts and that should be a great thing in terms of getting more strikeouts But his strikeout rate is still just 16% in that time He has had no more than five strikeouts in any of those games These top five strikeouts just once all year in nine starts. So I hate that But he's effective. He limits hard contact. He's gone at least six innings in seven straight games And he's failed to get a quality start just once in the four starts with the extra Velo Quantrell is pitched into the seventh inning three times out of four and Some of those were against very tough teams the white socks the Astros and the Royals are all low strikeout teams against righties He did a seven strikeouts against the Padres. So Quantrell is capable of upside He just doesn't show it all that often On a slate with a bunch of guys who can score a lot of points He's a tough sell because you need multiple people to fail for Quantrell to be a difference maker in that situation Here you don't have that you need a couple guys to stumble and Everybody on this like it easily fail Quantrell may have the best floor of anybody because of how good his bad at ball data is That's why I'm okay using him even if he's not my typical type. I just think that it's the way the slate breaks down I'm okay with it. And like a lot of times will say, hey, you know, I'm talking about this guy out of obligation Do the format of the podcast and I shouldn't use him. I actually will use Quantrell $7700 so he's right above snail. I think that's a very fair salary for what he's giving you So I do think Quantrell does enough to actually be a viable pitching option for tonight He's one I will use on a pretty weird slate. So again, I'm probably not going Robbie Ray Do you like Javier? Do you like snail and then Quantrell the guy I would consider as a Assume all these guys fail kind of situation. Let's move now into stacks stacking a bit easier due to the number of Shaky pitchers for tonight. We got Daniel Lynch facing the Blue Jays They're a very righty heavy team and Lynch is struggling right now, which means it's a pretty good convergence for stacking Lynch has had good outings He's had five plus strikeout or if he's gone five plus innings in three of his nine starts Or five plus shutout innings in three of his nine starts That's obviously not great for stacking if he can do that to you But there have been a lot of tough ones in there, too He's let up six hundred runs twice including his most recent time out and he's been trying to adjust trying to Figure things out getting a groove He's been throwing more change-ups across his past six starts and that's actually pushed things the wrong way for him His strikeout rate is down to 18% with a 12% walk rates. The bad at ball issues are still Not quite as bad as they were but still pretty bad and the play discipline stuff is a lot worse The Blue Jays will put the ball in play just a 20% strike area against lefties They also do walk a bit. So maybe putting the ball in play wasn't the right wording there but 12% walk rate and That's tough against a guy who is issuing a lot of walks I think they should put a lot of guys on base here, which is a positive for DFS It's not a great park for hitting in Kansas City, but it is warm So I think the Jays are the top stack of the night and they are one that I feel pretty good about now We talked a couple weeks about some time Santiago Espinol as being guy was really growing on me He hit his fourth home run yesterday his ice over to 151 against lefties It's 216 which is and he also almost as many twice as many walks of strikeouts a Spino's probably in about seventh, which is fine by me I think the entire bottom of that lineup is nice Matt Chapman not hitting for a lot of power right now, but Striking out a lot less than he was earlier on this year That's a positive for sure and also like the actual studs in this lineup the studs on this team You're gonna be able to get to their salaries today Because both Snell and Quantrill are so low-salary. So Taylor Scarbe a shet Springer Vlad all those guys very easy to get to and guys, I would like to get to just because of The ability to get to for tonight with how low salaries are at pitcher Now mention Hunter Green before he's facing the Diamondbacks and they will strike out So again, you could use him as your pitcher, but I think I prefer to stack against him And I think they're number two for me tonight behind just the Jays the Diamondbacks hit the ball hard They have a 203 ISO against righties, but they 42% fly ball rates their ice They're a WRC plus is 107 that accounts their parks. So it's not just the fact that they're in a good park They've been hitting the ball well all year Green was the perfect version the fully Realized version of himself last week. He had eight strikeouts. That's awesome But he also let up four runs and left after three and two-thirds innings That is very Hunter Green. He now has six plus strikeouts and all seven games He has started since he started using his slider more often. So six strikeouts very good And that's why he's viable as a pitcher, but is he out right is 6.55 He's let up 12 home runs in seven games. He had five and one three in another He didn't let up any home runs against the Red Sox But still got bounced early because of the other stuff and another tough spot here I think the Diamondbacks are a legitimately good team if it were a team with less power I might be more inclined to use green as a pitcher But I think these guys can hit and that pushes me to stack them here So the Diamondbacks to me number two stack behind the Jays despite the fact I do think you could use green as a pitcher as well I talked about this last week But green is really struggling with righties because he can't throw his change up to them or doesn't throw the change up to them So he's just a fastball slider guy against righties and his fastball is really struggling right now And that's not applicable for most Diamondbacks. They're a very lefty heavy lineup But I think that the point for me is Christian Walker is going to be I would say the Priority within this team potentially like maybe number one in terms of like guys You want to build around on this team? So Christian Walker to me the main benefactor of this matchup with green $3,200 really good power even against righties so far this year So I would say Walker is the building block that he makes in all the lefties and switch hitters throughout the rest of the line I do think our third stack should come from that same game. So again, that's why it's important to check the weather here I want to make sure this game plays I'll go with this mother options and things to watch in case that game looks pretty shaky from a rain perspective That third stack is that the Reds against Madison Bumgarner And if you're a regular listener, you know, we've tried stacking against Bumgarner a bunch this year And it is starting to work at times Bumgarner's most relevant sample is his past seven starts He's throwing more change-ups in that time and he has gone deep in games But his ERA is four point four six his skill interactive ERA is four point five six So he is no longer outperforming his peripherals the way that he did to start the year And the advanced numbers are still Very much what we want. He has a 16% strikeout rate with a 5% walk rate. That means there are a lot of balls in play about 79% of his played appearances resolved the ball in play and 50% of those balls in play are hard hit the five ball rate 46% Bumgarner's let up eight home runs in those seven starts and three of those came to the Dodgers who do have a good number of lefties No lineup now. He's pitching in a hitter friendly park that he doesn't home to but he's on the road the Reds Obviously are not great against anyone, but you know against lefties a 94 WRC plus a lot of strikeouts So they're not great, but they're also not terrible and they have some righties were pretty solid So it might bite me again to stack against Bumgarner, but it hasn't really bit me recently So I do think they are the third best option on this slate just gunning for you know A couple solo home runs and stuff like that and that on the slate. This would work pretty well The guy who gets the biggest boost against the lefty is Kyle farmer all five home runs for him this year Have come with the platoon advantage He had a 221 iso against lefties last year as well if you want to expand that sample His batted ball numbers are awesome. So where is plate discipline numbers? So farmer's not low salary to $33 but again I don't think it matters on this slate given how low salary the pitching is So I'm good at being high on farmer given the matchup given the platoon advantage given what he's done against lefties Again salary mismatch from what you would expect, but still think he's a good option for today So top stacks for me will be the jays the diamond backs and the reds in that order Let's talk about things to watch. We'll go through some other options for stacking right now some of them could be The angels they'd probably my primary alternative in case things wind up getting wonky and Cincinnati Angels facing michael walko who's doing a good job of suppressing hard contact right now But he's still living up a lot of balls and play that could be an issue eventually So I don't mind them. Obviously the offense is slumping right now even my trout's having some issues. So They're not though the powerhouse. I thought they were earlier on this year from a stacking perspective But maybe that means they're a by low spot So the angels to me would be the top alternative is since natty cannot go I could also see stacking the other side of that game The red socks are facing Noah cinder guard and the velocity for cinder guard has been down recently And he's gotten beaten up in two of his past four starts with that velocity being down But both those bad stars for cinder guard came on the road. He's at home now I still think you can get there, but there are some risks for sure. So I would say check on that one. Um, maybe you like Stacking the angels the red socks more than I do But I think they're both in play But would prefer to go with a since natty game if it is available to me from a weather perspective Let's talk about john gray quickly here. I do like what he's been doing recently Just don't like his matchup. Um, he's facing the guardians who have a 16 strikeout rate against righties My numbers do like ray. Um, I feel like from a talent perspective They still have them for 5.8 strikeouts, which I think is actually not that bad for this slate But it would be a lot higher if not for the matchup. Um, so I would say gray is available Especially if you don't like quantral. I prefer quantral though personally So gray would be an alternative if you don't want to go with one of the top three guys I discussed or if you want to add a fourth pitcher because the chaos stuff like that Maybe personally, I probably won't get there due to the matchup But I do think that he is at least worth discussing in part for today Let's finish up with some digger calls And I usually try not to go with two guys in the same team, but Given the rain situation in Cincinnati. I kind of feel like I probably should Just stick to the jays for both the boring one the phone one the boring one will be george springer He's just been hitting the ball well overall this year hitting the ball well against lefties He's had more loft than blad has had which is why I wanted to go springer over blad So the boring one home run call from me will be george springer the fun one I'm gonna go with matt chappan. I did hit a home run yesterday He's up to now seven this year the barrel rate seems to be getting better hard hit rate hanging around around 51 52% As mentioned before the strikeouts have been down a bit I think it's possibly is exchanging like strikeouts for um Power because the power has not been there with the strikeouts being down but again did have did go deep yesterday, so I don't know. I like matt chappan in general I've always had an inclination towards him Maybe this is just like wishful thinking but I do think that there is a lot of power in that bat still So the the boring or the home run calls for today george springer and matt chappan We'll see if the jays can take advantage of daniel lynch That is all that we have here for today on the solo shop But once again a quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast scene Wherever you get your podcast and like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well If you have any questions for me. I am on twitter at jim saunas j i m S a n n e s you can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast big Thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lineups We'll talk to you once again tomorrow to get you set for tuesday slay This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network