 Only five games on tonight's late for daily fantasy baseball, which means they're on a ton of spots to turn for upside. And that's kind of a bummer because there are some situations, some pitchers, some stacks where we typically want to pivot if they are going to be popular on a larger slate. I'm just not sure if we really have that option given the way things break down for today. So we'll talk about those options, talk about why they have some riskiness to them, whether we have options elsewhere and how to handle all that and getting you ready for Thursday night's slate. Welcome on into the solo shop. That's right here on the Fandall podcast network and numberfire.com. My name is Jim Sonness. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down Thursday's five game main slate with locks up for 707 p.m. Eastern for today. There are three weather spots on the slate where things could be a little bit dicey. Let's start things off in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Astros. Isolated thunderstorms there, which means it's more like the impact pitchers than batters in that game. Given the temperature in that game, it is very, very high. I care more about the batters than I do about the pitchers. So I'd keep an eye on a check back on the weather there later on, but should be okay for that one similar forecast in Chicago for the Cubs in the Philly. It seems like they should be relatively good to go there as well, a little bit less coverage in Coors for the Rockies and Dodgers. So could season storms there as well? I think all these games are going to be good to go. Not super worried about pitchers in them either. So I would say check back on weather for St. Louis, the Cardinals and Astros, Chicago for the Cubs and Phillies and Denver for the Rockies and Dodgers, but I think we should be good to go for all those spots. We'll break down the pitching options, stacks and much more here in just one second. But first, a reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. Also don't forget you can find us over on the Fandall YouTube page every weekday along with your Fandall TV Plus app. If you don't have Fandall TV Plus yet, check it out on Amazon Fire, Apple TV or Roku to get this alongside covering the spread up and Adams run it back. All the great Fandall TV shows alongside the solo shot and covering the spread baseball season is in full swing and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandall America's number one sportsbook because right now new customers get a no sweat first bed up to $1,000. That's up to $1,000 back in bonus bets. If your first bet doesn't win, so don't miss your chance to snag a no sweat first bed up to $1,000 when you join Fandall today. Fandall official partner of Major League Baseball. 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Fandall is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC gambling problem call 1-800-Gambler or visit Fandall.com slash RG in Arizona 1-800 next step or text next up to 533-42 in Connecticut 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Indiana 1-800-9 and with it in Wyoming and Kansas 1-800-522-4700 during Kansas KSGamblingHealth.com Louisiana 1-800-777-770 stop in Massachusetts gambling help line MA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 seven support in Maryland MD gambling health.org in New York 1-877-70 open wire text open wire and in West Virginia go to 1-800-gambler.net pitching preview for this Thursday main slate Max Scherzer lead things off with a salary of $9700 fall by Taiwan Walker at 95 they're the only guys with salaries above 9000 we got Chris Bassett JP France and the Sheehan and Kyle Hendricks as the others at $8000 or higher now from a pitching quality perspective Max Scherzer is definitely the best guy on this slate and that's even if we diminish him based on his 20-23-4 and that means even with some caution I think we should use him against the Brewers for tonight if we look at the full season Scherzer has been fine and fine is a step down from Max Scherzer Max Scherzer he has a 3.69 skill interactive ERA strike outright is 26% and those are both the best marks on this slate we have seen Scherzer also have higher upside showings recently he has eight plus strikeouts and five is past six starts and four of those have come on the road I just don't see enough difference in the profile for Scherzer what he's doing now versus what he was doing earlier on to omit those earlier season struggles so to me the most relevant sample on Scherzer is all 13 starts and that is not as impressive as what he's been doing recently but I do still think A we should view him that way and B it's going to be the best option for tonight swinging strike rate for Scherzer is 14% which means his strikeout rate could trend up a bit more and the Brewers have a 24% strikeout rate against righties we should like that too so Scherzer is definitely not spotless and you can consider going away from him but straight up he's going to be the top option for tonight just because I don't think we'll have a lot of other options to go elsewhere we've had starts for Scherzer's been the chalk and blown up that could happen against night but I think given the lack of great alternatives Max Scherzer is going to be the top option for MLB DFS for tonight number two I'm probably going to wind up on Taiwan Walker behind Scherzer Walker is also on the road but he's facing the Cubs and they've definitely cooled off from what they were doing earlier on this year the WRC plus of the Cubs against righties down to 102 they have just a 136 ISO which is the lowest on the slate Walker is trending the opposite direction he just seems a lot more locked in now than what he was earlier on this year Walker's led up zero or one runs in four consecutive starts and he has had some plus matchups in there and that's worth noting but he also did face the Dodgers and did face the Mets when he's faced lesser teams we saw Walker get eight strikeouts both times and this is tied to a shift for him because Walker has been throwing more splitters in this sample and his velocity has at times been up from where it was earlier this year that part I'm not sure about the velocity I'm not sure if it'll stick because it did go down his last time out but it does seem like the confidence for Walker in the splitter is up and that's a good thing because that's kind of like the catalyst pitch for him that determines how well he does on a given night there is shakiness for Walker too which is why I don't like him as a pivot without knowing what projected roster rates look like but if you get the vibe the Scherzer will be too popular for your liking I think Walker does enough to be viable he's also not perfect but there's enough there to me to make him worth thinking about so to me I'm going to go Scherzer one I'm going to go Walker two it's hard to find great alternatives on the slide so to me I'll just go with the two best guys two guys in the best form and to me those guys are Max Scherzer and Taiwan Walker in that order talking up Chris Bassett in the third spot means we're discussing each of the top three guys in salary but he is a value play and it is kind of boring I just don't think we have a lot of choice so Bassett will be my number three he's at home against the Giants and they're a good offense they have a 116 at WRC plus against righties which is highest in the slate so a very good offense but they do strike out 23% right there so they're not a team where opponents against them are devoid of upside if they can keep the ball in the yard Bassett might be able to do that kind of had a weird year so far he started out super slow then hit a really nice stride but his pass three starts he's gotten worked over and two of those were in tough spots but the final one was against the A's at home and this wonkiness for Bassett does correlate with the shift in his approach he's been throwing more changeups his past six starts and is he array in the time it's 6.89 but his skill interactivity array is much better at 4.26 he's not walking a lot of guys strike outright is fine Bassett's just letting out way too much hard contact and it's a small sample so that number could get better and it keeps me from thinking that he's totally broken I don't think a couple bad starts indicates Bassett is back to where he was at the early part of the year but it is why he's third it's why I don't view there as being a great pivot away from Scherzer or Walker for tonight so I don't think he necessarily need to get here I think if you wanted to go all in on Scherzer and Walker that's fine overall it's kind of a weird slates that to me I think I'm going single entry primarily just to kind of you know avoid the you know more than one entry but in single entry contest going separate lines across those I think that's the ideal way to play things for tonight so to me it's Scherzer one Walker two largely because I don't have great pivots available on this slate so I'll just ride with them and hope that popularity doesn't get too high and that they can not implode on tonight's slate stacking is a bit easier it's not perfect either but it is a little bit better starting over the Dodgers there at Coorsfield one more night they're facing Adam Wainwright in this one and I think we got the green light to go back to the Dodgers or they're facing Chase Anderson I should say Adam Wainwright's the next stack Anderson I think we got the green light here he started off really well in rotation good results in his first five starts but peripherals in that time we're still pretty underwhelming and I think we've seen that play out recently where you kind of get why the peripherals were not coming around Anderson does not last at five innings for three consecutive starts he's led up seven runs in one and nine in another he's also led up multiple home runs in four of his past five starts and two of those games were on the road in the two starts that Anderson has made at Coorsfield he's led up a combined five home runs and 12 earned runs if we look at the seven starts where Anderson has been fully stretched out he has a 5.15 skill interactive ERA with a 15% strikeout rate the bad at ball data is still pretty good despite the home runs and that does matter that's why you can't have some good starts occasionally but it's also not enough to scare me off the Dodgers lead this late in ISO they lead it in fly ball rate and you put that in a plus match but Coorsfield it's too good for me to pass up so the Dodgers at Coors are the number one stack once again for tonight it is a small sample but Anderson has seemed to struggle more with lefties and righties to a decent extent the bad at ball data worse there lot of line drives fewer ground balls and typically when I'm ranking out the Dodgers for stacking even against the righty I'm looking at Mookie Betts JD Martinez will Smith as being the top guys with a hair above Freddie Freeman here I might want to go Freeman number one or Max Munsey given these back from the IL now just because that between advantage seems a bit more impactful in this matchup than it is for others so I still love the righties definitely no no reason to be worried about them but I think Freeman gets a boost Munsey gets a boost to me is back in there for tonight I think last night was kind of a schedule night off for him off the IL so I would go bump those guys up relatively where you typically have them compared to the righties within your Dodger stacks it is 104 degrees tonight in St. Louis and that is great for hitting Adam Wainwright promises actually him this time has struggled this far and is facing the Astros and I don't think the Astros are a good offense right now but I do think we should give him a look here Wainwright has made nine starts and he returns in the IL and he's still really struggling he has a 6.56 ERA his expected ERA is actually a bit worse than that is 6.84 Wainwright's not letting up a lot of hard contact but he's still getting just trucked regardless I think it's because he's letting up too many balls in play so it erases the good things he does elsewhere Wainwright let up seven runs as the Cubs last week that game was at home and now he gets another mid-level offense and I think that makes the Astros a good enough stack to consider here for tonight given the hot temperatures and given Wainwright struggles the one downside with this stack I would say is that Wainwright has struggled more with lefties and there's probably going to be just one leftie in the line of for tonight for the Astros and Kyle Tucker I think that does mean Kyle Tucker deserves to be like the key priority here Tucker hasn't been as great this year as he was last year but his expected woe was actually higher than it was he's still stealing bases can still hit dingers so to me Tucker is the top guy to prioritize within these stacks just because the platoon splits for Wainwright do lead us there I think that that's the main thing Blyme address is another leftie you could potentially be in there he got the start last night minimum salary did okay in that start last night so if he's back in there maybe you want to go there too is another leftie but I think the Tucker the main benefactor of the platoon splits of Adam Wainwright the final stack is going to be the Mets they're facing Adrian Hauser and Hauser has been clinging to a spot in the rotation his passivations have actually been in relief and looking in the peripherals it kind of helps you understand why he's been struggling to hold that spot even though the results have been largely okay Hauser has been has been using fewer splitters across his past seven outings including those two in relief and in that time he has a 4.97 skill interactive ERA with a 13% strikeout rates his battable data kind of like Wainwright is not hideous but and that's likely why he has decent outings but he has let up five plus runs twice and I think based on the peripherals blow up outings are very much within the range of outcomes for Hauser the Mets 107 WRC plus against righties into 162 ISO I think they'll put the ball in play a ton whether they capitalize on that remains to be seen so I think there's enough here to stack enough here to feel good about them and I will go with the Mets as the number three stack for tonight one way to mitigate the battable data is lean on the lefties once again Hauser's ground ball rate against lefties is 44% whereas it's 58% against righties so Pete Alonzo not impacted he's kind of the he's not a righty or a lefty you know he's just he's just kind of a hitter I would say that it does bump up Brandon Nemo Francisco Lindoor Dan Vogelbach I think that's not positive for this stack so to me bump up the lefties don't make don't really push down Alonzo too much but I think that the the lefties do get a bump up and you can feel good about them given the way Hauser has gone so far this year so top stacks for tonight going to be the Dodgers Astros and the Mets things to watch we do have the other side of Coors Field the Rockies facing and the Sheehan who's looked awesome so far he was tremendous in triple A Sheehan does let up a lot of fly balls and the hard hit rate is not super low as of yet so I think the Rockies are in play for stacking they're not a good offense but we saw last night they can go off for nine runs in certain situations I'm going to give them a look for one off some stacks here just because I do think there is enough shakiness and Sheehan's profile we don't need to put him in like a a tier where we avoid him even at Coors Field he's a righty Rockies are better against righties so I would say stacking against Sheehan is okay with the Rockies for tonight if the weather's okay and St. Louis again that caveat there I could see stacking the Cardinals on the opposing side that game is one we talked about stacking the Astros earlier on Cardinals facing JP France who's had decent results so far and he does look like a guy who will limit hard contact in the majors but not a shutdown pitcher the Cardinals they have an offense a can of upside so I think there are fine consideration once again for tonight finally the Blue Jays facing a likely bullpen game for the Giants I'd expect Keaton win to get some work here for the Giants he's pitched well both in triple A in the majors gets a lot of ground balls and that's why the Blue Jays aren't super super high on my list they're obviously not out of play but it's a short slate gotta consider some people I do respect the Giants enough when they go with this approach to not prioritize the Blue Jays relative to other teams we discussed earlier on let's finish up here the Dinger calls for today mentioned before that she and does let up a lot of fly balls let's go to a Rockies batter for our boring home run call we got to go Nolan Jones Jones has shown a ton of power so far this year it seems pretty legitimate I would say Souris $3,800 on Bandual 4 tonight hasn't hit one in about a week so I think that Nolan Jones a fun home run call for today will make him the top boring Dinger call of the night for the fun one I don't typically regard Brandon Nimmo as being a power hitter but had a double Don couple nights ago that's not the lone reason why he's here but Nimmo if you look at him in the month of June launch angle is up hitting a lot of barrels it seems like maybe he's been tweaking his approach in order to get more fly balls take advantage of the hard contact that he makes and it's paid off pretty well so far so I think Nimmo is actually a really fun one as far as being under appreciated made DFS perspective maybe this is just like projection where I'm like I didn't think the Nimmo is that good for DFS now I'm suddenly shocked by it maybe it's all projection maybe you appreciate Nimmo more than I do but brain and Nimmo for tonight that is all that we have here for today on the solo shot as always want to remind you to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast if you like what you hear leave us a five star rating podcast for Spotify and again check out the show on the Fandall YouTube page or on Fandall TV Plus if you've got any questions for me I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis J I M S A N N E S you can also follow the Fandall podcast network at Fandall podcast want to thank you all for tuning in for today good luck to you with your MLB DFS lineups we'll talk to you once again tomorrow to break down Friday's slate this has been the solo shot right here on the Fandall podcast network