 On Thursday night in daily fantasy baseball, I want to spend up at hitter because we've got the Dodgers in a spot that I adore, got some other higher salary stacks that I think are worth targeting. And the problem is our listed pitchers pretty thin this time of year because we have to consider playoff implications, we have to consider a length, stuff like that who's good. I mean, that's always consideration for sure, matchups and all the above. So we had to try to find a pitcher who checks those boxes and has a low enough salary to let me stack the Dodgers and stack the other teams that I think create out well for tonight. I think we've got a guy who fits that label. We'll go through him and more here in today's podcast. Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network and NumberFire.com. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for NumberFire.com. Here to break down Thursday's nine game, the main slate with lock set for 705 for tonight, a much better slate that we've had on previous Thursdays. Seems like they don't care as much about Thursday's football this week. Maybe because it's Bengals, Jaguars, who knows? Either way, it's a decent slate for today. And I think pretty logical paths to playing things without being stupid. There is a chance of rain in Minneapolis for the twins and the Tigers. It's not super bad right now, but it could make that game a bit dicey. So make sure you check back on that one later, check out what Kevin Roth of Roto Grinder says about that game from a weather perspective to make sure that one is good to go. Rain is also possible in Kansas City as the Royals host Cleveland, lower rain odds there than Minneapolis. So less concerning there, but check back on that one later on. So the two places to check for weather are in Minneapolis and Kansas City. Make sure those two games are good to go. We will also have our MLB DFS Q&A later on today at 430, that's in 430 to five on the FanDuel YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter pages. Make sure you swing on over there in Chat's Middle League DFS. Brandon Gadoula's previewing Thursday night football from four to 430 on those same channels getting you set by breaking down the Bengals versus the Jaguars. Also coming up in just a bit here on the FanDuel YouTube page we'll be breaking down week number four across NFL DFS with myself. And Brandon, breaking down our thoughts on the main slate, which games we wanna stack, which players stand out and much more to get you set for NFL DFS this weekend. That'll be up on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed right after that. So make sure you are subscribed. Head on over there right now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, whatever it may be, hit subscribe, leave a rating interview and come back later on today to check out our week four NFL DFS preview. Speaking of the NFL, if FanDuel is giving you the opportunity to bet on week four of the NFL season, all you have to do is go to FanDuel Sportsbook or download the FanDuel Sportsbook app. Place a three plus leg same game parlay on any NFL week four game. And if your bet loses, get a refund inside credit. Max refund $10. Bet on week four of the NFL season with FanDuel by heading over to the FanDuel Sportsbook today and placing a risk-free NFL same game parlay. Must be 21 plus in present Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. Refund issued as a non-throwable site credit that expired in seven days. Max refund $10. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanDuel.com same game parlay available for multiple sports in all states on mobile and web. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanDuel.com slash RG in Indiana, 1-800-9 with it. For confidential help in Michigan, 1-800-270-7117 in Tennessee, call the red line at 1-800-89-979 in West Virginia, 1-800-GAMBLER.NET or in Arizona, 1-800-NEXT-STEP or TEXT-NEXT-STEP to 533-42. Pitching preview for this Thursday main slate, Robbie Ray trying to get that Cy Young Awards night checks in at $10,800 facing the Yankees. He is the highest salary guy in FanDuel. Shane Bieber still coming up the I.L. We'll talk about him and things to watch. He's 10-5. Lance McCulloch is $9,700. Joe Ryan, Ian Anderson, Kyle Gibson, Tarek Scubble and Corey Kluber are the other guys at $8,000 or higher for tonight. So again, our checklist is we want someone with a low salary who is good, who is in a decent matchup and we can feel good about from a length perspective to playoff implications. The guy who best checks those boxes is Ian Anderson. Anderson facing the Phillies. He gets a salary relief here at $8,800 and I need that for the stacks that I want and he's good. That sets up well for tonight. Anderson was completely lost. His first two starts off the I.L. Getting knocked around, walking a lot of guys but then three starts ago, he refound his curveball. Started throwing that pitch three starts ago and it has worked beautifully in that time. In those three starts, he has a 35% strikeout rate with a 2.96 skill interactive ERA. The hard hit rate has always been a plus for Anderson, was not initially in this stretch but it is climbing back down now. It's much better. It was much better his last time out than it had been previously. Now you look at the matchups here and you can say, I mean, he faced the Marlins, he faced the Diamondbacks but he also faced the Giants which is I would say about as tough as it gets for a righty. He got seven strikeouts in that game, did let up some runs but I still think that the strikeouts were encouraging. Plus Anderson has stretched out. He has gone 99 to 97 pitches his past two starts. The motivation here is pretty much as high as it gets. The Braves still trying to lock up the NLEs. The Phillies lurking, I guess, technically right there. So Anderson checks every box that I want this time of year. He is talented. He has high motivation. It's not the worst matchup in the world. I think that's enough where we should be super high on him for today. Might not be the safest route because Anderson does have some issues but I think that with the NLEs on the line for tonight, I think that Anderson is a solid way to go with my favorite route for attacking this slate for tonight. The other route we can go is to find a low salaried stack and build around that and allow ourselves to spend up a pitcher. And I think that's fine because there is a lower salaried stack I do like which we'll talk about in the stacking section. When you're doing that, I do think that there is a path to getting up to Robbie Ray. So I'll rank Robbie Ray second for tonight. Preferred route is Anderson but I think this is a good alternate route here. Ray is facing the Yankees. Obviously it's a big game for both teams here trying to get that AL wildcard spot. And it's a tough spot for Ray because the Yankees have a 115 WRC plus against lefties. They're a very, very dangerous team. But Ray is also very, very dangerous. He's been back on his slider heavily for his past 12 starts. His skill interactive ER Ray on that time is 3.07. He has a 34% strikeout rate. His hard hit rate is manageable at 36%. He did have some walk issues last time out against the twins. We hadn't seen those for most of this year. They kind of cropped back up there and the Yankees can draw walks. So there are definitely issues with this play. That's why Ray is not first. That's why I'm not prioritizing him over Anderson in this spot. The upside is what draws me in though because if anybody on this late is gonna drop a 60 burger, I bet it's Ray. The risk is high. So if your risk averse, Robbie Ray is not your guy. I don't mind risk personally, I think it's fine. I'd see enough on him here to get on him at $10,800 as long as he's behind Anderson in terms of how I wanna play things from exposure levels for today. So Anderson won Ray number two. It does mean they need to find a lower sourced stack but I think you got those on the table for today. So Robbie Ray number two for me trying to lock up that Cy Young. Extra motivation for Robbie Ray for tonight. Now if you're looking for another lower sourced guy, a super low sourced guy, you can allow you just go like every Dodger you want effectively. I think your best option is Rich Hill. He's down at $7,400 and a big part of the reason I can go here is a matchup. He's facing the Marlins. Most of their remaining super talented hitters are lefties. Like the Jazz Chisholm, Lewin Diaz, all those, Hazel Sanchez, all lefties. So when you get a lefty against them, it does kind of neutralize their strengths and their ISO against lefties is 134. Their WRC plus is 80 and they also have a 27% strikeout rate. That is the highest in the slate by a good chunk. So the Marlins are a very good matchup for a lefty. Hitler's been okay down the stretch here for the Mets. He's had less velocity in his curve balls past eight starts and he's still been decent with the 2.94 skill interactive ERA. His strikeout rate is 24%. He's letting apart contact just 31% of the time. So it's been good. We have seen him face the Marlins in the stretch that was earlier on this month. So it's recent enough to look at it but also not recent enough where they're super familiar with him. And Hill had eight strikeouts across six innings. That's certainly not gonna win everything all by itself but it's not bad. It does give you upside elsewhere. He's at home Hill is for tonight. He went 97 pitches most recent start. So I think there is enough year to justify Rich Hill. I much prefer Anderson and I do prefer Ray as well but I'll take a few to Uthlin Hill to go nuts. The hitter that's something I typically do but given the stacking situation for today given Hill's matchup I'm okay with it. So to me the top three pitchers are going to be Ian Anderson, Robbie Ray and Rich Hill very different builds for each guy but I think that's okay for tonight. Let's dive into the stacking section and talk about the reason why I want to spend down for Anderson and that is that a lot of the good stacks for tonight are super high souring. To me that starts with the Dodgers. They're facing Vince Velazquez. Velazquez still the same pitch he was. I would say towards the end of his Phillies tenure but it's also kind of like the entire time for most of it that we can stack against that. In the three starts of the Padres Velazquez has been trying to go back to his slider which is something he had ditched with the Phillies a bit. He did that his final four starts there. It's a seven start sample with more sliders and it's not working out so far. Velazquez has a 5.65 skill interactive ERA. Strikeout rate is 19%. He's allowing a hard hit rate and a fly ball rate over 50%. I get excited from a Dinger perspective when both those marks are above 40% and Velazquez clears those by 10 percentage points. So those starts not shockingly have not gone well. He has a 12.36 ERA across the seven starts. And it's time with the Padres as many are in runs that he's pitched. He's come in to get some tougher teams, you know for sure it's been some tough spots but the Dodgers are pretty tough too. They got a 105 WRC plus against righties. A lot of fly balls and that is a very bad mesh for a pitcher like Velazquez. I think that the Dodgers are the top stack of the night. I think that they are that by a decent margin and I wanna go hard at the Dodgers for today. The interesting dilemma, at least for me with the Dodgers is whether we prioritize Corey Seeger or Trey Turner. Obviously we can use both and like a lot of lineups won't. So there's incentive to use both. But if we had to choose, the question is who should we favor? If you would ask me like two weeks ago I would have gone Trey Turner. I want the speed, I want the stolen bases. I think I'm drifting more towards Seeger now. In September Seeger has almost twice as many walks as strikeouts. They see in the ball really well. His ISO is up to 226. His season long mark there is 183. He backs it up with a 13% barrel rate and a 53% hard hit rate. So I still love Trey Turner. And again, I'd like to get both because why not? But Seeger holds the edge for me and it's turning up in a big way. So I'm upping my enthusiasm around Corey Seeger and putting him a hair about Trey Turner in terms of prioritization for the Dodgers for today. For the second stack, also high salary going back to the Red Sox once again. Hopefully you had Hunter Renfrew and JD Martinez in your Red Sox stacks last night. Otherwise might not have gone super well but we're back here once again regardless. They're facing Alexander Wells. His full season ERA is 7.61. Is a small sample but the peripherals say that that ERA is legitimate. We've seen Wells using more curve balls as past six outings. He has a 5.60 skill interactive ERA in that time. His strike out rate is 12% with a 5% walk rate. That means he's letting up a ball and play about 83% of the time and 43% of those are hard hits. 43% are in the air and it's a really rough combination. So I would prefer to stack the Red Sox against a righty because it gives me better it makes me feel better about guys like Rafael Devers, Kyle Schwerber, Alex Urdugo but I'm not sure I can avoid them here despite the fact that Wells is a lefty. So the Red Sox are a priority stack ranked behind the Dodgers because Wells is a lefty whereas Velazquez grades that well in that spot versus the Dodgers. All of the Red Sox lefty bats so the lefty and lefty scenarios I'd feel best about is Devers. Schwerber did just go deep off lefty two nights ago but Devers has a really good eye against lefties. It just means he's seen the ball well and that does matter. So I'm fine with Schwerber. I am fine with Devers, not really under Urdugo but I think both those guys are good. They have good results lefty on lefty but if I had to pick one I would go Devers over Schwerber among the lefties for tonight. Now, if you need some value and this is the route to using Robbie Ray and pitcher I would check out the Mets. They're facing Edward Cabrera. Cabrera is getting strikeouts. He's at a 24% strikeout rate over his past five starts. The problem is what's happening when he doesn't get strikeouts. His walk rate is 17%. Heart hit rate is 48% and that leads to a 5.40 skill interactive ERA. Cabrera is living in a very dangerous zone and we've seen that play out in his results. His ERA in this time is 6.35 and part of the reason his ERA is high is due to two starts against the Mets in this very same stretch. He led up three runs in the first game, four in the second. The Mets also did a good job of avoiding strikeouts against him which is encouraging for stacking them for tonight. So I do like Cabrera long term. I was super jazzed when he first came up and thought that he might be a pretty fun piece to have and potentially check out, but not there yet. Long term still in, short term I can stack against him. So I do think the Mets great out well if we're looking for a value stack for tonight. The big value here is Michael Conforto. Conforto's had a bad year, but he's $2300. In the second half specifically against Reides, his isolated slugging is 265. He had a ding or last night. So as a value play, I think Conforto's great. Jonathan VR solid at $2,500. I am no longer as opposed to Jeff McNeil at $2,500 that was previously. I would make jokes about how he wasn't capable of getting an extra base hit, no longer the case. So McNeil's fine, VR's fine, Conforto's fine. I think the Mets are a decent value stack for today if you want to use Robbie Ray while still getting to either the Dodgers or the Red Sox as your second stack. Let's go to things to watch and talk about pitch counts here because there are a lot of guys with concerns that may not push them out of play for me but definitely lower my enthusiasm. Teres Scubble's a big one, I'm not gonna use him because he has not gone more than 50 pitches his pass forward starts, they're just letting him coast which is fine, there's nothing to play for so it might as well. Joe Ryan will likely be mid to high 80s and he's really good, at least he's looked good so far. So if he could get you 40 points and he did do that last week with 11 strikeouts and five innings but I just like Anderson and Hill Moore's values once they consider pitch count there. So Joe Ryan, very good and very fun to watch just hard for me to get there in DFS. I'm not crossing him off, I will say that but I think that that makes it a lot tougher for me to get to him. Shane Bieber is the other guy to cross off here. He went 35 in his first pitch or first start off the IO likely around 50 or so for today nothing on the line there. So Cross-off Scubble and Bieber did a pitch count and lower Ryan a decent amount as a result of a low pitch count for today. I am going to stack Cleveland once again today. They're facing Angel Zerpa, he's coming out from AAA but he had made just one start there. He spent most of the year down in AA and he had good peripherals in AA but his ERA was 5.96. He struggled in his one AAA start so Cleveland is in play once again. We're going back to the right he's here because Zerpa is a lefty. So Cleveland, another place to go for some value Yu Cheng I think would work once again. Some of the other guys held Ramirez so Metz and Cleveland good value options for today. Two of the teams I consider in the high salary range are the Astros and the Giants. Astros facing Ryan Yarborough and Yarborough does suppress hard contact but he lets up a ton of balls in play and that can occasionally get him in trouble. So okay with them. The Giants are facing a Madison Bumgarner revenge game and it's a similar story here where he's letting up a lot of balls in play. He also lets up a lot of fly balls. So I think both the Astros and the Giants are worth a look at secondary stacks but I ranked them below the Dodgers for sure and just like a half tier below the Red Sox for today. Let's finish up this Thursday with some Dinger calls going back to Tarny Vincelazquez going with the Dodger and when you're going with the Dodger against the righty I'll go Max Muncie. I considered Will Smith here because Will Smith is the best hitter on the planet but I did to go with Muncie here as the boring homerun call for today. Muncie's powers is too good. So we'll go with Max Muncie as the boring homerun call for the fun one. I wanna, you know, my money or my mouth isn't good. Let's go with Michael Conforto. I talked about his ISO versus righties in the second half hit a Dinger last night. Good matchup here against Cabrera. So homerun calls for today are going to Max Muncie and Michael Conforto. That is all that we have here on the solo shot but as always, we are back once again at 430 for the MLB DFS Q&A, the NFL Thursday Night Football previews 4 to 430 at Branding and Gila Albion at 430 to break down MLB DFS. Same schedule for tomorrow and also the solo shot tomorrow at nine our final solo shot of the year. So that should be a whole lot of fun. Make sure you tune in then. Also make sure you are subscribed to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed to get our NFL week four DFS preview podcast later on today. We'll post that there. Got USC coming up, NASCAR coming up at Talladega. So a lot of good podcasts on your way on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. If you've got questions for me before 4pm I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. You can also follow the FanDuel Podcast Network at FanDuel Podcast. Big thank you to Ever for tuning in for today. Good luck to you tonight. We'll talk to you once again tomorrow for the final solo shot of the year. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.