 What's going on and welcome to the MLB DFS Q&A. My name is Tom Vecchio. I'm here for the next half hour to take your questions about tonight's MLB Slate. Quick programming note. This is the last show for me. Jim Sanis will be back tomorrow for the solo shot at 9 a.m. on the Fandall YouTube page, and then he will be back for the rest of the season covering the MLB DFS like here every day at 4 p.m., taking your questions. As always, you can follow me on Twitter at DFS underscore Tom. You can catch me all over the pages on numberfire.com, writing about all four sports, podcasts, et cetera, et cetera. So hopping into tonight's Slate should be a good one. We are looking at some very, very strong offenses all in good spots. Starting off, we have some good lineups. We have some weather to get to. The weather on tonight's Slate is, I want to say, centered around this Milwaukee at Chicago Cubs game as I spoke about on the solo shot this morning. We got some wind in some games. The Detroit Baltimore game is looking as it did last night, where we're going to get some rain early in the game or prior to the game, which could be a delayed start. But as the night goes on, it should become more clear and allow them to play, assuming a late start there. The problem with the Cubs and the Brewers game, it's the opposite, where it's actually starting off very clear. And then as the game goes on, this is where it becomes a major, major issue. Combined with the fact that we have seen the wind jump up to 18 miles per hour out, blowing out in the outfield. So this now presents a higher risk for pitchers, including Corbin Burns. Now, as we've seen some of the weather change combined with when the rain might be coming, we can make the case that Kevin Gosman is actually now the starting pitch or the top pitcher on tonight's Slate, given the rain issue or the rain and the wind potential in Chicago, and the fact that we do see Corbin Burns more expensive. So if we don't have an update prior to Locke, if we don't know if there's going to be the late start or whatnot, I think I might just be siding with Kevin Gosman simply due to the safety over Corbin Bernstein, although I do think Burns is the better pitcher. Starting off, Brandon on YouTube is asking Austin Hayes or Santan Dare tonight. I actually wrote up Austin Hayes as a home run prop call tonight. Just like the spot so much for some of the righties on the Orioles going up against Scoobal, who this season is allowing 2.39 homeruns per nine to right handed hitters. He's got a 4.5 to exit. Obviously that's terrible. 47% fly ball rate to righties. Any 39.4% fly ball rate to righties as well. Look at Austin Hayes. Plenty of power from him. So the answer for me is Austin Hayes. I wrote him up today hoping we get that home run prop call correctly. I did mention that I have a bit of interest in Scoobal tonight when it comes to his potential strikeout upside. It's not like we're looking at the Orioles as like an amazing offense where he's got some decent strikeout upside. Overall, Scoobal isn't that expensive. He comes in at $8,600. So I'm fully going to an Orioles stack tonight. I will have some exposure to him. But I'm also want to do a little bit of a sprinkle of Scoobal into a few tournament lineups based on games. What game should I avoid today based on the weather? Is what Savannah on YouTube is asking. As of now, it's looking like this Milwaukee, Chicago game is looking like a major, major concern where let's say there was no rain. Let's just say we're free of rain. But 18 mile power wing blowing out is an issue for obviously any pitcher. Now that obviously presents a massive upside for the hitters, which is why we've seen the Brewers there implied a total jump up over six tonight. Now, I think we'd be targeting the Brewers tonight against Jake Arietta. Even there was eight mile power wing into the 18. Arietta is not having a good season. He's allowing too many home runs. So the Brewers in the Cubs game is the only one I would really avoid due to the weather. That's really the only issue. Like a little bit of rain for this is not going to be an issue. Like I see this potential red spot for Cleveland and Oakland. But a slight delay in game should be an issue. I'm still looking to stack hitters in this Baltimore, Detroit game. As the night goes on, we should be seeing plenty of clear sky. So really just waiting on an update on this Milwaukee, Chicago game again. I would be potentially willing to remove Corbin Burns from my player pool if we don't get an update. Because it's simply $11,000 simply too much to tie up in a game that could be delayed. They could get to the fourth inning and he could be pitching great and the rain starts and then they just call the game. And it's four innings, you're not getting anything out of them there. DJ St. Cleveland does have weather issues too. Yes, it shouldn't be too much that could just be a spot that is an in-game delay and then it's fine as the night goes on. But I am aware of that. CL Smooth on YouTube is saying what about the Texas game versus Seattle Mariners? So I actually mentioned Tyler Anderson this morning at the tail end of the solo shot. As a pitcher I'm considering tonight now, we look to Anderson's numbers overall. Like he's not a big strikeout pitcher. We get that, right? He's allowing a few too many home runs. He does keep the walks down, which is good. He's mainly a fly ball pitcher, which isn't great. But a lot of medium contact, not a lot of hard contact, which is good to see. Now we flip to Texas and yes, they don't strike out a whole lot with their current roster versus lefties. Okay, I get that. Not a big strikeout upside for Tyler Anderson tonight. But look at this, a 118 team iso versus lefties, 29th in the league is absolutely terrible. We look to their WRC plus 77 versus lefties. I mean that is horrible. So yes, Tyler Anderson is a pitcher that I'm considering in this game going up against the Rangers. And I also think that attacking Spencer Howard with some of the power bats from Seattle isn't the worst choice in the world if you're looking to be a little bit different in tournaments. Mike Mike is asking what would you be your best, who would be your best to pick for tonight? Pitcher, hitter, you know, overall the best pitcher on tonight's slate given the weather concerns would be Kevin Gosman at 10.3. In terms of hitting options tonight, it's all about Toronto, getting up to a potential Toronto stack. And then of course Milwaukee, if that game does play, Jerry on Facebook is saying, my favorite stack is SF LA Dodger, St. Louis, what are your thoughts? Totally on board with St. Louis. I spoke about them this morning on the solo shot. I think that they're in a phenomenal spot going up against Will Crow. Their lineup is confirmed. We got confirmed a little bit earlier, if I remember. Raves, Rays, Pirates, Cardinals. Yeah. So Carlson, Goldschmidt, Aronato, O'Neill, those are the main four I would stack. Then Harrison Bader actually has some good pop in the, was that the sixth spot. So I'm fully on board with the Cardinals tonight. SF I kind of like as a sneaky spot. I don't think a lot of people are going to be on SF tonight. They're down here with a 4.59 applied run total. They're going against Meryl Kelly, who is just a really average pitcher overall. I don't think he's a terrible pitcher, but by no means do I think he's good. I think that some of the homerun upside for St. Frank, who is obviously one of the best teams, if not the best team league, is going to be undervalued tonight. Like 1.57 homeruns per nine versus Rides versus some of those hitters in that lineup. I specifically wrote about Chris Bryant tonight. He could be a solid option. Of course, the Dodgers always have plenty of power. Jerry's asking, would you roster Matt Harvey tonight? No. That's the short answer. He doesn't have enough strikeout upside. I don't trust him as a pitcher. No. Rank the Cardinals tonight from Defuse on YouTube. Cardinals are here. Let's flip to all of them. Obviously, the power lies mostly with Aeronado, Goldschmidt, and O'Neill, but they are also the most expensive. Ultimately, I would go Aeronado, O'Neill, Goldschmidt, Bader, Carlson in that order, factoring in their salary, how popular they should be, and of course, relatively similar when it comes to the power that they have. Let's just flip to the Cardinals real quick. We know what we're getting with Aeronado. We know what we're getting with Goldschmidt, but of course, looking at some others here. Aeronado is someone I would absolutely want. You could throw in Tommy Edmund in there as well, but given all their salaries and all things considered, I want exposure to just what are consistently the best hitters over the course of their careers. Randy, a Rosarina, or Starling-Marté tonight. That's a good question. I would lean with a Rosarina. I think we can get that solid park factor in Boston tonight for the raise. I do like Nathan of Aldi tonight. I did write about him today. I think that he does have some strikeout upside, but a Rosarina is certainly a solid option. I'm not going to talk you off of stacking the A's tonight, because I do think that there is some potential downside for Cal Quantrill who's pitching for the Indians tonight, but ultimately, I'd go with a Rosarina. Brandon on YouTube is saying, my lineup has Springer, Dickerson, Ritchie, and Simeon along with Montas Goldschmidt and Sieger. Kyle Sieger, Corey Sieger. Listen, that's a great start. I spoke about Montas today on the solo shot. I think we can make the case that Montas could be the second best pitcher on tonight's slate. If this Milwaukee-Chicago game is rained out, or whatever it might be, just the concerns around not getting Corbin Burns to pitch tonight is obviously a major, major issue. So we could say that Gospin is the number one pitcher on tonight's slate, because he's just the safest. He also has, I would say, an equally bad opponent. He's going to be an equally easy matchup, because he's a bad opponent in Arizona. And Montas, we know, can go out there and rack up plenty of strikeouts. And I love the Toronto Blue J-Stacks tonight. They were the first team I spoke about today. I'm fully on board. Goldschmidt has that home run upside, sure. And if it's Kyle Sieger, that's fine. We know he's got some pop. And if it's Corey Sieger, that's fine if you're going with a bit of a dodger's thing as well. What games will have a lot of offense today? It wouldn't be surprised to see the Baltimore-Detroit game have a bit of a repeat, as we saw last night, a 10 over-under. I think that's fine. If the Milwaukee and Chicago game plays, that game could be 10-8 in either direction, because the wind blowing out, like, yes, Corbin Burns is a great pitcher. There's no question about that. But fly balls are just going to carry time with 18-mile-power wind. Like, that's not something he can control. So allowing too many fly balls or some fly balls can just turn into home runs because it's baseball and it's weird and there's wind blowing out in Wrigley. So I would certainly say that. And then you see this game with a 10 and a half total for the Boston and the Rays, Boston Red Sox and the Rays. Certainly, we could be seeing plenty of offense there. So those are the three games I would mostly turn to tonight for the most offense. Brandon's saying with Aeronado and Trey Turner. So that means you're going with a Cardinals-Dodgers thing. Of course, that's great on any night. I think it's specifically great tonight. Kyle Gibson, not a pitcher really to be worried about. I didn't talk about the Dodgers at length this morning. They're just in a great spot. They have a great offense. We know what we're getting from them. And of course, the Cardinals provide some home run upside against Will Kraub tonight. Totally on board. That thoughts on Alec Minoa for tonight. So Minoa is a solid pitcher. Obviously, we haven't seen the biggest sample size from him just due to the fact that it's his first year in the majors. But his strikeout stuff is real. I think it's the third highest on the slate. Copech doesn't matter. Lopez doesn't matter. Yeah, so he's the third highest on the slate. Burns, Gosman, and Alec Minoa at 28.2%. So I'm on board with him. The issue we have is his consistency about getting deeper into games. Him getting to six or seven innings is great, but five, 3.2 innings if he starts to get hit a little bit. And his pitch count has certainly got up there in these shorter outings. That's what he needs to control. Ultimately, I don't think the Angels are that much of a threat outside of Ohtani and Jared Walsh. Is he back for the Angels? Didn't he get activated off the IL? Was he still on the IL? Would be reinstated until Wednesday. So if he makes the lineup, like Jared Walsh is a good hitter, really the rest of our lineup isn't that good outside of Ohtani and whoever else it might be. So I'm totally on board with Alec Minoa tonight. And realistically, he shouldn't be that popular if everyone's going to be leaning towards Gosman or Montas. Like he falls in this weird mid-tier where it's like a pivot away from those two there. Kyle was saying, new to using fan graphs is the way to pull up just to project the pitchers. Yeah, so every day if you go to just fan graphs, like if you're on the fan graphs home page, if you go to scores, it's probable pitchers. It's right here. So underscores, it's probable pitchers. It's for the whole day's game. So it includes the day games that we had today. And then you could sort by anything. You look at their strikeout rate, you want to say, okay, what are they allowing in terms of home runs? You go to their batted ball profile. And they're like, okay, this pitchers allowing a lot of fly balls, but I want to be specifically looking at his lefty righty split. So I've then click on the pitcher and go to his splits specifically. And then you look at the game blog and you can filter, okay, is he getting worse or better versus lefties or righties. But it's right underscores and probable pitchers for today's. John Brown on YouTube is asking, how would you stack the blue jays tonight? Any which way? Every which way? Anyone who I can afford? I am on board with each and every blue jay tonight, outside of maybe Valera at the bottom of the lineup. But Guerrero, Springer, Bichette, Simeon are the absolute top four. I am going out of my way to get a lot of exposure to these hitters tonight. But this doesn't mean like I, I'm not going to be taking shares of Teosca Hernandez or Randall Bridget or Corey Dickerson. And Dickerson obviously makes a lot of sense in the middle lineup at the minimum salary. So do I want to spend up for these hitters? The large majority of the stacks that they have them? Yes, but I understand that Corey Dickerson is necessary, especially if I'm trying to pay up for Montas or Kevin Gosman. So if we look to like roster some of these hitters to begin with, let's shed in there and Springer like, we are stretching the salary pretty thin to begin with. And if you look to then roster Kevin Gosman, like you don't have a lot of salary at all, right? So if you look to roster Montas, like you still don't have a lot of salary. So if you were to leave off George Springer and then you want to pivot down to Corey Dickerson, simply do the salary relief. It makes lineup instruction just a little bit easier. So I want to get as much exposure to the top of the Toronto lineup as I possibly can. But I understand that the hitters will, the lower salary hitters and deeper in the lineup are absolutely necessary tonight. Runetti Moran, I'm hoping I'm pronouncing it right on YouTube, is saying Mets Mini Stack tonight. The Mets actually aren't on the main slate because they are picking up their game from yesterday. So they're not on the main slate. So just double check that depending on where you're playing. Do you think that, are you on, Jerry Winters is saying, are you on board with Philly tonight? Yes. I think Philly is a bit undervalued. I actually wrote about JT Real Muto tonight. I'm not like, where's Philly? 4.73 implied runs, sort of like, I'm not really worried about price. Where's price now? He's allowing like 1.3 something homeruns per nine this season. Obviously he has a smaller 1.24 homeruns per nine. That's overall, I think it's 1.3 something versus righties this season. Like I'm not overly worried about David Price. I understand that it's 1.35 versus righties. Like I understand that the Dodgers have a good bullpen, but he's going out here giving up multiple homeruns in three of his past four starts. Not appearances, three of his past four starts. So yeah, I kind of like Philly tonight. I'm on board with that. I wrote about Real Muto as potential under the radar option as a Torban option who has a bit of homerun upside. Brandon on YouTube is asking, who do you think is the best option after school ball? As a pitcher, I assume you mean in the lower salary? I'm turning to Evaldi tonight at $8,500. He was just obviously 100 cheaper. If we look to his stuff overall, 23.3% strikeout rate is good. It's not great. It's slightly below the league average. He's obviously not walking anyone, which is great. He's giving up very, very few homeruns, which is great to see. Huge medium contact for him. A lot of ground balls for him, which is good. We flipped to let's bring up the teams. The Rays, let's bring up their active roster. They're striking out 20, was it 3% of the time versus righties this season? Bring up their K rate. 23 or 25% of what it is, Tampa Bay, 24.9. So Tampa Bay is striking out a lot. Yes, they do have some serious power with a 205 ISO, a 116 WRC plus versus righties with their active roster, but they still strike out a lot. So Evaldi, not allowing homeruns, not walking hitters, and has an okay strikeout rate is a picture that I'm actually targeting tonight. So I do like him. Mike Mike's asking, sorry if I missed it, who would you pick as your best three RBI picks? Just any players to have RBI's, I assume you might mean this for a betting prop or something. The best three options on tonight, I think Vlad Guerrero is a very, very easy choice. I think you can be looking at him. Let's just give this a refresh to see if we get some updated players for the lineups. So Vlad Guerrero would be like my number one choice. He was my top homerun call on tonight's late. Oh, speaking of which, the second homerun call on tonight's late is Austin Hayes for the Baltimore Orioles. So top three RBI's would be Vladdy number one, totally going with Rafi Devers tonight too. I think that's a very easy answer as well. And then three would probably be someone from the Dodgers. Batting in the middle of their lineup, Max Muncie. He's just one of the most consistent hitters in the league. So Guerrero, Muncie, and Rafi Devers tonight. Also homerun pick after Vlad. Yeah, Austin Hayes tonight for the Baltimore Orioles. He is confirmed in their lineup tonight, which of course, great to see. Nice power upside for him going up against. Scoobal is allowing over two homeruns per nine to righties this season. Are you still going to have minimal exposure to the Brewers? The fuse is asking on YouTube. Obviously this is in question due to the weather. That really comes down to what information we have beforehand. If we get an update. So there's no update from Kevin Roth yet. Once we get something from him a little bit later, closer to lock. Yes, I want exposure to the Brewers. I would lean towards having exposure to the Brewers before I have exposure to Corbin Burns. Obviously, I think hitters, rostering a few hitters isn't as risky as taking up 11,000 of your salary for pitcher. So that's something we of course need to pay attention to. So yes, I'm still going to have some exposure to the Brewers to answer your question. Tim Vest is back with his moneyline question. The best bets of the or best moneylines for Ted Day. I mean the Blue Jays at minus 188, obviously a heavy favor. They are in a spot to put up a ton of runs against Dillon Bundy, who's certainly not a good pitcher. The Dodgers don't have a whole lot of juice at minus, what is it? Dodgers minus 136. I think that's totally fine. You know Detroit, I guess they could steal a game on the road against the Orioles. Like I'm not worried about Matt Harvey or the Orioles bullpen. That game is absolutely closer to a point flip. So I would say the Blue Jays, the Dodgers are probably my two favorite and then we could go Tigers, Red Sox, Cardinals as the next few. Yeah, should I stay away from Wade Miley tonight and do you like Detroit as a stack? Yes, I like Detroit as a stack as well. I think we could be seeing a similar game from Detroit and Baltimore as we saw last night. Late start, but we do see plenty of offense just because, you know, ultimately, you know, screwball is not a great pitcher. As I've said, I'm fully stacking against them tonight. But, you know, Baltimore does have strikeouts in that lineup. So I do like Detroit as a stack. I do like that as a full game stack. I think we should see plenty of scoring. And should you stay away from Wade Miley? Like Wade Miley is not a pitcher that like I love rostering just because he has a very low strikeout rate, but he also doesn't give up a whole lot of home runs. Like 0.67 home runs per nine from him is obviously so, so low. And he is producing like such large quantities of medium contact that like, you know, the upside against him is rather limited. What am I clicking on here? Let's go to Wade Miley splits. Or I'll just look at his stuff overall because the splits ultimately don't matter. Like 59% medium contact and a 50% ground ball rate is something that just like he just keeps the ball down. He just deads it and, you know, doesn't allow hitters elevated. So I don't love stacking against Wade Miley because there's not a whole lot of upside I should say. So I would lean towards rostering Wade Miley instead of the Atlanta bats, if that makes sense. Who's your favorite teams tonight? Toronto for stacking, I think is an obvious one. I think they're going to the Dodgers is also very obvious. But then we can be taking playing shots with Boston, St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit. I think these teams are all fully in play. And then yes, of course, the Brewers are the team that we want to play tonight because the home run upside for them is immense going up against Jake Arietta, of course, with 18 mile power wind blowing out. We'll get an update on that. Best stacking method for tonight. Tonight's probably going to be like a big 4-3-1 type of stack tonight for me, type of stacks tonight. Like we have some very clear offenses that we want to be targeting. And, you know, the three stack, as much as I might have plenty of exposure to Toronto, Toronto could easily turn into a lot of three stacks for me just because they are so expensive, right? And that's where, you know, we need a little bit of solid relief where, you know, we could go to plenty of players on Toronto but ultimately paying up for their home run upside is expensive if you're rostering, you know, three or four players above $3,900. So I will also look to Toronto as great one-offs. You don't have to get full exposure to their team but taking Guerrero or Springer as a one-off for that home run potential is absolutely a great call tonight. David Price tonight. Team Teal on Twitch is asking, Price is really not an option that I'm going to be looking to tonight. I understand that he is, his salary is obviously very low but even in some of these starts, like he's not going super deep into games, right? You know, 5.1, 5.2 winnings is obviously not great. He's also not striking out a whole lot of hitters. So, you know, we are talking about a very, very limited upside from him. Even at $6,600, like you would need him to get, I don't even think he gets the six innings tonight. Great, like I just don't see a whole lot of upside for David Price tonight. So this is a player, you know, Price is a player that I simply just removed from my player pool, not a spot that I'd be willing to go. Tyler Anderson at $7,400 is probably the cheapest picture that I will be having exposure to tonight. Really just like, I think his matchup is good and I'm not going to Bundy, not going to Arietta. The wind, he's just also not good this year. No Harvey, no Price, no Howard, no Crow, Will Crow. Josh Fleming also not an option branded. Can you make a full lineup? No, that's not something we do here. No full lineups. It would be Toronto as the main stack. If I can afford to pay up for Kevin Gosman, that would certainly be an option depending on who I take from Toronto. That's where Fort Diersen comes into play and then looking to filter in like a secondary stack like St. Louis, I think is totally a viable option. Savon on YouTube is asking, when I stack, I feel like it works sometimes, but when I check the top of the leaderboards, top players barely stack players. They do look at two, two and four one-offs. So yes, that's also a not viable option. You can go three, three and some one-offs. You can go three, two and some one-offs. You can go, someone brought up last week. They said they were doing four, a four stack and then four one-offs. That's all these are viable strategies. As I said, one of the writers on Number 5, he did a study about what consistently hits now. Like I said, it's baseball. Anything can happen on any given day. And if you hit on those two or three players to all have home runs, then yes, you could jump to the top of leaderboards with anything. A four, two, two is viable. A four, two, one, one is viable. Anything can work as long as you're targeting the right players for the right home run upside and it fits within your roster construction. So I personally lean towards like four, three, one the most. As I've said, four, four is still something that I go to. But four, three, one, four, two, one, one, four, two, two, these are all viable strategies when it comes to stacking. Derek on YouTube is saying, if you have two quality catchers like Colorado and Baltimore, is it prudent to put two in your lineups at the catcher first base spot and one at utility? So catchers generally just produce less compared to other positions. This is not something that's new. This is like tight ends in football where tight ends on average just produce less fantasy points compared to other positions. That's just the fact. So I don't look to roster two catchers too often. It's more about how they would fit into stacks overall. Like if I'm looking to roster the Phillies, it'd be just, okay, let me take real mutual because I want him. And if I also happen to be stacking the Dodgers and Will Smith fits into a stack, then yes, I will roster two catchers, one in the catcher spot, one in the utility, but it's not like I'm targeting two catchers specifically. It's more about the bigger picture. DJ on Facebook is asking, keep Brian Hayes, Ty France or Eugenio Suarez tonight. So Suarez tonight going up against Toku, Toussaint, I think is a fine option. We do see him allowing a few home runs here and there. Ty France, like I said, Seattle, kind of a sneaky plate tonight, going up against Spencer Howard for Texas, obviously, newly acquired from the Phillies at the trade deadline. He was allowing too many home runs this season. I know he's like, or was a highly rated prospect for the Phillies, but too many home runs. So I would lean towards France and Suarez before keep Brian Hayes. I think keep Brian Hayes, it has a bright future. Like he has a very bright future in this league, just not necessarily a spot that I'm looking to go to. Adam Wainwright is a good pitcher. You know, I said I'm not a whole, I'm not like totally on board with him tonight, especially due to his salary being a bit higher. He's only got like 22.5% strike rate from Adam Wainwright and he's $9,600, like that's not a salary I love to pay for a pitcher that has that low. It's 22.8%. It's like that's not a salary that I'm like super interested in paying, but Adam Wainwright is a good pitcher and we shouldn't see too much production from Pittsburgh tonight. So, you know, a couple more questions. You guys have a couple more minutes of time for a couple more questions. Overall, this slate, you know, one of the key things, the weather on tonight's slate. We need an update for this Chicago-Milwaukee game just because, you know, this could, it's great hitting weather, as Kevin Roth is saying here, great hitting weather if this game does play. We just need an update because I have a lot of interest in the stacks here. I have interest in Corbin Burns, it just matters on what we actually get an update on. Here are my top three pitchers on tonight's slate. Marvin on Facebook is asking, all things considered, it would be a Gosmin Montas then Burns if we're factoring in the potential weather issues with that Milwaukee-Chicago game. So, Gosmin is number one, Montas will be number two, and then Burns number three. That is, I think, the easiest way to put it. Obviously, as we dip down into torments, if you're willing to differentiate your exposure, I think that's where you can take some shots with Aleph Inouye, you can take some shots with Yovaldi. You could certainly mix in some shares of Tyler Anderson. All right, so that does it for today's Q&A. I think we're in a spot where we could see a lot of offense on tonight's slate. We do have some good pitchers to pay up for as well. Really should be a well-rounded slate overall. Again, this is the last show that I'll be doing. Jim Sons, we'll be back tomorrow morning for the solo shot, live on the Feindl YouTube page at 9 a.m. You can follow me on Twitter at dfs-tom. Until next time, good luck in your contests.