 Sometimes playing MLB DFS forces you to get outside of your comfort zone and that is going to be the case for tonight in this instance, it is going to be rostering bad offenses in good matchups and good situations for hitting it is not fun It is not comfortable. It is not reassuring But I think for tonight it may be necessary based on the stacking options. We have at our disposal We're gonna break down which those bad teams are we may want to stack why that's the case And how we can stack them without limiting ourselves and using players who don't bring a lot of upside to the table Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Saunas. I am a senior writer and analyst for a number fire here to break down today's seven game A main slate with locks up for 707 p.m Eastern for today two extra minutes to destroy your line-ups before lock for tonight Only two weather notes across the slate the first one is in Minneapolis for the twins and Yankees only 45 degrees there At first pitch the temperature. I would down three hitters there in a pretty big way the total reflects that so Keep that in mind, but I do think the twins may still be in stacking in play for stacking We'll talk about that later on the roof should be open in Arizona for Arizona and the Royals It is 87 degrees there. That is the best spot for hitting on the slate by a pretty decent margin So upgrade bats for the Royals and Arizona what could possibly go wrong stacking those teams I don't know, but we're gonna do it. We'll talk about that later on We'll dig into bad offenses on this slate pitching options Which are much more palatable and much more 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 we were back with the PGA podcast tomorrow breaking down the Mexico open to myself and branding a doula Let's make sure you check that out on the the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed in these solo shots also do go up on the Fandal YouTube page as well if you like what you hear it thumbs up over on YouTube or give us a five star rating over on Apple Podcasts the NBA playoffs are here and you can get in on the action right from first tip with Fandal right now All customers can get a no sweat first bet or no sweat same game parlay every weekend when you bet the NBA playoffs That's right Just place a three-plus leg same game parlay or same game parlay plus on any NBA playoff game You'll get bonus bets back if you don't win There's no better place to bet all the playoff action than America's number one sports book head to the Fandal app And get a no sweat same game parlay every weekend of the NBA playoffs Fandal official sports betting partner of the NBA must be 21 plus and president select states Fandal is offering online the sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas star casino LLC Bonus issued is not with trouble bonus bets that expire seven days after a seat Restricted supply see terms at sportsbook.fandal.com gambling problem call 1-800 gambler What was the fandal.com slash RG in Massachusetts hope is here gambling help line MA dot org or call 800 3 2 7 50 50 for 24 7 support in New York 1 8 7 7 8 hope and wire text open Y in Arizona 1 800 next step or text next step to 5 3 3 4 2 in Connecticut 1 8 8 7 8 9 7 7 7 7 7 or visit ccp g dot org slash chat in Indiana 109 with it in Wyoming in Kansas 1 800 5 2 2 4700 in Kansas case gambling help calm Louisiana is 1 8 7 7 7 7 7 0 stop in Maryland MD gambling help or in West Virginia Go to 1 800 gambler net pitching preview for this Monday main slave Spencer Strider comes in with the highest Salary on Fandal. He comes in 11 to we got sunny gray at 10 6 Brad Keller is a 92 with Jordan Montgomery 9000 Alex Cobb and Chris Bassett are the other two guys at eight thousand dollars or higher now This is not the deepest slay for pitching where we got some good guys, but It's not deep and I think that that lack of depth makes Spencer Strider The pretty clear top option here by a healthy amount he's facing the Marlins which is a good matchup for floor because just a 99 WRC plus against righty's with a 33% fly ball rate They don't strike out a ton just 21% against righty's That's why it's a high floor matchup and not typically a high ceiling one But I think with Spencer Strider every matchup is a high ceiling one We're up to a 13 start sample on strider to throw in more sliders and in that time He has nine plus strikeouts in 10 out of 13 games including nine straight He has hit nine in all four games so far this year and those weren't necessarily High strikeout matchups either The Marlins don't have super drawn-out plate appearances They average three point eight six pitches for plate appearance on their current active roster since the start of last year Which is about average and that's a spot where strider does struggle So it is nice to have that in that regard I've got strider projected for eight point nine as strikeouts tonight Nobody else is within two strikeouts of him So he's probably the only guy on this slate who can get you 60 plus fangirl points Maybe sunny gray, but I do think striders the primary guy there So to me Spencer Strider deserves to be the obvious top option and may be obvious But sometimes it's obvious for a reason so Spencer strider to me is the number one guy here Now sunny gray is facing the Yankees, which is still a tough matchup But it's less tough with no Jean-Carlo Stanton really hurts the depth within this lineup And I think that gives us wiggle room to use gray tonight gray is going with a new approach so far this year as a pitcher He's throwing more sliders and fewer forcing fastballs and that has impacted negatively his bad of ball data Where he's led up a 45% fly ball rate across four starts with a 40% hard hit rate So that's a negative But the strikeouts are very much there. He has a 28% strikeout rate Gray's swing and strike rate is 12% which is a career high and his e-array is 082 now That's not sustainable, but his expected e-array is very good as well at 3.25 And that does a good job of factoring in the amount of hard contact. He is allowed We saw gray get 13 strikeouts in one start so the upside is definitely there It's good weather for pitching in Minneapolis. I've got gray projected for 6.7 strikeouts Which ranks second behind just rider so it's not a super comfy spot I can't call anything facing Aaron judge comfy, but I think things align to make gray a good play for today So while striders definitively number one, I've got gray definitively number two and both guys I think stand out relative to the pack for tonight as far as the value plays go I think there are two legitimate options here and I'm very open to both We'll talk about both here today. What is Lance Lynn against the Jays? He is on the road which is a difference maker for me. So we'll talk about him in things to watch my favorite value play though It's going to be Alex Cobb Cobb is facing the Cardinals, which is always a tough spot They are very good against righties and lefties. They're better against lefties But very good against righties and they don't strike out very much But Cobb is looked really good so far this year similar to gray new approach so far He's got a slider now and it's working very well. He uses that pitch primarily against righties in the Cardinals If you want to neutralize Nolan Aronato, Paul Goldschmidt You need a pitch to get them out and it does seem like Cobb has that now in his four starts He has a 26% strikeout rate with a 2.91 skill interactive. Yeah, Ray Like Ray he's letting up hard contact But most of that hard contact is on the ground Cobb has a 59% ground ball rate so far this year now The one big downside with Cobb is he does sometimes get yanked early But he went 97 pitches in one game and he went 92 in another so he can go long when he's pitching well And I feel at least decent about him There is some risk with the length and that's not a risk that Lance Lynn carries So I could see going towards him instead, but I like Cobb. I like the home park I like the salary at 86 so I won't fight you if you want to go in But I would get a slight extra Cobb personally and make him my number two pitcher of the night So to me the rankings are strider one gray two and then I would go with with Alex Cobb took me a second there to find in the nose Alex Cobb number three Lance Lynn number four after accounting for salary. I think all those guys are good options for tonight again We'll talk more about Lynn later on Let's take into the stacks and we'll talk about the bad ones in a second But at least we can begin things with a an offense We are comfortable with one we like one we have stacked quite a bit so far this year and that's the angels the angels I think are in a good spot once again today in a team that we want to stack once again They're facing Ken Waldechuck who has had a rough start so far this year Is he already at seven point six five across four starts his expected era is five point seven four Not many strikeouts too many walks and that leads to a lot of base runners Now the bad at bald data for Waldechuck is not terrible But it's also not good enough to negate the issues he has had elsewhere Waldechuck didn't have a good outing last week But the angels tagged him for three home runs and six earned in his first start this year The rays hit four home runs against him So now we get the angels here facing him for a second time They've already seen him and they hit him really well I would not be shocked if they do that once again So I want to be high on the angels here once again. I think they're a great stat Lefties we can feel good about them They've got depth in this lineup even with Logan a hop being out But I think that they are a good option here today now part of that depth is Taylor Ward and Ward Has really struggled been underwhelming so far this year. That's why his salary is very unreasonable at $2,900 The barrel rate for Ward is roughly half of what it was last year The hard hit rate is still decent and it's the same with the fly ball rate But he's not hitting his ceiling here recently But in the past week Ward does have a couple barrels So he may turn it around the peripherals here are not elite Which is why I'm not leaping to use him, but the situation is good for tonight. So I do like Ward at 29 I would probably not be there if you were like 35 or so But for 29 in a good stack that I want to use with the platoon advantage I know Ward isn't been the best against lefties, but I still think that the number should be there So Taylor Ward to me viable as a value of 29 to help get you to my trout, etc. Etc. As mentioned before the best weather on the plate is Arizona for the Royals and Diamondbacks and Neither offense is great, but we want to value weather. We want to get that in there And I think it's gonna force us to stack Kansas City now That's not fun because they've been awful so far this year But I do think there is enough here to make us feel good about it in their ways We can circumvent it which we'll talk about in a second the Royals are facing Tommy Henry Who is taking Madison Bumgarner spot in the rotation and Henry was not lighting it up in triple-A to Bang on the door for this promotion down there He had a 4.97 x-vip. He had a 6.33 era, which is similar to what he had in the majors last year He made nine starts in the big leagues and his skill interactive era was 4.93 He had a low strikeout rates and you let up enough hard contact and fly balls For us to feel good about stacking against him Henry does get a cushy matchup here because the Royals have been hideous against Everyone to open this year their WRC plus is 61 that is abysmal The hope is that they can get things going tonight in a good weather in a good matchup And hopefully a great park for hitting so It's not fun to stack a team that's been the worst in baseball so far this year But maybe the good matchup can ignite them and maybe facing a lefty will be good too because They get the platoon advantage for a Bobby Witt Salvador Perez Edward Olivares and Jay Melendez Actually has a higher ISO in his career against lefties and righties I don't expect that to continue, but it tells me that he's not over matched against lefties Which is a good thing for sure against a young leftie to see that and he's crushing the ball so far this year Despite bad results their active roster the Royals since the start of last year has a 97 WRC plus against lefties versus 82 against righties So the hope here is that facing a lefty can help put them In a better spot than what they've been in so far this year So I would say Witt Perez Olivares are all guys of upside and then Melendez You can use despite not having the platoon advantage here and feel good about that So hopefully that allows us to stack the Royals without using low upside guys Not sure if it will but I think that's the way I want to play things for tonight given the stacking options We have available the weather for tonight for the twins is bad and that does hurt things quite a bit This will also feel like stacking a low upside offense than what the Royals are for a very different reason But I think that we may want to stack them despite the low temperatures despite the super low implied total I think they're still in play for today They're facing Johnny Brito who they just saw two starts ago and the twins hit him really hard He lasted just two-thirds of knitting let up seven runs no strikeouts in one walk The twins put eight balls and play in that game Six of those were hard hits and two of them were barreled Brito also let up two barrels the start after that against the angels so It doesn't seem like this is an issue for Brito and the miners because he had a 3.31 ERA and triple a last year despite a low strikeout right and you don't typically Have that good of an ERA with a low strikeout rates if you're not suppressing hard contact But it's not ideal the team the twins just on last week or two weeks ago. They hit him hard now They get to see him again And they're healthier now than they were at that time So the twins to me a quality stack here despite the bad weather in Minneapolis for tonight It kind of seems like max kepler might be getting back to lifting the ball which he did not do last year He had a 34 fly ball right last year It's 47 in a small sample this year. His ISO is 225 potentially as a direct result of that The eye at the play for kepler doesn't seem perfect yet. Maybe it's a changed approach to try to generate more power I'm not sure but you know, I think that Looking at kepler last year you needed to see and put the ball in the air more often to get to To get out of last year's funk and he's doing that so far So I do like kepler the salary and kepler very reasonable here at $2,500 I can get behind that Jorge Polanco didn't have a good rehab stint But didn't hit a home run yesterday. It's look good so far in the majors. So he's 26 I think that that makes a lot of sense. I can get behind that and maybe if Alex Keraloff were to be activated He's $2,200. He think he had a home runner, you know, he did something in triple On a rehab stint yesterday. So if Keraloff gets added to then the twins can be very healthy in a good spot, but Really good value option if you want to get to strider while using maybe my trout within your angel stacks as well So the royals tough option because they're bad the twins a tough option because they're in bad weather But I still think both those teams deserve our attention for tonight Let's go now to things to watch and expand on on lance lin very quickly He's had horrible results so far this year So maybe odd to hear me saying I'm open to him despite being on the road and facing Toronto but He's had good strikeout numbers and those stabilized more quickly than the bad at ball data Which has been pretty rough for lin so far 28 strike area for lance lin across four starts I think that means he has a path to a nice game for gfs You don't find that very often for $7,800. So He's worthy to look here. I do prefer ox cob, but lance lin no length concerns there Just more about the match from being on the road and the the hard contact than anything else I definitely gave consideration to stacking Arizona instead of the twins in the third slot there in large part because of the weather Arizona facing brad keller and he's The part of the reason why I pushed them down is because keller is letting out just a 22 fly ball rate With his new repertoire that he has this year But he is walking a lot of guys a lot of ton of strikeouts. So there is some window to get to him here I would say arizona just a smidge below the twins for tonight I'm very open to Detroit for one offs. This is another thing within the bad offense Theme for tonight. It's mostly just I want to use kerry carpenter though They're facing collin ray who has struggled with fly balls and hard contact across two starts and The tigers don't have a lot of guys who can supply that to give ray issues, but kerry carpenter is one He has a 20 percent barrel rate this year. It was 11 last year. So that's not a huge fluke His salary is $2,700 I adore him. I think that um If you find other guys in this tigers line, if you like cool good for you, I don't I think for me, it's primarily just carpenter But he's got upside you can hit the ball deep He can hit some dingers barrels it up good match up Should have the roof closed in milwaukee for tonight. So kerry carpenter a good one-off at $2,700 Carpenter will be in our dinger calls too. So let's finish things out there. He'll be the fun one I could have gone melendez kind of fun because of the lefty a lefty thing You don't see a lot of lefties lefties. Well, melendez seems like he may be one. So Considered him. I do like his home run odds at vandal sportsbook for tonight at six to one We'll go kerry carpenter. He's also picked plus six 30 over at vandal sportsbook So carpenter is a fun one for today the boring one. It's mike trout Mike trout against lefty who's struggled so far this year. I don't get to sock mike trout super often But I think with the presence of the twins and their low salary guys Uh with guys like uh the royal with the royals being in play with low salaries We can probably get to mike trout tonight and I kind of want to do so So digger calls for monday mike trout and kerry carpenter But kerry carpenter is basically mike trout anyway, so they're effectively the exact same thing That is all that we have here for today on the solo shot back with you once again tomorrow to break down Tuesday slate should be a juicy one there and also we'll have the pga podcast back with brandy gandula Make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast me to get that podcast Right as it is posted and make make sure you check us out on the fandal youtube page to subscribe there Hit the thumbs up button if you like what you hear or give us a five star rating over on apple podcasts If you have 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 fandal podcast network at fandal podcast want to thank you all for tuning in for today Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lineups first night We'll talk to you once again tomorrow to break down Tuesday slate This has been the solo shot right here on the fan duel podcast network