 What's going on and welcome to the solo shot? My name is Tom Vecchio. We have a six-game MLB Slate tonight. Lock is set for 640. As always, this is one of the many shows on the Feindl podcast network. You can find that anywhere, whether it's Apple Podcast, whether it's Spotify, the video version can be found on the Feindl YouTube page. It can be found on Feindl TV Plus. It can also be found on feindl.com slash watch. And you can follow me on Twitter at Tom underscore Vecchio 1. Before we hop into things, get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from Feindl America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Plus, all customers who bet $5 will get $100 off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Now is the best time to join Feindl. The app is easy to use and you can bet on everything from spreads to player props and more. Feindl official partner of the NFL must be 21 plus and present in select states. 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End of a Sunday ticket offer in September 1823. No refunds, terms, and embargoes apply 100 off End of a Sunday ticket. Not YouTube TV. YouTube TV base plan required to watch YouTube TV. Your redemption requires a Google account and current form of payment. Commercial use excluded. All right. Let's jump into tonight's six game slate starting at 640. We are looking very, very clear when it comes to weather. It's still hot in New York for the Yankees. There's a little bit of wind blowing in. Still hot there. Obviously good hitting environment. Hot in Atlanta. A little bit of wind blowing out. The one note somewhat minor is that it's 64 degrees in Chicago at Wrigley Field for the Cubs. They're hosting the Diamondbacks. And there's about 10 mile per hour wind blowing in. We know that Wrigley Field is a park that is particularly impacted by wind, both positively and negatively. So extra wind blowing in and some moderately cool temperatures is a nice bump to the pitching there. Speaking of pitching, let's get right to it starting off with the most expensive option on tonight's slate. That would be Max Freed of the Atlanta Braves, 10.6. Luis Castillo of the Mariners, 10.3. Eduardo Rodriguez for the Tigers at 9.9. Only three options that are above $9,000. Ryan Pepio at $8,900 for the Dodgers. Javier Asad for the Cubs at $8,500. And then Braxton Garrett for the Marlins at $8,100. It's clear that both Freed and Castillo are the two best pitchers on tonight's slate. And really Castillo is the best pitcher on tonight's slate when it comes to a fantasy perspective. He's coming in with an awesome 26.8% strikeout rate, 5.9% walk rate this season, which are both super strong. And just we trust him when it comes to his strikeout upside as he has shown. When we look to Max Freed, he has a 25.8% strikeout rate this season, but it comes in a much smaller 60.2 inning sample size. If we look back to really the course of Freed's career, over the past three seasons, he's been at a 22.3, 23.7, and 23.2% strikeout rate. And those are, you know, from solid sample size. This year he's striking out batters at a little bit of a higher clip, but we got to remember he missed a lot of time on the IL. Freed is not traditionally known as a high strikeout pitcher, Castillo is. So I think we can be looking to Castillo tonight for that strikeout upside. He is going up against the Tampa Bay Rays. This is somewhat of a difficult matchup in the grand scheme of things, but 10.3 is certainly a fair salary to be paying for Luis Castillo. We look to some of the other stuff for Castillo. He comes in a 3.68 Sierra, which is skill interactive earring. He's mostly a medium contact pitcher at 47.1%. Very, very slightly a fly ball pitcher at 42.7%. His ground ball rate is 39.2. So it's just skewing slightly two fly balls. He's been largely a ground ball pitcher for the entirety of his career, except for this season. And again, it's only slightly at 42 fly ball, 39 ground ball. So it's very, very slightly there. This year he's also allowing 1.33 homeruns per 9, which is the highest of his career since 2018. Over the past three seasons, he's been below 1.0 homeruns per 9. So a few more fly balls this year, and he's allowing a few more homeruns. It's not too much of a surprise. You know, I do expect that to regress towards his career numbers. So that's certainly a spot we can be looking. When it comes to Tampa Bay overall, they come in with a 23% strikeout rate this season versus right-handed pitching, which is the 14th worst in the league. It's right at, you know, league average, slightly worse than league average. It's certainly a good-ish match up for Castillo, who we know has that double-digit strikeout potential. You know, at 10.6, you know, can we make an argument for Freed, who's a super solid real-life pitcher, but he's never been that high strikeout pitcher. Yes, as I said, he's striking out hitters a little bit more than he normally is this season, but 10.6 is certainly a lot to pay for Freed, especially in a six-game slate when we're dealing with limited value options. So up at the top, I certainly prefer Castillo. Now I will say Eduardo Rodriguez at 9.9. It's certainly very interesting tonight, and I think he makes a nice pivot away from Freed or Castillo. The Yankees are kind of hot-ish right now. They've won five games in a row, whatever it might be, they've kind of been looking decent for the past two weeks or so. But in reality, this is a team that has struggled, you know, mightily for the large majority of this season. So if you want to, you know, go against the green, most people will be going to Castillo and Freed, and you want to go for Rodriguez. I don't hate that, specifically when it comes to tournaments. I would look for Freed or Castillo when it comes to the safety. Obviously, Castillo being number one. Now when it comes to some of these less expensive options, Ryan Pepio, Javier Assad, you know, where can we possibly be looking? You know, I got to say Ryan Pepio is an option that I think I'm going to be looking at tonight. 26.4% strikeout rate, 3.8% walk rate is certainly very solid. We have to caveat this with an extremely small 14-inning sample size this season for the Dodgers. Now if we look back to last year, when he was also back up with the Dodgers, he had a 36.1-inning sample size, and he comes with a 26.3% strikeout rate, but he had a 16.9% walk rate. So it was still a small sample size last year, and his walk rate was astronomically high. And this year, it's an even smaller sample size, and it's impossibly low his strikeout rate. He does have a 3.23 Sierra this year, again, super small sample size. I'm largely interested in him due to the matchup going up against the Marlins, and realistically his salary, which is really solid at $8,909, and something that we're going to want, again, with a smaller slate. And I think the hitting options on tonight's slate are relatively clear, where we're going to be wanting to be getting to the Dodgers and the Braves just because they should be just the best hitting options that we have tonight. So Ryan Pepio at $8,900 is certainly an option that I'm going to be considering just because of his salary. And again, the matchup going up against the Marlins is looking like a solid one that we can attack. Yes, they don't strike out a whole lot. It's only 20.4% this season versus right-handed pitching with their active roster, which is 25th in a league. So they're actually rather disciplined at the plate. It's largely due to the fact that they're coming with a 95 with WRC Plus versus right-handed pitching right now, which is 22nd in a league. And they're also rocking a Team ISO against righties at 150, which is 25th in a league. So this is an offense that doesn't have a whole lot of power. They're not getting on base of the ton. They're not producing a whole lot of runs, but they also don't strike out a ton. And I think that's okay for Ryan Pepio. We can get five strikeouts from him, hopefully maybe six. He gets the QS points. Maybe he gets the win points. I know we don't want to be banking those on a nightly basis, but that's what is realistic for Pepio tonight. I will also be considering Javier Assad for the Chicago Cubs at $8,500. And he's looked good over some of his recent starts since he really has joined the rotation for the Cubs. And as I mentioned, it is cooler in Chicago tonight with wind blowing in. And I think this is something that we want to take advantage of. I would still be looking at Castillo as the number one pitching option tonight, but at $8,500 with these favorable pitching conditions for Javier Assad, I'm interested tonight. And he's not going to have the same strikeout rate as some of these other pitchers. It's at 19.3% this year, strikeout rate for Javier Assad, which is below the league average. He's only allowing 0.93 homeruns per nine, which is great to see. He has a 4.62 Sierra, which is obviously not amazing. It's coming from an 87-inning sample size this year. He was partially in the bullpen. He's recently been pulled into the starting rotation. The good thing about Javier Assad though, big-time, medium-contact ground ball pitcher. And I think they should play well tonight because we already have these great hitting conditions, great pitching conditions, which should limit the hitting for the offenses. You know, this is a spot that he could really excel and provide great point-per-dollar value tonight. A 52.8% medium-contact rate and 47.8% ground ball rate is really, really solid. That should allow him to truly limit the damage tonight. He also comes in with a 255 batting average of balls and play-in. Listen, if he's going to keep the ball down and he's going to prevent hard contact, this is a spot that he really should thrive. Going up against Arizona, who I know are a good offense. Corbin Carroll left the game yesterday. Oh, with this wrist thing or panting, whatever he's got going on. So, their line could be slightly, slightly weaker compared to what it was at yesterday. As a team right now, for their active roster, they come in with a 108 WRC plus versus righties, which is just barely above league average. So, Arizona is not an offense that I'm particularly worried about tonight, given the pitching conditions at Wrigley, considering what Javier Assad can do with his pitching profile, keeping the ball down, limiting the hard contact. So, pitching tonight, I want to say, is relatively straightforward. I don't have interest in any of these other pitchers. The one note that I will make is that Griffin Canning for the Los Angeles Angels is expected to start tonight. That's not fully confirmed. You know, Griffin Canning has certainly got some strikeout upside, but he's going up against Cleveland Sun, an offense that does not strike out a lot versus righties. The Guardians right now come in with an 18.2% strikeout versus right-handed pitching with their active roster, which is 30th in the league. They are the most disciplined team at the plate, but they also don't have a whole lot of power with a 141 WRC plus, excuse me, a 141 ISO and a 99 WRC plus versus righties. 99 WRC plus and a 141 ISO. So, they don't bring a whole lot of power to the plate, but they also don't strike out a whole lot. So, it's kind of a mixed bag if Griffin Canning were to be the starting pitcher for the Angels. He's someone I could have a little bit of interest in, you know, depending on if he is fully confirmed. Now, when it comes to stacks on tonight's slate, as I said, things are pretty straightforward of where we want to be looking. It's a smaller slate. We're dealing with limited value options. We're also probably going to be dealing with a whole lot of chalk, and the chalk is going to be Atlanta Braves, probably number one, and then number two is probably going to be the Los Angeles Dodgers. And this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. These are obviously two of the best offenses in the league, arguably the Braves with the best offense in the league, where they are the best offense in the league, and they're going up against Adam Wainwright, and Wainwright is just not a good pitcher at this point in his career. There's really no other way to put it. He comes in with an 11.1% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate. He's allowing 1.73 homeruns per nine. He has a 373 babbit, and he comes with a 585 Sierra. It is not a good pitching profile for Adam Wainwright. He's getting hit. He's getting hit hard. He's allowing runners on base. He's not dominant on the mound with the strikeouts. He's allowing homeruns like X, Y, and Z. You name it for Adam Wainwright, and it has not gotten well for him this season. Now he has to face the league's best offense. Who's on there? What are they on? A two-game losing streak, three-game losing streak, like this just seems like the get-right spot for the Braves to pile up seven runs before you know it in the fourth inning or whatever it's going to be, and they're going to hit multiple homeruns. The issue is that we're dealing with a smaller slate, and we have pretty clear pitching options on tonight where we want to pay $10.3 for Luis Castillo. If you want to get the max free, that's fine. He's $10.6. Ryan Pepio is $8.9. The Braves are just so expensive, and this is where Assad or Pepio really come into play because Acuna's $4.8. Matt Olson, who's finally getting the homeruns going, he was without a homerun for like two and a half weeks or something, three weeks wherever it might be. He's $4.2. Austin Riley's $3.9. Marcelo Zun is $3.8. Ozzy Albie's is $3.7. Like, we know that the Braves are super expensive on any given slate, but especially in a smaller slate where they really should be the chalk because they're just in the best spot. So the Braves tonight are a team that I think we got to have exposure to. That's what it comes down to. You just got to eat the chalk at least a little bit, and it depends on who you can get into your lunch and what you're doing with your pitching, mixing and matching these players. The Braves are just a bit of a priority tonight, and I don't think that's going to be too much of a surprise or too much of a hot take no matter where you look today. So the Braves are extremely clear tonight. It's just a matter of how many of them can you get into your lineup. Is it going to be three? Is it going to be a full four-man stack? What kind of salary you have available, et cetera, et cetera. So that's the spot that I want to be certainly looking. The Dodgers also going up against Braxton Garrett. I think it's certainly fine. Braxton Garrett's not, you know, he has some strikeout upside at times. He's not necessarily a pitcher I'm too worried about. The Dodgers are also on a two-game losing streak or whatever it is. They won on Sunday versus the Braves if I remember correctly. And then they've lost a couple to Miami. So like this is also another kind of get-right spot for the Dodgers where I just want to be trusting their offense. And frankly, Braxton Garrett I think is a good pitcher. He's not great. And the Dodgers just have a better offense than Braxton is of a pitcher. So I'm going to be doing the same thing with the Dodgers as the name of the Braves. How many of them can I fence my lineups? Is it going to be Mookie? Is it going to be Freeman? Is it going to be Muncie? Will Smith going down the line? Which of them can I afford? Now the question becomes, where can we find the value on tonight's slate to kind of make this work in terms of roster construction? And that might be with the Detroit Tigers tonight. They are on the road visiting the Yankees. As I mentioned, this is still some pretty good hitting weather in New York. Carlos Rodon is on the mound for the Yankees and he's coming off of a few good starts. Obviously, they're good compared to where he was at earlier portions of the year. But still a 20% strikeout rate this year is not good. An 11.4% walk rate is not good. He's lying 2.32 homeruns per 9 is absolutely terrible. And again, combined with the hitting weather in New York and a stadium like Yankee Stadium, which we know is very favorable, it's a dangerous mix. 57% fly ball rate this year from Rodon and a 41.8% hard contact rate is a dangerous mix. And as I've talked about before plenty of times on this podcast, you know, filling in for Jim over the past few seasons, pitchers who have a high walk rate, who allow fly balls, who allow hard contact are my favorite to attack because you're letting runners on base for free, which just presents so much fantasy upside for the following hitters. And when you're going to be allowing fly balls, that's where we should be looking for that fantasy potential. So the Tigers, I think, are that team tonight in terms of a secondary stack because of their salaries, where Spencer Torkelson and Parker Meadows at 3300 both, they are tied for the most expensive player on the Tigers. After that, everyone else is 3K and below. So this is where we get the value for some hitters to pair with the Dodgers, to pair with the Braves. So yes, I would love to have Torkelson and Meadows in my life. Parker Meadows, by the way, not Austin Meadows. We want to get these players into our lineups. So if you want to take a shot with someone, a bit of a value play like Jake Rogers, the catcher was at 313 ISO versus lefties this year, that's something we want to be going to. Can we also, of course, we're going to Torkelson with a 275 ISO? Absolutely. Andy Ibanez with a 258 ISO. And these players are very, very affordable. Andy Ibanez is 2,200. Jake Rogers is 2,500. So this is where the salary relief comes on a small six-game slate. Now, Javi Baez hasn't been super great this year, but he's still 2,500. And if you're going to be taking a Detroit stack and you can't afford to pay up for Torkelson or Meadows because you want to pay up for Olson and Riley and Acuña, this is where we find every bit of salary relief we possibly can. So I'm interested in Detroit tonight because of the hitting weather, because of the park factor, and because of Rogue Done, who really just doesn't have the season. I don't care what he's done over the past two starts that have looked kind of good-ish, but it's only good compared to where he was earlier in the season. So the Tigers, I think, are a bit of a key team on tonight's slate because we are searching for the salary relief at any spot that we can find, and they really bring it tonight in what's kind of an awesome match up against Carlos Rogue Done. All right, so let's get to the Dinger calls to close things out. I'm going to be keeping things pretty simple. Austin Riley for the Atlanta Braves, I think this is just an awesome spot for them overall. He is on fire at the plate right now. Again, Wainwright just does not have it this season for the Cardinals. I think he's going to continue to struggle, and the Braves will kind of get right in this spot. I think that's going to be pretty clear. And then for the Tigers, I want to stick with one of these longer shots, and it's going to be Jake Rogers. Their catcher, $2,500 for him tonight. I love the ISO that he brings in the split versus lefties. Again, Jake Rogers with a $313 ISO. The season versus left-handed pitching is absolutely awesome. He's $2,500 tonight. Yeah, rostering a catcher is not something that you have to do, but I think the value that he brings is pretty clear versus Rogue Done. All right, so that does it for today's podcast. As always, it's going to be found across the podcast universe, wherever you may find it. Apple Spotify, the video version will be found on the Feindl YouTube page. It will be found on Feindl TV. Plus it can also be found on feindl.com slash watch. You can follow me on Twitter at tom underscore vekia1. Until next time, good luck in your contests.