 It is a good day for baseball simply because Shohei Otani is scheduled to pitch for tonight for the Los Angeles Angels I require nothing else to be happy from a baseball fan perspective but it also means we get to use Shohei Otani for DFS tonight and That's always a delight too. It means we know we have one rock solid option no matter what the question is Can we pivot we find someone else who can hang with Otani you can duplicate his production without you know Could be different without being dumb I think that's a tough question for tonight because I kind of think we just want to ride with Shohei Otani Which you know, it's always more fun to root for Otani than against him We'll dive on in break down Otani situation break down some alternatives and let you know how I'm doing things for DFS for tonight Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire comm My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire comm here to break down Thursday's eight game main slate with lock set for 705 p.m. Eastern for today one sad Weather note here is that there is a high chance of rain a course field for the Dodgers and the Rockies I'm not sure they'll be able to play through it. So of course very patient with these things It's gonna require Checking back on it later on because I think it's a legitimate question mark if they'll be able to get that game in So we'll talk about that game later But just know that if you want to use Dodgers or Rockies check back on the weather for Coors Later on tonight, we'll get into that. We'll talk about Otani talk about alternatives and much more in just one second But first a reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed Wherever you get your podcast We of course are on Apple podcast Spotify Stitcher Google podcasts You name it you can find us there and while you're there like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well Also, Fandals World Fantasy Baseball Championship for 2022 is coming out of this September And there are still chances to get yourself qualified this year's live final is in Chicago in September The live final features two million dollars in total prizes with half million dollars going to first place To get yourself entered into a qualifier go to fandal.com or download the fandal fantasy app eligibility restrictions apply Fandal always does a great job with those I've been able to go to for I think for baseball ones the bunch overall there was a delight You have a blast. You get to meet a lot of really cool people a lot of other smart DFS players get to hang out on Fandals dime What could be better than that? So would recommend if you have not given it a shot if you are there I'll swing by and say hi because I think I'll be there to emcee once again Pitching preview for this Thursday main slate show. Hey, oh Tani Shocker is the highest a salary picture on Fandal checking in at ten thousand one hundred dollars Zach Wheeler is ten seven Tristan McKenzie facing the beat-up Red Sox at ten one Logan Gilbert faced the Astros is ninety-nine Jason Tyon ninety-three Jose or Katie is ninety-one with Tyler Anderson Brady singer Alex Wood and Justin Steele the others at $8,000 are higher When we were talking yesterday, we talked about why I was in on Max Scherzer And that was because of how far he was above the field in terms of talent didn't care about the matchup I just wanted to draw talent on there and that's what Scherzer got me You want to take everything we talked about with Scherzer and apply that to show hey Oh Tani but put it in a much better matchup And I think that he is the no-thought-top option for tonight. Oh Tani space in the Rangers They have a 100 WRC plus against righties They've got about a league average strikeout rate and not a big walk rate So put it all together. It is a plus spot. And as you know, Ohtani is Otherworldly right now. He said double digit strikeouts in five straight starts and we have seen some shifts in that time You know, that's part of why it was keyed off this stretch because Ohtani throwing fewer foreseamers now than he was earlier on this year That's something he's been doing for his past nine starts and in that nine start sample His skin interactive erra is 2.33. He has a 37 percent strikeout rates He leads the slate in that strikeout department by almost 10 percentage points We did see Ohtani struggle last week let up six turn runs in that game But his overall bad at ball numbers in this sample are not that bad He's about league average in this time. So that that works when you combine that with his sicko strikeout numbers He's he's he's a psycho We still do uh have Ohtani at a 2.78 erra in this time even with the the bad game quote-unquote bad game last week So if you take the entirety of major league baseball There are not many guys I would use over Shohei Ohtani right now And none of those guys are on this slate So I see a lock him in and go from there And I think you can stack Coors field while using Ohtani for tonight based on the way the salaries came through So it is a worthwhile trade-off here Shohei Ohtani needs to be your number one guide I don't think there is a viable enough option to justify pivoting for tonight So that's my thought process there. It's Ohtani massive massive gap everybody else Which means if I'm not using Ohtani I want to dip down in sour because it gives me a much different lineup from the Ohtani teams and gives me More flexibility elsewhere. That's what I want That's why I want to be in an alex wood for tonight He is facing the Cubs, which is not a great matchup There wrc plus versus lefties is 122 so getting say as azuki there has helped quite a bit The floor is not good for wood as a result But for cash games and going Ohtani need to find some sort of upside and wood can suppress power He's been throwing fewer foreseamers and more sliders in his past 12 starts He's let up just a 31 fly ball rate in that time Which is a pretty good number is getting some strikeouts to strikeout rate is 25 in that time The Cubs will strike out. That's kind of their one flaw versus lefties a 24 mark there So it's a volatile spot Not the best floor but a decent ceiling Cubs can get for some power But they will strike out and wood can get those himself Which gives us at least a path to a good game for alex wood here So I'd much rather use Ohtani. I will have a lot of Ohtani for tonight It'll be my my one by a by a mile But wood does help me get upside else where I can pair mookie bets with friday freeman trey turner And I probably can't do that with ohtani So there's enough me to put wood second for tonight behind just ohtani Now what is the value play salary is 84 Which means the entire board is open for our third picture here would go with another high salary guy Low salary guy whatever it may be But I still want to make sure there's a gap between this guy's salary and ohtani's And that makes me interested in cutter crawford at 7100 dollars Crawford's based in the guardians. So which is a rough matchup Because they don't strike out that much and not into that part of it at all But crawford has been pitching really well in his most recent stint in the big leagues He's got four outings one of which was following an opener So they've all been longer outings But one was not a start in those four outings He has a 3.14 skill interactive eray, but a 28 strikeout rate and he's letting him just a 32 hard hit rate across that span That those are good numbers. Those are very good numbers They're made more impressive by the teams he's faced because he didn't face the rays twice They're kind of mid But then you've got the Yankees in there and the blue jays The rays do help juice up the strikeout numbers for crawford And that number that 28 mark will likely come down I think projection systems have around 23%. I think that's probably pretty accurate But keeping hard contact and check against that slate of teams Pretty dang tough and pretty impressive to see crawford do it I'm not sure how much of this he'll be able to maintain because it is a small sample He did let up it seemingly a lot of hard contact in a small sample in the minors. So there is risk here, but There is a bit of upside and he saves you a ton of salary So I do like Zach Wheeler. I think he's fine. Obviously Tristan McKenzie's matchup is pretty good Same thing for Jameson Tyone, especially with the ben and tendy trade. So that weakens his opponent Brady singers kind of interesting, but I'm just going to take the savings and get down here to crawford at 71 And just load up at hitter to give myself a different outlook than the otani teams. So again, I want otani I'm going to use otani a lot. I might just use exclusively him But I think that if I'm not going there, I want to say salary whether it be via wood or crawford I think that's the way I want to play things for tonight part of this discussion with otani is Revolving around Coors field because I do want to stack the Dodgers assuming that the rain lets us do so But when I open the salary pool this morning I don't think the Dodgers got a Coors bump Like they're kind of the same salary as they always are so As long as they're good to go, I think you can stack the Dodgers with otani pretty easily and I'm very into that So let's talk about the Dodgers here in case this game does play. They're facing Jose, Aranya Aranya has made four starts at the Rockies. He has just a 14 strike out rate with a 10 walk rate He's letting up a ball and play about 75 of the time Which is a rough number for Coors field The bad of all data for Aranya is not bad, but it's also not great and it's especially Not great when you adjust for the matchup and adjust the park. He's facing for today We saw the Brewers get to Aranya over the weekend. So that game was in Milwaukee. Not a Coors field Aranya let up five earned runs there Now he's facing the Dodgers at home. The Dodgers active roster has a 124 WRC plus against righties Which is the best mark on the Slates. They have a 42 fly ball rate and a 190 iso The only downside with the Dodgers tonight is that their salaries Could mesh poorly with Otani since that Coors field, but again, that didn't happen So you're probably not going to get Betts turner Freeman all in there with Otani, but Max Muncie's $2,400 Will Smith is 29 Jake Lamb is 22 Which is pretty wild for Coors. I think there's just got missed honestly So you might not get all three of the studs, but you can probably get two maybe at least one for sure With Otani, I'd like to do that So the Dodgers pretty easy to get to again check back on the weather for that game But assuming they're good to go. We are good to go We can also help maybe get to Betts Freeman turner more easily by using a lower sour team for our second stack and I actually think the Phillies could be the team that could get us there And I'm not sure if we've talked about the Phillies for stacking on this podcast since the Bryce Harper injury And that's for a good reason because they kind of suck without them But I like their matchup tonight. They're facing the Pirates Zach Thompson. They're like 15 Zach Thompson's in the major So the Pirates Zach Thompson Which is a pretty decent spot for the full season. Thompson has a 4.64 ERA His expected ERA is 5.29 And he's been making some changes He's throwing fewer change-ups with more curveballs across his past eight starts His ERA in the time is better. It is under four. So that's good But that's despite a 5.09 skill interactive ERA With a 14 strike ERA and a 44 hard hit rate So the results have been good for Zach Thompson in this time with this new philosophy But the peripherals say he's probably still the guy that he was before. I think the ERA is Misrepresenting The way he's been pitching here recently We saw a lot of seven run runs last time out and I think we could see more starts like that going forward I think the Phillies could potentially be a team that could do that here despite their I don't know badness I don't know the right word for it. There's despite the fact they're not that great So I'm more than willing to stack them here and feel good about the Phillies And there are a lot of guys who could help us here. Derek Hall is $2,800 his ISO Down around 290 now versus righties, but still very good He had some sicko numbers in triple A2 Reese Hoskins is at $2,700 despite having a 204 ISO versus righties Bryson Stott hasn't turned it on yet in the majors, but Does put the ball in the air. He's got some speed Nic Castellanos is Not again super itchy to use personally. I would rather Skip around him within my stacks kind of seems like he's in his own head right now Snapping our porter stuff like that. So maybe we'll gloss over him But Hall, Hoskins, Stott, etc. etc in addition to Schwerber obviously like you I think you can make that work and feel pretty good about it So the Phillies a good way to say some salary and hitter and feel good about that as well Now let's say the Dodgers Get rain or let's say you don't want to use the Dodgers because they'll be too popular I think you should probably try to stack the Jays and the Phillies can make that easier because of their low salaries We'll talk about some more ways to say salary and things to watch as well But the blue Jays straight up the number two stack for tonight They're facing Tyler Alexander who is moving back in the rotation year for the Tigers We saw him in the rotation earlier on he struggled as a starter He lasted just four starts and then missed some time Came back in the bullpen and while he was in the bullpen He did you know start throwing a slider more which could mean He's picked up something that will help him in his second stint as a starter But i'm skeptical typically sliders lead to more strikeouts But that's not happening here for Alexander because in eight relief outings with more sliders His strikeout rate is under 10 percent. He's not getting a leaf batted ball numbers either So the results have been good. He's led up just 200 runs across 16 and two third innings But he's gotten a face a lot of lefties And he won't get that first night because the Jays are probably going to send out nine righties That's just kind of what they can do and righties have a 46 fly ball rate versus Alexander this year So it's a very good spot for the Jays I will absolutely be stacking them here and honestly like you could use Jake lamb max muncie will smith your Your coors guys to get leverage to stack the Jays with the Dodgers that might work too So i'm just kind of shocked how low salary the Dodgers are You could potentially stack the Jays with the Dodgers and otani which sounds really really fun I want to try to do that for tonight There aren't many guys I don't like within this Jays stack Like their their their studs are obviously great But their secondary guys on this team are stupid too like Matt Chapman's iso is 227 against lefties Danny Jansen the spectacle beast is 304 Teo scar Hernandez not sure if he counts the secondary option, but he's a 302 Some tiago a spinale is at 190 So I don't think it matters which guys you use just pepper the mid-range here And that'll make it easy to get to them with otani and maybe even with that full core stack too Maybe with mookie bets sounds pretty fun. So The blue Jays are not low salary at all But I don't think they need to be for tonight's lake given the the value we have elsewhere So the the Jays definitely a team I'd like to stack for tonight and probably can do so with core shield too So check back on the core shield weather if we get clearance there Dodgers are one I'm going to put the blue Jays to Philly's three But Philly's being the primary way to stay some salary outside of the lower salary Dodgers for tonight Let's take any things to watch I would be okay with Zach Wheeler if you're just purely looking for a pivot off otani He's facing the pirates his strike or their strikeout rate is up to 24 on their current active roster Wheeler does go super deep into games I've gotten projected for a 6.4 strikeouts tonight, which is not bad So I think he is a a solid pivot, but I like otani enough where I don't really want to pivot So he works but probably not going to be doing so for myself for tonight I'm okay with some one-off from the angels. They're facing Spencer Howard has really struggled since he came back up So I'm okay using guys against him, but no my trout obviously We can't use otani as a hitter tonight because he's a pitcher Which limits the options So you can go here, but just make sure their guy is actually capable of upside because Options pretty slim on the angels with otani and trout being taken out of the discussion for us for stacking One other spot for some one-offs is the tigers. They're facing you say kikuchi Who's making his first start off the il and we've seen kikuchi struggle with hard contacts the entire year And the the tigers another team that have a lot of low sound guys Javi baez $2,600 Robbie grovesman 24 Eric hoffs 24 and all those guys Can they for power against lefties? So if I'm looking for one-off tonight, I might prefer the tigers over the angels non-cours non Other teams we discussed in stacking perspective might go tigers over angels in terms of one-offs for tonight Just because they have more guys. I would want to use Let's finish up here with some dinger calls for this thursday slate the boring one I said that taos car. Hernandez doesn't count as a second term tier second tier option for the jays Let's reflect that here and make him the boring one taos car. Hernandez Had a rough start to the year in terms of power wasn't putting out of park very often But he has been recently so we'll go taos car. Hernandez as our boring homerun call for today The phone one I do want to go dara call. We missed the birthday narrative on haul because he had his birthday on monday So we missed out on that but hopefully it's like a birthday or birth week narrative for dara call Just turned 27 really interesting path to the majors 14th round pick back in 2016 Finally getting his first shot in the big leagues now tore it up in triple a has looked good so far and the majors too so I think he's kind of fun and I like his spot for tonight So homerun calls our taos car. Hernandez and dara call That is all that we have here for today on the solo shop Let's some good stuff coming up tomorrow here on the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed nascar and ufc both coming your way All the same place so search for the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast We have that plus pga each week and nfl Just around the corner and if you like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well 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 fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast big Thanks to you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs linux Enjoy watching show hey otani. Enjoy the delight that we all get to enjoy Once every week. We'll talk to you once again tomorrow to break down friday slate This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network