 A lot of the really fun pictures on tonight's site for MLB DFS are in pretty tricky situations, whether it be due to super extreme weather at their park in terms of temperature boosting up offense or just a tough matchup in general, not the best situations. I do think there is one guy who grades that well from a safety perspective and has some upside. But in general, if you want to get a high upside picture for tonight, you're going to take on at least a little bit of risk. We're going to break things down from a DFS perspective, let you know how to navigate that, which guys still grade out well despite those issues and how to handle things today for MLB DFS. 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 this 13 game main slate for tonight with lockset for 705 pm Eastern for today. Couple weather notes for this one, mainly revolving around temperature. In Minneapolis with the Twins and Guardians, winds are out to center at 14 miles per hour. It is also 85 degrees, so I bum up batters there where you typically view them at Target Field. Pretty similar story in Chicago for the Blue Jays and the White Sox. Winds are out to left at 13 miles per hour there. It's also 91 degrees, so bum up batters for the Blue Jays and White Sox, which does play into our pitching discussion later on. Finally, it is much warmer in Oakland today than usual, first pitch temperature 85 degrees, so that's more viable in Oakland than they typically would be for the Mariners and the Yays, typically around 64 instead, 85 for today. So, bum up batters in Chicago, Minneapolis and Oakland, relative to where you usually have them. We'll break down the pitching options for tonight in just one second, but first a quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. We have, of course, our PGA podcast coming up for the Traveler Championship later on today. Myself and Brandon Godulla breaking that down. Also on the Fandal YouTube page at 10am. We've got USC and NASCAR covered as well and, of course, NFL just around the corner, all in the same place, so hit subscribe on the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts and if you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review as well. Hey, sports fans, there is no better time than today to sign up for Fandal Fantasy. For users who have yet to make a deposit on Fandal Fantasy, you can deposit today to receive two free entries. All you have to do is deposit a minimum of $10 into your Fandal DFS account and you will be instantly rewarded with two free vouchers. This is a limited time offer, so be sure to deposit now and play for free. Head over to Fandal.com or download the Fandal Fantasy app today. Eligibility restrictions apply. Go to Fandal.com or download the Fandal app for more details. Pitching preview for this Tuesday main slate. Nester Cortez is the highest salary pitcher on Fandal, checking in at $10,500, followed by Kevin Gosman at 10-2. Sean Minaya is 99 with Dylan Cease at 96. Zach Gallin, $9,500. Martin Perez, 92. Kyle Gibson is 9,000 with Joe Ryan, Spencer Strider, Matt Swarmer, Jack Flaherty, Jonathan Heasley, Anthony DiSquifani and Marco Gonzalez as the others at $8,000 or higher. I do like Spencer Strider a lot today, but the weather today is really gross. It's super warm in Atlanta, which favors batters. I'm going to bump them out of the top spot as a result of that and put me on Sean Minaya as my top option for tonight. I'm fine with that because Minaya is the one guy who has a blend of safety and upside. He's facing the Diamondbacks and they're a pretty lefty-heavy lineup, which means their numbers against lefties have lagged versus where they're at against righties. They have a 98 WRC Plus from their current active roster against lefties with a 135 for ISO. They are a better team against lefties with Carson Kelly back, but they're still a team I'm okay targeting. Minaya does have his issues, but he's been solid overall. He were up to eight starts on him since his velocity stabilized and the skill interactive VRA for Minaya in that time is 3.70. He has a 26% strikeout rate. That's helped him get eight plus strikeouts three times in this stretch and he had 12 and one of them against a very good Atlanta team. We've seen Minaya be on the road a lot for this time. Five at eight starts on the road. He's now back at home. He's also facing pretty tough offenses and pitched in hitter friendly weather last week against the Cubs. That game, the win game last week, broke up a streak of seven straight games where Minaya went six plus innings. Now back at home against a lefty heavy team. It's also one of the colder games on the slate. I think it's a good bounce back spot for Minaya and I will be on him here. So Sean Minaya to me, the one guy who does blend safety and upside and makes him probably your ideal cash game play for tonight. I do think Strider does enough to sit second despite the hitter friendly weather in Atlanta for tonight because Striders facing the Giants. Now obviously there will be a lot of lefties in that lineup, but those are not been an issue for Strider yet in the rotation. He's faced 49 lefties in his time as a starter. He has a 37% strikeout rate against them with a 6% walk rate. The strikeout rate is 41% against righties, so it is higher against them, but the sample there just 32 batters. So we've seen Strider face a lot of lefty heavy lineups in the most part since he shifted into the rotation. He's still pitched really well in the four starts. He has a 2.90 skill interactive ERA with a 38% strikeout rate. He's holding teams to a 28% hard hit rate as well. The one issue for Strider is he is still walking too many guys. He has a 12% walk rate and the Giants will draw walks. That's another reason to put Strider below Minaya if you're looking for safety, but Strider is fully stretched out. He went 106 pitches in his most recent start, which allows him to walk some guys, not be crazy efficient and still get deep in games. So there is risk here. He could still get knocked around. We have not seen Strider finish 6 innings yet, but I like his upside if things do go right. So it's enough for me to put Strider second behind Minaya for my pitching options for tonight. As far as the third matchup, it can be anyone because Strider is our value play for tonight. Dylan Cease isn't a pretty brutal matchup. He's facing the Jays and the good thing is Cease is at least a righty, not a lefty against them. So it does help a bit. And I think it makes him an option for tournaments given that he's still in Cease and he's got some upside for sure. The Jays against righties are still above average, a 106, WRC plus there. Just not as tough as they are against lefties. Their ISO goes down to 158. They don't draw too many walks. A 7.7% clip there, which is a good boost for Cease because he has struggled with walks. He has a 12% walk rate this year. So against more patient teams, teams that draw played appearances, Cease can struggle, but the Jays aren't necessarily that. Cease can have upside against teams in this mold where they're a bit more free swinging. Cease has a 33% strikeout rate, a 33% hard hit rate allowed. That should help him navigate around their power. Now that's why I like the upside. The floor is shaky because we've seen Cease face the Dodgers, the Red Sox, the Angels, and the Yankees at home since the start of May. And all those teams have better WRC pluses against righties than the Jays. He had his issues in those games. He did let up, you know, six pluser runs a couple times, so it was not pristine by any means, but he also had 11, 11, four, and eight strikeouts. So the upside is definitely there for Cease. It's not a safe matchup. Don't do this if you're not cool with risk, but I am personally. So Cease will be my player pool for tonight. I think that the upside definitely there and outside of Maniah, not a ton of guys who bring a ton of safety. So I think that Cease is a good option as far as your number three spot, but Maniah number one and Strider number two for me for tonight. Let's move now to the stacks. We've got Chichi Gonzalez back on the slate for tonight. He's starting for the Brewers. He's starting a place of Eric Ashby, who went on the IL yesterday. So I think we know that we can stack the Cardinals against Gonzalez for tonight. Gonzalez opened the year with the Twins in AAA, just fine there, 3.44 ERA, got a lot of ground balls. We got called up, made two starts to the Twins, struggled and was immediately DFA. The Brewers did pick him up because they were down some arms, but now he's making his first start with them. I do still get annoyed by the ground balls that Gonzalez doesn't do. His ground ball rate has been 56% in both AAA and the majors, but he's going to let up a lot of balls in play. His hard hit rate allowed is 44%. So if they do loft it, it's probably going to do some damage. The Cardinals offense is when I do prefer against the lefty because they're lethal there, but they're still pretty good against righties with a 118 WRC+. They're going to put the ball in play a lot, just like we got Gonzalez. And we can get their high salary guys in there with the way the Slade is composed for tonight. I think they're the top stack of the night. The Cardinals are, and it's one I feel pretty good about. So the Cardinals close to me a high quality stack for the eight. If you need some value to get to Aranado and Goldschmidt, which I don't think you need to necessarily. I think that Nolan Gorman and Juan Yepez are your guys can get the Nolan stack in there with Aranado and Gorman. Gorman is striking out too much, but a 45% fly ball rate and lots of hard contact against righties. Yepez has a 229 ISO against righties with a 40% fly ball rate. I think they're both in a great spot here and I would use them even if they weren't solid values. Gorman 29, we have Yepez at $2,300. So you're not breaking the bank to get them and I would use them either way. So to me, I think both those guys great out well within your Cardinal stacks, whether you need the salary flexibility or not. I am going to stack the Red Sox nights, but I don't think it's a lock that they come through. There's no such thing as a lock in stacking, but you know, just even more so than usual, there's a lot of risk here. For single entry, I would likely pivot elsewhere for the second stack because the Red Sox will likely be very popular, but straight up they are a good stack. They're based in Bo Briskey and that's both why they'll be popular and why we can't pivot. Because for the full season, Briskey has a 4.71 skill interactive ER rate. He has led up a 42% hard hit rate with a 42% fly ball rate, which leads to an expected ER rate of 5.68. That is a very stackable profile. And against the Red Sox in Fenway, we can feel pretty good about stacking against that. But Briskey has been making adjustments. Four starts ago, he threw a couple sinkers, about 2%. He also upped his slider users to 25% in that game. To start after that, he leaned much more into that approach. He threw 10% sinkers there, 34% sliders, and that's the approach he has kept his past two starts as well. And it's working because in that time, Briskey has held the Blue Jays and the Yankees just two runs over 11 and 2 thirds innings. Both the runs he allowed in those two games came on solo home runs. Then he went against the Rangers and he threw seven shutout innings. Given the change in approach, I think there's a chance that this is a legitimate shift for Briskey. That's why I'm willing to fade the Red Sox in single entry, but it's also just a small sample. His strike out rate is not huge. He's still letting up a lot of hard contact. That's why I'm willing to go here in other formats. I think they're a good stack. They're just not bulletproof, which is what they might otherwise be if not for this change in Briskey. On a 13 game slate, there's enough to justify deviating here. So the Red Sox, a good stack for tonight. One I will use, but for a single entry, they're probably not going to be my cup of tea. Rather go with the Cardinals there and potentially with the Angels. We will move now to the third stack of the day. They're facing Jonathan Heasley. Heasley's had some good results at times. He has a 3.72 ERA across seven starts, but the peripherals say that's unlikely to stick around. He has a 5.44 skill interactive ERA. He has walked a lot of batters with a 13% walk rate. He has let up a 44% hard hit rate with a 45% flight ball rate. Just for whatever reason, we haven't seen the results bite him yet. I think it will eventually, that's why I will keep stacking against him, which means turning to the Angels for today. I'm very on board with them in this spot. I think the Angels are a high quality option to deviate from if you assume the Red Sox to be very, very popular. The Angels will be decently popular, but I'd expect the Red Sox to be kind of the more runaway shock on tonight's slate. Against Heasley, I do want to favor the lefties. He's letting up a 48% flight ball rate to them. It's still decent against righties, but a lower at 41%. So no Shohei Otani pitching for today, which means we can include him in these stacks. That's a blessing for sure, a $3,500. Jared Walsh is striking out too much, but has good numbers against righties. Despite that, Brandon Marsh has done enough to be in play. I'm not a huge Eliso and HeFO guy. He'll probably bat fifth or so. He's a switch hitter, so not out on him, but I'd rather go to guys like Max Stasi, even with Stasi being a righty. Also, Taylor Ward, super under salary from where he should be at $2,900. So to start with the lefties, favor Otani, Walsh, potentially Marsh, but then I'm probably looking at guys like Stasi and Ward. And of course, Mike Trout after that as well. Things to watch for tonight's slate. I didn't want to talk briefly on Nester Cortes. My reason for being lower on him and not being as high on him, despite the fact that it's Nester Cortes and a risky slate, is about familiarity. He's facing the raise tonight. That is, his second straight start against them and his third start against them since May 26th. Cortes had just five and four strikeouts in the previous two outings. They're a beat up offense. You know, they lost Kevin Kiermeier and Manuel Margot last night. So he could do well, but they've seen him a bunch. So I'm fine being lower on Cortes in this spot and ranking guys like Strider, Cease and Maniah higher for tonight. I don't typically talk about one-offs because I don't, my brain doesn't work that way in DFS. You know, I'll use them, but I don't think about them all that much. I am very down with O'Neill Cruz as a one-off for tonight. He's facing Matt Swarmer. He's led up plenty of hard contacts. He's getting called up. Lot of fly balls too. Cruz, minimum salary. Likely to bat in a good spot in the order. He had both power and speed in AAA. So if you want to get in on the O'Neill Cruz love fest and use him in DFS tonight, I sent more power to you. Not opposed to it. I think that you can definitely feel good about that here. Very justifiable. You will not be alone, but you know, sometimes it's more fun to root for fun guys like him. So I'll do that for tonight personally. Finally, I think the Mariners are in a decent route for taking advantage of the weather in Oakland, the hot weather, relative to usual. They're facing James Cappellian. He is really struggling right now. The Mariners, not a bad offense, but they're not a super high power one either. So we can use them here without having to pay a roster rate tax. And I do like that quite a bit. So the Mariners to me, a good route for being a bit different without being stupid on a 13 game slate. Let's finish up here with some Dinger calls for tonight. The boring one, I will go back to the Angels, talk about a lefty against easily. If it's boring, it's got to be Shohei Otani. Otani hasn't put up the best numbers as a batter so far this year, but I still think there's enough in there for me to feel good about him from a hitting perspective. Purely a hitting perspective, still has 13 home runs, still making heart contact, still putting the ball in the air. So Shohei Otani, the boring home run call for today. The more fun one, I will go with Nolan Gorman. I considered one Yepez here because they're both, I think, pretty interesting in this spot, but Gorman will have the between advantage against Chichi Gonzalez, putting the ball in the air a lot, making heart contact, strikeouts less of a concern against Gonzalez than other guys. So good spot for him. I do think Yepez is in play too. So the home run calls on a Dinger Tuesday, Shohei Otani and Nolan Gorman. That is all that we have here for today on the solo shot. Should be a pretty fun slate. And again, you can play things how you want. If you're okay with the risk, you have some good guys to go with there. If you're not okay with risk, I think that Minaya is a good route. So something for everyone on tonight's slate for MLB DFS. Do not forget to subscribe to the NumberFlyer Daily Fantasy podcast feed for PGA, USC and NASCAR podcasts, all the same spot PGA coming up later on today with myself and Brandon Godila. 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 FanDuel Podcast Network at FanDuel Podcast. Big thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your MLB DFS lineups. We'll talk to you once again tomorrow to break down Wednesday's slate. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.