 Fourteen games tonight in daily fantasy baseball and a lot of those are featuring ace level pitchers We have got Garrett Cole Max Scherzer a ton of great names on this slate And it's gonna be tough to narrow things down to decide which guy you want to rank highest for MLB DFS And obviously this is a great problem to have because it's better to have too many pitchers than not enough But it will still require some digging for shirts We're gonna break down who my favorite options are for today Why I'm high on them and talk about some stacks as well to get you ready for Friday's main slate Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Sonness. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down this 14 game main slate We'll lock set for 705 p.m. Eastern for today. We're gonna dig into The weather and much more here in just one second First a reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast You with the change over to Fandall research. We do still have the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed This podcast is going up on the Fandall YouTube page and on Fandall TV plus next week I am out for the entire week So Tom Vecchio is filling in for me both in the solo shot and covering the spread because Tom is a superstar So check out Tom there are no video version for next week So just on the audio only podcast platform and find that there wherever you get your podcast So make sure check that out with Tom Next week on the solo shots There will still be shows just audio only then I'm back the week after that as far as weather for tonight Go is there is a chance of rain in Pittsburgh for the Orioles and the Yankees? They should be okay to play but I check back on that later And that's probably the diciest game on tonight's slate Pittsburgh also not looking great again I check back on that one later. Actually, I'm probably a little dicier than the Orioles and the Yankees Pittsburgh I do like Zach Wheeler there But hard to get super super excited because there's a chance that game does get rained out find Chicago Dylan some thunderstorms tonight for the White Sox and the Guardians and that game Could be at risk depending on when the rain gets there. So check back on that one later so the key spots for weather for tonight Pittsburgh for the Phillies and the Pirates Baltimore for the Orioles and the Yankees and Chicago for the White Sox and the Guardians And I think that we can navigate around that for finding our top pitching options for sale I'll talk about those in just one second but for if we have some exciting news Over at number fire beginning now You can find all the number fire content from the analysts You know over at a new home called Fandall research Fandall research is on the Fandall domain Meaning you can now do your own research on the same site where you place your bets and submit your daily fantasy lineups Don't worry all the number fire tools are still in place over at number fire calm So your daily process can remain the same for right now as they thank you for your years of loyalty We've running free rolls over on Fandall research now through the end of NFL season next week We posted next week to get that Go to Fandall comm slash research to find the link to the free roll again It's an exclusive free rolls. You can only find it on Fandall research So next week go to Fandall comm slash research to find a an article with a link to that free roll Pitching preview for this Friday main sleigh Garakul comes in with the highest salary on Fandall his salary is $11,000 followed by Kevin Gossman at 10 9 we got Max Scherzer coming in at $10,800 followed by Zach Wheeler at 10 6 Logan Webb salary is $100 with Mitch Keller at 10 to sunny gray is 10 one and shame the clan hand down to $9900 Joe Musgrove in a tough matchup with the Rangers is a 98. We got Logan Gilbert a 97 Lucas Geolito making his angels debut at $9,500 Jordan Montgomery in 94 Christian Javier faced in the raids in 9,000. We got Mackenzie Gore Bobby Miller Tommy Henry and JP Sears as the others at $8,000 or higher Now with a lot of top-end guys for tonight. There are a lot of ways you could play things There are a lot of guys you could defend as being the top guy My top guy is in a revenge game that is Max Scherzer taking on the Nationals And it's partly the revenge game or like zero percent the revenge game But it's mostly because Scherzer is pitching pretty well right now And I do want to be on him as a result of that This matchup is not great for strikeouts because the Nationals are at just a 19% strikeout right against righties Which is the second lowest number on the slate, but Scherzer is back to being in a groove once again He's gone back to using his cutter more over his past 12 starts in that time He has a 3.41 skill interactive era with a 29% strikeout rate and a low walk rate He's doing that while getting good enough bad at ball data to get by the era for Scherzer in the span is still 3.95 but most of the poor outings have come Against good teams like the Braves the Red Sox the Padres and the Nationals aren't that right now We also have not seen Scherzer face this team in this time Which means they're not super familiar with his repertoire at least at this moment and Scherzer has upside He's had 10 strikeouts once in the span He had nine strikeouts and three others plus he had three more games with eight strikeouts So even with a low strikeout matchup my numbers do still have Scherzer projected For 6.9 strikeouts tonight. That's good enough to put him firmly on the radar once you combine it with the low earned run Expectation of Scherzer against this team. So to me Max Scherzer is a top guy for tonight It is a lot of competition. You could justify a lot of guys Especially Scherzer being in a lower strikeout matchup, but I want Scherzer. So he is my top guy for tonight I think I probably need to put Kevin Gossman seconds It's between him and Garrett Cole Cole could have some weather concerns there as mentioned Both these guys have tough matchups Cole facing the Orioles Gossman facing the Angels Gossman's at home with the roof likely closed tonight Which does move the needle pretty heavily in his favor and does make Gossman my number two The Angels definitely are not a good matchup even without Mike Trout They have a 113 at WRC plus against righties in the current active roster the 203 iso So they can get to you and Gossman does struggle at times with allowing too much hard contact But the strike area for the Angels slightly above average against righties and Gossman is getting a lot of those right now He's been throwing more sliders his past 11 starts and in that time. He has a 31 percent strikeout rate He has hit double digits three times in that stretch get 13 to one game 12 and another and all those spike games the Double-digit strikeout games came at home, which is where he is at for tonight Now Gossman can have bad starts and that's why he's below Scherzer because there's more safety there given the respective matchups But I think that with Gossman's matchup He may be a hair better in terms of like 100th percentile Ceiling projection due to strikeouts and actually do have Gossman projected four more strikeouts for tonight I've Gossman projected for 7.6 and again Scherzer is at 6.9. So actually a decent gap but again tougher matchup for Gossman facing the Angels while Scherzer gets the Nationals that doesn't matter to certain points So I'm gonna favor Scherzer But there is at least a case to made for Gossman for tonight So I'm gonna go Scherzer one Gossman two among the studs for the value play. I'm gonna go Bobby Miller I don't know if I've talked about Miller as a pitching option yet so far this year But he's another guy pitching in decent weather with it being 82 degrees in Los Angeles for this late That's actually pretty cold and Miller's been making some tweaks recently that I do like so it's enough for all Consider him here at $8700 and make him the top value the tweak that Miller has made is that he's been throwing it Fewer sinkers his past four starts that sinker has just a 15% whiff rate on it according to baseball savants Which is the lowest of any pitch for him and his other pitches like the off-speed ones all get whiffs and they do get some ground balls too at times So fewer sinkers for Miller. I think is optimal the way you should be playing things Across those four starts of fewer sinkers his skill interactive ERA at 3.66 He has a 24% strikeout rate and the bad of ball data is not pristine, but it's still okay his ERA 4.50 I think it looks better than that right now We did see Miller hold the Rangers largely in check last week on the road He was good enough against the Mets also on the road now He's at home against the Reds and obviously they're not a team we want to target especially With a team that struggles to hold opposing base runners in check like the Dodgers do But their WRC plus is 102 for the Reds. It's fine You know, it's not something we need to avoid. I don't think I think we can go with them in spots And this is a spot where I'd like to do so I have Miller projected for 5.9 strikeouts So he's one behind Scherzer one and a half or so behind Gosman as well It's you know, it's not I'd rather get to the studs, but it is great for the value plays tonight So I'll check out Miller at 87 might not get through my player pool But I'm open to it if I decide that I want to for tonight The potential case for using a value play is because I want to stack the Atlanta Braves and they got a lot of high salaries on them So may need to use Miller if I want to go full stack on the Braves Let's talk about the Braves and talk about the stacks for tonight Adriana Hauser is facing the Braves in Atlanta tonight He just saw the Braves last week and he had 10 strikeouts in that game pitch really well But now they've seen him recently and this time it's in a very hot Atlanta So I think we should stack the Braves tonight Hauser was cooking with the strikeouts in that game very impressive But it's also a pretty big deviation from what's normal for him Hauser's been throwing fewer foreseamers for his past eight outings now and his strikeout rate in that time is 19% 19% includes last week's game So it was pretty odd and when the Braves did make contact they hit that ball hard They had four barrels across 14 balls in play with a 50% hard hit rate So I would say Hauser probably got a bit lucky to go six innings in that one let up just three earned runs The Braves have a 117 at WRC plus against righties with a 221 ISO which ranks tops in the slate It's a pretty tough spot for Hauser to be in. I think it's great what he did in that game very impressive But I'm skeptical he can do it again So I think we should go at the Braves and hope they have better luck this time around When going at the Braves, I do want to bump up the lefties here lefties have a 43% fly ball right against Against Hauser whereas righties are just 25% which doesn't mean don't use the righties But it does mean like if you're weighing Matt Olson against Shawn Murphy I'm gonna give the edge to Olson for sure. Sower. He's pretty similar So it all else equal go to go with the lefty every time don't bump down the righties too much because they're all very good But do give some preference to lefties when deciding which guys to put in your Braves stat The other side of that game is Yanni Charino's who is making his Braves debut and Charino's struggle with the Rays He gets a good match up here with the Brewers But I do still think the struggles could be there which is why I think the Brewers are in play for stacking tonight as well Charino's DRA was 4.02 before he got DFA'd but the underlying numbers were much worse than that So there's a reason he was let go Most recently Charino's had cut back on his flatter usage in that time He had a 5.03 skill interactive ERA with a 13% strikeout rate and a 52% hard hit rate allowed He had rough outings against the Royals in that time two of them actually and I think that can give us faith here because the Brewers are Still scuffling for sure, but they did just add Carlos Santana 93 WRC plus against righties, but great hit for a great park for hitting tonight They do add Santana. I like the matchup So I think we should give the Brewers a sniff here given all things considered now I mentioned Santana, he's gonna be a switch hitter But I do think it's helpful here that Charino struggles with righties Because I want to get to willy Adamus and Adamus's salary is low Hasn't been perfect this year by any means but does still have offside and also helps the appeal of William Katerus a little bit You know, well second revenge game on the slate I definitely still like Christian yellows is a lefty not gonna bump down the lefties But it does make it easier to sell myself on the righties when it's a galic tarinos who does struggle quite a bit with same-handed Bathers finally for our third stack. Let's talk here about the Dodgers I do like some of what Brandon Williamson has been doing recently where his velocity is up and it's really helped his peripherals But he's still lagging in some areas and he has to face the Dodgers tonight So I think we should check them out for stacking as a result It is a seven-star sample for Williamson with the velocity up his ERA in the time is three point nine four And he's coming off two really nice starts He has not let up more than 300 runs in any of this seven-star sample So Williamson is pitching very well and you can explain it because he is suppressing hard contact He's letting up just a 36 percent hard hit rate in this time. It's a better than average number So Williamson Throwing the ball harder making gains as a result and making gains in areas that are probably sustainable with the hard contact suppression That's a good number But it's also not elite and his fly ball rate is 42 percent And that's while getting just a 20 percent strikeout rate and the Dodgers are a team that can make you pay If you let up balls and play because they have a 110 to WRC plus against lefties with a 215 iso And a 44 percent fly ball rate if Williamson makes mistakes They will take full advantage and put that ball in the seats and I do think that's possible here So even with Williamson trending up I do think we should look into batters facing him for tonight Which means going at the Dodgers for stacking here now I've done this Dodgers team kind of interesting now because they've made a couple trades Which is shook shook up things them against lefties and Ricky Hernandez made his Dodgers debut a couple nights ago Or I should say three debut and he hits six against the lefty there And if you remember back in the day Kikei was always a guy we use against lefties because he crushed them So putting that kind of guy at that spot in the order is interesting. He also did want to play in the entire game Just not sure if I trust that yet because the Red Sox let him go for a reason. He wasn't hitting lefties well at all You know, that's concerning. We also have Chris Taylor here who is phenomenal I will put Chris Taylor above Kikei Hernandez for sure. I'm at Rosario. I'd probably put above Kikei Hernandez as well so to me if you're ranking out the Platoon-esque righties, I would go with Chris Taylor one I'm at Rosario two and Kikei Hernandez three and I'm probably not gonna get to Kikei tonight despite the fact there were some somewhat encouraging things within the way he was used in that Redebut for the Dodgers so ranking in third among the value platoon guys for tonight Let's go to things to watch I mentioned before I do like Zach Wheeler if they're able to play in Pittsburgh Just not sure if that'll happen necessarily Wheeler has really hit his stride recently with a lot of strikeouts and minimal walks He has a decent match up here at the Pirates I think he's in play if we get the all clear on weather. I just don't know if we'll do that. I probably rank him below Gosmin for tonight still but he's at least in that tier for tonight both sides of course field are viable But they're more fine than anything It's because neither team can hit lefties well the Rockies a 73 WRC plus against lefties the A's are at 78 So I don't mind looking into them. I don't mind them for one offs But it's really hard to go super super crazy with those two teams and they're both facing lefties for tonight Finally, I'm not opposed to giving the rays a swing here. They're facing Christian Javier Who's a great pitcher love Christian Javier, but really struggling right now not getting those strikeouts He's a 4.84 ERA across 12 starts a fewer curve balls The rays offense not as scary as it once was but I do still think they could be interesting here Especially if they're not heavily rostered so the rays to me could be a pivot if they want to go and overlook as a result Of the name value that Christian Javier does carry Let's finish things up here with a dinger calls for tonight the boring one teased before Matt Olson facing off Against howzer in Atlanta very warm weather great for hitting for tonight Olson Phenomenal lefty, so we're gonna go with him as the boring home run call for today for the fun one Let's go Chris Taylor. He's been awesome against lefties for a very long time Facing one today at Dr. Stadium, which is not the best park for Homer tonight because it is not as warm at or not as warm as some Other spots in the sleep, but do still like Taylor quite a bit So we'll go with Matt Olson and Chris Taylor as our dinger calls for today That's all we got here on the solo shot for today and this week once again next week Tom Vecchia will be with you Monday through Friday Breaking down each main slate on the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed find that wherever you get your podcast hit subscribe to get Those as they go live and again the video portion will return the following week on Fandals YouTube page and on Fandal TV Plus if you got any questions for me, you can check me out on Twitter I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis Mnes also do not forget to follow Fandal research at Fandal research want to thank you all for tuning in and having fantastic Weekends enjoy next week as well. We'll talk to you once again in about 10 days This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network