 Absolutely loaded a slate at pitcher for tonight in MLB DFS 14 games here on this slate and a lot of studs when I go through the pitching preview and list out salaries I want you to count the number of guys with salaries above 9000 because it's roughly 40 or so so we got options and I've got a couple I like more than the rest so we'll break down who those guys are but honestly a slate where you can kind of play things the way you want there are a lot of justifiable plays for tonight which should be music to your ears we're gonna break down who I like most and more to get you ready for Friday night in MLB DFS. Welcome on into the solo shot that's right here on the Fandall podcast network my name is Jim Sonnis I am a managing editor of digital media for Fandall research here to break down Friday night's 14 game main slate with lock set for 705 p.m. Eastern for today and lucky us not only are there tons of pitchers there are no big weather notes for tonight there is only one game with a temperature above 85 degrees that is at Coors Field for the blue jays and the Rockies everything else is pretty normal not a lot of key rain spots for tonight so it's a pretty sweet slate across the board everything can serve we're gonna dive in and break down that slate here in just one second the first day reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast we were here every weekday talking MLB DFS we got select USC events the Austin Swain and in six days NFL heat check with myself and Brandon Gadoula is back breaking down that week's NFL DFS main slate to get those as they are posted make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast if you like what you hear leave us a five star rating on Apple podcast or Spotify and also we will have both the solo shot and the heat check up up on the Fandall YouTube page and over on Fandall TV plus on Amazon Fire Apple TV or Roku and also at Fandall.com slash watch get out your game day gear because college football is back and Fandall wants you to join in on the fun right now all customers can get a no sweat bet for week one just plays any week one college football bet you'll get bonus bets back if you don't win that and money lines spreads totals and more just visit the Fandall sportsbook app and kick off the college football season with America's number one sportsbook must be 21 plus and president select states refund issued is non-lidrable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt max refund five dollars unless otherwise specified restrictions apply see terms at sportsbook.fandall.com Fandall is offering online sports waging in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Dark Casino LLC gambling problem call 1-800 Gambler or visit Fandall.com slash RG in Arizona 1-800 next step or tax next step to 533-42 in Connecticut 1-88-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Indiana 1-800-9 with it in Wyoming and Kansas 1-800-522-4700 and Kansas KS gambling health.com Louisiana's 1-877-770 stop in Maryland mdgamblinghealth.org in West Virginia 1-800-gambler.net in Massachusetts hope is here gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 seven support and in New York 1-877-8 hope and why or text hope and why pitching preview for this Friday main slate we have got Tyler glass now checking in with the highest value of 11,000 for the dollars followed by Max Scherzer at 11,000. Zach Wheeler is at 10-8 with Freddy Peralta at 10-6. We got Mitch Keller back up to 10-5 followed by Cody Senga at 10-4. Justin Verlander is 10-3 with Joe Ryan at 9-9. Logan Gilbert is 9-8 with Avery Perez at 9-6. Eduardo Rodriguez checks in at 9-5. Michael Wacca at 9-4. Julio Arias at 9-3. Patrick Sandoval at 9-2. And Max Fried at 9-1-100 half the slate. 15 guys more than half the slate. 15 pitchers with salaries above 9,000 dollars. James Pax and the 100 Ryu are the only other guys at 8,000 dollars or higher. So a lot of ways you can go forward tonight when filling out your lineups. And one of those ways could be Max Scherzer. And I like Max Scherzer a lot. Now he's facing the twins for the second straight start. Last time out though, Scherzer had double digit strikeouts. So I hate that it's a repeat matchup, but I do still like Scherzer a bunch. And it wasn't just the strikeout total in that game that was good. Scherzer had a 13.9% swing in strikeout, which he'll take for sure. He went seven innings and threw 101 pitches. So they're letting him go deep in games, and he's pitching well. A lot of good signs there. And Scherzer broadly has pitched well with the Rangers. It's a five-start sample. He has a 3.24 skill interactive ERA with a 34% strikeout rate. And I think that number will come down because he wasn't quite that high earlier on this year. And I don't think that the shift to the Rangers will ignite a 34% strikeout rate, but he looks really good. And the twins are a high strikeout team. Their active roster has a 28% strikeout rate against righties this year. So I do think the strikeouts will come down for Scherzer, both due to regression and because of the fact it's a repeat matchup, but he should still get plenty. And there is enough here to be super high on Scherzer once again for today. So Scherzer's salary is $11,000, totally okay with that. With that said, Max Scherzer may not be my top guy for tonight. I think that actually might be Freddie Peralta, who has a lot of similarities to Scherzer. He's pitching great right now, facing a pretty solid offense, but not a low strikeout offense. So I've got high expectations for Peralta tonight. He's facing the Phillies, who have a 105 WRC plus against righties, but their strikeout rate is around average. So not a negative in that regard. And I think that that means we don't need to avoid pitchers who are facing them if they're the right pitcher. And Peralta is the right pitcher right now. 10 starts ago, Peralta started to lean more on his changeup. And it's not a huge pitch for him, but he did throw at a season high 23% of the time in his most recent start. And it's led to a big spike in strikeouts. Across those 10 starts, Peralta has a 39% strikeout rate with a 2.81 skill interactive ERA, a 2.97 ERA as well. He's done this while facing some tough offenses. He had 11 strikeouts against the Rangers on the road two starts ago. So he can shut down a good offense. This time he's at home. Peralta's strikeout rate at home is 34% versus 26% on the road. So I have super high expectations for Peralta tonight. He does not have as long of a track record of dominance as Max Scherzer does, but I still feel like I want to be here. So Peralta's salary checks in at $10,600. I think that's very fair. And honestly, I might wind up having him at here above Scherzer tonight, especially because Scherzer isn't a repie matchup. So Freddie Peralta high, high, high on my list for tonight. As far as the value plays, I'm not really into anybody from being fully honest. Most of the really good options are in the 10,000 range. Some others are in the 9,000 range. You could go James Paxon 88, but his velocity has been down. It's really hard to strikeout totals. So if we're going to the value play, I want to save more salary than Paxon 88 and dip way down. And I think our top value actually could be Tukey Toussaint at $7,000. Just know that I want to make clear I'm not necessarily in love with using Toussaint. It's more so just because I need a value play. And there are 15 guys with salaries above 9,000. Toussaint is facing Detroit, which does help. They have a 90 WRC plus against righties, 25% strikeout, right? And that's a good boost to opposing starters. Toussaint has been up and down this year for sure. He's walking way too many guys, but he's still had some big games, nine strikeouts for Toussaint against both the Yankees and the Rangers. He hasn't duplicated that sense, but it is at least within his range of outcomes. If we look at the 11 appearances for Toussaint since his pitch count got fully increased, he has a 22% strikeout rate, which is fine. And he could do well with that in this matchup. So again, you could go Paxon. We'll talk about him in things to watch later on, but I'd rather save even more salary and go for Toussaint if I spend down at all, which is not a guarantee by any means to me, it really does revolve around those top end pitchers today, not just Peralta and Scherzer, but also plenty of other guys. So to me, it's all about the studs for today. And then the value plays are more if you must. Now the if you must factor does come into play because they do have a course field game for tonight and the blue jays are there. Now you would think the blue jays would come with massive, massive salaries like cores, but honestly, if you're going Peralta or Scherzer, I think you can stack the Jays and you should look to do so. They're facing Chris Flexon. Flexon has exceeded expectations so far this year with the Rockies, but I do still think we want to stack against him. Flexon up to six darts with Colorado, he has a 4.54 skill interactive ERA with a 20% strikeout rate, which is honestly not that bad, but he's still letting up a 43% hard hit rate, which is pretty rough and the bullpen behind him is bad. So let's say hypothetically, Flexon winds up pitching okay, you could still get upside later in the game against this bullpen because they're not great in its course field. Blue jays offense still has not fully clicked yet. They have a 104 WRC plus for the season against righties on the active roster. Maybe a trip to cores can help get them back on track. I don't know. We'll see, but I think that the blue jays do make a lot of sense for tonight. It does help that flexon has reverse platoon splits. Righties have hit him super hard this year, which means I think they've extra incentive to go at Davis Schneider, which is fun. You know, it's fun to get to use the new guy in the block. The sample on Schneider keeps expanding. He keeps hitting the daylight out of the baseball. He can also swipe a bag, good numbers in triple A. I think that if you want to indulge and be high on Schneider, you get a good chance for tonight because of the core field of factor because his salary is 34. You fill second base, which is the worst position in baseball for DFS. So I think that he makes a lot of sense. He's a guy I want to be on for tonight. Number two stack is going to be the raise. They're facing Cal Quantrell, who is coming off the IL tonight. Before Quantrell got hurt, he was getting roasted on the mound and his triple A rehab starts didn't look great. So I think the rays are very much in play against him. If we look at Quantrell's final 10 starts before he hit the IL, he was using more curves and change ups and in that time, just a 13% strikeout rate. And his bad at ball beta wasn't as good as it has been in the past. Never been a high strikeout guy, but he's typically gotten good hard contact numbers, but hard hit rate was 38% for him. That's not bad overall. It's about average, but it's also not good enough to overcome his low strikeout rates and teams punished Quantrell for this. He had a 6.66 ERA in this time. He let up five plus earned runs and each of his final four starts. You would hope that that was caused by the injury and that a trip to the IL would fix it, but he didn't light it up in his rehab starts either. He let up six earned runs and two out of his three starts in triple A. He did pitch pretty well in his final start where he went seven and third innings with six strikeouts, but I don't want to avoid Quantrell based just on that. So I'm very okay stacking the rays against Quantrell for tonight. And similar to the Jays, honestly, the salaries and the rays are not that bad, given the offense has lagged off a bit and we can get a guy like Brandon Lau for a salary of $3,000. And I understand why Lau is here because August has not been great for him, but still in just this month, or I guess it's not August anymore, but in the month of August, he had a 48% hard hit rate. He put the ball in the air plenty. I don't see anything super concerning in the underlying numbers for Lau. And I think that makes it a good buy low spot for him at that number of $3,000. So Lau at $3,000, Brandon Lau at $3,200, both guys who come with lower salaries than what they had throughout the rest of this year. And I think that we should take advantage of that one in this case. Luke Rayleigh is also his salary is down to $2,900, got the power, got some speed too. So I think we got good outlets for reasonable salaries on this raised team right now. Finally, for our third stack, it is pretty warm in Kansas City relative to the rest of this slate, 84 degrees there. And that's the second warmest game on the slate behind course deal. The Red Sox are facing Jordan Lyle's there and I'm very okay with stacking them here. Lyle's has done some things well recently. In 14 starts with fewer curveballs, he's letting up a 34% hard hit rate, which is a really good number. And that will often be tied into quality results because hard contact suppression matters. But in those starts, Lyle's ERA is 5.91. He let up seven earned runs last time out, including three home runs. He has now let up nine home runs across his past three starts alone. Now, two of those were on the road, whereas he is at home tonight, but in his most recent home start, he let up four home runs. He faced the Red Sox back on August 9th and he lasted eight innings there. He did let up four in runs and now they get a second crack at him. I think Lyle's, when you combine him with a poor bullpen and good hitting weather in Kansas City, I think that gives the Red Sox enough juice to justify stacking them. So the Red Sox to me, number three stack for tonight behind the Blue Jays and the Rays. Lyle's used to be a guy with reverse platoon splits, but he's pretty even against righties and lefties this year. Both righties and lefties strike out very little. They put the ball in the air quite a bit. Lefties slightly higher hard hit rate against him. So I'd give the lefties a side edge, but overall you can play things pretty straight up in stacking against Lyle's when choosing your Red Sox batters. Let's stick with that game and move to things to watch and talk about James Paxton. I mentioned before, the Velo has been down and that's been happening now for his past nine starts. And in that nine start sample, Paxton's strike out rate is 20%. He has a 4.69 skill interactive ERA and that could perk back up tonight because he's a good pitcher, but he's in a good matchup with the Royals as well. So if you saw something in Paxton's most recent start that draws you in, I'm not going to talk you out of him because if you gave me Paxton at full health in this matchup, I adore him, but not quite enough for me to be sold just yet. So I'm holding off, but if you like something in Paxton, I think that there's enough there to fire away. The last time out was the best start that Carlos Rodan has had this year. He went forward to two thirds innings, but he had seven strikeouts there and he held the raise to an 18% hard hit raise, which could mean that Rodan is turning a corner. And that's why the Astros were not in the top three for stacking for me. If I hadn't seen that start, I feel like I probably would have stacked the Astros because Rodan is letting up enough hard contact, a lot of fly balls, not getting enough strikeouts, but with that start factored in, I think that the Astros get knocked down. I would still give them a long look for stacking though in case Rodan regresses to what he had been doing before that most recent start. Finally, Orioles are facing Zach Davies tonight. Davies looked good in his first start off the IL, but he was struggling before then and it's not like he was lights out against the Reds in that start. He just pitched good. The Orioles can hit righties pretty well. Roof will be closed in Arizona tonight, so that does knock down their park factor, but I think it does make sense to stack the Orioles against Zach Davies for tonight. Dinger calls for this Friday slate. The boring one, Josh Low. I mentioned before the salary is down to $3,300 and Low obviously is not quite on the same level of heater that he was on earlier on this year, but has started to pick things back up again. So I'm going to go with Josh Low as the boring home run call for today. The fun home run call actually has more home runs this year than Josh Low. So maybe I had these two flip, but I want to go Tristan Casas. His salary is 29, so maybe it's just based on the salary that I'm doing him as being the more fun option, but Casas seemed like he's been a lot different batter the second half of the year versus what he was earlier on. He's putting the ball in play, hitting for power, facing Lyles for today in warm weather. I think that all adds up pretty well. So home run calls for today, regardless of who you want to put in which bucket are going to be Josh Low and Tristan Casas. That's all that we have for today here on the solo shot. Quick scheduling announcements. We're still going to have the show here every weekday through NFL season, but Tom Vecchio is going to cover for me the rest of the way because I got to focus on NFL stuff. So make sure you follow Tom on Twitter at Tom underscore Vecchio1 to check out Tom, get insights as the podcast go up each and every day. We will still have video versions, both on the Fandall YouTube page and on Fandall TV plus. So if you watch there, don't worry. Podcasts will still go there. Make sure to subscribe to get our NFL podcast and our UFC podcast as well. All right here in the same podcast, but it has been a pleasure talking to all of you throughout this year and looking forward to doing it once again in 2024. Once again, do not forget to subscribe to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed subscribe to Fandall YouTube and check out Fandall TV plus as well. You can watch us alongside up in Adams. If you log in with your Fandall account and it's all the tremendous content over there at Fandall TV and Fandall TV plus. If you've got any questions for me, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis J I M S A N N ES. You can also follow Fandall research at Fandall research. Want to thank you all for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your MLB DFS lineups. Not just tonight, but for the rest of the regular season, we'll talk to you once again in 2024. This has been the solo shot right here on the Fandall podcast network.