 Listeners, friends, comrades, our day has come once again. It is time for a split slate podcast for today in MLB DFS because we have a five game early, only slate locking at 1.10 p.m. today. We have a main slate that's just four games, which gives us plenty of leeway to get you set for both slates and breakdown my favorite pitchers and stacks, both two pitchers, two stacks, two slates to break down. Let's dive on in and get you set. Welcome on in to the solo shot that's right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network and NumberFire.com. My name is Jim Sanis. I am a senior writer and analyst for NumberFire.com. Here to preview both the early, only and main slates for today over on FanDuel.com. In case you are a first time split slate podcast listener, the way this works is I will do the main slate first because if you're listening later on, it's annoying to skip around. So main slate first, then the early, only slate will be up to that. So if you're listening close to one 10 p.m. and you want to get the early, only slate thoughts, check out the episode description. In the episode description, there will be a timestamp letting you know when the early, only slate analysis begins. Go there, listen to that part right now, then come back and listen to the main slate. So if you're listening again before one 10 p.m., jump ahead to the early, only slate and then come back later on. So lots of goodness coming up throughout the podcast for today. Quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the NumberFire Daily Fantasy Podcast Feed wherever you get your podcasts, we are on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Radio.com, you name it, we are there. If you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review as well. Hey, sports fans, Fandal is offering an exclusive promotion for new sports book users. Join Fandal Sports Book today and make your first bet. 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The lone weather note on the main slate is that winds at Yankee Stadium are blowing out to center at 10 miles per hour. So bump up hitters for the Yankees and the Twins. Due to that, you probably don't need a lot of justification to use the Yankees for today, so it just helps. It helps confirm what we already wanted to do. The pitchers on this main slate are led by Brandon Woodruff, checking in at $10,700. Luis Castillo is $9,700 and Jamison Tyone is $8,700. The lone free pitchers above $8,000 on the main slate. To me, it's between Woodruff and Castillo for the top spot, but it's not really a competition. I just think those two are well above the rest. And to me, Luis Castillo is a decent chunk above Brandon Woodruff. It's a little bit of a revenge game here with his old organization, the Miami Marlins. Castillo, not the world's most consistent pitcher right now. He's pretty maddening, I would say, but he has slashed upside. And having the ability to have a ceiling is kind of what I need to be sold when someone is facing the Marlins. And it does seem like Castillo has made some sort of tweak. It was about eight starts ago. He has had different movement on his fastball sense since an eight-start sample. He is still walking too many guys in this time, which is likely leading to the inconsistency we talked about before, but his strikeout rate is 26%. He is letting up just a 25% fly ball rate. He's gotten eight plus strikeouts in half of those eight starts. That's while making five of those eight starts on the road. Now he's just back home. He is facing the Marlins. They have an 84 WRC plus versus varieties. They 24% strikeout rate. They don't walk a whole lot, which is good for Castillo, given the lingering issues there. So I'm gonna put Castillo at the top of my list due to the matchup, due to his being at home, due to the fact that he can have pop games. So yes, he is frustrating, but I still think he is our top option for today on the main slate. I am comfortable putting Woodruff second. He is facing the Cardinals and that's a good matchup for a righty. They have a 90 WRC plus against righties with a 152 ISO. They don't walk a whole lot. They're not a big strikeout team. That's the one downside in terms of matchup against the Cardinals, but Woodruff provides those strikeouts on his own. He also, similar to Castillo's altered movements on his pitches recently. For him, it's on his changeup over his past 10 starts. And in that time, Woodruff has a 28% strikeout rate. His batted ball data as always is very good. And I think that that's why we can feel good about Woodruff here being number two. With the Brewer's though, we do need to account for the possibility of a short start. We saw Woodruff leave his most recent start early. They said it was not due to injury. So I think that, you know, we talked about this law of Freddie Peralta being a risk to get yanked early due to trying to save him for October, but it's just as risky with Woodruff as it is for Peralta. I think the one thing that helps here is that I would doubt it happens a second start in a row and that was his most recent start where it happened. It is something to keep in mind and it does lower him, but it's not going to push me off entirely. Woodruff has eight strikeouts in half of his 10 starts in this sample. So I like his upside. The reason Castillo is higher for me is that he's lower salary, he's at home, he's in a better matchup and he's less likely to get yanked early because the Reds have to get to October whereas the Yankees or the Brewer's I should say, they're pretty much there. They can plan for what they want to do there, try to conserve guys and keep them fresh. So to me, it's a hefty advantage for Castillo over Woodruff as a result of those factors. I will be going to Castillo even in single entry where I know that Castillo will be the chalk for tonight. There is no doubt in my mind that'll happen. I don't care. I still think he is the number one guy for single entry, highest exposure picture for tournaments if you're multi-entering too. Woodruff is number two when you are multi-entering for today. As far as the top stacks on this main slate, the Yankees are facing a bullpen game for the Twins. John Gantt is technically starting, it's been pretty good since he got traded but it's gonna be a good situation to stack the Yankees here. I don't stack in bullpen games all that often because bullpens, you're getting pitchers and shorter bursts, they can be fresher, stuff like that. And we do see some low totals in those games but the Twins bullpen is pretty rough. They have a 4.47 ERA based on their current active roster in the bullpen. That is the seventh highest number in the league right now based on each team's current active roster. If you were looking at the guys likely to be available in longer relief for the Twins here, they've struggled quite a bit, which means we'll be getting the Yankees against guys who haven't had great numbers this year and they might be asked to go longer than they typically do. We're not gonna know what the overall pitching breakdown will look like. So I do think that, you know, that's one thing to consider but there is a lot of room for this to go south. So I think the Yankees do stand out as a priority on this slave for tonight. And I wanted to include Ruegne and O'Dore as part of those stacks. One of the issues that we have here with a bullpen game is we don't know handedness of the pitcher. It could be your righty, it could be lefty, it'll be Gantz who was the righty to start but they could bring out some lefties after that. O'Dore though, does do pretty well against both handednesses. Is that about the parole form of that? He has a 175 ISO versus righties, 253 against lefties. So I don't mind if the twins decide to go with the lefty after Gantz. I think that O'Dore should still be fine. So, you know, I think that he's gonna see a roster rate bump as a result of Gantz being the starter and his being a righty. But I still think that O'Dore is a fine option at $2,800. Then you go to the usual guys after that within your Yankees stacks. As far as the second slot goes there are a good number of contenders. There are three teams I do like here. Those are the Brewers, the Reds and the Dodgers. I'm gonna go through all three really fast here and why I think they are viable for tonight. The Brewers are the most obvious. They're facing John Lester. He hasn't gotten better since joining the Cardinals. He's getting some ground balls and that's why they're not here standalone as a second stack on the main slate but they're still a great option. And they're gonna be a quality one for me. Dodgers are facing Taiwan Walker. We just saw this matchup last week between the Dodgers and Walker and Walker did perform pretty well but over his past five starts he's letting up a 48% fly ball rate with an 18% strikeout rate that is despite increasing his splitter usage once again in that sample. Now the Dodgers have just seen him. I'm not sure that will go all too well for Walker and the repeat match. So the Dodgers great out well there. The Reds likely facing Zach Thompson and Maryland's have not officially announced who their starter is for tonight. So it might not be Thompson. Like they have L.A. Sir, Hernandez, Pennsylvania for tomorrow which means I'm not really sure if it'll be Thompson definitively but it seems like it will be Thompson. Assuming it is Thompson. He did pitch well when he first came up but it seems like teams are getting more familiar with him and that has led to some sliding back in terms of what Thompson is doing out there on the mound. He is adjusting. He's gone with more change ups since you were curve balls his pass four starts but the numbers are going the wrong way. I don't think people will be inclined to stack against him because he has some name value. Ziree is pretty good but I do like it here. So I think for single entry I might rank the Reds second behind the Yankees. Again, assuming Thompson is officially announced as a starter for the Marlins I could also see passing up the Yankees entirely and going Reds Dodgers because not sure how popular either team will be given that Walker and Thompson are probably regarded as being decent pitchers and have good results so far this year. So I like both those pretty decent. Straight up it's the Yankees, Brewers, Dodgers and Reds in that order for stacking for today. The Dodgers and Reds though for me get bumped up in tournaments because I think they will be less popular than they likely should. So if you look in single entry I think both those Dodgers and Reds pretty good options in that format if you're trying to find a stack that may go overlooked. As far as the dingers for today we'll do just the dingers for the main slate for tonight. The boring one will be Aaron Judge facing that bullpen game for the Twins. He's obviously very good. This is not a hot take. Good versus righties, good versus lefties. So the boring one is truly boring and it's Aaron Judge. The more fun one is Willie Adonis. I know that Adonis is tremendous and we have seen this Brewers offense take big strides since trading for him but I don't think we view him as being like a top flight type guy. We probably should. His numbers versus lefties both from a results perspective and a bad at ball perspective are dumb. So the home run calls for today on the main slate Aaron Judge and Willie Adonis trying to follow up Hunter Renfrow last night. And I think we had one two nights ago as well. So trying to keep the streak going here with the Dinger calls on the podcast. That wraps up the main slate for today. So if you're listening to this after one 10 p.m. Eastern go on, live your life, have a great day and we'll talk to you once again tomorrow. But for this early only slate, it's a five game slate with lockout one at 10 p.m. Eastern for tonight. There is no weather to discuss. It all looks pretty solid. So let's just dive on in and take a look at the pitchers here. Shane McClanahan is the highest salary pitcher on FanDuel for today. He checks in at $10,100. Dylan Cease is $9,100. Mike Miners 85. Luis Garcia is 83. And Cole Irvin checks in at $8,200. And to me, this slate's all about tournaments. There is not a single guy on this slate who I really wanna pound the table for in cash game. So it's a very much a tournament heavy slate on the early only slate. But I do like two guys if we allow ourselves to look at their upside versus their floors. And those two guys are Dylan Cease and Luis Garcia. I'm gonna start here with Cease because he's my preferred option. He's shaky for sure. And there are two reasons why Cease is a bit shaky. The first one he's facing, the A's, they're a really good offense. So that's strike one. Strike two is that the batter ball data is rough for Cease. He's been leaning more on his slider as past seven starts and sliders. You will often see batter ball numbers go the wrong way when a pitcher increases slider usage. We have seen that with Cease because his hard hit rate is 39% with a 52% fly ball rate. That's gonna get him in trouble. I can almost guarantee you there will be a solo shot off of Cease at some point today, but there are so many strikeouts. And again, if you let up one or run, you can erase that with one strikeout. And he's getting a lot of those. He has a 34% strikeout rate in this seven-start sample. He has a 3.22 skill-interactive URA despite the really bad batter ball data. We've seen Cease get double-digit strikeouts three times in those seven starts. And two of those were an easier matchups, but he also had 10 strikeouts against the Astros. Cease is not super efficient with his pitches. They will give him some leash though, because he's gone 100 plus pitches in three of those seven starts. We just need him to not mess around. We need him to throw strikes. Will he do that? I don't know. That's why this thing could go poorly. And that's why I can't like, you know, say I want to go to Dylan Cease in both cash games and tournaments, but I do like the upside here. I will happily use him baking on that ceiling. Good tournament play is Dylan Cease and someone I feel solid about from an upside perspective for today. As far as Elise Garcia goes, he's risking more so due to workload than the matchup. He's facing the Royals. They have an 87 WRC plus versus righties. They won 43 ISO, which is second lowest on the early only slate. That part's fine. Matchups good. But Garcia has not gone 90 pitches since the end of June. He has gone 85 plus in all but one of those. So it's not like he's like going 70 or anything. But he's close to 90, but he definitely has a cap on his length relative to a lot of other starters. Garcia though, unlike Cease, is fairly efficient with his pitches. So it hasn't stopped him from putting up good strikeout totals. Garcia has been leading more in his curve ball over his past 10 starts. He has a 30% strikeout rate in that time. He has been able to get to seven or more strikeouts in six of his 10 starts. And he's done it five times in his past six. And that is the sample in which his pitch count has been the lowest. So I don't think Garcia can get you like a 60 burger. That's probably not going to happen given his pitch count numbers. And that's why Cease is higher for me. And it could push you towards Shane McClanahan over Garcia for today. But Garcia almost $2,000 lower. Sour the McClanahan. I will take that discount. I will say the McClanahan is absolutely ranked third on this list. And he's fully worthy of tournament exposure. But to me, I think that it's Cease won Garcia to McClanahan three in terms of the early only slate. As far as the stacks go, I am going to be going right back once again to the raise for the third consecutive slate. They're facing Jorge Lopez and Lopez is really struggling right now. He is tankering, trying to turn things around, but not working yet. He has leaned pretty heavily into his sinker over his past five starts in that time. He has a 5.68 skill interactive ERA, which is the highest on the slate by three quarters of a run. So a big gap between Lopez in the field. He has a 14% strikeout rates with a 13% walk rates. The bad at ball data is better than the plate discipline data, but it's not good enough to erase the issues elsewhere. This raise offense is stupid good. So I think they'll put up a big number once again for tonight. So the raise to me a standout stack once again. As far as batters facing Lopez, you can use either righties or lefties, but you do want to bump up the lefties here in general. So Brandon Lau, Austin Meadows, Gimon Choi. It also includes Wander Franco. Franco was initially hitting lefties really well, exclusively lefties really well, but he's been showing more power against righties recently. It's probably similar to what we talked about Jared Kellan McLeod last night, where he's a guy who has had more time in the big leagues now, has been able to acclimate himself, get fully caught up, get used to what the big league pitchers are doing, and we've seen him improve. Talent is good. Good talent is hard to hide. We've found it here with Wander Franco. So I think the raise are an elite stack for this slate and very easy to get to if you have Cease or Garcia as your pitcher for tonight. The second spot for me is between the Angels and the Astros. If Shoya Otani sits after pitching last night, Astros are the number two definitively. If Otani plays, then I would put the Angels higher. Given this is a day game, right after a night game where he went eight innings, I think there is a decent chance that Otani gets a breather. So I'll talk about the Astros here as the number two stack. They're facing Mike Miner. Miner has been lowering his change of usage over his past eight starts. And the plate discipline numbers are not that bad, but he's letting up a 42% hard hit rate and a 44% fly ball rate. That has started to lead to some home run issues. Miner has let up two home runs in three straight starts. He hasn't blown up overall. His ERA is 5.80, but he's not shutting people down either. Now he's facing Astros. So I think it's a good spot to stack them once again if you're confident in doing so. So the Astros, even if Otani does play, you can make a strong case for ranking them second, but I do like the Angels match up a lot against Matt Manning. So if Otani plays, Angels, if Otani sits, go Astros number two. Either way, both these are solid options behind the raise as the top stack for today. I think it's a good spot to stack the Astros here. And we've got some good value plays once again in Shaz and McCormick and the lead in his Diaz. McCormick didn't quite come through when he was my dinger pick a couple of nights ago, but had a 400 foot double, so at least came close to that. So going back to the well here once again, $2,300 for Shaz and McCormick for tonight, feeling okay about that one for sure. So Diaz is $2,700, McCormick is 23. Both those guys should make it easy to get up to the true, true studs in this lineup for today. That is all that we have here for today for both the main slate and the early only slate. So go on and fill out those lineups if you're playing, if you're listening to this early on, did not listen to the main slate, go back to that now and get set for what I think should be a decent slate for tonight. We are also gonna be breaking down the main slate later on today during the 4 p.m. stream on the Fando YouTube Twitch, Facebook and Twitter pages. So swing on by there at 4 p.m. to talk pitchers, stacks, one-offs, your questions about whatever may be on your mind, MLB DFS process as well. 4 p.m. today, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter. If you have questions for me, I am on Twitter. At Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S, you can also follow the Fandoor Podcast Network at Fandoor Podcast. Big thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you both on the early only and the main slates and we'll talk to you once again on Friday to close out the week. This has been the solo shot right here on the Fandoor Podcast Network.