 It took all the way until the month of June, but we finally got it a slate that is riddled with some pretty bad weather There are three or four spots where we could legitimately see post-pomans due to Thunderstorms both the Midwest and on the East Coast As always that sucks. It's not fun to navigate around that But the plus side is what they should be able to play a decent number of those and there are decent alternatives Both that pitcher and for stacking we can still feel good about so we're gonna break down today Slate for MLB DFS let you know which spots may be at risk how to navigate that and where to go Should the weather wind up being a beast for tonight welcome on into the solo shop That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Saunas. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down Friday's 13 game main slate We hope 13 games with locks out for 705 p.m. Eastern for today Let's start things off with listing off those games where the weather could get gross First one is in New York for the Mets and the Blue Jays. They could be in trouble there So be wary of players there similar forecast in Boston for the Red Sox and rays I think both those games pretty seriously at risk of a postponement in the Midwest There's a chance of thunderstorms in Minneapolis for the twins and guardians and in Kansas City for the Royals and Rockies I think all these games are pretty similar in terms of their risk levels as far as whether or not they're able to play So again the games that could be dicey are in New York for the Mets and Blue Jays Boston for the Red Sox and rays Minneapolis for the twins and guardians in Kansas City for the Royals and the Rockies Make sure you're checking back on timelines for those games later on Check the weather reports before you finalize your roster before you head off for the day Just to make sure those games are good to go There are just three games with temperatures under 70 degrees for today Those games are in San Diego for the Padres and Cubs Los Angeles for the Dodgers and Yankees and San Francisco for the Giants and Orioles So while we're downgrading other games due to potential risk of postponement These ones for batters are downgraded due to the weather So again, San Diego for Padres and Cubs Los Angeles for Dodgers and Yankees and San Francisco for the Giants and the Orioles We're gonna dive into how to navigate that which guys are in fine weather or in domes Hopefully to allow themselves to get around that and much more in just one second But first a reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed Wherever you get your podcast We of course are an apple podcast Spotify Stitcher Google podcast wherever you get your podcast You can find us there while you're there if you like what you hear leave us a five start ratings Well, of course all these shows the solo shots do go up over on the Fandall YouTube page If you like what you hear there subscribe to the Fandall YouTube page for all the other great content and also leave us a thumbs up It is almost time to crown an NBA champion and Fandall wants you to be a part of the excitement because right now New customers can get a no sweat first bet up to $2,500 that's $2,500 back in bonus bets if your first bet doesn't win There's no better place to bet all the finals action than America's number one sportsbook Fandall official sports betting partner of the NBA must be 21 plus and president select states first online A real money wager only $10 deposit required refund issued is non withdrawal bonus bets that expire in 14 days Restrictions apply see full terms at fandall.com slash sportsbook Fandall is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC gambling problem Call 1 800 gambler or visit fandall.com slash RG in Arizona 1 800 next step protects next step to 533 for 2 in Connecticut 1 888 789 7777 or visit CC PG org slash chat in Indiana 1809 with it in Wyoming in Kansas 1 800 5 22 4700 we're in Kansas KS gambling help calm Louisiana is 1807 770 stop in Massachusetts gambling helpline ma.org or call 800 327 5050 for 24 7 support in a Maryland MD gambling help org in New York 1877 8 hope and wire text open Y and in West Virginia go to 1 800 gambler Pitching preview for this Friday main slate. There are a lot of guys with salaries above $9,000 So here is the list from of all this is at the top his salary 11 to follow by Logan Webb at 11 1 Zach Wheeler 10 9 show he o'tonny 10 8 Clayton Kershaw 10 3 Louise Castillo 10 2 Merrill Kelly 10 1 Bailey over 10 flats with Justin Verlander at $9900 Chris Bassett 96 Charlie Morton 95 Michael Walker 93 Tyler Glass on 92 John Gray 9000 with we Severino Aaron Savalli Josiah Gray Dean Kramer and Jack Flaherty as the others at $8,000 for hire So again weather risk, but we got a lot of guys to choose from so that does help things for sure and Luckily a handful of the best pitchers and I think the best pitchers the best three are all in Situations where the weather will not impact them. The first one is because he's in a dome We got a handful of good pitchers on this slate Some of them are in solid matchups, but in terms of raw ceiling I feel like show hey o'tonny has to be the guy for tonight He just has the best strikeout potential of the bunch O'tonny's facing the Astros and this offense is getting healthier Which means their power numbers are finally creeping up But they're also still not the low strikeout offense They were the past couple years where they're a bit below average or a bit better than average in that regard but not a low strikeout offense and That to me is enough to give us a green light on o'tonny We're up to 11 starts on o'tonny so far this year. He is still letting out just a 29 percent hard hit rate He didn't let up a single hard hit ball in 13 balls in play last time out It was against the Marlins, so it deserves an asterisk, but there's still a big league team So it's absurd what he's doing right now the skill interactive era for o'tonny at 3.30 is expected 2.87 and it comes with a 35 percent strikeout rate and a 14.9 percent swinging strike rate That's strikeout rate for o'tonny is actually higher on the road than it is at home, which is odd But you'll take it as he goes to Houston tends to be a pretty high strikeout location as well Even against tough teams. We've seen o'tonny rack up strikeouts. He faced Houston once this year That guy may 9th and so I think that's enough time where it's not a huge concern enough separation where it's not a familiarity issue I have o'tonny projected for 8.5 strikeouts here. Nobody else is within one strikeout of him so Even though other guys had better matchups. I think o'tonny has the best ceiling and That's how I play things so o'tonny to me the top pitcher for today Zach Wheeler is a better matchup from a floor perspective Which may make him the play for cash games But I don't think his upside is quite as high for tournaments So I still like Wheeler enough to rank him second, but that's why I have o'tonny first Wheeler's facing the nationals, which is both a good and a bad thing because the good is they're bad They have an 87 wrc plus against righties a 127 iso and they never draw walk, which is awesome for floor The bad is that they also don't strike out their strikeout rate against righties is 19 percent That is the lowest number on the slate and that definitely does impact wheelers upside But he has pitched really well this year. He has a 3.4 to skill interactive r.a With a 28 strikeout rate and a 13.4 percent swinging strike rate Wheeler has faced much tougher teams and done well against them He had 12 strikeouts against the brains on the road last time out and the task this time is much easier So I don't blame you if you want to go with wheeler over o'tonny Because the floor is better here for sure, but my personal process is to gun for ceiling and o'tonny's is higher I wheeler projected a 6.5 strikeouts because the matchup is so Meh in that regard and that is enough for me to put him second on this list But it's not enough to put him above o'tonny So if you want the floor go wheeler if you want the juice the ceiling the upside I would go o'tonny my personal preference my personal process is to go for The highest upside guy I can get and that it winds up being o'tonny So to me the ranking for turnies is o'tonny one then wheeler two Now because we have guys like wheeler o'tonny ball des et cetera et cetera on this slate I don't want to sacrifice points at pitcher, which means if i'm spending down I still need upside I think john gray is the lowest I can go while still getting that upside So to me he is the top value play of the night with a salary of $9,000 on fan dual Gray is facing the mariners and they're a good offense, but they're definitely one that will strike out 25 percent strikeout rate against righties on the current active roster We talked about this last week, but gray has cut back pretty dramatically on his foreseeing fastball usage It did go up a back back up a smidge in his most recent start But in that game, he was still very effective eight strikeouts there That's his second time getting eight strikeouts in this four start spam He had a 16.3 percent swinging strike rate If we open up the sample and look at all four starts with fewer foreseamers gray's strikeout rate is 27 percent And that is a big deviation from what he was doing before Now gray did start the stretch against the mariners, which means they saw him in his current state That was back on may 8th. It's pretty recent, but I think it's enough cushion where familiarity is not a massive massive red flag So it's still a small sample on gray doing this, but we've seen it now for four starts We've seen the underline numbers like swinging strike rate have correlated with this He's been getting with against pretty good teams. So I like what he's been doing. The advanced numbers are great That's enough for me to make john gray. That's how value for today at 9 000 and a guy I am willing to use Because I think he can get me on a great day 10 strikeouts and that's enough on this slate So john gray at 9 000 lowest I'm willing to go on fan dual for tonight So top three pitching options all things considered shohio tani zack wheeler and then john gray The stacking options also do begin with some teams that are not playing in bad weather That started things off with the cardinals basing rones and contraris who made a relief appearance last week But he's now back in the rotation I kind of understand why his spot in the rotation is a bit shaky The peripherals for contraris are a bit underwhelming across his nine starts so excluding that one relief outing He has a 5.47 skill interactive era with a 16 strikeout rate and an 11 walk rate The era for contraris as a starter is still decent at 4.50 But the bad at ball data not great either He's led up a 42 hard hit rates with a 43 fly ball rate And he's facing a pretty tough cardinals offense 108 w rc plus against righties minimal strikeouts and added bonus for tonight Is that it is very very warm in pittsburgh 90 degrees That is the second warmest game on the slate behind just the one in arizona where the roof should be open for tonight So not a ton of great stacks that I love on this slate Especially once you consider weather but of the bunch. I think this is the best one So the cardinals to me are the top stack on this friday main slate And we talked about contraris talked about the bad at ball issues I think an underrated part here in stacking the cardinals is how Almost all their guys run Only three players on their active roster have zero stolen bases against brand of pitching so far this year Seven guys have multiple stolen bases So Yeah, the power is there for most of these guys But the speed is two So let's say hypothetically contraris Get you know, isn't letting up long balls tonight. I think they can still get there They can still pay off for dfs even when that doesn't happen and I am a huge fan of that personally Also does sound like jordan walker should be back for tonight Wasn't phenomenal when he was up the first time still trying to increase that uh that fly ball rate But he's minimum salary probably going to bat eighth or so. I think that's fine I think that whether as a one offer within stacks He's pretty fun If you want to get to a tani while using the high upside guys in the cardinals lineup I would say probably want to give walker long consideration something I personally am very willing to do For the second stack, let's talk to you about the white socks They're facing Reese Olson making his debut for the tigers And if this matchup had happened a few weeks ago, I probably would have ignored it because the white socks How we're missing a lot of key players, but they're getting healthier now And I think we can stack them in this matchup Olson's Coming up from AAA where he did get some strikeouts down there Also did a good job of getting ground balls But it didn't really translate to results down there. Olson had a 6.38 era. His exit was 4.68 He was walking too many guys and that was kind of the key driver in the the rougher numbers So You could look at that and say, um, you know, do we trust it? But he did that in the lower miners as well Now he moves up to talk to face the majors the white socks Still not great 91 wrc plus against righties, but they've got bodies back. They're starting to trend up I'm not convinced Olson will succeed right away in the majors Which means I think we have the leeway to stack the white socks against him on this slate Eloy Jimenez just getting back from his appendix issue. Your core impacts pretty much everything So always a concern having legitimate surgery down there And he's also dealing with a leg injury apparently Since coming back from the appendix issue though Jimenez does have two doubles and a home run in 18 plate appearances He did see the ball pretty well in his plate appearance in his rehab stint because drew a lot of walks down there So I don't think he's like a massive priority relative to where he typically would be But um, he's in play at least I think I've seen enough to say he's in play I don't think he's gonna be the top guy in the stack, but He's okay and a guy I feel okay proceeding forward with Based on what we've seen so far since he returned Finally for our third stack This is where the weather starts to play in because there is some potential weather in this game That's the Royals and Rockies. Uh, the Royals facing chase Anderson tonight And I think we want to give them consideration if the weather Gives us the green light to do so Anderson has been awesome in his three starts He has a 1.72 e array and all three of those were of course field. He's not there for tonight So That's a positive but I also want to follow the transactions and the actions teams have taken because Anderson opted out of his contract at the reds and then the rays claimed him and then released him The reds didn't see enough there to promote him The rays didn't see enough to keep him and I do think that that stuff does kind of matter at some point Plus the peripherals for Anderson are still not great across those three starts his skill interactive e array is 5.38 He has a 13 strike out rate He has done a good job of suppressing hard contact But it's a question of whether he can sustain that over a larger sample The Royals offense is not phenomenal, but they do at least have some pop They have a 41 fly ball right against righties, which ranks third on the slate So I don't want to stack them super super often But I think this is a spot where we can do so and feel okay while doing it we did see bobby wicket bumped down the order last week and That can always be a concern because it means maybe he's lacking confidence Maybe the team is down on him, but clearly didn't bother him He responded well with a pair of dingers a few days later And I don't think that the dingers for wit were a huge surprise His expected loba is 334, which is almost 40 points higher than his actual loba His barrel rate is 11.5 percent that is higher than what it was last year His hard hit rate is also up to 43 percent and he steals all the time So the royals Needed to make a change apparently they bumped him down the order, but I don't think we should bump him down at all Uh, I think he's still the key cog in this offense and second the royals given He is a guy with two sources of upside the power should come in Probably pretty short order So I think wit despite the demotion now batting in the clean out spot definitely makes a lot of sense there Not too concerned personally about his outlook going forward Things to watch for tonight There are a couple other spots that I like for stacking, but they're also dependent on weather The first one is arrays facing Garrett Whitlock who is stretching back out into being starter this year He was not lights out before he missed in time And now he has to face the rays and Whitlock does do some things pretty well, but it's the rays So if the weather allows I am very okay stacking them here Because Whitlock not a guy we need to avoid in the rays great offense on a slate That's pretty thin on stacking options. So if we if the weather is okay in boston, I'd be okay stacking the rays I'd also be okay at the Rockies as one off against Jordan Lyles He's had massive issues this year with a lot of fly balls let up As discussed yesterday the Rockies are not a fun team to stack because they don't have a lot of guys with juice But if you need a final batter And one of these guys fits I think that's fine. I just wouldn't actively seek them out Here even if the weather does wind up being okay Finally if not for the cool temperatures I'd be on the giants for stacking tonight and if other spots get a lot of rain like let's say worst-case scenario all four of the Weather spots wind up being bad Maybe we have to get to them anyway giants are facing dean kramer who is letting up a lot of hard contact since he started to reduce His sinker usage It's a good offense against righties and the giants So if the weather cuts down on this slate the giants would be a team I'd consider Despite the fact the weather is pretty bad for stacking for tonight Let's finish up here the dinger calls for this friday the boring one Got to go to that cardinals game and go with nolan gorman. Thank you just for the best pure raw power hitter On this offense right now Hair above gold schmidt and rnado More than the hair above rnado based on the way things have gone this year, but above gold schmidt So nolan gorman hits yaks of salaries pretty high at $3,700, but i'm still on board So nolan gorman in a bit of a slump right now But a guy i'm willing to buy into For a dinger call here the fun one mj nolendes I feel like i've made a dinger call like 16 000 times or so give or take this year But it's for good reasons because he's making a lot of hard contact barrel in the ball But it hasn't led to results. Melendez is a value play $2,800. I think that uh the match for the anderson lots of enough fly balls We get the all clear on the weather there. I think melendez is a good option If not i'll go jordan walker We'll go back to the cardinals for our second one too just because i'm probably in favor of him Hope he comes back up and does well not a big power like a home run guy because of the launch angle But still a guy who is who i enjoy so melendez the primary fund one walker the backup Should things get gross in kansas city? That is all that we have here for today on the solo shout be back with you again on monday to break down all of next week's mlb dfs slates to get those slates those podcasts as they are posted Make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever You get your podcast and if you like what you hear you must say five star rating as well If you've got any questions for me. I am on twitter at jim saunas j i m s a n n e s you can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast I want to thank you all for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lineups Have a fantastic weekend. We'll talk to you once again on monday. This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network