 Four aces are on tonight's slate for MLB DFS. We have Jacob DeGrom, Garrett Cole, Zach Wheeler, Clayton Kershaw all on the slate for today. We're gonna break things down and get you set for tonight in MLB DFS. Let's let you know our favorite studs and how we're playing things for today over on FanDuel. Welcome on in to the FanDuel Fantasy Q&A. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for numberfire.com here to answer your questions for the next 25 minutes and get you set for tonight's slate of MLB DFS. And as mentioned, it's all about the studs for today. We'll talk plenty I'm sure about the studs. We're gonna start things off here with DJ over on Facebook and DJ is asking, is Aaron Savalli worth a look for tonight? And for me, the answer is no. And I realize I am not with consensus on that because I've seen some Savalli discussion several places throughout the day today. Personally, it's not for me because mainly this, the gap between Clayton Kershaw and Aaron Savalli from a Savalli perspective is pretty low. We see Kershaw 10-2, Savalli at 9,000 and the gap between them from a talent perspective and an expected upside perspective is a lot bigger than that. As you can see here, Kershaw has a 29% strikeout rate. This is over is a total of 14 starts this year. Savalli in his eight starts with more cutters is at 20%. So a decrease of 9 percentage points there. They're both pretty good with their walks or batting ball stuff. So Savalli can definitely hang there but the strikeout is a big gap. And also you see here, Kershaw is facing the Phillies, 27% strikeout rate versus lefties this year. We have Savalli facing the Orioles. They're at 24%, not a high strikeout team. The Phillies are better offense than what Kershaw has but the Phillies, yeah, than what Savalli has but that's not enough to make me say yes, I definitively feel good about the upside that Savalli presents. I feel like for me, I just need to have a guy who can get me a lot of points for today. It's very possible that Savalli does that. I think his last time out he had like 10 strikeouts or something, it was a lot. It was 11 strikeouts against Seattle. So he was awesome his last time out. He definitely could have that big game but if I'm trying to predict who will do well today, I think the odds that Kershaw, Wheeler, Cole, the Grom do it are a lot better. So basically my perspective is, is Savalli going to be the highest scoring pitcher on tonight's slate? I think the odds that are pretty slim but I think that the odds or the amount he's rostered will be higher than that. So to me, I'd rather just spend up for these four guys, ignore Savalli, it's not a bad spot. He's not a bad pitcher. He's a good pitcher. It's a good matchup. But I'd rather get the higher upside plays which are to me at least those top four guys in DeGrom, Cole, Wheeler and Kershaw. Let's talk to DeFuse, care to shine on how the Braves show more love or shine some more on the Braves. Now the lineup is that Abraham Monte and the cleanup spot where at the look he is very much because we're trying to get to DeGrom. And that means I will use some guys who may not be the most optimal place. Let's sort here my played appearances and check out the Braves. Almonte has not been bad this year to be fully honest but I probably wouldn't pick to bat him clean up personally. In 39 played appearances versus righties, a 214 ISO, good bat at ball data, good play discipline data. It's not over a large sample, the bat at ball stuff because he hasn't put a lot of balls in play. Let's check out what he's done overall this year to make sure we're not making too many leaps. Not a lot of barrels didn't have any last year. Not a big barrel guy in general but he can it for some power. And I think that that's, I'm willing to believe that he'll be a non-zero in the power department. I don't think he'll keep up with a 206 ISO for the full season but batting forth really good team, a team that I want to stack. I would say that Almonte as a result of that is going to be someone we target even if he's not someone we're expecting to hit for as much power going forward as he has thus far. So let's put Almonte in there. Austin Riley is batting fifth. I think we're probably going to wind up there. Let's pull up the brazen numbers versus righties. Austin Riley, 25% strike area versus righties, 208 ISO, those are good enough numbers for me to get there. So we'll take Riley for sure. I'm likely going to need Dan's V. Swanson as well because I just need the salaries even so you get two to grom. Swanson, not bad, a 39% fly ball rate, a couple of too many strikeouts, not the best power numbers, but he's also not a negative. And for $2,600, I think that works. So we'll go with him. And as we talked about this morning, we in general do want to favor righties versus Richards because he gets fewer ground balls against them. So if I'm spending up for Acunia or for Freeman, I'm going to pick Acunia. I would do that anyway if it didn't really matter what Richards does, but I would still pick Acunia. It does help though that Richards is someone against whom we want to target the right-handed batters. So I think this is the optimal brave stack. It does mean you are scrambling for sure in your other four slots to find the salary savings to get there, but I think you can make it work if you can't get to Acunia, that's totally fine. I know Albie's a switch hitter, so he doesn't like fit the creed we discussed about trying to target the righties, but good numbers for Albie's, 51% fly ball rate versus righties, 201 ISO, four stolen bases, that all works for sure. So if you can't get to Acunia, it's a bummer, but we can still work with this for sure. This is where I'd be looking with the Braves, preferably Acunia, but if you can't make it work, Albie's a good consolation prize at $3,100. Eric, when is sports book going to be legal in Maryland? Don't know, hopefully soon. I think I have a wedding, I guess it's in Virginia, but it's in that area in September, so hopefully, it probably won't be by then, but hopefully it's by then. Kyle, do you like Strahler or Cormac as chief place to the Astros tonight depending on which one plays? So the Astros facing Jordan Lyles definitely is a stack I'm willing to go at. So I think diving in, trying to identify some lower salary plays who might be in lineup is a worthwhile endeavor just to kind of prepare ourselves ahead of time, but depending on what happens with their lineup for today. Okay, so, McCormac is up to 59 plate appearances versus righties, 292 ISO, 31% strikeout rate that's high, but it's not like Miguel Sino high, so it's high, but it's not the worst. Let's pull up his numbers here at other levels to see if this is something we should expect to continue for him. In triple A, back in 2019, 204 ISO had some speed. I think that's encouraging. So if McCormac were to play, I don't think that would be a terrible option. Straw is not the kind of batter I like to use and generally is basically a bunny and bunnies are more so viable for season long stuff versus daily fantasy, because you really are dependent on the steals and straw only five steals so far this year with righties in the mound across 155 plate appearances. So I would rather not use straw, even if that means less exposure to the Orioles. That's fine with me because just, I'm not sure if there's enough juice there. For me to feel really good about him, but McCormac is someone I could consider if he does wind up being in the lineup. We'll see on that, but you know, if he's in there, I think that that could work out. Hopefully Kyle Tucker plays, I do like Kyle Tucker too, but if we don't get Kyle Tucker, McCormac at $2,200 could be a salary saver than the Astros. So Kyle McCormac for me, preferably no straw. Let's talk to Cliff over on Facebook. DeScafani has huge upside for the salary tonight, but DeGrom is a play. You can find the right bargain hitters. Yeah, so I think that DeGrom is the right play. He's my number one pitcher for today. I have Kershaw two, Wheeler three, Cole four. Let's check out DeScafani though, cause I think that he is worth at least talking about. The Diamondbacks, I believe it lost like, quote me or tell me if I'm wrong, but I think it's 93 consecutive games in the road. Like correct me, I might be one or two off on that, but they've been bad. Their strikeout rate versus righties up to 24%. It was low for most of the year. It has increased DeScafani 21% strikeout rate, lower than you'd like, but he does help make up for it a bit by going deeper in games. 103 pitches last time out at 107, a couple of before that Lance Lynn, what in the world that I just linked that wrong or did I click the wrong link? Let's see here, is this DeScafani? This is still Anflin, isn't it? Okay, well, I just linked to the wrong page. Cool, Jim, awesome. Let's go to the DeScafani here manually as opposed to shortcut way. And pull up his numbers recently. Two hit shutout against the Nationals. That's pretty sweet. So he has paths to upside. Yeah, I think that DeScafani definitely works. Eight strikeouts in that game. Washington, I think it's like kind of archetypally, if that's a word, similar to Washington where they're both not good offenses, not super high strikeout teams, but not good in general. So yeah, I think that DeScafani is a defensible option for today. Wouldn't talk you out of him if your process led you there. I think that we were talking about, we got so much from the time on Walker last night. And those are good recommendations by you, the public. He did great. I think that DeScafani, if we're looking for a Walker this late, probably DeScafani might be that guy, $77. I think he works for sure. So Cliff, I'm on board with DeScafani as a potential option. My preferred route is still to spend up, but if you wanna spend down, DeScafani works. I talked about Ian Anderson this morning. Haven't seen the Red Sox lineup yet. Doesn't appear to be out, but if there's no JD Martinez, I would bump up Anderson in that scenario as well. DeFuse, second base one-off. So we talked about Ozzy Albie's earlier. I think that he would definitely work as being a second base one-off. Jose Altube, if you're up there from a secondary perspective, I'd rank him above Polanco. I think the twins are worthwhile for stacking today, but Polanco could work. I also do like to say Sir Hernandez at the same salary as Albie's. Hernandez not typically on my list for DFS because the power is not there, but he has a lot more power versus left. He's leads this year and it's a small sample, but I think it's 101 plate appearances. He's actually showed some pop. So I would say Sir Hernandez works from a stacking perspective or from a one-off perspective at second base. If I were to pick one of those, you know, non-value plays at second base, I would probably go Hernandez first. Probably Hernandez first followed by Albie's because of the salaries and then Altube and Polanco. All those guys are players I am willing to use for today, but that's the order I'd rank them. Gleiber Torres, I think is a viable value or one-off as well. Ty France could work. Actually, the Mariners are facing barely over, so don't wanna go there. I'm here to consider that. He's facing Wheeler, no thanks. So I think for the most part, it's the upper salary guys. If you wanna lower salary guy, and we talked about DeSclifani in a positive life before, but Jeff Rojas, good individual batter and I'd be okay considering him too. So Rojas is probably the top value option, but then to me, I think that overall, Sirza Hernandez probably gonna be the way I go at second base pretty often for today. Alvin, any change to the stack ranks from this morning? No, I'm still on board with going with Atlanta one, Cleveland two, Minnesota three. I've had a harder time getting to Minnesota than I thought I might. So I think if I were to potentially change something, it might be just putting them in the same bucket as the Astros. That's not changing my rankings, but it's putting in that bucket. If I put the twins in the overall high salary bucket, then I'd rank the Astros higher. So if I were to say there were a change, I would say the affordable bucket is Atlanta one, Cleveland two. The non affordable bucket for DeGrom is Houston one, Minnesota two. If you can get to one offs on Houston, Minnesota, definitely okay going there. But I think that Minnesota, just the more I look at their salaries, the more they seem a little bit pricey for me. So I do think that's the one authorization I make is just putting the twins in a different bucket, putting them in the same bucket as the Astros and saying, I probably can't get there if I'm going with DeGrom, mostly Atlanta and Cleveland in those lineups. Cliff, D-vax numbers versus righties are bad. Ballpark favors him too. Yeah, the temperature for today for DeScoffani, 68 degrees, best park on the slate, best situation pitching on the slate too. So yeah, another good thing for DeScoffani there. DJ, Stack Toronto, Houston or Arizona? Not Arizona, we're talking about DeScoffani before. It's not Arizona. And then, Toronto, Stack Toronto, Houston or Arizona. And is Christian Walker with look tonight or after his performance last night or do I avoid him? I wouldn't care too much about what happened last night. I think that the long reliever for San Francisco was a lefty. He's now facing a righty. Christian Walker, I believe has pretty drastic platoon splits. So I wouldn't look at Walker personally. As far as stacking Toronto, Houston or Arizona, I would rank definitely not Toronto. They're facing Garrett Cole. I know he's not been the same recently, but he's still got a 33% strikeout rate over his past eight. Starts the strikeout rate. I think in the two starts since the spin rate decreased, I think he's at 35%. So do not stack Toronto. I would stack Arizona for sure. Wouldn't stack Arizona. Did I say that? I would stack Houston, but not stack Arizona. So to me, DJ, Houston's the only team in that set. I would consider stacking for today. Let's talk to Sean. Do you think the twins pitcher is worth a shot in GPP? Give me some nice sticks. So I think that the talent is pretty good on Bailey Ober. The concern I have is pitch count. As you can see in the three starts he's made this year, he's got 82, 51 and 73 pitches. I think the twins are okay. They're content with keeping him a little bit shorter. So I don't think if I'm like, like if I'm projecting pitch count for Bailey Ober for tonight, I'm probably sticking somewhere closer to like 85 or so. Like that would still be his max. So I think with that in mind, I'm gonna avoid him. I need more pitches out of someone to be super enthused. I think the talent's good. Like I said, he has a 3.63 skill interactive VRA. It's three starts this year. 32% strikeout right back in AAA. So I think he's a talented guy and I don't wanna stack against him, but I'm also not gonna use him because I don't think the pitch count is quite long enough for me yet. Michael, which Cleveland batters do you like other than Cesar Hernandez? So let's, I think the lineup is out. So you can actually check out who they are using for today. Ahmed Rosario batting second, Jose Ramirez, Harold Ramirez, Yu Chang, or Yu Chang is batting sixth, Bobby Bradley, seventh, Austin Hedges. Okay, so let's check out their numbers versus Luffy's this year. And Cleveland, they've actually faced a good number of Luffy's partly because they're really bat against Luffy's. So I feel like teams are okay, kind of grease in the wheel a bit to make sure that they get their Luffy's out there versus Cleveland. So, you know, we actually got some, some decent volume here. Okay, so Yu Chang has 68 plate appearances versus Luffy's, fly ball rate of 48%, not a lot of hard contact and no power. So preferably not there despite the fact he is batting sixth. Maybe you could do it just because, I guess like again, it's salary savings on the night where we do need those salary savings. But to me, I think you start things off here with Hernandez, I'm gonna go Ahmed Rosario because the salary there is not super low salary, but it's, you can get to it with the grom. So we'll do that. Other guys who were in the lineup for today, we've got Jose Ramirez, oh, Harold Ramirez definitely won him because he's $2,500. He's had some solid power numbers this year. We'll do that there. And then I'm probably not gonna be able to get the Jose Ramirez just because yeah, 2475 is tough. I could go Almonte, I know for sure and make that a little bit easier, but I would say the top four guys on Cleveland are gonna be the top four guys for me if a stacking perspective. Eddie Rosario, he's been bad versus righties this year, not great versus lefties either. So we'd like to avoid that. Let's check out Yuchong's numbers in the lower minors to see what he's been doing overall. If we can have some reason for optimism here, maybe we can get ourselves jazzed. Oh, I toggled off minor leagues, actually one of those on there. Okay, so in AAA back in 2019, 174 ISO, that was back when they had the juice ball in AAA. So you would kind of hope for bigger numbers there, but this year if we look at versus both righties and lefties, his barrel rate is 8.1%. That's not the worst. So I'd really rather not use Chung personally because I just don't know if the power is there. So I'm gonna try not to get there, but like realistically, you might have to. So I think that my optimal Cleveland stack for today would be one that likely omits Jose Ramirez and just works with these three guys. And then I have a one off at some point in there, but your other options are you go Chung in there and then you can have 30, 50 left for your Braves or whatever stack. Maybe you go Twins or Astros there and then, or you go with Jose Ramirez and just really scramble for your other four slots. I think both those are viable. My preferred route for today I think is going to be this one with a three player stack and then having a one off somewhere in the lineup. Jerry, how do you feel about Savalli and the Texas middle of the lineups? So again, talk about Savalli earlier, like he's not a bad play because he's a good pitcher. He had a really good game last time out. I just don't think he has the upside to match Kershaw, Wheeler, Cole, the Grom and the salary discrepancy there is not big enough for me. So not super into Savalli tonight personally and then the Texas middle of the order. Okay, so let's pull up Rangers facing Grenki. Grenki's a low strikeout guy, so you could go there but he's still suppressing hard contact. So I'm not super into Texas overall. So to me, probably not a huge priority for me with Texas. Mateo, do you like the Giants bats versus Arizona? Mero Kelly is a guy stacked against a lot earlier in the year. I've not been doing so recently because he's been increasing his strikeout rates not as much of a negative in the bad at ball department. So I'm probably not gonna get to the Giants today. I was fine with them yesterday. I thought they were in a good spot but today I think I'm okay avoiding them against Kelly because he's got some better options elsewhere for this one. Chris is Almonte a good value play. Yeah, talk about him early. I think that if you're looking for a, like a very logical play, Abraham Almonte is probably like the number one process of value for today, where I came above Chong pretty easily. So Almonte, I think $2,200 is a salary for him for today. I think that he's gonna be not like a, I would say probably a priority honestly because he gets you so much flexibility elsewhere. So I would say Almonte, probably a priority play among the values for today. Cliff, I'm throwing 50% to Grom. Yes, I am a Mets fan. I think that's a fair number whether you're a Mets fan or not. You can get to him with all three Mets outfield as well, McKinney and Pilar super low salary. We can get there with a two out of three of their outfield, Brantley, Suno and Donaldson, but I won't give any more lineup. I have just think it makes sense and fits. So Mets offense is facing, okay, so they're facing the Cubs and it's Robert Stock starting. It might be a bullpen game. Stock is a reliever, but he was throwing longer in triple A. He went 57, 52 and 66 pitches in his final three triple A outings. I think that they'll get to him. I'm just not sure how much they'll get to the Cubs bullpen after he leaves. They're a good bullpen. So I think the Mets are an option for stacking for today. They're not one I feel great about. So if it makes it easier for you to get to Grom, I think that's fine, but they're not a team I am actively seeking out personally for today. DJ actually asked, what do you know about Robert Stock? The start for the Cubs other than don't use him? Yeah, I wouldn't use him because he won't go long enough. He's a super hard thrower. Like I think he hit like 101 this year in Iowa. So he's a hard thrower, which means we get, we're probably gonna have starters in this game. We're both starters in the first inning hit 100, which is kind of cool with the Grom and Stock starting. I think because he's probably gonna go three or four innings, it means we'd prefer to have it against a team that had a rough bullpen. We'll pull up the numbers here for the Cubs bullpen this year. I think it's a 2.00 ERA for them. Let's check that though. 2.00 ERA for their bullpen. Let's see what the bulk relievers have done because that's kind of the more relevant thing here when we're talking about a bullpen game. So guys who have gone, so Dylan Maples, a lot of strikeouts for him. 1.99 ERA, 3.62 X ERA. Keegan Thompson has gone long a couple of times. Good number of strikeouts for him. 2.18 ERA, Mills went last night. So I think they're fine. The Mets are for stacking. But I think that because the Cubs have some pretty lively arms in the bullpen, it's okay to be a bit lower. And then we've got the number one Ace, Anthony Rizzo coming out of relief. So can't overlook that. I think that that allows me to just say that they're okay but not be super high in them. Okay, Alvin says the Astros lineup just came out. So let's actually already had it here. Okay, so we've got Altuve Bregman or Brantley Bregman, Alvarez-Guriel, Correa McCormick-Strawl and Maldonado. So we talked about McCormick before. It's a bummer that there's no Tucker because Tucker was kind of one affordable guy in that lineup, but McCormick, you know, he's got some power. So I do think that although he's batting seventh, I think that he works, especially if he gets the flexibility else which he would. So let's go to the Astros here. Let's pull up McCormick as a one-off for now. And then I'm gonna take DeGrom out because realistically I'm probably stacking the Astros with Kershaw versus DeGrom just because I don't think I can do it DeGrom even with McCormick in there. We are at 32-29 left. Let's pull up the Houston numbers versus righties this year to see what our priorities should be within this offense. And then we'll sort by plate appearances. Okay, not a big Brantley guy, just not a ton of power there, not a ton of upside. So, okay, crossing him off. Jordan Alvarez, obviously very good. So if we're looking here just like from a power perspective, the guys who stand out most there are Alvarez, Tucker, Altuve, Correa. Bregman not running as much this year which does put a dent in his upside. So let's pull up the Astros, check out their salaries over on Fandall. And let's go to Altuve, 4,000, Bregman 35, Correa 35, Alvarez 37. So I'm gonna try this, let's go Alvarez. I know Correa is betting six, this is a bit lower but I'm still fine with that. And if I go with Altuve at second base, then if you go with like the value plays to talk about before like Abraham Almonte, Harold Ramirez, guys like that, you can make this work. So I would say when you are going at Kershaw, I would try to be high on the Astros because this is a pretty solid stack. I'm okay with this one personally. I think that it does work out pretty well. So in your Kershaw lineups, try to jam in the Astros and we're talking about McCormick specifically, I think that he does enough for me to be viable at $2,200. That is all the time that we have here for today on this Fandall fantasy Q&A, should be a fun slate, should be pretty high scoring too, given the pitchers out there. So pick wisely, decide who your top pitcher is, build your stacks around that and try to go win yourself some cash for tonight. 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