 We have got a robust 11 game main slate for tonight and daily fantasy baseball and scattered across those 11 games are a lot of high upside pitching options. A lot of guys who can get you potentially as many as 10 strikeouts, three separate guys I have projected for seven or more strikeouts for today, which is a pretty big number. So we're going to break down who those pictures are how I feel about them how I'm ranking them to get you ready for tonight in MLB DFS. Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire.com. My name is Jim Saunas. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down this 11 game main slate with locks up for 705 p.m. Eastern for today and lucky for us across 11 games just one weather note for tonight that is in Philadelphia for the Red Sox and Phillies slight chance of rain there. It looks as though the range should be moving out before first pitch. So they should be good to go there. Check back on the timeline of the rain later on, but otherwise we are all clear to play our favorite plays for today. We'll dig into the pitching preview stacks and 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. You can check us out an Apple podcast Spotify Stitcher Google podcast wherever you get your podcast. You can find us there also check out the solo shot over on the fandal YouTube page hits hit subscribe on the fandal YouTube page or to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed. If you like what you hear hit thumbs up on YouTube or give us a five star rating over on Apple podcast. The biggest horse race of the year is here and there is no better time to get into the action on fandal racing, because right now new customer all customers can get a no sweat Derby bet up to $20. 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Restrictions apply see terms at racing dot fandal dot com gambling problem call 1 800 gambler pitching preview for this Friday main slate Clayton Kershaw headlines a slate he comes into the salary of $11,200 Corbyn Burns is at 10 eight with Zach Wheeler is at 10 to follow the max freed at 99 Cody Senga is $9,800 followed by Christian Javier at 97 Jordan Montgomery 95 Chris sale 92 facing Wheeler you Darvish versus Kershaw 92 as well with Merrill Kelly at 9000 Josiah great Bailey Ober and Brad Keller are the others at $8,000 or higher. A lot of names a lot of good names on this slate and I think that you look at a lot of them we can feel good what they've done so far this year maybe not so much with Burns he's been getting better here recently. They've had some some issues overall and I think that really gives me at least a very clear top three and two of those top three are facing each other for tonight. And they're going to be my top two guys on the slate those two guys are Luis Castillo facing Christian Javier in Seattle and they will be my number one and number two pitchers. I prefer Castillo so we'll start things off there and we'll talk Javier later on Castillo obviously given they're facing each other is facing the Astros and somewhat expectedly this offense has had a slow start to the year. They have an 85 WRC plus against righties when they won 13 ISO. So that's the main thing for them is they've had no power at all. And they're striking out at about a league average clip. We've seen the Astros be better than average in strikeouts against righties recently so they're bumped up there while losing all their power that makes them a plus spot for opposing pitchers Castillo will certainly welcome the increase strikeout rate. And they'll welcome the lack of power because he's been letting up a lot of hard contact this year. That's really been the one flaw in his game. We've seen Castillo throwing more forcing fastballs now since his final start last year. So if we include that one start with his six starts this year it's a seven start sample. He has a 3.26 skill interactive ERA with a 30% strikeout rate minimal walks and he is getting some ground balls. Houston has not faced Castillo yet in this span so no familiarity issues here. Castillo has 8 plus strikeout three times across the seven starts. I haven't projected for 7.11 tonight which ranks second highest in the slate behind just you Darvish. I like Castillo's matchup more with Darvish facing the Dodgers so I'm going to go Castillo number one. As mentioned Javier is two and I think he is a great tournament pivot if he winds up going overlooked. It is a tougher matchup for him because the Mariners do have some power unlike the Astros but they will strikeout. The Mariners have a 26% strikeout rate against Reidy so far this year which gets Javier some extra upside. And he also gets plenty of strikeouts himself. We've seen Javier leaning more on his curveball now for his past 10 starts. He has a 30% strikeout rate in that time with a 6% walk rate and a 3.37 skill interactive ERA. Those numbers are almost identical to those of Castillo. The big difference here is that Javier lets up a ton of flyballs. He does still get by because they aren't typically a hard hit but when you combine a big flyball pitcher with a Mariners offense that does have some power bats that could get him in some trouble and that's why Javier is the pivot here versus being the primary option. I have Javier projected for 7.03 strikeouts. He is the only guy other than Castillo and Darvish projected for more than 7. So I'm more than happy to go here if we see Javier flying better into the radar. So try to get a sentiment gauge here on Javier versus Castillo if you think there's a big gap where Castillo is very much so the more popular guy. That's where I think Javier becomes the ideal piece for single entry tournaments. And I think that will probably be the case given that the Astros plus 124 in the money line whereas the Mariners are favorite here. So if it's a single entry team likely leaning potentially going Javier there just because I think he will go a bit overlooked relative to where he should be. Frankly, there are no value plays I like today. If you want to go Tatler Anderson, I won't fight you. We'll talk about that and things to watch. But realistically, I don't think I'm going to go lower than 92, which is where we find you Darvish and I'm going to talk about Darvish here because I feel like that's a better use of your time listening to me touch on a player that I will use versus one who I will not. So we'll focus on Darvish here as the quote unquote value play 92. We'll talk about Anderson later on Darvish is facing the Dodgers. That's why he's three and not one. It is a tough matchup 125 WRC plus the Dodgers year 228 ISO on the current active roster and a lot of walks. So if Darvish were 10 to instead of 9 to I would not be nearly as tempted. But that's not the case Darvish overall this year has been fine. His strikeout rate is up a bit from where it was last year. And so is the swinging strike rate at least a tiny bit. He has better bad at ball data, so it's slight improvements. But if we zero in over his past four starts, Darvish has been throwing fewer forcing fast balls and more cutters in that specific split. His strikeout rate is 30%. He had a 12 strikeout game and a nine strikeout game in that time. And those two big spike games both came at home, which is where he is at today. I have to rank Darvish third because this matchup is brutal. But as mentioned, he does leave my projections and strikeouts for today. So I think we can go to Darvish even if it is not perfect. So to me, the rankings for tonight go Castilla one, Javier two, Darvish three, but I would bump up Javier. If it seems like Castilla will be the runaway chalk between those two guys on the slate for tonight. So again, fun pitching options. High upside. We'll touch on Anderson later on. Before that though, let's talk about some stacks for today. Cleveland in a rough spot with their rotation. Just demoted Zach Plesack starting pitching for them, not in a good place. And now they're starting Peyton Battenfield tonight. And I think we can stack the twins against Battenfield. Battenfield has made four appearances in the majors so far this year with three of those being starts. And in those four appearances, 18% strikeout rates, he is getting some whiffs, but he's not converting them into strikeouts. And that could mean that he will see his strikeout rate increase as the sample expands. But you might need more than that because his batting ball profile is pretty rough. His hard hit rate allowed is 51%. It is a small sample, but that's a scary number for sure. And Battenfield has always been a fly ball pitcher. He has a 40% fly ball rate in a small sample in the majors. It was 40% in triple A last year. We had a 3.63 ERA. Swinging strike rate there was 11.3%. So Battenfield doesn't profile to be a high strikeout pitcher. He lets up a lot of fly balls. The peripherals are not flattering thus far. And I think that gives us the green light here to stack the twins. So to me, the twins wind up being our top stack for tonight facing Battenfield and the Cleveland Guardians. Now we talked in the show about Byron Buxton turning things around a couple weeks ago that has fully happened. And now Buxton's salary has gone up. He's around 38, I believe, for tonight. So his salary is starting to reflect what he's doing. He's stealing bases now, too, with a couple steals this week. So we were on the Buxton train. Let's talk about Carlos Correa. Carlos Correa did hit a home run yesterday, which pushes his ISO for the year of 179. That's still not great. It's better, but it's still not great. And the batting ball data before that home run was not elite. So whereas I was very itchy to buy into Buxton, I'm not as in on Correa as far as a buy low option. The salary for Correa is awesome at 29. So I'm going to be there quite a bit. But I'm not as enthusiastic about buying in on him as I was on Buxton. So I think that's worth keeping in mind. Whereas you are building your core options for this team. I think Correa deserves to be in the same discussion as like Max Kepler where he's a guy with a low salary. A path upside we can filter in versus someone like Buxton when he was 29 where you're loading up and just kind of seeing what happens. So I think that's worth differentiating with regards to sentiment within the stack. I'm not super excited to stack against the Orioles right now. Their bullpen is really good and that matters for stacking. But I don't mind going here tonight specifically and stacking against them as we have the Atlanta Braves facing off of Dean Kramer. Kramer had a good year last year. He had a 3.23 ERA. And if you compare his peripherals last year to what he's done so far this year, they are very similar. But the peripherals last year were actually a lot worse than his results. So the results swinging against him could be regression to where he should have been last year. And I think that makes it a lot more concerning to see the bad results so far this year. So looking at Kramer so far this year across six darts, he has a 6.67 ERA. He has a 7.14 Expected ERA and his swinging strike rate is down to 9.4% all while letting up a 43% hard hit rate. That's the biggest change from last year. And it seems like it is hurting him quite a bit. Kramer has let up four plus earned runs and all but one start. The Braves, the opposing team have a 112 WRC plus against righties this year on the current active roster, a 207 ISO. So even with a very good bullpen looming and a lot of fun pieces inside that Orioles bullpen, I do think we should stack the Braves here and feel pretty good in doing so. Within these Braves stacks, we got a Rosario and we talked about Rosario a couple times in the podcast earlier this year and last year where I was like, you know, it's a low salary middle of the order, but I'd rather not go there if I don't have to. I'm okay changing my stance on that because Rosario is bad at ball numbers much better this year than they were last year. His barrel rate is 12%. It was just 5% last year. His hard hit rate is up 6 percentage points and it's led to a 176 ISO. And that's the same thing I was saying, you know, like Korea is not super high upside. I'm not going to get jazzed about that. But I think that there's a difference here because Korea was saying use it but don't be like overly enthusiastic. Whereas Rosario used to be a cross offer me and it's suddenly now no longer that his salary is still low $2,500. So Eddie Rosario guy who I've come around on and I think that if you want to stack the Braves and get to some of their high upside guys, Rosario can be a pretty good key for doing so. Obviously the Braves stack would be downgraded a bit with Ronald Acunia. You know, he's banged up. He's got the shoulder injury now got a knee injury. So if he doesn't play, I would downgrade them a bit, but I still think they would be viable against Kramer for today. The bullpen discussion is relevant for our third stack too, but for a much happier reason. I think we can stack the Royals against the ace tonight and the bullpen is a big part of the reason why I'd be okay using an offense that has been pretty bad so far this year. The ace active roster bullpen has a 5.45 skill interactive era this year. Wolf that always helps. It's not a bad matchup to start things off either because the Royals are facing Kyle Muller across six starts. He has a 6.28 era. His skill interactive era is 5.49 with a 7.51 expected era. Most of those issues with the peripherals and the results are due to the hard contact rate. That is 49%. Muller is not getting enough strikeouts to get by on a hard contact rate that high. And Muller is lefty. And honestly, if we're looking at this Royals offense, I don't know if I'd go here if it were righty because they have been pathetic against righties. They're WRC plus below 70. They've been more palatable against lefties in a small sample. So I think that does give them a boost here. So I'm willing to stack them despite their struggles tonight. You do have to be selective with the Royals because you don't want to make sure you're not using guys. They've got a lot of low upside guys in their lineup. You want to navigate around those bombs, but I do think that the other guys in this lineup are fine. So specifically focusing here, Salvador Perez, Bobby Witt Jr., Edward Lovarez, all righties who hit lefties well. So it's not the deepest lineup, but there's enough to stack here. MJ Melendez is a lefty, but he does tend to hit lefties pretty well. Pretty slow start for him so far this year, but Salary is down to $2,800. He's been getting better results on his hard contact recently. So Melendez, despite it being a lefty, if he does play, would work for me. I think you just have to dig in on the Royals guys and make sure they actually have the upside we want within that Royals stack to navigate around their issues this year. Things to watch for a Friday night. I mentioned before you could consider Tyler Anderson as a value. He's $7,200 facing the Rangers who will strike out. The velocity for Anderson last week was back up at a pretty big way, actually higher than it was last year. And that was indoors, but he's in LA or Anaheim for today. Temperatures in Anaheim. If we're trying to project out what his velocity may look like, temperatures there are 62 degrees. So we'll probably see the velocity go back down a bit for this time. I've got Anderson projected for 5.5 strikeouts. That's not the worst in the world. Just hard to be super enthusiastic here. So Anderson to me, he's a fine option, but I prefer to stay at 92 or higher. I talked plenty about how bad the Brewers are against lefties. They were actually the team that ignited the Anderson revival last week. They're facing Shawn Manai tonight who is a lefty and he's letting up a ton of hard contact with fly balls. And I think as a result, we might have to go back to the Brewers. I don't want to go here because they're terrible against lefties or they have been terrible against lefties. They burned me plenty while they were at Coors Field. But I still think it might be worthwhile to get some exposure here because of how much Manai has struggled with hard contact and fly balls. Finally, Antonio sends the telos making his season debut tonight. He's facing the Mets. The Mets implied total is super high. It's actually the highest in the slate as of this recording. Since the telo when he's not at Coors Field is not a terrible pitcher, but he did let up a 6.41 ERA on the road last year in a small sample. So the Mets are a fine stack, not opposed. I just think that they might be more popular than they should be for tonight. So the Mets are a consideration, but I do think that the top three you mentioned, the Twins, the Braves and the Royals. All teams I like more than the Mets for tonight. Let's finish up with our Dinger calls for today, turning back to the teams we are stacking here. The boring one, Matt Olson, facing off with a righty who was struggling with hard contact and fly balls in Atlanta. Olson, high salary, $4,000, but he's hitting for power once again this year. Nine home runs so far, I think he makes a lot of sense. So Matt Olson, the boring home run call for today. The fun one, going back to Max Kepler. Kepler, three home runs so far this year, but as mentioned, more fly balls, more hard contact than they had before. Probably going to bat in a pretty good spot in the lineup. And he's also outside of Coors Field, outside of Target Field, which is better for a left-handed batter. He's historically done pretty well at this park. That does not matter. It is relevant, but shows that maybe he does get a boost outside of Target Field. So we'll go with Matt Olson and Max Kepler as the home run calls for today. That's all we got on the solo shot for today. And for this week, I want to thank you all as always for tuning in and checking us out. Make sure you're subscribed to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. If you've got any questions for me, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. You can also follow the FanDuel Podcast Network at FanDuel Podcast. I want to thank you all for tuning in for today. Good luck to you tonight in MLB DFS. Have a fantastic weekend. We'll talk to you once again on Monday to break down the name Slate. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.