 We've got just four games on tonight's slate for MLB DFS, which means that throughout the course of today's podcast We will touch on all eight pitchers whether it be Stacking against them using them as pitchers or things to watch we will touch on all eight pitchers So it is kind of fun to have a shorter slave gets a touch on Literally everyone on the board and let you know our thoughts on them Hopefully carry you for a good slate trying to build off of a fun slate for last night And parlay that into a good arrest over the week So let's dive on in to get you set for a short four game slate welcome on into the solo shop That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire calm here to break down Thursdays for a game in main slate Lock for tonight is set for 635 p.m. Eastern So you procrastinators out there 635 p.m. Eastern is locked for today Make sure you get your lineups in before then to ensure you are able to play for tonight as far as weather goes for here I got nothing it all looks pretty good Temperatures for today assuming that the roof is closed in Texas, which I'd assume it will be all will be between 70 and 78 degrees so no big variance there no massive wind to know pretty easy slate in that regard So it should be a fun one for DFS We'll dive into the pitchers and outline our thoughts on this slate in just one second First a quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast seed to get all of our podcasts The DFS podcast here in one place with myself. We got Brandon Adula on the PGA podcast Austin Swain is on UFC I've got NASCAR coming out tomorrow for Kansas a lot of good stuff all in one place hit subscribe And if you like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well Hey soccer fans this season fan duel and Captain Morgan are teaming up to give you a one-of-a-kind soccer contest is spice up game day Introducing Captain Morgan soccer pick them a weekly fantasy contest that is entirely free to play the contest is simple All you have to do is answer 10 questions about Captain Morgan in that week's soccer matchup People with the most correct answers will earn their share of cash prizes head over to fan duel comm slash free games Captain Morgan and spice up game day with a free shot at cash prizes every Saturday no purchase necessary Must be 21 plus to enter location restrictions apply avoid where prohibited see terms at fan duel dot com Pitching preview for this Thursday main slate Dylan Cease is kind of the one guy who really stands out He checks in at $10,300 is Zach Wheeler coming off the COVID list. He's 95 Tyler Anderson 92 Connor Overton is 85 and then Luis Gil is the only other guy at $8,000 or higher He is 81 now to me There is no question that Dylan Cease is the top guy on the slate because yeah, it's a tough matchup against the Yankees But I can't find a way to get off him He's been awesome this year, and I think we should emphasize how good he has been Cease did not throw his current ball much in his first start this year, that's a key pitch for him because It's a pitch that generates both whiffs and ground balls And we've seen him using that more as past five starts and that curveball that specific pitch Does show up in his strengths. He has a 2.69 skill interactive ERA in those five starts with a 33 percent strikeout rate and Those numbers are very good. We expect those from pitchers as good as Cease But I think the fun thing is that he's also allowing just a 21 percent hard hit rate. That's a cross 67 batted ball events. That's not the stabilization point yet But it's getting closer and closer and it's been really good He's allowed just three barrels and 14 hard hit balls in that time. It's not like he's facing Slouchy competition. He's faced the angels red sox or whatever, but the rays have been in there, too It's not a league competition, but it's not just pushovers in that sample if you compare ground balls And we contact with a 33 percent strikeout rate. You're a bonafide ace who can beat any team So yeah, the matchup is tough. The Yankees have a 112 WRC plus against righties. Not a big strikeout rate They drew they do draw a lot of walks. So there is risk here But there's risk with everyone else on this slate everyone here has a non ideal floor but The upside that C springs is by far the biggest on this slate. So I'm gonna ride with him I can differentiate elsewhere. I think that I will be a bit different in terms of stacks for today So to me, I'm gonna ride the filth ride with with Dylan Cease and make him my top guy for today As far as a number two pitcher, you've got some more leeway there and for me It's gonna be JT Brubaker facing the Reds It is his second straight start against them Which is a negative because it means they're familiar with his pitches But it's a positive because it's the Reds and I think we should consider him our number two guy behind Cease for today And a matchup is a big part of that because we have a 26% strikeout rate against righties for the Reds this year That's very good. But Brubaker is also just pitching. Well, it's not just the matchup here And the first two starts Brubaker did not use his curve very much Which is pretty curious because you go back to last year go to baseball Savant the expected Woba against this curveball was the best among all pitches that Brubaker threw last year and We've seen him go back to that curveball's past four starts and it's led to improved peripherals He has a 3.09 skill interactive e-array in that time with a 30% strikeout rates He is still letting up too much hard contact and he's walking too many guys, which is a negative I'm just not sure if it matters against this specific team though and Brubaker did handle them last time out He had nine strikeouts and five innings He had a 13.3% swinging strike rate. He's at home. So it is a bummer It's a downgrade that it is a repeat matchup But we've seen Brubaker be great not just against the Reds there but also more broadly in this stretch And we know it's a good matchup. So I'll happily be on him for a short slate putting in my number two pitcher behind Dylan Cease for tonight third is questionable when it put Zach Wheeler there and I think putting Wheeler third is a bigger reflection of The slate as a whole then it is some desire to use Zach Wheeler for today because again he's coming off the COVID-19 list and I couldn't find a report on whether he tested positive or if there was Some other reason he was on there But it was a very short step Wheeler was on the COVID list from Sunday through Wednesday which probably means he wasn't dealing with any big-time symptoms and Before he went to the COVID list. We saw Wheeler finally hitting his stride The Velo was bad his first four starts like legitimately bad but last time out he faced Texas and the average fastball velocity 96.9 miles per hour that six slider was a 92.1 That slider Velo is actually higher than where it was last year and the fastball Although it's still down from last year It's not as far off as what it had been previously and we saw the impact of it because in that game Wheeler had a 20.5 percent swinging strike rate That was against the Rangers who are very much not the Dodgers So massive caveats do apply here But Wheeler looked good and even when the velocity was down the bad at ball numbers for Wheeler were still good So I think that's a positive as well Match up here super tough the Dodgers have a 117 WRC plus against righties this year So this could go awry, which is why Wheeler is third on an 8-pitcher slate not higher And it's a begrudging third due to a lack of other options But I do think he does belong in this third slot just not enough other options we can feel good about here So to me the ranking for pitchers for tonight Dylan sees one GT brew Baker to is the value play and then Zach Wheeler would be three But it is pretty gross. I mean it's gross after seats But I would say I feel better about brew Baker than I do about Wheeler for tonight as far as the stacks go Louisa Gill may not be the kind of guy we typically stack against because my process in general is to maximize balls and play I want as many swipes at high upside plays like home runs triples, etc. etc as I can possibly get Gil walks a lot of guys and strikes out a bunch too, which minimizes the balls and play But it's a small slate and Gill Struggled in triple a so I think we can stack the Chicago White Sox here Gill made five starts in triple a before his repromotion yet a 9.53 er a that was mostly due to a 15% walk rate That was not helped because he led up a lot of fly balls last year The fly ball number in the majors for Gill was 52% He just doesn't get a lot of ground balls And that's okay if you have good play discipline numbers because a solo home runs not gonna kill you But if you're walking guys that solo shot turns into a three-run bomb or a two-run bomb And that's how you get near a to spike fast. You can accumulate points in a hurry for DFS It also helps that the white Sox offense Doesn't strike out too much they have an 18% strikeout rate against righties That's the one thing they've done well so far this year offensively because the wrc plus is is just 74 against righties It's it's been pretty tough But with the personnel they have you expect them to improve So i'm fine being on them here Against gill despite the fact It is an alteration to our process to target a guy who does not let up a lot of balls in play I think that just with the short slates with not a lot of great offenses to pick them from I think we do have to make that minor minor tweak Plus some other guys in the white Sox lineup who've been struggling do show Signs of improvement Jose Abreu has a 40 hard hit rate against righties with a 43 fly ball rate That's very good. Yasmini Grandals doing some decent peripheral stuff. Louise Robert is stealing bases So I think they'll turn it around And gill's bad at ball issues may help in that too. I am just betting on raw talent here with the white Sox and Saying that I think they'll do well. So the white Sox to me are the top stack of the night I'm going to put the ranger seconds I think you can make a pitch for either them or the pirates here And we'll talk through both and obviously not great offenses, but hey, you know short slate I'm going to get the rangers a slight edge here. They're facing John Heasley today Heasley coming up from AAA to make his first start this year And in he in AAA Heasley was getting strikeouts But it came with some middling results, which is something we saw crop up for the numbers in Heasley last year too He got strikeouts in devil a and he got called with the majors And when he was in the majors led up a lot of hard contact a 56 heart hit rate Which led to a high yaw ray the swinging strike rate there was 5.7 percent So he starts the year off in triple a this year of the struggling last year in the majors goes back down there Swingin strike rates 11.7 percent in triple a this year That's not Overpowering and he's not a huge ground ball guy So now Heasley gets pushed up to the majors I think we'll see the strikeouts. He showed in triple a come down as he moves up a level I've not seen evidence yet that the bad abolishes have been corrected either Which could put him in the stacking zone low strikeouts high heart hit rates That's what we want for stacking the rangers haven't played well so far this year But we know There are some talent in that lineup kind of somewhere in the white socks, you know You don't expect Corey seager marcus semi and all these guys to struggle for a full year So again, we'll bet on the talent here bet on improvement and ride with the rangers as my number two stack I think the most interesting guy here again under the assumption I'm allocating 10 3th dillon sees is jonaheim from a value play perspective Mitch garver's on the il so heim should be in there to catch and Heim that's a massive heart hit rate so far this year great play discipline numbers He has he's a switch hitter. He's been better against lefties and righties across his career But the numbers against righties at least from power perspective both last year and this year are not bad He's $2,500 I think if you want a value play, I would go there for sure I will note that you might not need the value just because again, even sees isn't that high salaried Um, the other guys in this ranger stack aren't too bad. The other outside of uh, at least garcia So You might not need it But if you do I am on board with using heim for today Other team that I mentioned there was a pirates and I think they're the number three stack for today They're facing connor overton who has some interesting numbers And he did just perform pretty well against the pirates in his most recent start Just doesn't seem like overton is a real like shut down guy yet His swinging strike rate across two starts is 5.9 percent He had a low strikeout rate in triple a last year too Now overton has gotten some ground balls and he did that in triple a as well But it's not like a huge ground ball. He got 26 big league innings on overton His ground ball rate there 38 we can live with that in terms of stacking if the other stuff lines up well So he should let up a lot of balls and play based on uh, the low strikeout rate Enough of those should be in the air and the hard hit rate allowed for overton the majors is 41 That's a pretty stackable profile Plus the pirates did you see him which doesn't hurt again I'm you know, just missing that a bit with brew baker, but I think that here it's not a situation from bumping him up, but i'm definitely okay With that being the case the pirates like the rangers are not an inspiring offense But they have some individuals we can like and I will live without here So to me the pirates are a mighty fine stack and third given how short this slate is The two building blocks and a pirate stack to me are dan vogobok and brian reynolds Both those guys have good power numbers against righties this year even with the dead involved They are hitting for power and the bad ball numbers say that it should stick over a larger sample Ben gamble $2,800 he works for two. So they're not the worst team to stack again It's not like a deep lineup, but it's one we have guys we can feel good about So I think that it's a reflection of the slate more than anything the pirates wind up third But I do feel pretty okay with putting them there Let's move to things to watch and talk about the two teams we have not discussed yet The fillies are not a team I want to stack today because I respect Tyler Anderson, but I'll probably have to They're one of the better offenses on this slate Anderson You know is good, but he lets it fly balls. Uh, the fillies can crush lefties So I'll be on them here mostly out of necessity Just because it's a short slate so to me the fillies rank fourth I think you could put them as high as Seconds in terms of stacking if you wanted to but I'll put them fourth behind the white socks Rangers and the pirates the only other guy we have not discussed yet is taylor herd is starting for the rangers and He has better peripherals than the results it indicates. He's got like an ira above six But his skill interactive ira is much better He's letting up a lot of hard contact though So that's why I couldn't you know use him as a pitcher over wheeler or anything like that I think that the hard contact probably gonna stay and it's a big concern It's I'd rather have exposure to the royals offense Then use her as a pitcher for today, but mostly just for one off You know if you want to get a couple guys on the the royals I think that's probably the better way to play it not looking to stack them would rank them pretty far behind the fillies Up and forth for stacking. Um, but I think that they are at least worth looking at in that situation Okay, let's get some dinger calls here for this thursday slate the boring one Talked about jose abrayou and his good bad at ball numbers. I think eventually that's going to come through Facing louis gill who lets up a lot of fly balls some hard contact I think that we'll see abrayou get on track here pretty soon So I'll go who say abrayou as my boring one the fun one love going catchers with the fun ones. Let's go to jonaheim. I think that um Again, I think that the bad at ball numbers good enough against righties I prefer me against lefties, but okay with them against righties and I think that in this situation Facing off against a guy who should let up a lot of balls in play. I am okay With hind against easily. So the home run calls for today. Jose abrayou and jonaheim That is all that we have here for today on this short four game slates There are other slates available the Early only slate. I think locks around 115 or so for today. So if you want to get in on that 110 I guess 105 is the Lock for that if you want to get in on that do so we're a fan. What's actually a larger slate or I guess the four game slate as well, so Pretty good offering there Check it out. Uh, if you want to dive in on that action as well Do not forget to subscribe to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast We're at apple podcast spotify stitcher google podcasts. You name it You can find us there and while you're there you like what you hear leave us a rating and review as well If you've got questions for me, I am on twitter at jim sonnis j i m s a n n e s You can also follow the fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast Big thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lives whether it's for the early only slate of the main We'll talk to you once again friday for a more jam-packed slate This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network