 Welcome to Ohtani Day in MLB DFS, Shohei Ohtani pitching for the Angels for tonight. And honestly, I think probably the best pitching option for today in MLB DFS. And I've been hesitant to use Ohtani this year because of the pitch counts, the injuries, sometimes too many walks. But today, I think we're gonna take the leashes off and go full Ohtani, which is always more fun. So let's dive on in to get you set for today's slate of MLB DFS. This is the FanDuel Fantasy Q&A right here on the FanDuel YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter channels. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for numberfire.com here to answer your questions live on air for the next 25 minutes to get you set for tonight's slate of MLB DFS. As always, no matter where you are watching, you can get your questions in for today. We'll take them via Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube. Wherever you are watching, get those questions in and we'll answer them live here on air to get you set for tonight's slate of MLB DFS. And as you can see, it is in fact Ohtani Day across America. Before we get into the questions for today, quick scheduling announcement that we are not going to be here tomorrow. Dr. Disrespect is taking over the FanDuel YouTube channel. We'll be playing, I think it's FIFA? I think it's FIFA for tomorrow. So we're playing some FIFA on the YouTube channel and talking about some DFS stuff. So if you're a Dr. Disrespect fan, come on back tomorrow afternoon and check out Dr. Disrespect. I'm not on a stream, but you can always hit me up on Twitter. I'm at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S and I'll take questions there throughout the afternoon for tomorrow. But first, let's talk about today's slate. As mentioned, I do think that Shohei Ohtani is the top arm for today as we pull up the pitching map for today. Ohtani facing the Tigers, they have a 27% strikeout rate versus Reides Ohtani. The sample I have here is in the four starts since his velocity declined. So it's a four start sample, basically looking at him in his, I would say his lowest state so far this year, but he's been good still, 3.37 skill interactive ER rate, 31% strikeout rate. The walk rate has come down, which is a good thing. It's at 9% and he's not letting up that many fly balls. You add all that together. I think that Ohtani is going to be the top option for me by a decent little margin. I think that we can feel pretty good about him. The one lingering downside is a pitch count. He did go 93, three starts ago, but he's kind of up and down. So I think that does put a lid on his ceiling, but given the alternatives for today, there are too many great ones. So I do think that we should feel good about Ohtani in this spot. First question comes from DJ over on Facebook. Hello, DJ, is Dylan Cease safe for tonight? Absolutely not. He's facing the Astros, Astros really good team, 120 WRC plus 19% strikeout rate. Cease, this is over his past seven starts with more forcing fastballs, 28% strikeout rate. He's been good. However, he is one of those guys who had his spin rate go down last time. Now let me show you how we find that here. Go to Dylan Cease over on Baseball Savant. We are going to click on the game logs here. If I can get it to low, there we go. Click on the game logs. We're going to go to 612, which was his most recent start. And we're going to click on the game up here, the White Sox and the Tigers. And when you click on player breakdown, it's going to show you spin rates, everything, pitch usage for each pitcher, and it'll show you what they did there. So we go to spin rate. You see that in that game that gets destroyed, Cease's spin rate on his forcing fastball went down 129 revolutions per minute. That's really, really scary. And he was still good in that game. He was effective in that game, but it came against the Tigers and the Tigers are a very different offense than Houston. So no, I don't think Dylan Cease is safe tonight. I don't think he has a lot of upside tonight either. So I would avoid him at all costs effectively for today. DJ also asked about Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks is facing the Mets. They are an okay offense league average, but Hendricks is not a big strikeout guy, 18% strikeout rate. He hasn't been as good with the bat of ball suppression this year as he was previously. His velocity has been up. So the numbers I have here are since his velocity increased, but still in that time, 18% strikeout rate, I think that if you're looking for safety, Hendricks could have that, but I don't think he has upside. And that's what we care more about for DFS. So Hendricks is not a guy who is on my radar for today. If you're looking for lower salary guys, I would say Joe Musgrove and Charlie Morton are the two who stand out for me. Aaron is asking, does Otani provide any upside for today? I think he does. I talked before about the pitch count being an issue and it is, but if we look here at his game logs and we see here 33, 52, 28. 52 is actually a pretty good number. And I think he did that on 76 pitches. So he can have upside in the right matchups. And I think the Tigers are the right matchup again due to the high strikeout rate. So to me, if we're looking for the pitcher with the best ceiling on the slate, I think that it's probably Brandon Woodruff just because he's been the best pitcher I would say for this year. He goes super deep into games, but the odds he reaches his ceiling are lower, which is why I would go with Otani over Woodruff. Just I think that Woodruff, given his salary 10A, given the fact that he's at Coorsfield, it's enough where I'd rather go with Otani over Woodruff despite the fact that Woodruff's pure, pure ceiling is higher than Otani's. Let's talk to Kyle over on YouTube. Any thoughts on Rich Hill against Seattle? Rich Hill has been affected this year and Seattle is bad versus lefties, but his pitch count's been really weird. I have his past five starts here. It's 90, 99, and then 56, 59, and 70. His velocity has been down a lot in that three-start sample. So I'm worried about that because if it's a pitch count thing where I think maybe it'll rebound the next time out, it's fine. If I see the velocity go down but he's still been effective, that's fine too. But when you combine the two together, it's possible his pitch count has gone down because the effectiveness has gone down and that's where I start to really worry. So let's check out Rich Hill here just to see what the matchups have been in those starts. He faced Baltimore last time out and again as we'll talk about tomorrow, I guess. Baltimore are pretty good against lefties. It's not a Marco's shame to struggle against them. He had Texas and New York, two, three, and five strikeouts. I'm okay avoiding him for today when you combine the pitch count with a decreased velocity for Rich Hill. Mateo, how do you like Tampa Bay lefty bats and Rich Hill pitching? Talk about Hill before, so good timing on that Mateo with that question there. Tampa Bay is facing Justin Dunn. I think that they will grade out very well. I had the raise ranked fourth for me for today from a stacking perspective. Dunn really struggled in his return from the injured list. He had a five earned runs there. His worst outing so far. His spin rate was down, whether that be because of injury or because of sticky stuff, I don't know. But either way, it was down for whatever reason it was down. So I think we should assume that we'll continue. The raise are also a very good offense. 115, WRC plus, 181 ISO. They're a good team versus righties. So to me, they rank fourth in terms of stacking and it's not because I don't like them. I mean, fourth is still high. The reason that they're fourth is because I like the other stacks a lot. Let's talk about the other stacks. We have a question from Diffuse on YouTube about the Blue Jays. So he wants me to rank the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are my favorite stack for today. Let's see if their lineup is out yet. It was not last time I refreshed and it's still not out. That's okay though. We'll go over here and sort by plate appearances versus righties and see who is cooking this year versus righties. Obviously, if you can get to Vlad, do it, just do it because he's tremendous. I have no pushback here. I have no downsides. I have no criticism. He's the best. No criticism here at all. Then looking after that, I think that Semi-N would be worthwhile at a, what's the salary for Semi-N? Let's call it the Blue Jays over here. And okay. So Semi-N is 38. Bichette is 42. Bichette's been hitting for a good amount of power recently. Overall, Semi-N has a higher fly ball rate, the better ISO. So if I'm picking between the two, I will go with Semi-N over Bichette. So to me, the rankings at the top end are Vlad one by a mile, Semi-N two, and then Bichette three. If we're looking at the non-elite options, like the non-super high salary options, random Gritchick is a good option. 39% fly ball rate versus righties, 184 ISO. Definitely can get behind that. Gritchick is $2,700, I believe. Yeah, $2,700, that works out well. If we're considering salary, if Rowdy Tiles is in there, I think that he's someone you'd want to include. It's just a 133 ISO for Tiles, but decent hard hit rates, decent fly ball rate, not a big strikeout guy, he's $2,300. So if we go here with Gritchick and Tiles and put those guys in first, that should give us a lot of flexibility. Let's go over here and plug in Otani and see how much damage we can do with the rest of our lineup. Okay, so let's put Vlad at third base. That brings us to 29, 20. Probably can't get to Semi-N there, but we can at least give it a shot. 2,700 is gonna put us in a bind, but I think it's at least worth trying. If you can't get to Semi-N, I would say that you can go to Teoscar Hernandez as well. He could work. Let's check out Lourdes-Gurriel versus righties, 103 ISO. No, okay, so no Lourdes-Gurriel, preferably, but I do think that Teoscar works at $3,300, but I think these are kind of the core three guys for me when stacking the blue jays. Assuming I go Otani, if I'm going with Joe Musgrove, a pitcher, I've got a lot more flexibility for that one there. Let's talk to Jonathan over on Facebook. Should I stack the Padres against the Reds? Okay, the Padres are facing, I believe it's Wade Miley. Yeah, facing Wade Miley, Miley really good at suppressing hard contact in the, let's see here, this was, oh, he had a big spin rate decrease last time out, but in his past six starts with more forcing fast balls. He's allowed a 29% hard hit rate, 20% fly ball rate. So good numbers there from a bad at ball suppression perspective. And the Padres, a lot worse versus lefties than they are versus righties. Just an 82 WRC plus, superb lack of power. So if this were straight up, I would not be looking to stack the Padres. Let's dig into what Miley did in that one start though, with the decreased spin rate, because if he was still effective, then that's fine. And I won't worry too much about it. Seven innings, two earn runs, three strikeouts. He's not a big swinging strike rate guy, but did get 11% there. So no Padres for me because Wade Miley does such a good job of suppressing hard contact. Let's talk to DJs, Detroit or Colorado, a better stack for tonight. Detroit's facing Otani, so don't stack them. Colorado is facing Woodruff. I wouldn't want to stack them either. Colorado is a better stack because they're a Coors field, but I don't want to stack either. I think they're both facing like the two best pitchers in the slate. So I would not be going there for either of them. Let's go to Alvin. Do you like Strowman for tonight? I think that he's fine, I guess, because he's a good pitcher. The question I have with Strowman as always will be upside. The Cubs do strike out 25% strike array versus righties and Strowman, he's not as much of a strike out drain as he used to be, it's above 20%, but he's also not a major contributor there and he's also not super low salary, I believe he's 99, yeah, $9900. To me, he's too close to Otani and actually if I were ranking things straight up, I'd rank Joe Musgrove ahead of him without considering salary and Musgrove is $1400 cheaper, I believe, yeah. $1400 cheaper, so I would go, I don't think I'll get to Strowman for tonight. Good pitcher, which means he could have a good game, but I think that we can get better strike out upside and a better ceiling overall from other options. DeFuse, is Musgrove still the number two pitcher? Yes, he is for me. I know it's been weird with him recently, like he had that game against, I think it was Colorado where he had, no, it was Milwaukee, where he had a no-hitter in the fifth inning and then didn't finish off the inning because he walked, he hit a dude, walks some guys, it was rough. So the game logs for Musgrove don't look great. You've got that three-run game against the Mets and then face the Mets again, but what you see here is the strikeouts. You get 11 strikeouts against Colorado, 10 against the Mets, seven against the Mets. Overall for Musgrove, this is over his, ever since he cut down on his cutter usage, he has a 32% strikeout rates, 2.92 skill interactive ERA. He's basically got the same plate discipline numbers as Woodruff, but he's not at Coorsfield. Now, Musgrove is not perfect because he does let up some impactful contact and the Reds are a powerful team, but I'd rather have that in San Diego than in Cincinnati. So to me, I think Musgrove makes a lot of sense. And I think that he will be number two for me. I do worry about length because he can occasionally get yanked kind of early, but to me, when you consider all things on this slate, I do think that he deserves to be number two, especially the salary discount at $8,500. Let's lock two Red Balls over on Twitter, least likely stack that could go off. Okay, this is fun. I would say least likely stack. So we're looking for a bad team, facing a good pitcher. I mean, the Tigers honestly, I think that I know that Otani has had some shaky outings before. Maybe there's something like that that could allow them to, you know, not go super far, but maybe it would be the Tigers, I guess. Potentially that'd be the answer there. Jenna, who do you think is the best low rostered secondary stack? Okay, good question. So we talk about this a lot for single entry, trying to identify a low rostered stack, kind of like that second tier stack, and to identify which stacks that you just being second tier, you can usually look at implied totals because those will tell you, you know, if people are sorting by that and trying to decide which teams they want to stack, these are the teams that may go overlooked. So if you look at teams with more middling implied totals, who I would be okay with stacking, then we are looking at Tampa Bay. I think that Tampa Bay would probably grade out pretty well there and Los Angeles. I think both these teams, Jenna, are gonna be ones that I like a lot. Los Angeles facing Manning, Manning coming up from AAA. He really struggled in AAA. So kind of confuses why he's coming up. Stacking Los Angeles does mean you can't use Otani because Otani is just a pitcher for today and Fangel is not a hitter. That's annoying for sure because we'd love to use Otani because he's the best hitter they've got right now. But you've got Jared Walsh, you've got Justin Upton, Max Stasi, I think is in play despite it being a righty. So I would say the Angels grade out well there and then the Rays. We talked about before facing Justin Dunne. I think that these two teams are going to be the two you wanna focus on. If you're looking for like low rostered secondary stacks and Alvin, if you're looking for a single entry stack, I would say both the Angels and the Rays grade out really well from that perspective we're trying to identify stacks that may go overlooked by the public as a whole. Good question, Jenna. Let's talk to Jason, Braves stack. I think they're a good stack. I think that they're gonna be a bit overrated based on the implied total here. It's 5.41, I am lower on them than that. They're facing John Gantt and Gantt got knocked around his past two starts. So I understand why the implied total is high. And again, like really bad play discipline numbers but still does a decent job of contact suppression that matters. So to me, I think that they are one of my favorite stacks. They're definitely in the top five but I'm okay being a bit lower on them than consensus as a result of the ability John Gantt has to sometimes wiggle his way out of impossible situations. He's kind of like a magician and not in the good way for us for stacking. So I would say the Braves are a team I will stack for today. And the lineup is out and I think the lineup looks pretty good honestly from a stacking perspective because William Contreras is in there and Contreras is a low salary, weirdly good against writing so far this year. So I think the Contreras works for a value play. Got Abraham Amante, batting cleanup again. I'm okay with that. Riley and Swanson work well. So if you want like a lower salary in stack that can help you get to Ohtani, I think the Braves do work pretty well but I would say most of those guys probably gonna carry popularity because of the super high implied total that the Braves have for today. So I'm on board with the Braves but I'm likely to be lower on them than Consensus because of Gantz's batted ball suppression. Let's talk to DJ over on Facebook. Should I start Marquez against Milwaukee? For a season long, I think you can. If that's what you're asking I think that that definitely works. For daily fantasy, I think it's like a consideration and I think when I was talking this morning I'm pretty sure I ranked Marquez number five for tonight. So that's in play, that's a viable option. He's $9,000, Marquez, the numbers I have here are since he started using more sliders and fewer curve balls. I guess it's been relatively even since in that time but 3.93 skill interactive ERA, 25% strike-out rate, good batted ball numbers. So I wouldn't say Marquez is off the map for DFS and I would consider him as my number five pitcher but I wanna make sure I get enough Ohtani first, enough Musgrove, enough Charlie Morton and also enough Woodruff because I'd prefer Woodruff in this same game as well but Marquez, I would say DJ, a consideration. Someone I'd be okay looking into for today. Let's talk to DJ, it says the Cubs lineup is out. This is what Strowman is facing for today. Cubs, yeah, I think that's the same. That's basically what you would expect from them. So no alterations to the way I'm viewing Strowman based on that lineup. I think that they're still Strowman just not quite enough upside for me to get super jazzed about using him for today. Mentioned in passing, Charlie Morton, let's talk about him a bit more in depth here and why I'm in on him. At home facing the Cardinals. I think that we are in a situation where it's a good pitcher, like he's got good, bad at ball numbers, decent walk rate. He's at home, 3.37 skill interactive ERA. Facing an offense, I don't fear that much with an 87 WRC plus. So I think in a situation where he just got, he checks enough boxes to be in play for DFS and despite that Morton is down to $8,200. I think that's very forgiving. So if you're looking for a value play and we talked to Rich Hill before, Rich Hill is a better matchup because the Mariners will strike out against lefties. But I think Morton is a better overall situation. We saw here a 55 point game, he's capable of upside. So I think that Charlie Morton to me, if you're not going Musgrove would be the guy I would turn to first for a value play. Let's put Musgrove in here and see what this Blue Jay stack looks like if we go Musgrove. If we go Musgrove, 34-20 left. So I'm actually going to take Thales out of there. I'm going to go to Semian at shortstop to fill that. And I'm probably going to put Tailscar in there in the outfield at $3,300. And we'll do that. And then we have 30-75 left. That's pretty easy to get to. And I think that honestly, like, I talked about the Yankees stack for today and the Yankees would probably mesh pretty well with that. So I think you can game stack this game very easily. I'm not looking to like game stack it because that's not what we're doing here overall, but I do think that that's in play for today. You could also go, if you want to go with Thales, then it make it easier to get Paul Stanton and a judge in there within this Musgrove lineup. So if you want to go all out for Vlad, Stanton, Judge, et cetera, et cetera, I think that Musgrove is a good way to do so. And again, I'm a very okay with Musgrove. I prefer Ohtani over him despite the salary discount, but I do think that Musgrove very deserving of consideration for today. I wanna see if there are any other stacks that I like this morning, but I've not talked up yet. Talk briefly about the Angels. Do like them, that's my number three stack. Let's talk about the Yankees here. Facing TJ Zoik, Zoik coming in from AAA. He struggled down in AAA. He struggled in the big leagues. The numbers I have here are across his career in the majors, 5.4 rates, skill interactive, VRA, 14% strikeout rate, a lot of hard contact, not a ton of fly balls, and the Yankees offensively not grading out as well versus righties as the Blue Jays are. That's why I had the Blue Jays as my number one stack and the Yankees number two, but there's still plenty here to feel good about the Yankees. So the Yankees to me, number two stack for today. Let's talk to Jerry. How do you feel about Atlanta? Feel pretty good. I think that they're a high quality stack for today. Again, not my favorite stack. They wind up being fifth for me. So for ranking the stacks, it is Blue Jays one Yankees two, Angels three, Ray is four, Braves five. You could easily put the Braves higher though. The Braves are in that top tier to me. I just wound up grading them lower as a result of Gant's ability to keep the ball on the ground, get his way out of weird situations. It's so frustrating to stack against him. Maybe it's just like a bias because it's burned me so many times, but I think that that's why I'm lower on the Braves. There's still my number five stack. I think they're a very good stack, but I'm guessing based on reading the tea leaves for today, I'll probably wind up being lower on them than Consensus because I think that they will be probably the most popular stack for today. I think that might wind up being the case. So I might wind up being lower, but again, they've got so many good value options here. Let's tinker around with this here. Let's go Otani. And then I'm gonna go with Almonte first. Let's pull up the Braves. Not sure if the lineup was in last time I refreshed. Indeed it was. Okay. So let's go with Almonte. We're gonna go Austin Riley. I'm gonna go Contreras because I think that he'll be a fun... I think if you wanna stack the Braves while being different Contreras is actually a pretty fun way to do. So I wouldn't expect him to be on all that many rosters. And then I'm gonna try to get Acunia, which I think I can here at $4,500. Yeah, that works. So 20, 50 left. You're definitely scrambling a bit to try to get there, but I think that that's a worthwhile option for me. So I would say this is my... If I'm trying to be different while stacking the Braves I would say getting Contreras in there is a good way to do so. Let's pull up his numbers here versus Riley's quick to show you why I am intrigued by William Contreras and sort by plate appearances. Okay, William Contreras against Riley's 91 plate appearances, 198 ISO, high enough fly ball rates. He does strike out a bit, but I think overall this is a fun profile. So I think that he's a solid option. Jonathan, that's about Acunia. Definitely on board with Acunia as well. And I would rank him above Freddie Freeman for today. That's my general philosophy is to rank Acunia above Freeman if I have to choose between the two. Ideally you get both, but realistically probably pickin and I tend to pick Acunia over Freeman personally. Let's go back to Twitter and talk to Red Balls under on 10 and a half from Milwaukee against Colorado. I am undecided on this. I think that like if you look at this from a starting pitching perspective, it tells you yes. But it is course field still, 90 degree weather. I think that the one thing in favor of an under is that both these offenses are really bad. 68 WRC plus of the Rockies versus Riley's, 83 for the Brewers. So I would say Red Balls, if I were to bet the total for this game, I would go with the under. However, there are factors keeping me away from it. So to me, it's a no play personally and I personally would not have enough conviction to go with the under. But if you do wanna bet the total for that game, I think the under is a play there. But again, for me, it's a no play because I don't have enough conviction in the situation here, bull pens at times. Haters had some spin rate decreases for the Brewers. So to me, I would say a no play, but if you're going with it, I would say go towards the under. That is all the time that we have here for today on the FanDuel Fantasy Q&A. Once again, do wanna mention we are not here tomorrow, Dr. Disrespect. Taking over the FanDuel YouTube channel, playing some FIFA. So swing by tomorrow has some fun with Dr. Disrespect. If you have questions for me tomorrow, we'll answer them on the solo shop, but also on my Twitter feed at Jim Sonnis. More than happy to answer questions there if you have them as the day goes along. Big thank you to Calvin Theobald, our video producer for running the video side of things here today. Thank you, Cal, as always. Make sure you are subscribed on your platform of choice, whether it be YouTube, Twitch, Facebook or Twitter will take your questions live on air every weekday, 4 p.m., same place, same time, getting us out for that day's slate of MLB DFS. I hope you all have a fantastic night. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you once again next week. This has been the FanDuel Fantasy Q&A.