 Just five games on tonight's slate for MLB DFS. And despite that, there's actually, I think, a pretty good number of quality stacks on this slate. We got a wind game of Wrigley Field. We've got some other spots I like, one I like that I don't think a ton of people will be on for tonight. So good slate for stacking, less good for pitching. It kind of got one guy who stands out and then some other options that you could go towards but some uncertainty there for sure. So overall, despite it being a five game slate, still want to like quit quite a bit and what I feel pretty good about. So let's dive on in and get you set for Thursday's action. Welcome on into the solo shop. That's right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network and NumberFire.com. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for NumberFire.com here to break down Thursday's five game main slate with Locke said for 7.05 p.m. Eastern for today over on FanDuel. And as I said, it is a wind game at Wrigley Field. The winds are out to center at 14 miles per hour and the temperature is 85 degrees. Both those things very good for hitting. That's a pretty big upgrade for bats between the Cubs and the Reds. The total in the game is up to 10 and I don't believe any other totals on the slates are higher than eight and a half. Waiting on Blue Jays raise because rays have not said who will they, they will be starting for today but other ones haven't set. So it's a stand up for sure. We'll talk about both sides of that game in the stacking section. But first, a reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast, tomorrow we have both USC and NASCAR in this feed getting you set for a road courses weekend on the NASCAR side of things at Road America for the Quick Trip 250. Shout out Quick Trip. Also USC via Austin Swain there. MLB podcast every weekday, PGA every week. Via myself and Brandon Gadoula. So lots of good things all in the NumberFire Daily Fantasy podcast feed, make sure you are subscribed wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review as well. This baseball season turned strikeouts into cash and big hits into big wins with Fandal Sportsbook right now. New customers can step up to the plate with a no sweat first bet up to $1,000 with great promotions every day, a safe and secure app and the ability to get paid fast. There's no better place to bet America's pastime than on America's number one sportsbook. Download the Fandal Sportsbook app and sign up today to get started with your no sweat first bet up to $1,000. A disclaimer here must be 21 plus and present Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana and converted Paris is only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wyoming or West Virginia. First online real money wager only refund issue is non-withdrawable free bets that expire 14 days after a seat. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBO or visit fandual.com slash RG. In Arizona, 1-800-NEXT-SEP or text NEXT-SEPTIFI, 3-3-4-2. In Connecticut, 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Louisiana, 1-877-770-STOP in New York, 1-877-8OP and wire text OPEN-Y. In Tennessee, call the red line at 1-800-89979 in Wyoming, 1-800-522-4700 or in West Virginia, 1-800-GAMBLER.NET. Pitching preview for this Thursday main slate, Joe Musgrove is the highest salary pitcher on fandual checking in at 11-1 facing out with a dodge. Just looking Gilbert is 10-4. Graham Ashcraft off that big outing last week is 9,000, butt in the winky game at Wrigley. JT Brubaker, Jeffery Springs potentially. It could be Drew Rasmussen for the raise instead. Adrian Hauser and Kyle Hendricks are the others at $8,000 or higher. The one guy I feel really good about for today is Logan Gilbert. I think of all the things on this slate, whether it be stacking anything else, the thing I have most conviction on is putting Logan Gilbert at the top of my list for pitcher for today. He's facing the A's and it's about time that poor Gilbert gets a plus matchup because here are his past eight starts in order. He has gone angels, angels, twins, Astros, Rangers, Astros, Red Sox, Blue Jays. That is five starts against teams inside the top six in WRC plus against Reides. The Rangers were the only team ranked lower than 13. They're 21st. Now he's facing the 29th ranked active roster against Reides. It's a massive upgrade for Gilbert. And Gilbert, despite facing all those really good teams, put up good numbers. Looking at the data, it seems like Gilbert changed the way he was throwing his curve ball back on May 11th. The velocity went up on that pitch in that start and the movement changed as well. So I feel like he changed something with his curve ball there and he did up the usage of that pitch to start after that. If we include that first start on May 11th, Gilbert has a 25% strikeout rate in his past nine outings. He has a 3.60 skill interactive ERA. And again, that's come against really good teams. The one flaw Gilbert has had is he is letting up too much hard contact. Part of that could just be the schedule he has faced, but it's less of a concern in this matchup here. It's an ADWRC plus the A's, a 121 ISO versus Reides and both those numbers are the worst on the main slate. They don't draw walks, they will strike out. It's a pristine situation for a guy who hasn't had many good situations recently. I've got Gilbert projected for a 6.5 strikeouts tonight. He's almost a full strikeout higher than everybody else on this slate. And I will treat him as such, both for cash gains and for tournaments. And I think that I could talk myself into just building around him completely, but Gilbert's pretty awesome for tonight. And I think definitively the top guy. Now Musgrove isn't a much tougher matchup, which is why I think it's so clear to me that Gilbert is the top guy. Musgrove is facing the Dodgers on the road. I still think we put him second here. It's mostly due to pitcher quality. It matters a lot, you know? You want good pitchers. Shocker, use the good pitchers. Can't put him any more simply than that. And I can't put any of the other options on this slate above him. Musgrove did stumble last week. He let up six earn runs with just one strikeout. And it's a pretty rough start, but clearly I think a blip. There weren't any super concerning shifts in his pitch mix or velocity, though it was down a bit there. I'm okay overlooking that because we could have just had an off night there. We've seen seven starts on Musgrove, throwing more curves and more cutters. He's let up a 25% fly ball rate in that time. He has a 37% of heart hit rate in that time. Strikeout rate in the sample is lower, but most that's due to the low strikeout game he had last week. He's gotten nine, eight and seven strikeouts in the sample as well. And there have been some clunkers, and the matchup is rough with the Dodgers, even with the Dodgers issues at Coorsfield outside of last night. But I just can't talk myself into putting anybody else above him. Musgrove is the top for me after Gilbert's. And I think that honestly, the fall off after that is immense. So again, I could just go Gilbert potentially, but I will likely stick to just these two. And I think that that's the way I want to play things for tonight. But hey, it's a podcast. You probably want a third pitcher, so let's go through one other guy who I will likely not use. If I were forced to pick a third, it'd be JT Brew Baker, question mark. He's facing the Brewers in Pittsburgh. It's not a great spot, but it's also not the worst. They have a 23% strikeout rate versus rioties. It does come with power. So it's not like a smash spot or anything like that. But Brew Baker is working on the power aspect of things because early on this year, he was letting up a ton of hard contact, a ton of fly balls. So he started throwing his sinker more with fewer forcing fastballs. And it does seem to be working because his ERA in this time in the past seven starts is 2.93. He went seven innings against the Braves in Atlanta. Super tough matchup. He was decent against the Cardinals. So he's looking better. He's not getting a ton of strikeouts, which is kind of the tradeoff with the sinker. You know, you do get the better bat at ball numbers, but probably not as many strikeouts, 18% strikeout rate for Brew Baker in the seven start sample. But it's not offset, but it's aided by the fact that he's working deeper in games. So the aggregate strikeout total has been fine because he's been able to go deeper in games. He got 94 plus pitches in four straight games. He's gone 105 twice in that time. He's more effective. So it makes sense they'd let him stay out there longer. We see Brew Baker get five strikeouts at least in four straight games. He had seven in one of those as well. And three of those four starts were on the road. So it's not perfect by any means. And I'm probably not gonna use him, but he's the third ranked guy for me. If you want a third pitcher, if you want a value guy for tonight, cool, I would go there. I don't think you need to value based on the hitter salaries that I like. But, you know, if you want it, I think that he's fine. He'd be the next guy up for me. Probably will not use him myself personally. So I said at the top that stacks are good. Let's dive into those now and break them down. Again, the wind is out at Wrigley Field for today, which is a big upgrade for hitters. And I think it means we need exposure in this game. My preferred side will be with the Reds. They're facing Kyle Hendricks and Hendricks just mowed through the Cardinals on the road. Really tough matchup, but he went seven and third innings, six strikeouts, nowhere in runs. Really great showing by Hendricks there. That's also his third straight game with six strikeouts. And it's come with a shift in his approach. He's throwing more change-ups and fewer forcing fastballs. So I think he's better now than he was. Not gonna dispute that. But it's still not perfect. We saw Hendricks let up six earned runs in one of those three games, let up two home runs, the Braes in that one. The Cardinals had a couple barrels last week and the Braes had five barrels in their game. The fly ball rate has been high in all three starts. So I would guess that Hendricks, once the sample expands and things stabilize, he's probably gonna get more strikeouts than he was previously, but, and that puts extra variance in the stack. They're not a slam dunk stack, but when they do make contact, it's pretty likely to be in the air. And in this situation with the wind being what it is, that could potentially be enough. Obviously the Reds are flawed. They have their issues, but I will stack them here and feel pretty okay with that for today. Now the one downside is that they're a pretty righty heavy team that is a bit of a bummer against Hendricks who does do better against righties and lefties. But I think it just makes Joey Vado, one of the top plays in this late at $2,600. He's a 38% fly ball rate versus righties. He's had a lot of hard contact recently, despite some awful results. So I'll be high on him here. Mike Moustakis, if he's able to play, I would be okay with him as well. Not sure if he'll be able to go or if he will start, but I think those two guys do work. You know, you'll have to go righties eventually, but I would build around the lefties when you can, aka Joey Vado, as being the primary guy there. The second stack I'm gonna deviate from Wrigley Field. We'll get to them back to them in a bit, but I think our second ranked stack has to be up in Toronto. That's the Rays facing Yusei Kikuchi for tonight. It's their first tip to Toronto, so don't know totally which guys will be out. Mark Topkin's tweeted that a couple of relievers will be out, so I don't think any of the offensive guys will miss this game for the Rays as long as it's nothing too bad. And I'd assume it won't be based on what Mark has said. I'll be okay stacking the Rays here. Kikuchi really struggling. He's led up multiple runs in seven straight games. He's led up multiple home runs in four of those games. The Blue Jays seem like they're trying to have him work in shorter stints, which there are plenty of benefits of that, but it's not working yet. He hasn't gone five innings since May 28th, but he's still getting rocked despite the shorter stints. The Rays active roster is much better now that Wander Franco is back. They have a 107 WRC plus against lefties. Very low strikeout rate. They're still not super powerful, but Kikuchi with his issues may help with that. If Franco, I don't think he will be based on what the reporting has been, but if he were to not play for today, he's coming off an injury, stuff like that, I would downgrade this stack for sure, but otherwise to me, the Rays a really fun stack for today. Now outside of Franco, Franco's actually not the highest salary rate for today. That's actually, as a parettist, he's been moved up in the order against lefties. So I actually don't hate it. I get it. He hit third against the lefty on Wednesday, even with Franco in the lineup. He hit fifth last week. I think that he's gonna cool off. Like the pace is on right now is unsustainable, but puts the ball in the air a decent amount, hits it decently hard. That's plenty enough for me. So I'm okay with parettists at $3,200. Prefer Franco would rank Franco higher, but hey, you know, Pratt is fine too. So the Rays not too bad against Yusuke Kikuchi for tonight. I will put the Cubs third on this list, back at Wrigley Field. They're facing Graham Ashcraft, who is coming off a really impressive show against the Giants. He went eight innings, had eight strikeouts, allowed just two weren't runs. And that's why the Cubs are lower on this list. And because it's partly that. I think the bigger thing for me, the reason the Cubs are not inside the top two, not above the Reds is Ashcraft's a big ground ball guy, and the wind doesn't matter if it's on the ground, which is typically the case with him. But we have seen Ashcraft shifting away from his sinker in a pretty significant way. He threw that pitch about 25 or so percent of the time his first three starts in the majors, but that's down to 11% in his past four starts. And that doesn't include the Giants game. So clearly this move for him is working, but he did let up six earn runs to the Brewers. He let up four and runs the Cardinals in four and two thirds innings. The fly ball rate in this time is more palatable, I would say it's 26%. So it's not great, but it's five in the right spots. And I think that this is the right spot in general. Now what Ashcraft did last week means the Cubs have a bad floor here. It does matter. But I still think there is a good ceiling in there as well. And at least with the weather being what it is, I think that's enough to make me pretty intrigued. And I will buy into the Cubs here and make them my number three stack behind the Reds and the Rays for today. Now it's a small sample, but Ashcraft's ground ball rate has gone down quite a bit against righties. It is 47% for them and 67% for lefties. Righties hit him harder in the minors last year too, based on his splits down there. So I think it's probably a legit thing for a lot of reverse platoon splits. So I'll give the right handed Cubs preference for tonight when stacking them. You know, I'm not going to ignore some of the left handed guys who are pie in the order of stuff like that, but giving righties preference, I had kind of poo pooed Wilson Contreras a couple of days or I think it was last night actually against Hunter Green. He was great. So, you know, I'll be there tonight. I did use him out of necessity, I guess last night, but I'll be higher on him tonight just because he's, you know, he's showing upside for sure against righties. So I'll be there for tonight as well. Let's move now to things to watch and talk about those rays as far as a starting pitcher for today. Cause I don't know who they're starting. Great question. Could be Jeffrey Springs. It could be Drew Rasmussen coming off the aisle. I would not use Springs if it is him. He's a very good pitcher, but he's in a brutal matchup. The rays or the blue Jays, so many righties. Springs does let up a bit too much hard contact. Rasmussen did not have a rehab stint. So if it is him, his pitch count would likely be pretty low. So either way, I think this is an avoid on both sides. I'm not stacking against these guys. I'm not stacking the Jays or not using them as pitchers. So I think to me, whatever the rays do, whether it's Springs or Rasmussen, I do think it'll be one of those two guys. I'm okay avoiding the situation entirely. Adrian Hauser is struggling quite a bit right now. The strikeouts are down, letting up a lot of hard contact. And he's facing the pirates for tonight. And it's a good matchup, which may tempt you in using Hauser as a pitcher, but I actually think I'd rather stack against him. Dan Vogelbach is back. O'Neill cruises up. Even Jack Sawinsky is hitting the ball pretty well. They've got guys who are usable. Like the pirates sneaky kind of fun for DFS. Not sure if that's like a good take, but like, I don't know, I'm into it. I might stack them when I want to differentiate. I actually kind of like them. So I'll go pirates for tonight at times. I hope people won't because the total in that game is, you know, it's eight and a half, but they're not the favorites in that game right now. So let's go pirates. Let's see what happens. The other Adrian, starting tonight is Adrian Martinez. And I'm unsure what to think of him. He was struggling in AAA in terms of results, but he was getting strikeouts. He got withs in his first start in the big leagues, even if they didn't turn to strikeouts. So I think you could consider the Mariners for stacking based on the results that Martinez had in AAA, but I think the pirates are a better stack here tonight. So the pirates number four for me, I think they're kind of a fun single entry team, honestly. I don't know, we'll see. I'm too high on the pirates, but we'll see if they could be fun. And I don't think a ton of people will be on them for tonight. Let's finish up here with some Dinger calls for the boring one. I know Randy Orocerena hasn't done a lot that's here in terms of power to seven home runs. His numbers against lefties are pretty bad, but hasn't had a huge sample versus lefties. Facing Kikuchi who does let up a lot of impactful contact. So I'll go Randy Orocerena as the boring home run call for tonight. Not sure if that's really that boring, but I'll go with him anyway. The fun one, I will go Joey Vado in the wind game at Wrigley. He's been making good enough contact recently despite some bad results. So I think eventually it'll turn back into what it was when he first came off the COVID IO where he was actually getting good results and stuff like that, but could be tonight. So home run calls for today, both a little bit more risky, but Randy Orocerena and Joey Vado. That is all that we have here for today on the solo shot. Again, just a five game slate, but not too bad honestly, both for pitching in for stacks. We have Logan Gilbert, we've got some really good stacks. So I might just go Gilbert and then differentiate between those four stacks I liked quite a bit for today. Do not forget to subscribe to the Number Fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts to get these podcasts right as they are posted each and every day. Maximize your research time after they are posted to decide whether you agree with what we're saying or disagree with that and make your own decisions based on that. Again, you search for wherever you get your podcasts and if you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review as well. 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. Big thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you. Your NLB DFS lineups will talk to you once again tomorrow for Friday's main slate. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.