 Just five games on tonight's main slate for daily fantasy baseball and pitching is not ideal Now as we discuss every time when this is the case is if it's not ideal for us It's not ideal for anybody else either So it's still the same money on the line and all that stuff But it does require us to kind of shift our views be more willing to pivot be more willing to use guys We typically would not on a normal DFS slate. So we're gonna break down The pitching options I think are viable why I think they're viable and how to handle them here for today It's not easy by any means, but I do think we can navigate around this and get to at least okay options for this main slate So let's dive on in and get you ready for a fan duel tonight. Welcome on into the solo shop That's right here on the fan duel podcast network and number fire calm My name is Jim Saunas. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down Thursdays Five game main slate with lock set for 635 p.m. Eastern for today again lock is at 635 p.m Eastern so get those line upset and tinkered with before 635 the big weather note and it is a big one For tonight is in Chicago for the Cubs and the Dodgers a very good chance of rain there Looks like scattered thunderstorms. I think it's a legit question of whether they'll be able to play that game So that's one aspect where potentially a postponement there But also if they do play that game winds are out to center at 14 miles per hour That is a big upgrade for batters again if they're able to play so Wrigley is very wind sensitive wind is out 14 miles per hour. That's kind of one of those like red alarm or five alarm fire I don't know the right of phrases. It's a red alarm rotating thing. Anyway, it's one of those It is a massive thing for us in DFS So check back on the time frame for the thunderstorms in Chicago and if they are gonna play that game I would bump up bats for Cubs and Dodgers quite a bit We'll dive on into the pitching preview and more in just one second But first a reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy Podcasts be to get these shows as they go live each and every weekday in addition to NLB We have UFC and PGA as always so make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed Also, check us out over on the Fandal YouTube page. 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He is an 84 So as you can tell and as discussed pitching stakes, there are not many guys on this slate We'd use on larger slates could a Senga is one of those guys and I think we should be on him against the Giants, so he's kind of like the one guy if this were a 10 game slate, maybe you'd consider I don't think I get there in this specific matchup But there's enough here where he is actually like a legitimate consideration Sengas facing the Giants, they will strike out plenty 24% strikeout rate against righties in the current active roster since the start of last year That is the second highest mark on the main slate The Giants do draw walks, which is a concern for Senga because in his three starts. He has a 14 walk rate That's a big issue The rest of his profile beyond the walks has been pretty decent though He has a 4.17 skill interactive era 30% strikeout rate and he's getting a healthy number of ground balls Those numbers have come plus matchups, which is an important note for sure But it's also not the worst matchup here either I have Senga projected for 7.3 strikeouts, which is the top number on this slate That's again viable on other slates too. So I'm gonna rank him first I don't think he's flawless I don't think you need to shovel him into every lineup cash game tournament, etc But he would be my top option for today Behind Senga, the number two option is in that exact same game. That's Sean Minaya and I have a lot of interest there Again, a guy you wouldn't use in a lot of main slates yet, but this is not most slates and Minaya has been at least interesting. He's had a really good velocity so far this year He's now throwing a forcing fastball instead of a sinker and in his two starts his average forcing fastball velocity 94.6 miles per hour his slider is up to 84.6 from 81.1 That is just the two starts not counting the relief appearance and the increased Velo Does seem to be working in those two starts. Minaya has a 32 strikeout rate with a 3.21 skill interactive era That's the good and it is it is pretty good There's plenty of bad though specifically Minaya is letting up a ton of hard contact and that hard contact came against the Royals and the Tigers Which makes it much tougher to swallow Now he's facing the Mets. That's another downside here a 115 WRC plus against lefties Minimal strikeouts and I'm not sure how stretched out Minaya is He went 82 pitches last time out after going 76 in his first start So I have Minaya projected for 88 pitches. That could be too high But that number leads to the second highest strikeout projection on the slate behind just Senga It's enough to use Minaya I just don't know if it's enough to actually trust him So Shawn Minaya is number two for me tonight It is a product of the slate, but I think that he is at least interesting So to me Senga and Minaya the top two options here and then there is a pretty big fall-off after them I'm going to put Michael Waka third by default I would have gone Jameson Tyone if not for the weather in Chicago with the weather with the wind blowing out The wind does impact things quite a bit though. So Waka is third for me He's just one of the few guys in the slate who is stretched out and Can maybe get a ceiling game? We have seen that from him this year because Minaya Waka had 10 strikeouts against the Braves in six shutout innings He gave up seven runs since last time out. It's not like the Braves game is the expectation But again, we can't be choose. We can't be choosers here Waka's been throwing more curve balls as past six starts strikeout rate 21 that time again It's not great, but it's fine for this slate the problem here again is lots of hard contact and That's a tough thing the good thing for Waka is the matchup is pretty favorable in that regard He's facing Arizona. They have just a 99 WRC plus against righties 35 fly ball rates They're not hurting guys in the air super often, which may keep Waka more steady than he has been I have Waka projected for 95 pitches, which is again good for this slate. So he is super flawed I don't want to go here But he does rank third for me after Senga and Minaya after counting for the weather in Chicago We'll talk about Taiyo and things to watch we'll stop Matt strong and things to watch I think the pitch count discussion is where he takes a pretty significant hit for tonight Before that though, let's get into the stacks and talk about that Wrigley game Again, I want to caveat this with the the disclaimer that you got to make sure that game will play because there are thunderstorms in the area It's a postponement risk for sure If we get all clear before lock I feel good stacking the Cubs tonight They're facing Michael Grove and Grove did just see the Cubs last week and pitched very well He went five and two-thirds innings. He allowed one run on two hits the one run came on a solo home run and had six strikeouts So he pitched very well kudos Michael Grove for that young guy playing well The Cubs weren't overwhelmed in that match though They had a 10.1 swing and striker, which is fine. And now they've seen him very recently They get to face him this time at home with the winds blowing out Also, the Cubs had a 42 hard hit rate in that game, which is a decent number. I would say Grove has made five starts with more sliders and fewer curveballs And he has a 4.47 skill interactive era in that time. I'm not a shutdown guy. We need to avoid in these conditions He's not terrible for this slate either. But in this situation I kind of want a bit more to avoid a pitcher the Cubs offense been very good so far this year exceeding expectations They did get just get sasa zuki back as well So I think we can't stack them if we get the all clear on the thunderstorms around rigley This is a good spot. I think to start buying back into cody bellinger His strikeout rate is down to 16 percent this year It was 27 percent last year his expected woba at baseball savanna is 367 Not making like the hardest contact But when you add on the fact that bellinger is stealing bases hitting for some power He's got decent upside. I don't think we're going to see old school mvp cody bellinger again We're pretty far beyond that and we haven't seen that in a very long time But he's a lot better than he was last year. I think with the strikeout rate being down With the steels being there. I think he's well worth 3300 dollars and this team runs a lot. So Even if we're not getting Dinger after dinger after dinger with the weather we should still get guys with upside via stolen bases So cubs a really fun team to stack for tonight I wouldn't be here. I don't think without the weather But once you account for that that does make them pretty fun The second one is also fun because it's fernando tatis making his return forward tonight in a good matchup too So I think we can stack the pod race here and celebrate tatis being back in the line up for san diego Podders are facing ryan nelson in arizona nelson has done a good job of suppressing hard contact in the majors But a lot of issues elsewhere Primarily just letting up a lot of balls and play and in three starts this year Nelson has a 14 strikeout rate with an 8.1 percent swinging strike rate That swinging strike rate was low in triple a2 So it's not a surprise to see the strikeout numbers in the majors be lower and he's also not a ground ball guy Going back to last year in triple a our last like Significant sample. He led up a 40 fly ball. He's around there in the majors too So nelson's not getting whiffs not a big ground ball guy Which means that he needs to keep the hard contact in check in order to get by He might keep that up. That is a skill for sure But he also might not I think there is a window for us to stack against him here as a result of that So the pod race to me quality stack and a team I wanted to go to and obviously We need more than just tatis to get a stack here The hope would be that mac carpenter plays carpenter salaries low tatis is $4,500 Screw they paid attention to what he was doing in triple a but carpenter salary in the mid twos He's still doing what he did with the yankees last year in terms of making hard contact It just hasn't translated into hits the way it did last year He has a 13.6 percent barrel rates with a 351 expected woeba I hope he's in there. The results have not been good So I wouldn't blame the pod race that they were to yank him with tatis being back But I do think that he's the least worth consideration So if you need some flexibility to get to tatis You probably won't you're non-single lineups because the other salaries are so low But I think carpenter is a guy I'd be wanting to turn to there Finally our third stack third consecutive day Pittsburgh pirates in the stacking section within the top three and this time not a course field And we can sometimes see teams lag when they leave that high altitude But I still think we should give them thought for tonight The pirates are facing luke weaver who's coming off the il He spent last year in the bullpen and he was okay But definitely not elite. He led up a 45 heart rate rate with just a 22 strikeout rate and now He has to stretch out stretch out to be a starter Weaver was not lights out in his rehab stint. He had a 9.3 between strike rates He led up a 55 fly ball rate So I'm not really sure what to expect out of weaver, but It's been a while since we've seen the really fun version of weaver from way back in the day with st Louis I'm okay being skeptical with him from the jump Which means I'll give the pirates a look here as a team that could be a pretty good stack for tonight We saw jack sewinsky get a start against the lefty yesterday, which to me was pretty fun Obviously he had the double dong two days ago started against the lefty yesterday because I think that what that tells me is The pirates are warming up to him. He got sent down last year, which kind of gave me the vibe that they weren't as high on him but Playing him against lefties. I think is noteworthy at least it's not a lefty today But it's noteworthy in terms of their sentiment around him how they think he's seen the ball so win ski 252 iso against righty since the start of last year He does still strike out too much, but he can steal as well So I think we should keep on upping the view of sewinsky because the pirates are doing that So we should follow suit so so win ski Pretty key part of pirate stacks. Their salaries are not low, but again salaries don't matter a ton for today Just because pitching is lower salary than usual Things to watch for tonight. Let's talk quickly on matt's job as the second highest salary on the site and his face in the Rocky so you might think That put him in play he's getting a lot of strikeouts so far this year, but I'm not sure there'll be enough length here. He has gone no longer than 67 pitches yet in the game The max pitch count I could recently project for strong is 80 I don't think I have him there right now. I think I've got him Yeah, I got on 70 that still be would still be his largest mark of the year and 70 pitches He could still get a decent number of strikeouts, but almost zero percent chance at a quality start lowest odds of a win If you tell me right now that strong gets 80 pitches He'd be interesting But i'm not there yet. So I'll hold off personally. I'm not going to get there, but You know if you have faith that his pitch count will expand. Maybe you can justify doing it yourself I think the fillies work as a stack. They're facing ryan feltoner in that same game He gets that of course. Yeah, which is great for him or a different game actually But feltoner has struggled on the road as well He's let up five earned runs and three of his past four road starts The fillies showed some life yesterday. They've got some guys with huge single game individual upside So I wouldn't be shocked if they do that again So the fillies in play as a stack as well Finally, I don't hate the Dodgers at Wrigley given the win, but they're in a pretty tough spot They do I do think that jason tie-ons pretty good, which helps Or which lowers their appeal. They may get mookie bets back from the paternity list I assume he'll be back for today, but no one will smith here will smith is a tremendous baseball player Getting bats bets back would help for sure, but The Dodgers are more so just a a fine option for me I don't think the fillies above them for sure despite the fact the fillies are in less fun weather for hitting Dinger calls for today got to start things off at Wrigley field, of course Or as uh, we'll start things off at Wrigley field with our fun one That's say a Suzuki did hit a home run his first game back off the il Not typically a huge power guy, but he's lower salary than a lot of the other guys on this team Like wisdom all like Horner, etc. Etc. So we'll make say a Suzuki the fun home run call for today The boring one brian reynolds has been absurd so far both last year and this year But especially this year for look at his individual numbers against righties. He has been phenomenal Reynolds I know it doesn't matter for a dinger call, but he will still bases so multiple sources of upside Didn't go bananas at Coors field I think he's in a good spot for today So the home run calls for the boring one brian reynolds the fun one seah Suzuki That is all that we have here for today on the solo shop But we are back once again tomorrow with a full slate Breaking down that my favorite options across the board for daily fantasy So 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 fan dual podcast network at fan dual podcast I want to thank you all for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lineups We'll talk to you once again tomorrow to break down friday slate This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network