 Early Lock Time for the main slate for today over on FanDuel with the main slate locking at 1.10 PM, each of us still a meaty 10 games on this slate. Our job for today is break down those games in quick fashion to get you on your way to filling out some good lineups over on FanDuel.com. Welcome on into the solo shot. 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 a NumberFire here to break down Wednesday's 10 game main slate with lock set for 1.10 PM Eastern for today. That slate runs through the 4 PM games. So the 1 through 4 PM games are on the main slate, 10 game slate locking at 1.10 PM Eastern. The chillier games for today with the winds or the temperatures under 60 degrees. You got Detroit for the Tigers and Guardians, Oakland for the Cubs and the A's and then Seattle for the Brewers and Mariners. I think they'll be able to keep the roof open for today, which means it'll be the full chill as opposed to the partial chill when the roof is closed, 48 degrees there. So Tigers are in from center at 11 miles per hour. I would downgrade batters a bit there. In Kansas City for the Royals and the Rangers, winds are out to center at 19 miles per hour, upgrade batters there. So winds out in Kansas City for the Royals and Rangers, winds in Chicago for the White Sox and the Phillies. We'll dive into the pitching preview to get you set for today's main slate 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 podcasts, MLB, DFS every weekday, USC, the Austin Swain for select slates, PGA, via myself and Brandon Gadoula all in the same place. So go search for it. The Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed, hit subscribe and if you like what you hear, leave us a five star rating as well. 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Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanDuel.com slash RG and Massachusetts Hope is here. Gambling helplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support. In New York, 1-877-A Hope and Wire, text Hope and Wire. In Arizona, 1-800-Next Step or text Next Step to 533-42. In Connecticut, 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat. In Indiana, 1-800-9 with it. In Wyoming and Kansas, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ccpgamblinghelp.com. Louisiana is 1-877-770-Stop. In Maryland, mdgamblinghelp.org and in West Virginia, go to 1-800-gambler.net. Pitching preview for this Wednesday main slate Justin Steele comes in with the highest salary at $11,300. Max Scherzer is 10-2. Mike Clevenger is at $9900. Martin Perez, 96. Johan Oviedo is 93 at Coors Field. Trevor Rogers, 91. Charlie Borden is 9,000 with Eric Lauer, Alex Cobb, Noah Syndagart and Taiwan Walker the others at $8,000 or higher. Now here are the list of names, probably makes it pretty obvious why Justin Steele is 11-3 and to me at least Justin Steele despite that high salary worth it it is our top pitching option for today. I love pretty much everything about his situation for today. Steele's facing the A's on the road which is a good park for pitching and a great matchup. The A's have a 117 ISO against lefties on their current active roster since the start of last year. No power in this offense. And that's a nice change of pace for Steele because last time out he had to face the Dodgers. It's a very difficult spot but he held them to two runs across seven innings, eight strikeouts there and Steele has been doing this for a while now. He basically cut out his sinker 12 starts ago. So a large sample and in that time he has a 1.45 ERA. So it's actually ERA is 1.45, great results. The peripherals are not quite that good but they're still fantastic especially compared to this slate. A 3.38 skill interactive ERA, 28% strike area which is the best mark on the slate in each guy's most relevant sample. And in that time Steele has also allowed just a 30% hard hit rate. So Steele would be viable a pitcher on a lot of slates and this one is weak on pitching which makes him an even easier call. I have Steele projected for 7.3 strikeouts here. That is the largest number on the slate by a almost a full strikeout and I'm happy to treat him like that. So Steele is my top guy for cash games, my top guy for tournaments. He is the best option to cross the board despite the highest salary for today. Now if you don't wanna spend 11-3 for Steele I get it, I do personally but I get it. There are two guys in the same game with salaries at 91 and 86 so I think are both viable. Those guys are Trevor Rogers now Cobb, Rogers 91, Cobb 86, he will be our value play but let's start things off with Rogers here. Rogers, it's a guy I've always had a soft spot for because he was tremendous back in 2021 and obviously last year a tough year for him across the board. This year 4.2 ERA not gonna jump off the page at you but some good underlying data. The big change for Rogers is the addition of a sinker and it's not a good strikeout pitch. His whiff rate on that pitch is just 14% but that thing is killing worms right now. 168 expected Woba against according to baseball savant the launch angles like negative 14 degrees it's getting ground balls and it's led to a 33% of hard hit rates so far this year for Rogers. He has other pitches that can't get strikeouts too so he has a 12.5% swinging strike rate despite having that sinker being a high usage low whiff pitch. 24% strike rate so far for Rogers and three starts and those are pretty solid numbers. Now he gets the Giants who are sneakily a plus matchup for lefties because they have a 26% strikeout rate against lefties on the current active roster. They also have a below average WRC plus. I have Rogers projected for 5.98 strikeouts that's less than steel and less than a couple other guys but it's not elite but I think there is enough here to give him a whiff at $9,100. So I prefer Rogers over Cobb. Don't like him as much as steel but for 91 I think he's a good option there. Cobb is 86 he is our top value for today. I think he brings quite a bit to the table obviously facing the Marlins here given the tie in with Rogers the Marlins active roster a 99 WRC plus against righties with a 136 ISO they don't draw a lot of walks. Not that walks are a concern for Cobb doesn't really issue those but it never really hurts. Cobb also has a new pitch this year. His is a slider and that slider has a 44% whiff rate on it and it's pitchy throws almost exclusively to righties where he uses the curve ball and split finger to lefties. The good thing here is the Marlins batting order probably gonna have seven righties at most it would have or at minimum it would have six. So we can use that slider a lot today and it's looked very good so far. A 3.14 ERA for Cobb across the three starts 2.95 skill interactive ERA. He is letting up some hard contact but just a 19% fly ball rate. So he will make some mistakes but you hope that the mistakes are not super impactful due to the low walk rate and stuff like that. The overall body of work for Cobb is very good. He has faced one weaker opponent so far this year that was the Royals at home and in that game seven innings, two in runs, six strikeouts. Definitely not a bad day at all. The Marlins again, pretty righty heavy lineups so I think that makes them a fine play at 86. Between Rodgers and Cobb I prefer Rodgers feel pretty good about him but Cobb is right there too. To me they're in the same tier. Steel is in his own tier. I would say Rodgers and Cobb were in their own tier. We'll talk about Max Scherzer in things to watch later on. Before we get there though, gotta talk about the stacks. And there is a course field game for today between the Pirates and the Rockies, final game of that series. But I have a hard time ranking either of those teams above the Cardinals. And I think they are the top options for today. They're facing Madison Bumgarner who looks like he might be in for another rough season. In his three starts so far he has let up five, two and five earned runs, minimal strikeouts, too many walks, a lot of barrels, multiple barrel balls in each start so far for Bumgarner. And all this is, is a continuation of last year. We've seen Bumgarner throwing fewer, forcing fastballs and fewer changeups in his past 11 starts. And he's made a lot of tweaks since the start of last year, hasn't really hit on anything yet. 15% strikeout rate in that time, 5.19 skill interactive ERA, both the hard hit rate and fly ball rate are above ERA at 42%. So not surprisingly, when you let up that much hard contact and let up that many balls in play, the results have been pretty poor. And that's in like neutral matchups. Across 15 starts probably even out to be about average. The Cardinals are not neutral. They are disgusting against lefties. 144, WRC plus, 224 ISO. It is a horror show to be a lefty who is struggling facing this team. So yeah, Coors is appealing. Definitely do like Coors. I think the Cardinals are more appealing. And they are my top team for tonight with a rubber stamp, runaway margin. I think they are definitively need to be there. And I also think it's important to note that the Cardinals are easy to stack even with Justin Steele because they've got some key value plays. One of those Wilson-Contreras gets a big boost against lefties. If you look at the past calendar year or since the start of last year, Contreras has a 180 ISO against righties with a 32% fly ball rate. Against lefties, his ISO goes up 100 points and his fly ball rate goes up 39 points. His salary is pretty low at $2,400. He's in the ball very well this year. He doubled down last night. That was a positive for sure. So Contreras, very fun. Dylan Carlson gets a boost up against lefties. Tommy Edmond does from a power perspective. So all those guys do get a boost here versus Southpaw, all those guys are value plays. And even Nolan Arnato and Paul Goldschmidt don't have super restrictive salaries. So the Cardinals to me, the definite top stack on the main slate. I do think we can put the pirates second on the list at Coors Field. They're facing Austin Gomber who is back in the rotation after getting demoted to the bullpen last year. Hasn't quite clicked yet getting back to his form from 2020 or 2021 whichever year Gomber had a really good stretch. Across three starts Gomber has a 5.32 skill interactive ERA. His strikeout rate is 17% with a 49% fly ball rate. He is doing a decent job of suppressing hard contact but everything else here is pretty gross. Gomber has made one start at Coors Field. It was against a pretty poor Nationals offense and he let up five run runs in four and two thirds innings. So the pirates better than expectations but not great, but seeing the Nationals do that against him, I think can give us a lot of hope and be high on them here. So I liked the pirates quite a bit and think we should feel good about them as the number two stack behind the Cardinals. And similar here, we've got some value plays Rodolfo Castro. His salary comes in at believe at $2,700 and we had $2,700 and he's a guy who gets a boost up against lefties. 104 plate appearances for Castro versus lefties since the start of last year. A 326 ISO which is sick. Not elite in the batted ball department and it is a small sample. So that ISO could come down but Castro does put the ball in the air. He has a 41% hard hit rate overall this year. He's probably gonna hit sixth because it's a lefty. So I think there's enough here to feel good about him for today. So Castro, one of the value plays. Connor Joe, salary is 34. That's not terrible for righty. Key Brian Hayes is $2,900. So you can stack the Cardinals and the Pirates with Justin Steele and that's the way I wanna play things for today personally on this main slate. Now the final stack for today is Mariners. They've disappointed so far this year. They've fallen pretty far in my power ranking since opening day but I think they could get back on track today. They're facing Eric Lauer and I like stacking against Lauer right now mostly because of the hard contact he allows. Lauer's velocity is down quite a bit from last year. About two miles per hour is last time out which was actually better than his first two starts this year. And we're seeing the impact of that in the batted balls because in his three starts Lauer's led up a 50% hard hit rate with a 46% fly ball rate. That's led to a 5.28 ERA but his expected ERA is 7.47. Now Lauer has had some tough matchups. He did face the Cardinals. We mentioned how difficult they are on lefties but the Mariners are tough too. 114 WRC plus against lefties, a 189 ISO. The weather is not fun. Just 48 degrees again for today. And if they close the roof it only improved that a little bit because it is still open door or open air but I think the match at least makes them in the stacking consideration here. So the Mariners are number three for me and again, value plays. So steel salary is not that bad. You've got four righties in this lineup who can match lefties. Ayohenia Suarez, $3,000. I mean, this is just among value plays omitting Julio Rodriguez. Ayohenia Suarez, Cal Rowley's at 29. Teos Garrenandez, 29. AJ Pollock, 27. You could build a stack with just those four guys and feel good about the upside within that stack. So I do want Rodriguez because I want the steels and I want his general power but those guys all totally fine. So I think you can get to steel while getting to, if you wanna get to Brian Reynolds you wanna get to Aranado Goldschmidt you can make that work, Rodriguez. You can make it work based on the salaries of other guys within these top stacks for today. Things to watch for the main slate. Do you wanna talk Max Scherzer briefly? He's viable a pitcher but dealing with this back and oblique injury which is not ideal, letting up a ton of fly balls in hard contact. He's facing the Dodgers on the road. So if you were to go full contrarian this would be a good spot because people probably won't be on Scherzer who is a good pitcher over the long run but he's not my top three for a reason. There are a lot of concerns here with Scherzer and I'm okay, kind of waiting things out. Hopefully he shows life today but doesn't go nuts. We can buy back in on him his next time out. Other side of Coorsfield besides the Pirates is the Rockies against Johan Oviedo and I kind of think he's good. I don't know if that's bold to say but Oviedo's throwing more curve balls so far this year and his velocity is very high. He has a 3.59 skill interactive ERA with a 24% strikeout rate. He's facing a Rocky scene that's pretty poor without the park factor boost. So you can always justify stacking a team at Coorsfield. So the Rockies are not totally out of play but I think Oviedo's pretty good and that's enough where I'm okay being lower on the Rockies than usual. I tried stacking against my Clevenger last week with the Orioles. They eventually scored six runs but I don't believe any of those came against Clevenger. So it didn't work. I'm open to it again though. The peripherals are still pretty poor. He gets the Phillies here today. Wind is in which kind of stinks. Not an elite offense so not a top priority but if you want to stack a team that not many people will be on I would say the Phillies could be a good route for that. They're implied total today 4.32 so probably not a ton of interest for most people but I think they're at least a consideration given Clevenger's peripherals are pretty rough so far this year. Let's wrap things up here with the Dinger calls for today the boring one, Teoscar Hernandez. Disgusting numbers against lefties gets the face of lefty. He lets up a lot of fly balls and a lot of hard contact so it's really hard to say no there. So Teoscar Hernandez be the boring one. The fun one tentatively Wilson-Contreras. Not sure if they'll DH him today. It's a day game after a night game. He is a catcher so it's possibly gets a day off but I will go with him for right now. If we don't get him maybe it's a Dylan Carlson call because being the alternative should be a pretty high in the order. Hasn't done a ton so far this year but in the long run does have some power against lefties so I guess I would go with Carlson if we can't get Contreras but hopefully Contreras DH's. We can get him in there for today and feel good about that. So as of right now, home run calls are Teoscar Hernandez and Wilson-Contreras but can pivot to, yeah let's pivot to Dylan Carlson if Contreras doesn't wind up playing. That is all the time that we have here for today on the solo shot. Once again, lock is at 110 P in Eastern so go get those line of sets, fill them out, get them ready to win some money for today and good luck to all of you in doing so. Do not forget to subscribe to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast and if you like what you hear, leave us a five star rating as well. If you have 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 Podcasts. 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 Thursday's slate. This has been the solo shot right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network.