 I've got some bad news for everyone here for today, for MLB DFS, because it is a rain day. And I don't just mean a rain day in the sense that there are games that could get rained out, which is true. There are games that could get rained out for today. But I mean, it's a rain day in the sense that every pitcher you kind of want to use might not pitch because of rain. Max Scherzer is facing the Phillies. He is in rain. Kevin Gosman, Jane Bieber, they're playing the same game, might be able to go. But that game also could get rained out. We've got Garrett Cole facing the Rangers. That game is in danger of rain too. There's a lot of key issues on the site. And also a couple of stacks I wouldn't mind if I knew I could use them. So if you want to play MLB DFS today, you kind of got to be around in the afternoon to make sure that those games will play. Hopefully, if they're going to postpone them, they do so early, which I think wouldn't be shocked if that happens. So maybe we can only postpone moments, make things a lot easier, but we'll see. We're going to juggle that for today. Try to get you players who may actually play and get you set for tonight's slate of MLB DFS. 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 NumberFire.com. Here to take a look at, for now, a 13-game main slate with lock set for 705 p.m. Eastern for tonight. I'm just going to list off the games that are in danger of being postponed. These aren't things off here. So it's just a lot easier to list them. So we got Royals at Orioles. That game could be one for stacking. Got Rangers at Yankees with, again, Garrett Cole pitching there. We've got the Mets of the Phillies. And then, to a lesser extent, Blue Jays at Guardians. That one may play, but I think the Royals, Orioles, Rangers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies games, probably all going to get rained out. So I'm going to try to lower my analysis around those games just because I don't think they'll play. And we'll talk a bit about the Jays and Guardians. I think that one is more likely to go. But, again, if you want to play tonight, I would try to carve out time after five o'clock Eastern to make sure you're around leading into lock at 705, to make sure you can be aware of which games will and will not play because it's going to be a messy slate. Again, assuming they don't postpone things at some time. They do. Easy. Love it. But we'll see how things go there. We'll talk about pitchers who should pitch later on in just one second. But first, a quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast, we have course from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts. You name it, you can find us there. Also, if you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review as well. Also, of course, you're on the FanDual podcast network. We have covering the spread, our sports betting podcast. We yesterday broke down the Kentucky Derby with Megan Devine of the Horse Racing Happy Hour podcast. Got our thoughts live from Churchill Bounce on this year's Derby. Speaking of which, the Derby is here and there's never been a better time to get in on the action because new players can bet risk-free up to $200 on TVG. That is right. You can get up to $200 back-and-side credit on your first single horse win wager if your horse does not win. Plus, TVG's Moneyback Special gives every customer up to $10 cash back on select races if your horse finishes second or third. You will also get access to free picks, analysis, and so much more. Win or get your money back for Derby, the Derby with TVG. So I'm today at tvg.com slash cover as in covering the spread, tvg.com slash cover to bet risk-free up to $200 again if you want. Megan's analysis just starts recovering the spread wherever you get your podcasts. Pitching preview for this Friday main slay Max Scherzer. Again, rain $10,800. Kevin Gosman is 10-4. Hugh Darvish, no rain is 10-2. Garrett Cole, rain $10,000. Shane Beaver, rain $9,800. Eric Lauer should be okay. He is $9,500. Logan Gilbert, 93. Chad Kool, up to $9,000. Love to see that. Sandiel Contra also $9,000. Then Mero Kelly, Luis Garcia, Nathan DiAvolvi, Alex Cobb, and Kyle Gibson are the others and $8,000 are higher. Now, I'm going to get my thoughts here on the guys in the games likely to be rained out first. Then I'll go through some pitchers who I think are in play after that. My top pitcher of the night, assuming he can play, will be Kevin Gosman. He's more likely to go than others. So we'll expand on him in just one second. Second would be Garrett Cole versus the Rangers followed by Max Scherzer. If Cole ensures there somehow do get cleared to go, I will be in on those two guys ranking them again behind Gosman. But I think those games probably not going to go. So let's talk about Gosman here as the top ranked pitcher for tonight. He's facing the Guardians. They have been unreal to open the year. They've been a much better offense than what I expected them to be. Very good against righties. But as you expand the sample, they do look like a team we can target with opposing pitchers. Not one we want to target, one we can target when it's a guy as good as Gosman. If we look at since the start of last year, so a larger sample on these guys based on their current active roster, they have a 104 WRC plus against righties. And that's very good. And they very may well exceed that and be better than that for the full season. We shouldn't fully abandon our preseason prior one month into the year. What they did in 2021 does still matter in terms of projecting what they'll do in 2022. Probably good. But so is Kevin Gosman. Last year, we saw Kevin Gosman really kind of break out for the Giants this year, transitioning a tiny bit, throwing more sliders, fewer foreseamers, and he's gone from being very good to great so far this year with those more sliders in his arsenal. He has a 1.78 skill interactive ERA this year with a 34% strikeout rate and 0.0 walks. He's pitching a lot like Corbin Burr instead to open last year. And given how good Gosman was then, I don't feel super inclined to expect some massive regression. He could just be a good pitcher. Now, Gosman is still struggling with hard contact. When you lean on a splitter and a slider, that does make sense. Those are two pitches that get strikeouts but also can't let us some hard contact. But power is not the strength of Cleveland as a team. Their strength is their plate discipline more so. And that could lead to fewer strikeouts for Gosman. But Gosman has faced a tough schedule already. He has faced the Red Sox twice, the Yankees, the Astros across his past four starts. And against those four, in those four games, he had eight strikeouts each time. So I think that Gosman can handle even a team that I do think will be pretty good this year as far as plate discipline goes. So I'm willing to be high on Gosman here again, assuming this game plays, which I think it has the highest odds to do so of the rain game. So I will talk about Gosman there and rank him number one. The number two pitcher is very, very, very, very risky. It fits my process, may not fit yours. That's okay. That guy is Eric Lauer. And it's less risky due to being skeptical of Lauer and more about the team he's facing. That's the brace. They just got Ron Bakunja back. They already had a bunch of guys who can mash lefties. They got a 118 WRC plus against lefties and a 227 ISO, tons of fly balls. And Lauer does still struggle with letting up too much hard contact. So if he lets up seven earned runs tonight, it would not surprise me, not even a single bit. So if you're playing a cash game, do not use Eric Lauer. Don't do it. But for tournaments, Lauer has upside. And that's what I'm seeking a pitcher is I want the ability to have a ceiling game. Lauer has that. And part of it is because this pitch count is high, I've projected for 97 for tonight. And the dominance for Lauer actually does trickle back to last year a bit because he started throwing fewer forcing fastballs and more off speed stuff across his final four starts last year. If we lump those together with nine starts this year, he's got a 32% strikeout rate and nine starts is a good sample for a pitcher in terms of sticky stats like strikeout rates. And the Braves do strikeout a little bit, 23% strikeout rate against lefties, which means that Lauer has a path to being the number one pitcher on this slate. He also has a path to negative points. And, you know, for me and my play style, that's fine. I don't mind really bad scores if they come with the possibility for great ones. Lauer has that. So he's my style play. He may not be yours. And that's okay. I just have played, I'm not risk averse at all. So I'm fine having in my player pool here knowing that he has the ability to go bananas. And I want that. Again, if you are risk averse, Eric Lauer is not your guy. I'm not risk averse. He's my guy. But I understand if you're like, no, no chance, man, I'll go elsewhere. Totally get it. No objections. But for me, Lauer will be number two. For the value play for today, we're going to go with another tough matchup. And another guy who can let up a bit too much hard contact at times. That guy is Nathan Eavaldi against the White Sox. And that game should be good to go. Rain is arriving later in Boston than elsewhere. And Eavaldi has stretched out similar to Lauer. He's gone 95 plus pitches in three of his past four starts. Plus this is just the second time we've seen Eavaldi at home so far this year. He's faced the Jays twice in the Yankees once. He's still been good despite that. Eavaldi, similar to Gossman throwing a lot of splitters and sliders this year. He's not been as good as Gossman in doing so, but he's still been very solid. Again, sliders and splitters are high-strike out pitches. And Eavaldi has done that. He has a 2.98 skill-interactive ERA, strikeout rate 27%, minimal walks, 34% fly ball rate. All those numbers are very, very good. They're facing the White Sox here. They're also very good. They have just a 20% strikeout rate against righties. I'm not a huge fan of using pitchers against this team because I respect them a lot and don't want to do that. I don't want to find myself in that bad situation. But on a slate where so many of the good high-outside pitchers are being wiped out by rain, I can at least accept it. It's also easier to stomach that risk when Eavaldi's salary is just $8,500. I've got a projected for 6.30 strikeouts. That's not a bad number for a guy who's in the value range. So again, he does come with risk, but I'm going to use him especially based on my own personal process. And I think it's worthwhile for you to do the same. So again, for my process, I've got Gosmin 1, Lauer 2, Eavaldi 3. We'll talk about some guys, or one guy at least on the higher floor, in things to watch who may fit your process better. If you are a risk-averse person, we'll get to that then. But first, let's talk about some stacks for today. Luckily, the stacks are much easier to find in the non-rain games. First one will be the Angels. Shohei Otani started yesterday, which means we should get to include him in stacks for today. And it puts me on the Angels against Yohann Adon. Adon is looking more like a stack target as a sample on him gets larger. To his first five starts, Adon has a 7.33 ERA. His expected ERA is 7.74. The peripherals on Adon are concerning as well. The strikeout rate is down to 19%. Swinging strike rate is 6.9%, which means the strikeout rate where it's currently at, which is already kind of low, will likely continue to trend down as the sample expands. The walk rate for Adon also a bit higher than he would like. And he's not suppressing hard contact. Got a 41% hard hit rate allowed with a 40% fly ball rate. That makes it pretty easy to understand why the results this year for Adon have been rough. It's also not like Adon with some dominant arm in the minors either. He had a 4.63 X-FIP in 17 stars last year at High A. And the Nats are putting him in a pretty tough spot asking him to jump from High A to the majors in less than one calendar year. And it's unfair. I feel bad. That's a tough spot to put this guy in. And it's also unfair to ask him to face my trout, Shohei Otani, guys like that. Got a 110 WRC plus against Reidy since the start of last year. And a 181 ISO, which in the current context of baseball is not too bad. There is, I think to me, plenty of value in targeting this team in this matchup. Although salaries are high, I think they're worth it. You can make the case for the Angels being the top stack tonight. And I will put them there and rank them as my number one stack on this slate. Now I had written, but I do these notes ahead of time. So I was like, okay, looking at the number just today, I was like, okay, Jared Walsh, you know, this guy's peripherals are pretty good. I think that eventually he'll snap out of things. And then he goes yard for the second straight 90s, put up like 80 Fandal points of past two games. I was like, oh cool, Jared Walsh would pop out of it. And he already has. So I was going to talk about Jared Walsh and how he was due for some positive regression. That's already happened. It's $2,900 Jared Walsh, under salary given the slow starts. I think that I wouldn't be wary of him because of the past two days. I think that we should buy into that and just keep on using Jared Walsh. So $2,900 good salary for him makes it easier to get trout and otani. And I definitely think that it is a worthwhile thing to do for today with the Angels given the spot they find themselves in on this slate. Now yesterday, I went out of my way to say I was not in on the Astros. They were fine. They scored three runs, you know, whatever. They had a couple of fingers in that game. I don't feel bad that I did not use them. Yesterday was a pretty good day. Today is a very different story where I think we should stack them here. And honestly, you can make the case of them to being above the Angels, not too sure. I'll probably go Angels one, Astros two. Astros is facing Bo Briskey. Briskey making his third career start for the Tigers. The early date on him is in line with what he did in the minors. And that is a guy who is not going to be a big strikeout guy who lets up a ton of fly balls, which is an awesome combo for stacking. In the two starts, Briskey has a 4.3% swing and strike rate, which makes sense because back in double A last year, he made eight starts. His strikeout rate was 23%, with a 12.1% swing and strike rate. So okay numbers in the majors, but in double A a bit tougher to swallow. He also let up a 45% fly ball right across his eight starts. It's 60%. It is two starts in the majors. Now it will not stay that high. That is an outlierish number, but it shows that he should remain a fly ball pitcher going forward. If we can get minimal strikeouts with a lot of fly balls, that is huge for stacking. It hasn't really bit him just yet. We've seen him let up three home runs across two starts, but just four total earned runs in those starts. And one of those was against the Dodgers, which is a pretty tough assignment. But we've got Briskey in a warm part for tonight. We're right now not a threat, thankfully they have a roof there. And the Astros had the second best WRC plus on the Slate for their current active roster since the start of last year. So I am in on stacking the Astros here and we'll be very in on them much more so than I was yesterday. Usually in the spot, I'll try to talk of someone who's undervalued and not going to do that for today. I just want to gush about your Don Alvarez for a second. In his 50 plate appearance this year against righties, his ISO is 500. That is insane. Tons of hard contact, just a 14% strikeout right. You don't get a 14% strikeout right with a 500 ISO, no matter how small the sample is. We are getting now with Alvarez so far this year. So I just wanted to talk about the fact this dude's disgusting. But you could find a way to jam in trout Otani Alvarez for today pretty into it. Jared Walsh makes that easier. Goni Evaldi makes it easier. I think it's a pretty fun approach for today. That's a stupid roster. I'm excited to try to jam that in for today. I think you can just because salary is still not as tight as they will be eventually, but we'll give it a shot. You're Don Alvarez absurd and I just want to chance to gush about him for today. As far as the third stack goes, we have Vince Velasquez facing the Red Sox and Velasquez is getting some strikeouts this year. That's always kind of been the Vince Velasquez thing where he gets some strikeouts. There was a lot of bad when he didn't get strikeouts though. And the bad with Velasquez is still there, which I think means we should stack the Red Sox against him for today. Velasquez, coming off a really nice game where he had a five and two third shutout innings against a very good ages lineup. No walks, six strikeouts. And that was his second game in a row where Velasquez didn't walk multiple guys. That part for him would be great because as a real world pitcher, Velasquez can come back on the walks. It make him much better there. But it also make him potentially a slightly better target for DFS because fewer walks means more balls and play. More balls and play means more shots at home runs and high upside plays. That's especially true with Velasquez, who in four starts is still letting up a 48% fly ball rate with a 47% hard hit rate. It's very similar numbers to what he had last year with a ZRA was 6.30. And they're actually a bit worse than what he had last year. His strikeout rate is a hair lower too. In other words, I don't think Velasquez is all that different from what he was in 2021. And we stacked against him with success all the time last year. I think we'll still want to do the same this year, which starts with the Red Sox for tonight. Now, the one interesting thing here is that it's righties who have clobbered Velasquez so far this year. Lefties do not yet have an extra base hit. It's just 43 plate appearances. So I'm not going to overreact to that. And I'm not saying D prioritize the lefties. You should use the lefties on the Red Sox, the ones we do like. But what I would say is it makes me higher on the righties. I'm not lower in the lefties, but I'll be higher on the righties here because righties have been clobbering him in a small sample this year, which makes me feel better about them here. So I would say approach this in a platoon ambiguous mindset where it's like, I don't really care. I just want the guys to do the best against righties, whether they're righty, whether they're lefty, or approach things that way in terms of going to Red Sox, you're against Velasquez as a number three stack of the night. Let's move now to things to watch. One of the picture with a better floor for tonight in good weather is probably you, Darvish. He is at home against the Marlins. I've got him projected for 97 pitches. The Marlins offense, not elite. The reason that Darvish is below the others from me is that he hasn't had the same strikeout juice of late. He's been throwing more forcing basketballs over his past 11 starts. Strikeout right there is 25%. So the upside for him, I don't think is quite as high as what we have for Lauer as we have for E Evolvi. And that's why I'm okay putting Darvish lower on the list. But if you want floor, Darvish does make a lot of sense. So I put him below those guys personally, but if you're processed to go with the higher floor option, Darvish is that guy. So I think that he's definitely in play, but not my cup of tea relative to those other high upside guys in the slave for stacks in the weather games. I mentioned pictures I like in the weather games. If the Orioles play, they would be near the top of the list for facing Carlos Hernandez. And he has more walks and strikeouts across four stars this year that bad at ball data is fine, but not good enough to overcome the issues he's had with play discipline. The Orioles are not in a lead offense, but they put the ball in the air a ton. They can hit for some power. They played really well last night against the twins. So I'd be in on them if that game winds up playing Orioles back in the menu, if we can go there for today. Finally, I'm not, it's not official yet who the twins will face with Cole Irving going to the IL, but I bet they face Zach Logue and Logue is also lefty like Irving. He struggled in triple A this year in four starts. He was not a big shutdown guy in the minors last year either. So being a lefty gives the potential advantage to Byron Buxton, Gary Sanchez, Gio Urchella, guys like that and Jorge Polanco, switchhater. It's lefty as well too. I'm not as high on the twins as far as a full stack because I'm assuming that Carlos Correa will not be able to play for today. It sounds like he might have a fractured finger, but twins work for one-offs. If you can, if you could do Alvarez, Trout, Otani and Buxton as a one-off in there, kind of fun. I don't think you'll be able to work, but like, you know, give it a shot. I think as a one-off, he makes a lot of sense. He did come through on our Dinger pick yesterday. So twins are in play for one-offs, not as high on them for stacking because they just don't have a lot of righties I want to use with Correa out, but I do think they are in play for one-offs. Let's finish up with some Dinger calls again trying to follow up on the on Buxton last night. The boring one I will go with as boring as you can be right now. You're Don Alvarez just smoking the ball. It can't get more boring than that, but also he's in a good spot for today. Let's just go with it. Let's embrace the boring side of this and go with your Don Alvarez. But the fun one, I will go Gary Sanchez, mentioned him as a potential one-off there for the twins. And if he can't go, maybe Ryan Jeffers could be an option there instead. But I think that for me, getting to the twins in a spot where I think they'll be in a good spot for hitting, Sanchez has had a lower strike every overall this year, but I think it's someone I still prefer against Lepi. So the home run calls for today, you're Don Alvarez, Gary Sanchez, and we'll see how those go. That is all that we have here for today on The Solo Shop. We are back once again next week with a full slate of podcasts. So make sure you are subscribed to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. And again, if you like what you hear, leave us a rating and review. You got more questions for me. I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. You can also follow the FanDual Podcast Network at FanDual Podcasts. Fingers crossed for good news in the rain for today. It would kind of stink to lose Scherzer, Cole, guys like that. But we'll see how it goes. Also, I'd love to stack the Oros again. So we'll see how it goes. But keep your eye on the rain. Try to carve out time after 5 p.m. to see how those games progress. If they're going to postpone it, hopefully do so early. But either way, good luck tonight. Have a fantastic weekend. We'll talk to you once again next week. This has been The Solo Shot right here on the FanDual Podcast Network.