 You would think on a 13 game slate, there would be a pitcher somewhere I could look at and feel good about and feel like, yeah, this guy has a great floor, a lot of safety here, no brainer lock commit. There are none. There are 26 pitchers for today. There are 26 pitchers who are risky in one way or another. So we're gonna break things down for today. Get you set for tonight's MLB DFS slate. And hopefully, when you have some money, which Reese is asking for, I believe on Periscope, which doesn't even exist anymore, either way. Reese wants free money. Reese, I like your profile pic with Zach Willis since let's try to win some money here for today. Welcome on into the Fanduel Fantasy Q&A. That's right here on the Fanduel YouTube Twitch, Facebook and Twitter pages. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for numberfire.com. Here to answer your questions for the next 25 minutes to get you set for today's slate of MLB DFS. As always, no matter where you are watching, you can get your questions in. We'll answer them live here on air for today to get you set for today's slate of MLB DFS. So put those questions in if you're watching YouTube, put them in the chat. We'll take them from Twitch, Twitter and Facebook as well. And we'll try to win Reese some money over on Twitter. Let's talk to DJ, starting things off over there. On Facebook, hello, happy Monday DJ. Austin Gomber, Matthew Boyd or Adam Wayne Wright. So I might be very stupid, DJ. I am, but like, I mean, in this very specific instance, I might be very stupid. I kind of like Austin Gomber the most of those options. And the reason that that's stupid, and I know it's stupid, is because Gomber's in a terrible situation for today. He's at Coors Field, not just Coors Field, but like Coors on steroids. It's like, it's not Coors Light. This is full Coors here because it's 100 degrees at Coors Field. Denver is tremendous for offense in general. It is especially tremendous when it's warm. And it's 100 degrees today, the warmest game on the slate by a wide margin. So it's the ideal weather for hitting. However, Austin Gomber is a really good pitcher over his past six stars to the change of usage being increased. He has a 2.86 skill interactive ERA, 28% strikeout rates, low walk rate, not a lot of hard contact against. On top of that, the pod rates aren't as good against lefties as there are versus righties, 87 WRC plus versus lefties, a 116 ISO, which is the lowest on the slate. That does get boosted up because of Coors for today, but I think Gomber's pretty good and the pod rates probably aren't. So DJ, if you don't want a negative score for your pitcher, you probably shouldn't use Gomber because that is very much within his range of outcomes for today. But I still think he's at least interesting. And I would put it that way. Wainwright's facing the Marlins, that's not bad, but not a super high strikeout kind of guy because he's just not a high strikeout guy in general. He is at home, Marlins are not great. So if you want a higher floor Wainwrights or guy there, he definitely is fine, but not a guy who fits what I want for DFS because the strikeout upside's not there. And the Matthew Boyd, the other one, Boyd, a low strikeout guy facing a low strikeout team, not gonna do it for me. So I'd go Gomber, Wainwright, Boyd as the options. But again, Gomber very, very risky. So just keep that in mind. Mike is asking, what do you think about the Red's pitcher for today? So he's talking about Vladimir Gutierrez. He knows the name but can't spell it, understandable. It's a lot of letters for sure. Gutierrez facing the Brewers, Gutierrez did have good strikeout numbers in AAA, but they have not followed him to the majors so far. And the reason that I'm okay overlooking the good numbers in AAA is because league-wide across the minors this year, strikeout rates have been very, very high. So when I see a guy with a high strikeout rate in AAA, it doesn't do a lot for me. In the majors, Gutierrez has an 18% strikeout rate with an 8.5% swinging strike rate. Those are both low numbers. So I can't get to him from a pitching perspective for today. I think that if I were to choose one way or another, I'd probably choose to stack against him because of the low strikeout rate. And because he does let up fly balls. The reason I'm not super itchy to stack the Brewers for today is that it does seem as if Gutierrez gets a lot of weak contact. In the three starts, he has a 27% hard hit rate allowed. League average is closer to 39%, I think. Let me pull up the number here. It is a league average is 39.4%. Here are pictures for tomorrow. I'm not done with my research yet. So you can see the incomplete sheet as of right now, but well better than average for Gutierrez. And it seems like he probably did that in the minors as well. So if I had to choose, I would prefer to go with stacking against Gutierrez, but also not super itchy to do that just because he does seem like he does a good job of suppressing hard contact. Let's talk to Alvin over on YouTube. Hope you had a good weekend. Alvin, do you like the Cubs or the Reds for today? Reds are facing Eric Lauer. Lauer is a pretty decent strikeout guy. I know that he hasn't gotten a ton of strikeouts this year because it's been in shorter little bursts. He has, you know, he tends to be on the shorter end of the stick from a length perspective, but yeah, I think he's a pretty good pitcher. So I'm not super into the Reds personally. The other one was the Cubs. They are facing, did I not have the Cubs on the, okay, they're facing David Peterson. Okay, so I was like freaking out for a second. Thought that I totally missed that game. We got a question from Aaron on Facebook about the Cubs too, asking about the weather. The weather for today, 71 degrees. Let's check out the wind speed at Wrigley. Actually, sorry, they're in New York. So winds out at 11 miles per hour. I wouldn't worry about rain for that game. They should be okay there. So not worried about the weather. I think David Peterson is pretty decent. I know his ERA this year is bad, but like I don't think he's that bad of a pitcher. 25% strikeout rate does keep the ball on the ground at pretty decent amounts. So to me, I'd probably be lower on the Cubs personally. I'm not gonna use Peterson as a pitcher because he has had a lot of issues with walks and not going super deep into games, but also not super itchy to stack against him. So probably keeping that one there and not stacking Cubs, despite the fact that Peterson has had some pretty rough results so far this year. Alvin asked, do you like the Royals or Cleveland more? So the Royals are facing off with Matthew Boyd. Cleveland is facing out Dean Kramer. That has now been confirmed. It will be Dean Kramer for today. I prefer Cleveland. Cleveland's playing pretty well, hitting the ball with a decent amount of authority, got some better power numbers recently. Kramer lets up a lot of fly balls, a lot of hard contact. So Cleveland, I think is a really good stack for today. So between those two, I like Cleveland. I like both, honestly. I think that the Royals work, but I think Cleveland is like a rock solid type of stack for today. Whereas Kansas City is more of another to consider. Whereas, so Cleveland's definitely the good one for me, but I think they're both fine. Prefer Cleveland over Kansas City for today. Let's talk to you Rob on Facebook. Which two would you use between Glass Now, Lin and Wood? If I can choose straight up, I would choose Glass Now and Lin. They are my two favorite pitchers for today. Now, obviously if you're using them together, if you're doing something that we don't advise and not playing Fandle and you're playing both, it means that you won't get the win from both pitchers. But I think just straight up, they're the two best pitchers for today. Glass Now facing the White Sox, really tough matchup, but he's the best pitcher on this slate by a pretty wide margin. Lin is at home, gets a high strike out opponent with the raise. He's been very good so far this year. Great results and he goes deep into games. So I think they are the number one and number two pitcher for today. Glass Now better for tournaments, Lin better for cash games. So I like both of them. Alex Wood is facing the Diamondbacks. He's been cutting back on his slider usage recently, which is kind of concerning for me, given his injury history. Sometimes you can see guys change their pitch allocation when they are maybe not at 100%. He's been scaling back the slider usage recently that's led to a decrease in his strikeout rate. And also as you can see here, Arizona has been really good for some reason. First lefties this year, 109 WRC plus. They haven't struck out that much, made a lot of hard contact. So I would say Wood is someone I'm a bit wary of as a result of the issues he's had recently and the pitch usage he's had recently. Let's talk to Michael over on YouTube. Is your stack order still? The Dodgers, St. Louis and then Cleveland. The one consideration I've had is potentially bumping Cleveland up. I think that they are in a really good spot. I'm gonna keep the Dodgers one. I like their spot against Spencer Howard. The consideration I've had is potentially flip flopping the Cardinals and Cleveland. The reason I'm considering that is because Cleveland, I'd project to get more fly balls for today because Braxton Garrett does get ground balls and that's one downside for St. Louis that Cleveland does not deal with. So right now, I think I am gonna go Cleveland above St. Louis, but it's very close. They're in the same tier for me. And I think the Dodgers are in that tier too. I think it's a tier of three at the top for today. With the Dodgers one, Cleveland two, St. Louis three, all three very good stacks and all three I'm very willing to use. But I think if I were to force to rank them, I would probably put Cleveland above St. Louis by a tiny, tiny bit for today. So slight change from what it was this morning. Mike, asking a season long question. Mike, oh my, I'm not good with season long. I try, but should I try to trade Bellinger for a number one pitcher? My outfield is JD Martinez, Jesse Winker, Bryce Harper, Otani and Garcia from Texas. I like Bellinger a lot. I might try to move someone else. I don't know who I'd, I like Garcia a lot. So I don't know if I try to move him necessarily, but it depends on what you can get. I think that I would try to trade someone though cause it does seem like you have a lot of strength there. Let's talk to Jeremiah on Facebook. Lance Lynn or Tyler Glass now. So actually if that two people say Glasgow like that, we'll talk Glasgow instead of Tyler Glass now. I would go with Glass now for tournaments, Lynn for cash games. The reason I make that distinction is that Glass now is a better ceiling. 36% strikeout rate for him this year, the 2.85 skill interactive ERA, he is the higher upside guy. The reason I skew towards Lynn for cash games is that he has fewer red flags. As you can see here, Glass now walks a couple too many, lots of too much hard contact, lots of too many fly balls and he's facing a team that can get you in trouble with a 108 WRC plus versus righties. So from a safety perspective, Glass now doesn't grade out all that well, but he has the upside. So if you are trying to maximize total possible points, I would say go Glass now. And that's my mindset personally, which is why for tournaments, I think Glass now is number one. If you're skewing towards safety, Lynn is the preferred option. I think that Lynn is still number two for tournaments. So they're one two, no matter which format you're looking at, but I flipped which way I'd rank them. Glass now for tournaments, Lynn for cash games, but they are one two, kind of regardless of what you're looking at things for today. Let's talk to DJ, Cubs, Cardinals, Dodgers or Minnesota stack. Dodgers number one for me, they are the number one stack overall on this slate. I think that they are tremendous versus Howard. He lets up a lot of walks and some tough, tough contact. So I think the Dodgers a lot of upside for today, not a traditional stack because Howard does get more strikeouts than I like, but I think the Dodgers are number one. So Dodgers definitely number one there, DJ. Other options, I'd probably go the Cardinals two, it did move them down, but they're still the third rank stack for today. So Dodgers one, Cardinals two among those options. Cubs, Stacey Peterson and the Twins are facing Marco Gonzalez. Gonzalez a struggle with hard contact this year, just came back off the injured list and look goodness first start, the second start I think was a bit more rough. So I think the Twins are worth a look and I put them above the Cubs. So to me that ranking DJ for you would be Dodgers one, Cardinals two, Twins three, Cubs four. Let's talk to Alvin on YouTube, thoughts on the Cardinals lineup, favorite batters. Okay, so their lineup is out I saw earlier, did not make a mental note of who was where. Tommy Edmund, talked about them this morning, I like them a lot versus lefties. I'm gonna like everyone one, three, four, five, six. Paul DeYong, I haven't seen enough from so far this year. Let's check out Dylan Carlson to see what we got from him versus a lefty. We're probably gonna wanna take a look at the broad stuff first. The broad stuff here, he has a 6.6% barrel rate this year, not a lot of stolen bases, not a lot of power so far, but let's see if that does change when there is a lefty out there. And look at Carlson for his career, 66 plate appearances, 145 ISO. So I would say if I'm ranking out the Cardinals batters, I would go Goldschmidt, Aronato, one and two. I would go Tommy Edmund number three, he has a lot of power versus lefties which he does not have versus righties. So a big bump up for him. Then I would go O'Neill number four and Molina number five. All those guys would rank above Carlson for me. So ranking them Aronato one, Goldie two, Edmund three, O'Neill four, Molina five, Carlson six for today and then maybe you considered DeYoung. But again, I haven't quite seen enough to be super excited about him yet. Let's pull up the game logs here because it's still pretty fresh. Maybe he's been heating up the past couple of days but just to check. I don't need a solo home run on Saturday. Okay, that's cool. DeYoung, okay. So three games since coming back, decent number of strikeouts. He had one barrel. Yeah, I'm okay putting DeYoung seventh on that list. Let's talk to DJ. Should I vote Patrick Wisdom in as a write-in on the All-Star ballot? Sure, Patrick Wisdom's been fun. No objections. I'm all for whoever you wanna vote for for the All-Star game, just do it. If they're gonna let you vote, just vote for your favorites. The vote Byron Buxton above all. Diffuse, any short stops in the 3,000 range that stand out or is this paying down for an Ahmed Rosario or Gavin Luxe the way to go? Let's pull up the 3,000 range here at shortstop for today. Let's scroll on down and okay. So we get here to Lindor facing Arrieta. I'd be okay with him. I think that you could go how he buys if he plays. But I think my preference, just because it fits well with my stacks will be towards going with Luxe. I think Luxe is potentially one of the best plays in the slate, regardless of position. So I'd say probably go down to Luxe or Ahmed Rosario just because it fits well with the stacks. Kyle, who do you prioritize from the Cleveland stacks? Besides Jose Ramirez, so we talked about Ahmed Rosario. I would say he's gonna be on that list. But the guy I want above all is Bobby Bradley. They called him up from AAA, big power numbers in AAA. He's still good in a small sample in the majors too. Probably in about fifth, I haven't seen if their lineup is out as of yet. So it wasn't when I last refreshed. Let's refresh you one more time. No, no lineup yet. So I would say prioritizing Jose Ramirez first, Bobby Bradley second. I would probably say Ahmed Rosario third, Eddie Rosario fourth, Josh Naylor fifth, and say so Hernandez after that. He's the second baseman Hernandez works. He's just not like a super high upside guy. So I tend to try to avoid him when I can. Let's see if that's been changing recently for, says Hernandez, no stolen bases, 124 ISO. That's I believe increasing. So it's getting better at least, but I'm okay ranking him lower on my list just because the upside is not super high. Michael, I know you recommend or mentioned Luxe amongst the Dodgers you liked. Who else do you like in the Dodgers? Yeah, Luxe is, I think, like I said before, one of the best plays in the slate. Let's go through the other Dodgers options here. Stinks that there's no Muncie, stinks there's no Seager, so that stinks, you know, to lose two legitimately very good hitters, kind of a bummer, but other options, Mookie is gonna be one of the top priorities. Luxe, if Will Smith plays, I would be ecstatic about using him. Just in Turner, I tend to be like, I'm fine with him, but like he's higher salary and he doesn't have the best ISO. So I rank him behind Luxe and Smith personally, just because I want the power. Matt Beatty might wind up being in there just because of the Muncie injury. So let's check out him, 133 ISO. Like that's not elite by any means, doesn't make me feel great either. So he's probably gonna bat in a decent spot in the order if he does wind up starting for today. And I'm fine with him, but he's not like someone I'm super itchy to get to and he would rank below those other guys. Albert Pujols, I can't really get there versus righties personally. I know he's been a lot better with the Dodgers, but I just, I can't really do it. AJ Pollock's been hitting lower in the order versus righties, but good power numbers, 224 ISO, 44% fly ball rates like that. Let's check out Cody Bellinger here to see what his numbers look like since he returned. I know he was struggling initially and obviously he might not be in there today either, but let's dig in just in case he does wind up playing and see how he should handle him in that event. Okay, so we press the shift button and we'll select all these games here for Bellinger, 28% strikeout rate since returning 070 ISO, the unselected, let's do that again and go there. I could just change the game logs, but whatever. Okay, so he's had two or one barrel, which happened to be in his most recent game play, so that's a good thing. Launch angle, 16.6%, a little lofty, 24% fly bar, but not a lot of ground balls, so I guess that's a good thing. So I would say I'm okay with Bellinger assuming he plays, if he does play, I would get there. So if I'm gonna rank them for Michael, ranking the Dodgers, considering salary, Lux's one, Betz's two, if we assume Will Smith plays, I guess I can't remember who's starting for today for the Dodgers, it's Gonsolin, I have no idea who's gonna catch Gonsolin. I would go Smith next, then Turner, and then I think we're down to the, I guess Bellinger would be after that, but to me, Betz and Lux are the two main priorities within the Dodgers for today. Let's see here, talk to Matteo, I'm late to the party, I see you talking about the Cardinals, which pitchers do you like for tonight? So to me, again, the top two guys are Glassnow and Lynn, depending on if you're playing a cash game or a tournament, Lynn for cash games, Glassnow for tournaments, Glassnow is very risky, but I love the upside, given the strikeouts, it's a tough matchup, the White Sox very good against righties and lefties, so it's a tough situation for sure, but I still think that from an upside perspective, it makes a lot of sense. Let's say you don't wanna go at Lynn or Glassnow, you're looking for other options. I mentioned Wainwright before, maybe you could get there, the strikeout stuff is not great, I guess is what I would say, six, four, six, seven, it's been getting better. He was mentioning this Sports Illustrated article today about pitchers using sticky substances, maybe there'll be a downtick from Wainwright as a result of that, so just be wary of that for sure. The other guy I mentioned this morning was Brad Keller facing a higher strikeout team with the Tigers. He himself has a pretty comparable strikeout rate to Wainwright, he is at 22%, Wainwright is at 22% as well, gets a lot of ground balls, higher strikeout team with a 27% strikeout rate, so I'd say that Wainwright and Keller are in a pretty similar mold. I prefer Keller personally, but I mean, I think the length is really good for Keller, 92, 95, 98, 86, 97, Wainwright is, oh, sorry, that was the wrong guy. So Wainwright does go pretty deep too, but I think you've got to pick your favorite between those two, if you're looking for a value play between Wainwright and Keller, but I would rather spend up for Glassnow or Lin. Related to that, Alvin is asking about single entry, Lanslin or Tyler Glassnow, in single entry, I don't care at the line of burns, because I guess my mindset is I'm probably gonna mess up with either my pitcher or one of my stacks. So I just wanna go for Max upside, I'm okay taking risk for single entry, and to me, the risk but high upside guy is Tyler Glassnow. My hope would be that for single entry, people are like, eh, I don't wanna burn my one lineup on a guy facing the White Sox who are really good. Glassnow also does get downgraded on the road versus at home, 32% strikeout rate on the road versus 41% at home. So again, there are legitimate concerns here and it is very risky to go Tyler Glassnow for tonight because the White Sox are good, but I still think he's worth it just because he is so good himself. I would also say Alvin, like, I don't know if you play multiple single entry lineups, which is something I'd recommend. You know, if you do one single entry lineup in one single entry contest, then find a different single entry contest, use a different lineup for that one. I like doing that personally, and if you're okay having a lineup that totally tanks, I might put Gomber out there, it might be very stupid, very stupid, but like, you know, why not? Let's have some fun. You might be the only person in the contest who uses him. So, you know, I think it's worth a shot, but I have a Glassnow if I'm choosing a single entry lineup. Rob, what do you think about Minaya versus the Angels? So Sean Minaya facing the Angels, pretty low strikeout team. He is also not the biggest strikeout guy himself and his salary is pretty high. He is $9,900, little lofty for me. So I probably won't be going there personally. I think that he has a decent floor because he's a good pitcher, but also the temperature is low for today, which is good, but the Angels, good offense, even against lefties. I prefer them versus righties, but like, you know, they're good against lefties, too obvious, as you can see on the sheets. So you add in a low strikeout matchup with a middling strikeout pitcher and a high salary. I'm okay being lower on Minaya personally, because the surrounding circumstances don't add up the best for him. Let's talk to DJ. Cub's just putting their lineup. Wisdom is in, do I play him? So again, for me, most of all they're on stacking and I'm not super inclined to stack the Cubs. So probably not personally, but like, he's been great. He's batting cleanup, probably around $3,000 if I had to guess. Unless he's just totally getting outrageous here. I thought he was 3,000, yeah, okay, $2,900. It's fine. If you, like DJ, if you're a huge Cub's fan, you wanna use him, go ahead. I'm not gonna talk you out of it, but like for me personally, because I'm lower on the Cubs, I probably will not get there. Other third baseman I'd be looking at, obviously if you're able to get to Aranado, I would say he makes a lot of sense at $3,400. I definitely like that. Justin Turner at 4,000, it's a little lofty for sure, but I'm okay with that, that's fine. Manny Machado is facing Gomber, so don't really wanna go there. Jose Ramirez, $3,700. I think that's a really good mark for him. So between Ramirez, Turner, Aranado, you've got some really good higher salaried third baseman who I'd rather get to versus going down to wisdom. If you're looking for a value play at third base, let's try to go through that first and decide if there is someone else we could turn to there. Andy is facing Lauer, don't really wanna do that. Bizio, who are the Red Sox starting? They're facing, they're starting Evaldi, you don't really wanna do that. So probably not going there. Yeah, I think it might be just a good night to spend up. Hunter Dozier, $2,400 at third base, facing Matthew Boyd. Dozier had a really rough start to the year, but let's see if he's been clawing his way out of that recently. Because if he has, I could be pretty interested in him at $2,400 is like a value play at third base. Strikeout still decently, let's look at the past, let's say three months, or three months. Actually, just since he came back, let's just do that. 31% strikeout rate, but 185 ISO is not too bad. The stack cast data, we have to keep selecting here and it's got three barrels, 8.6% barrel rate. Woo, he's kind of popping things up quite a bit, but a high hard hit rates. So I would say Dozier is probably the way I would go if you're trying to spend down at third base. Final question from Jerry. How do you feel about this stack? Cubs, Baltimore and Washington. It's mentioned before the Cubs lower on my list personally because Peterson does a good job of getting ground balls. So not super into them. Baltimore is facing whoever, Jean-Carlo Smahia, another guy who profiles like he's gonna get some ground balls and some weak contact. So not really into Baltimore either. And then Washington is facing JT Brubaker. Brubaker is actually pretty good. I couldn't get to him from a pitching perspective because he doesn't go deep enough into games, but don't really want to target him either. Jerry had a good call last week. I don't recall, Jerry, you asked about someone last week. I said no when they had a home run. So Jerry, good call. I don't recall what it was, but I remember when I was like, oh, Jerry was talking with them today on the Facebook stream. So you had a good call last week, Jerry. I don't remember what it was, but Kudos in retrospect. But by the way, I think that those, Votto, yes, thank you. So Joey Votto last week against the lefty. So good call while you Jerry there. But for me personally, I'm a little bit lower on those stacks because of whether it be batted balls by Jean-Carlo Smahia and Peterson or the strike RIP and good for JT Brubaker. But again, Jerry apparently on a heater. So do not doubt Jerry, my final piece of advice for today. That is all that we have here for the Faniel Fantasy Q&A on this Monday, but tomorrow a special one because Brandon Gadoula gonna break down the U.S. Open. That's at 3.30. We are gonna be talking about betting and a DFS. So if you're playing some PGA DFS or betting on the U.S. Open, tune in tomorrow at 3.30 p.m. Eastern to get Brandon Gadoula's thoughts on Torrey Pines all swing by at 4 p.m. for the MLB Q&A as always. Make sure you are subscribed to your platform of choice, whether it be Twitter, Twitch, YouTube or Facebook. Get the subscription in there and then come back tomorrow at 3.30 to talk to Brandon and myself. If you have additional questions for me, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. Big thank you to Calvin Theobald, our video producer for running the video side of things here today. Thank you, Cal, as always. And thank you to everyone for tuning in. Good luck for you tonight. We'll talk to you once again tomorrow. This has been the Faniel Fantasy Q&A.