 There are a lot of good pitchers on a Friday night slate and MLB DFS the point where I had some issues trying to sort out How I wanted to rank out the top four guys because I think that although there are a lot of good pitchers There's no one who really stands out above the crowd I think there is a cluster of four at the top all of whom could be the sp1 on the slate So your job is to Decide which one you want to prioritize go through the data and decide which one you feel best about to think Defend any of these guys being your top pitcher the night I'll break down my rankings But hopefully we can give you a good idea of where to go based on your process in just a bit welcome on into the solo shop that's right here on the fan dual podcast network and Number fire comm my name is Jim Sonnis I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire comm here to break down Friday's 11 game main slate with Lockstep for 705 p.m. Eastern for tonight quick note I am recording this on a Thursday night as opposed to Friday morning because my wife and I are moving for tomorrow So could not record in the morning. I apologize for that But make sure you check in on starters. I go to MLB calm That is the most reliable source that kind of stuff make sure the starters remain the same No starters announced yet for the Marlins and the Royals didn't think that would impact things too much So okay glossing over that for right now, but if there are any Injuries to hitters injured listants covered list stuff make sure you check back on that later on I also will not have weather for today. I've got temperatures, but no rain So I go to the number fire gains and Linus page check out the weather there that'll let you know If there are any hairy spots where you made it check back later on Before we dive into the pitching preview for this wait quick reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy Podcasts need to get this podcast as it goes live each and every weekday Also, of course, Austin Swain has your UFC DFS needs covered breaking down that every Friday I have NASCAR each Friday except for this one because there is no NASCAR race this week And then of course we also have PGA DFS podcasts every Tuesday via myself and Brandon Gadoula So four different sports all covered in the same space go to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed and hit subscribe Wherever you get your podcasts Hey sports fans If you have not yet signed up for fandal fantasy now is the best time to do so for users who have yet to make a deposit On fandal fantasy you can deposit today to receive two free entries All you have to do is deposit a minimum of ten dollars into your fandal dfs account And you will be instantly rewarded with two free vouchers This is a limited time offer So be sure to deposit now and play for free head over to fandal.com or download the fandal fantasy app today Eligibility restricted supply go to fandal.com or download the fandal app for more details Pitching preview for this friday main slate We've got carlos rodan as the highest salary pitcher on fandal checking in at ten thousand seven hundred dollars Clayton kershaw is ten five frankie montas is ten two Fromber valdez is ten one with tariff scuba at ninety nine carlos carasco is ninety seven michael arenson 95 lucas geolito is ninety three hundred dollars robbie ray 92 pablo lopez assuming he is the starter for the marlins is 91 with john gray mckenzie gore zack police act adam wainwright and jordan montgomery as the others at eight thousand dollars or higher and There are a lot of great pitchers groups at the top here for today and for me. I think that There is a tier of four guys. I like frankie montas terricks google carlos rodan and john gray I think all four of those guys are tremendous options and i'd be okay using any of them My top pitcher above those other three will be frankie montas for tonight and Montas doesn't have the best matchup But it is a pretty good one He's facing the royals at home and they're not a good offense and 91 wrc plus against righties with a 130 iso The one issue is that they're not a high strikeout team Outside that it's a really good situation for montas pitcher friendly park stuff like that and montas himself is pitching well I wasn't a bit worried When I first started digging into his data and saw that he's across his past six starts That can that's because sliders are a good a good strikeout friendly pitch Montas has still been fine in this stretch. He has a 29 strikeout rate in those six starts his skill interactive ERA 2.69 and it does come with some game by game volatility but that was You know his most recent start was a two strikeout start on the road against a low strikeout team That's a one bad start in a stretch He recently faced the red sox and the asses at home both those teams are also low strikeout teams But he had 12 strikeouts and 13 innings with three earned runs allowed across those two matchups I think we'll see montas pitch deep in the game. I think you'll pitch pretty well there's a lot of safety here and If he gets some extra strikeouts the upside is there too I've got montas projected for a 7.2 strikeouts for tonight Which is more than enough for me to make him the top guy of the night So on a loaded slave frankie montas is still my number one pitcher of the day The second spot behind montas is pretty tough because they could justify Putting any of terrick scoogle carlos rodan or john gray here. All of them are worthy I'm going to give the sled edge to scoobal and scoobal is the only one of that group at home He's facing the rangers and they're not a bad team against lefties. They have a 118 wrc plus and a good amount of power But it's not necessarily something I expect to stick around and they're not outliersly low When strikeouts on him scoobal is getting a lot of strikeouts himself right now He's been lowering his sinker used to his pastic starts and throwing more sliders That is a tremendous combo for dfs and not surprisingly it is leading to a lot of strikeouts scoobal has a 30 strikeout rate in that time He has a 2.74 skill interactive er a which ranks second on the site behind just montas The one issue that scoobal has had is hard contact So if you think that the rangers keep up the quality they showed against lefties You could downgrade scoobal here for sure and I totally see that argument But it hasn't hurt him yet We did see scoobal in a four runs last time out But that was against the jays if you're a lefty against the jays you just kind of chuck and pray at that point It's the worst match if you could have as a lefty But even if you include that jays game scoobal has a 2.50 er a in that time He has uh three times with five plus shutout innings He said double digit strikeouts in that time and he had nine in another So I think that scoobal doesn't have to hit sit second right ahead of rodan and gray for today So I've got frankie montas one care scoobal two The fun thing about tonight's salaries is that it means I don't have to decide where I want to rank rodan and gray because rodan is 10 7 Gray is $8600 and if they're that close In evaluation for me, I can just take the discount and go With john gray as my top pitcher my top value for the night my number three overall pitcher Gray's facing the tigers, which is obviously an elite matchup They have a 69 a wrc plus against righties with an 0.95 iso and a 24 strikeout rate You could not concoct a better matchup in a lab for a pitcher and gray Is good enough to take advantage of a plus spot his velocity has been stabilized over his past seven starts and In the seven starts a lot of strikeouts 27 strikeout rate in that time He said double digit strikeouts twice both of which have come within his past three starts We also saw gray g'day in another so eight plus strikeouts three separate times double digits twice That's a really good threshold a good upside for a pitcher Some of the other stuff in the profile for gray is less than ideal like he's walking a lot of guys and That could be a downside, but i'm not sure it matters in this specific matchup with Detroit He did have a double digit strikeout games against the white socks in the rays Neither is a good offense against righties, but they're not as bad as Detroit So I wouldn't push back on you honestly if you decided that you want to put john gray Number one tonight above moan toss above scuba above rodan. I think it's that good of a spot This is a value play. I will absolutely be using here to me Don't let's use a value. I think that especially on a slate where I have three studs I can be okay using I might not get there, but for tonight with gray specifically being that value play I will use them. I think that there is enough upside there to chase it and feel good about him So moan toss one scuba two in john gray tonight for me on fandall Let's move now to stacks in the pod rays earlier this week We're Wrigley when we had the wind games very hot temperatures winds blowing out now They get 89 degree temperatures at course field or 93 degrees at course field So once again the San Diego Padres a in elite stack for tonight They're facing Kyle freeland and freeland is searching tinkering right now he's trying to find the right pitch mix over the past five starts freeland has cut back on his change ups and That has not been the answer yet He has a 4.86 skill interactive era in that time. He has a 44 hard hit rates with a 47 fly ball rate We have still seen freeland work deep in games And he had a great start against atlanta a really tough team against lefties at home recently Got a bit lucky in that game though because he led up a 46 percent hard hit rate He probably should have gotten knocked around a bit more than he actually did Freeland is not someone we need to avoid at course field And it's especially true when the temperature is as warm as it is It's actually the warmest game on the slate based on the forecast on thursday night The Padres pretty good against lefties with a 117 wrc plus So I feel good about being high on them here So the Padres for sure a very good stack and obviously we'll be in on manny machado and league void I think it's worth touching on Jorge Alfaro and Hasan kim briefly Alfaro if he plays is likely to bat sixth I would bet that kim is probably seventh kim a 45 percent fly ball rate against lefties this year He's actually stolen three bases off lefties, too Which is pretty high number against the lefty 10 percent strikeout rates So checks all the key boxes alfaro has hit for a ton of power against lefty since the start of last year He does still strike out a lot, but between alfaro and kim Really good quality options Beyond the obvious guys within this stack and again I think we've seen this quite a bit so far this year, but there aren't The salaries are not super restrictive even at course void is void 3600 dollars Machado is 43 and then you get down to kim at 29 and alfaro Still scrolling still scrolling $2,500 for tonight So not too shabby if you want to stack the Padres while still paying at the pitcher Number two a second against Madison bum garner all year long and it's had mixed results pretty tough to start But things have been more kind to us recently so i'm going to give it a go against knight and Stack the twins against bum garner The twins don't have the best numbers against lefties right now But part of that is that the key guys like Byron buxson carlos graven this time I don't think they'll lag behind for the full season against lefties The one thing they have done well against lefties is lofty ball and that meshes well with bum garner. He's been Going with more change ups across his pass behind starts Which does in theory help control righties But it hasn't aided his peripherals at all because bum garner still letting up a 47 heart rate But a 44 fly ball rate and when you pair that with a 16 strikeout, right? It means he's letting up a lot of dangerous balls and play And that has hurt bum garner at times because he let him three home runs the Dodgers He'll have two to the cubs and he's had some issues beyond just the homers as well The roof will be closed tonight in arizona So that is one downside But I still want the twins and I think that they're in a good enough spot To stack them here against bum garter and I want to be high and hosting miranda within those stacks because about two weeks ago iran da got demoted to triple a and Got called up right back up almost right away when rice louis got hurts and since coming back Miranda's been kind of a different batter 245 iso 53 heart hit rate overall He's striking out more than you'd like, but that's really good power for dfs So you look at miranda his minorly profile pretty good too And if you can get that for 2200 dollars helps you get to buxton korea I like that a lot. So hosie miranda hosie miranda definitely a play I want to build around for today Sticking in that same game I'd rather not stack arizona against the lefty because a lot of their best batters are lefty So it's not optimal to stack them against one But it is kind of a tough slate for stacking despite being an 11 game slate And I do think we should give them a swing for tonight They're facing devin smeltzer. Smeltzer has a 2.38 era this year. So it's really good. I'm just not sure How long he can keep that up? He's letting up a ton of balls in play with just a 13 strikeout rate And when you combine those walk rates He's letting up a ball in play about 80 percent of the plate appearances against him of those 80 percent 41 percent are hard hits 44 percent are in the air That should lead to issues as the sample expands For the most part it hasn't yet And part of that could be matchups because he faced atroy twice in there He had candy city or faced atroy once had candy city twice He had the guardians once and arizona is also a bad team against lefties So we're not shifting things a ton here But it says to me that good individual batters Might be able to hit him I think arizona has some of those at least so smeltzer let it three home runs last time out Let up two to start before that so he's not infallible. I think arizona here Makes a lot of sense even if I'd rather Stack them against a righty So not optimal, but I do think it works on this specific slate christian walker the obvious guy here I would go a catel marté if he were to play though. He has a sore hamstring. I'm not sure if he'll go Carson kelly just came out the il. That's one more Uh, right handed bad metal on who can bop lefties Jordan looplo will likely hit lead off. He typically When he does start plays until the eighth or ninth inning when he starts So it's not as bad as like a giant situation where a guy may start and play Three or four innings and then dip. I don't think it's that so I actually feel better about looplo Then I do about a lot of guys who could leave for a pinch it and these lefty banging specialists But those three looplo Kelly and then walker all three really good options if you get marté in there cool But you know, even if he's not in there still got three pretty solid guys Who could turn to make it a four three one kind of situation. I think that works for sure Let's go to things to watch here. I don't mind rodan at all. He's facing the pirates. Love that match up Just kind of got squeezed because it's a good slave for pitching The reason that I bummed rodan down was because He hasn't seemed to have as much juice recently His lots of dip pop back up his last time out. So I'm willing to use him but A little bit of funkiness in his recent profile. So that's why I'm lower on him having fourth But it's still a solid fourth and the fourth I'm willing to use But would rank him below gray and the two studs in monthos and scuba I think you could consider the giants in that same game for stacking They're facing the righty zack thompson. There's also a lefty zack thompson. One's a k one's an h It's very confusing but the righty zack thompson for the pirates and that's a guy we can totally target The reason I didn't get there in the top three is that thompson Has been really good against lefties this year and it's a pretty lefty heavy lineup. So I'll still like it. Uh, but that did turn me off a bit. So the giants the number four stacked me tonight I'm not sure what to think about the yankees here. They're facing ross stripling who has good underlying numbers But even when you look at him just as a starter He's not a big strikeout guy, which gives you some leeway to stack the yankees here He could struggle as the sample expands. I just I don't think I'm fully in here. I think that he's I'm a believer enough in his talent to not Be super high on the yankees So they'll be fifth at best for me and I wouldn't be shocked if they wanted to being a bit lower I just ignore them all together because I feel better about the giants in addition to the three stacks we discussed in the primary section Let's finish up here with some dinger calls for friday night. The boring one is mani machado. He's at course field It's awesome weather for hitting. He's got a good match up against the lefty Sweet sign me up for mani machado as our boring homerun call for tonight The fun one I will go with hosie miranda again facing off against bungarner the lefty Let's blot a fly balls a lot of hard contact the ronda a lot of Impactful contacts and see he came back up too. So Thank you checks all the boxes as a fun homerun call So the homerun calls for friday mani machado at hosie miranda That is all that we have here for today on these solo shot again Make sure you check back on stuff later on since this was recorded ahead of time to make sure pictures and pictures Stay the same make sure weather doesn't change and make sure Then the hitters I discussed wound up going in the i l after discussing them for tonight Again, don't forget to subscribe to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed to get uh ufc podcast from austin swain It's ufc austin for this week So who better to get your ufc advice from than austin swain himself here on the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed NASCAR back next week as is the pga 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 big Thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Good luck to you with your mlb dfs lineups for tonight We'll talk to you once again on tuesday. No, uh, no podcast monday due to juneteenth So off monday back again tuesday for more mlb dfs This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network