Hey everyone, you might recognize me and Eric here from the Nintendo Prime podcast I just want to let you know before you get into this segment that this merchandise you see on our shirts and on our cups and on Anything else you overshoot Nintendo Prime brandy on it. You can get in the description below You can also get the full audio podcast not segmented in the description below And if you would like early access to our podcast, please go over to patreon.com Slash Nintendo Prime for five dollars a month you gain early access to the full audio podcast Mr. Eric, what do you get for twenty dollars a month you get to join us on a podcast that is right So if you would like to ever be on the Nintendo Prime podcast get your voice in front of thousands of other Nintendo fans out there You know what to do hit up that twenty dollars here on patreon. Anyways folks on to the episode Mario plus rabbits kingdom battle so at the time of recording this I have not made my review yet Maybe by the time you listen to this you will have my review. I am not 100% sure I think the segment's going up about a week from the day we're recording it So chances are the review should be up by then if it's not and I'm doing a very good job with my first-ever video review Nice, but Instead of focusing on my thoughts on it because I feel like I'm gonna express a lot of it in my review You guys have both played a bunch of it and I'm actually well you played some yeah I'm actually interested in what you guys have to think about Mario plus rabbits kingdom battle and Let's try to keep this a spoiler free as we can I am going to note for anyone that go that watches my review later There's gonna be spoilers. I'm not even gonna bother to avoid it. So the game the game's been Well, it needs to be on a review. I can understand as long as it's this one. Yeah Right Well, and that's the thing though it to in order to my spoiling everything to review something you almost have to have spoilers in it It's it's like I just want to review this for the free. I'm like, so you just want me to say make a quick 10 second video. It's good Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah, right Theoretically we've already had Technically spoilers to begin with because even before the game is out because any gameplay shown is technically a spoiler before it comes out My review is gonna have spoilers, but we're gonna try to keep this spoiler free So maybe we'll call this movie the spoiler free review But yeah, what are you guys's thoughts on the game so far? Like I'll go for some how far in the game are you there? I am through the first world So you're starting world to yeah, I'm starting the desert world. Yeah, okay, and how are you Michael? I'm halfway through world three Cool, I'm just slightly ahead of you in world three time and recording. I'm trying so hard to get to that boss I heard he's so awesome I'm feeling he's gonna be my favorite boss in the game Again, I won't this here's the thing. I already know it's gonna be cool Why because I read I don't even know what the boss is yet. I read I read some reviews. Oh Again, that's why I know a lot of other people are excited about the boss of world three anyways All right, so that's context. I am a little bit ahead of Michael. I'm about three quarters of the way through world three He's about halfway and Eric's just entering world two And if you don't know what any of that means that's fine all the better than this isn't any sort of spoilers for you Because you don't even know those worlds Then it technically is a spoiler When it is a spoiler, I don't know if there's worlds everything's a spoiler I said as spoiler free as we can be right so Michael Let's start with you since actually we'll start with you because you're not as far in the game What are your thoughts so far? Um, this game is exactly what I thought it was gonna be which is amazing It did the second I heard there was a crossover. I first off. I absolutely love Rebbins I've been on record saying that from when I first heard this console Hey These guys are awesome.  I'm a child. I am a child I know the movies you always want to go to unless it's a war hero movie is Like let's go to the Disney movie. Let's go to the do this and that let's go to cars. Hey, no No, no, but good movies. Yes, um Well, hey, that's good movie. So, uh, no The second I saw gameplay footage of it and it reminded me so much of XCOM and then you get it and it feels Exactly like XCOM. Have you ever played an XCOM game? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah XCOM and anyone? Oh, yeah Yeah, I absolutely love that game. No, I wasn't saying that like oh you have played XCOM Yeah, yeah, yeah, I really want to get XCOM too, but I just I can't time You already got it. Yeah, right, right But I absolutely love it. It it's it's got the goofiness of the the rabbits the great feel of Mario and That gameplay is almost identical to XCOM. So Yeah, right Michael what do you think about the game so far? Well, I've never played a rabbits game before so I was going into that fresh. I love the characters Especially the rabbits characters peach. I love peach is Her everything she does is just it's great. I've probably taken maybe three dozen screenshots of her taking screenshots The plot I find very interesting It's it was kind of hard to figure out at first like the full direction of it But then you know once some other characters showed up without going into spoilers It became easier and now it's all flowing really well I feel that there's like like this adult versus child kind of mentality where it's like the Mario universe is like this adult But yet the rabbits is like this child and I think it's a really good balance between the two You know, what's weird when you when you mentioned that I was just talking to Eric briefly about this earlier Because I just realized At the at the point I am in the game that people the thing you drive around a little I swear that It swears in the game. Oh, yeah, but like obviously it's bleeped out child friendly But it's clearly like if you insert the F word where it's all bleeped out. That's what it's saying Yeah, like every time and I'm just like Huh, what I mean, I get that like a kid who doesn't know the language isn't gonna get it Well, you know, it's a very like, you know, Disney kind of move where like you have these adult themes in there But like kids thinking now don't get it till they're older, but like this is a very direct Like it's not like some hidden in the background thing or like a minor reference. No, this thing is like saying F off and I Like it's really frustrated at one point. He's like what the bleep and I'm like Okay, come on. I'm like I'm fine. I'm 31. It's cool. I think this is hilarious I'm just like what's this game right again, right? Is this a teen for teen or what? Yeah, I know he's not actually swearing But they're really they're getting awful close to making it very obvious that that toe is right on the line there. Oh I'm sorry. It's just so when you're bringing up like that that battle between adult and child It's really weird too because Mario has always been kind of certain more child friendly At least in terms of the characters Obviously, you know, you can argue the gameplay is obviously, you know, especially in the 3d games is favorite adults or at least older kids but yeah, it's Yeah, I'm sorry go on. I'm sorry. I just so you said child. I was like wait a second That really reminds me. Yeah swearing. What? Yeah, what the bleep? Yeah, especially with the Toad and Toadette. Oh my gosh, Toad and Toadette Yes, folks. Sorry. Toad and Toadette are in the game. Oh my god. Toad and Toadette are in a Wario game. Whoa, that wasn't spoiler because that's happened since the beginning I don't know if Toadette was in the game. I don't remember. I don't know. Go on. I lost my train of thought now. Well, you were saying a blend of the two franchises child versus adult. That's all I remember. The battle system I really like because any individual can go into it and it can be completely different for them and how they move, how they battle, where they shoot, where they use defensive, where they put whatever I really like that because then it almost gives you like multiple play-throughs if you want to go back or if you want a better score or what have you in most of those types of games I also thought it was interesting, especially now that I'm deeper in I didn't notice it as much at first but all the characters are unique Oh very much I mean there are two that have kind of similar but then there's like this massive difference in other things they do and you don't really realize it early on I guess because you start out with the base group and then you slowly add to it and it's weird because for the longest time I was just smashing my way through the game smashing my way, smashing my way and then when I got to World 3 I started realizing how much I need to vary up my teams sometimes battle by battle because like I was getting frustrated I would even, yes this game has an easy mode put it on easy mode and still just get my butt whooped if I just kept using the same team I'd always use I developed these strategies with these teams that don't work against some of the enemies or don't work very well even though you're trying to easy mode power through it with extra health because that's literally, just so folks know, all easy mode is extra health it doesn't make you hit harder it doesn't make the enemy AI any worse it's just, we give you 50% extra health and if you're still getting your butt whooped before you even got halfway through the map then you're probably only going to get three quarters of the map to still get your butt whooped so like it was just really interesting, like the battle I just passed I'm not going to go into too many details about the specifics of it but I had to completely change up my group and the only, I don't even know if this is a spoiler you have to use Mario every time no matter what he's in it and I feel like, at least so far, maybe my mind will change by the end of it that I don't like that that you can't swap out Mario I understand, is the mascot, I get it Mario plus Rabbids Kingdom out of Rabbids there's no specific one Rabbid that is a mascot but Mario is the mascot of Mario but you could argue the one Rabbid that they're trying to which one? you start off with two start off with two Rabbids no, no, no, the one that they're trying to get oh, you could argue that that's that's, no, no spoilers, spoilers anyways, but no, there is a I wish that they would have just made it so you are required to always have one Rabbid character and one Mario character whether it's, you know, whoever Luigi or whoever or a princess or whatever like it's, I would like to have more because I feel like when you lock into Mario you need to always build your team around him and I think there is some cool strategy to that but I think at some point the game just needs to be like look, you can now use any of them just, here's your restriction now you can't just use straight Mario characters or straight Rabbid characters and that's the only thing I think is frustrating right now it sounds like Mario is a good character I mean, he's not like it's someone you wouldn't want to use but there might be certain battles I can't even think of something that I've already experienced where I'm like, I really wish I could have swapped out Mario for this other character because this other character really just fits that situation better than Mario does because like Mario's base attack is very similar to some other characters but then Mario gains advantages in other ways but it's like, you know do I want to have, you know, two characters on the field that have the same abilities where I can have three different characters that have completely different abilities and all complement each other and that's, it feels weird to criticize like, oh my, I'm criticizing a Mario game for making me play as Mario right but this is that one kind of game where yeah, I feel like you should and I feel like when people think Mario, yes initially maybe require it but then back off that requirement because once you get further into the game you realize like, even if you've never played Mario before that Mario has multiple characters multiple different characters you know, Luigi as an example when you get early on and that you should just be able to play with those characters and set Mario on the sidelines but just like you can in Super Mario Brothers 2 and Mario Kart, it's not like people aren't used to this concept of not having to play with Mario in a Mario game Mario Kart is Mario in the name, so sure Mario Kart can do it, Mario plus Rabbids can do it Mario is technically always racing whether you're playing with them or not so yeah, but I don't have to play as Mario right, you don't have to play as Mario but technically Mario is always technically you don't play as any of these characters you're just Beepo telling them what to do you're right, very true but still in a game that's all about it's a strategy game let's just call it what it is, it is a strategy game and as a strategy game I feel like you're limiting what my possible strategies are right in that sense but again, maybe it does change I don't know, I haven't beaten the game maybe I get what I want or maybe when you beat the game you get that when you go back to the challenges you can change a Mario Kart I have no idea maybe it says it in the review somewhere if you can or not, I don't know but I just kinda watched some reviews and had it on in the background because I didn't want the game to be completely spoiled for me I don't understand the sentiment out there where people wanting quote unquote spoiler free reviews or what do people tell me I want a completely objective review yeah and I'm just like so what do you want me to tell you just the facts it's 1080p, it's 30fps it's built on the snow drop engine Ubisoft made it it has these characters in it what else it doesn't matter, it's objective I'm just telling you here's how many worlds there are here's the names one, two, three, spoiler, whoop and here are the facts it is a strategy game and you move people around there are many more facts what you like now, do you want to know if the game is any good can't tell ya it's not objective I never understood what people say I think I know what you mean you don't mean what you think right you just want me to eliminate certain bias just word, I do not think it means what you think it does well you're in this world to say what reviews even as we're talking now all of us come with a certain bias everything we do in life is based on our own experiences what we enjoy is based on our experiences even if there's things I've never played the next game am I going to like this I don't know, I'm not you you know I've played XCOM, I haven't played a lot of it so I'm probably I have very little experience and I'm enjoying it so far but it's like no matter what I say in the review no matter what any of us say about the game in general we can't tell you if you personally are going to like it right, Michael have you played any XCOM games? nope I highly recommend if you like this game XCOM at least XCOM enemy or non XCOM so it looks amazing I don't want to say that this game is exactly like XCOM but it's pretty close and the only other thing I'll say and again I don't consider it a spoiler because it's not story related I'm just not giving away any specific gameplay stuff if anybody out there thinks that this is easy let me tell you the game lulls you into thinking this the difficulty spikes are crazy it's very random you will go from one battle where it's like a cakewalk all of a sudden the next battle you're dead before you even got past turn 2 yeah oh yeah it's a strategy game right I'm going to put some gameplay up in some other videos have you ever played a strategy game before? yeah but this is a new game and I have to die to realize what the best strategies are it's not like I plan to die I carefully go high by cover I carefully do this, carefully do that all of a sudden this enemy has a new ability you never even knew about you just get destroyed sit there and awe wondering what just happened sorry spoilers I said you know even on easy mode I died to this battle wasn't even a boss battle I died to it like 6 or 7 times before I finally realized the best way to tackle that map all the maps are different and you got to get the right combination of abilities you know they have snipers just like you have snipers they have bomb throwers like you have bomb throwers there's a lot of counters to what you put out there and again that's why I hate the fact that I have to use mario you enter a map and every enemy is a counter to mario that basically be like ok mario you just have to sit back and try to pot shot people good luck because all the other guys in the team can shoot twice as far as you and can move twice as fast and oh my gosh it's just a lot of a lot of people I think assume that mario plus rabbit's kingdom medal even if you knew it was a strategy even if you knew it was based on excom that they just thought oh this will be like a nice introductory game to get people into strategy games and then they'll upgrade to excom down the line let me tell you that someone who has played a bunch of excom and a bunch of mario plus rabbit's kingdom medal now it is not even like mario plus rabbit's kingdom medal is not baby compared to excom it is like on par in fact I had an easier time playing through and meeting the main parts of excom than I did right now I've died more times so far in mario plus rabbit's kingdom medal than I died in excom to the first time through right it also depends on what level you're on but the difficulty spikes in excom are almost identical too where you go into one battle and all of a sudden you just get wrecked and you're like wait what oh simplified there's nothing simplified this is very you have to think carefully about how you spend skill points and think carefully about which weapon you want to equip just because you know this is the most expensive weapon for your character doesn't necessarily mean it's the best for that fight you know you got to balance and honey and stone what's the difference between all of them inking people whatever one you suck the life force out of people you got to think about all these sub abilities spoilers there's so much you have to think about in this game it's not any different than excom if people thought this was baby mode no is it going to get people into strategy games I hope so I hope that gets an excom to the switch yeah I mean honestly people talking about oh get mario plus rabbit people to come over to excom how about some excom players come over to mario plus rabbit kingdom battle oh yeah it is but you know that type of strategy is something that I'm finding as a new person into this that I'm really enjoying that I have to like almost think you know five or six steps ahead you do if I you know if I do this then this happens and that happens and they're going to do this and how do I counter that and it really makes you think as opposed to just walk in and pull out your sword and smash him with yeah it's totally different than like a fire emblem that's another strategy game with the grid like aspect women characters are on healing below but that has a very different playing style compared to this and just like those games have very different playing styles from advanced wars another, you know, tactile strategy game and the thing is is mario plus rabbit kingdom battle does not have a very different field from excom it is excom with mario oh yeah mario it's a mario skin excom with a very interesting story as Michael had said kind of confusing at the start but it starts to make I don't even completely make sense but I'm further then him but I I piece in some things together with it which is a really cool approach to how they the story. Well and there's so many other little details as you walk around and you look at your surroundings and see what's happening. So many. Like I'll just say this is for all the little fine details they're fantastic. This game is gorgeous. I don't care what anybody says you know about how well switches underpowered and this and that. I play this game and just look at the water. Oh my god. Look at the lighting. But you're like oh but it's Mario and rabbit is like those aesthetics are easy. I'm like I'm sorry this is beyond any Mario or rabbits game I've ever seen. Yeah those aesthetics are easy but the world itself is a world itself and there's so much going on. Oh yeah for sure. This game is you could you could tell me that this is a PlayStation 4 pro game and I wouldn't know any different. You know obviously 4k resolution besides that. Yeah like seriously this game that snow drop engine that Ubisoft use which is their brand new engine that they plan to use for all their future games including Assassin's Creed and they used it for the division that was the very first game to use it. My word. Oh yeah. Like everyone always says only Nintendo can make these ultra gorgeous games on Nintendo system. I'm sorry Ubisoft just did it and they did it better than Nintendo has done it in many cases. This is it is such a gore. It's hard to describe. You just like you can watch even when you're watching my review the videos don't do a justice because of compression. You just got to see it in person. So switch screen like even that 720p screen. It looks so oh man. It is like I can't it feels we're saying that oh tomorrow game of course looks good. I'm like yeah we all know it was gonna look good. I didn't think it was gonna be this good. Right. This this to me. I know it's minor but it feels next gen. The details that they put into this game are just ridiculous. No it's just it's another level. It really is as I said it feels next gen to me and I know it's current gen. That's the way it works. Right. But like when people always talk about oh they get to get the newest system and what's the game it feels next gen. This feels next gen to me. Right. For a console. As I said it would be writing it would not feel out of place on competitor systems. And yeah I'll you know what until Odyssey comes out I'll go ahead and say this is the best looking Mario game I've ever played. Yeah. Yeah I'd agree. Yeah. I mean think about that the best looking Mario game ever made wasn't made by Nintendo. Whoops. Well we'll see Odyssey might top it. Yeah. It looks good so far. It does. But it's a different kind of good different kind of engine. We'll see we'll see how it compares but right man this game it's it's pretty good books. If you can't tell I probably will not have a negative review. Doesn't mean I don't have a criticism. Oh right. I'm saying I'm criticizing the Mario thing but again I haven't completed the game. All all of my critiques are incomplete. Right. You know I think the game is gorgeous if it all falls apart in the final level I can ruin everything so we'll see we'll see what happens but right now I think it's just very interesting that Ubisoft a company people have to criticize a lot. A company I even criticize because I don't I don't like what they did with the season pass having eight exclusive items the season pass and I know a lot of people are like oh well those items might not be you're right you're not going to use the items forever but they do give you an advantage. They are the best items in the game you first get them. Well so did the pixel items which apparently we're supposed to be a pre-order bonus but everybody get it I don't know it was inside the box so yeah I don't know how do you how do you know which copy's a pre-order copy. Is it just certain retailers I have no idea how that even worked but I got mine at GameStop so I don't know maybe we all got it at GameStop. No I got mine through Amazon and you got mine. Okay so these three different retailers so it's not a retailer thing or maybe it could have been just a first run maybe like new versions that get shipped out now don't have it I don't know.  So did you both get the season passes? No I have not I probably will I didn't either okay I was just curious if if you guys did as well. I debated after I beat the game and getting ready to do my review right before I do that buying the season pass just so I could play around with those items and then like in the review in the review just kind of say like how do they compare to the pixel items can ever I'm gonna have to talk to multiple people can you get these items even today or was it you know and then kind of freight because that's the thing my entire experience in world one was with those items I don't know what it's like to play it with others I know I can go back and play with those items it gave you multiple save files but it's still something that I just want to play around with I guess so yeah I mean I'm not a completionist this is like a perfect game for completionists oh yeah I mean why do you think I've only beat world one hey you can't even 100% world one uh yeah you can't no I know well no I can now wait maybe I can't yet I don't know I don't know but I've been running around trying to do things that I can't do so even now as I'm like I'm trying to rush through the game I'm not really rushing through it I'm just giving myself an excuse to keep playing um but even as like I'm trying to like I'm really trying to get to this next boss I it doesn't stop me from explaining remember when I kept complaining about the one part I'm like okay I'm really tired of this I'm really tired of this it's my own fault right because I'm trying to find everything I don't have to do this it's optional side step it is but I'm just like but I'm I'm a completionist so I got it yeah and that's what makes breath of the wild such a pain in the ass yeah just do all the shrines forget the corex seeds yeah that doesn't work for me not me either on my master mode run I'm 100% in the game and it's it's rough I'm like 150 corex seeds in that's literally all I've been doing is just corex seed hunting my goal is to basically corex seed hunt and just do the quest as I as I'm through the land and then once I've done all the corex seeds then I can go to actually enjoy the game right and actually do the fun things all the all the minigames yeah it's like the corex seed stuff is is just it's some of it's fun some of it's unique some of it's really cool but so much of it's repetitive that it's like okay how many more rocks do I have to lift right oh look there's this random rock just sitting on the middle door hmm I wonder what this could be looks especially I mean my favorite ones are the ones like oh you're bowled on a hill or like the ones that are like Eventine Island but like those are those are not the common ones the common ones are you lift up a random rock that doesn't even look like it's out of place at times and there's a corex yeah there's like so every rock in the game lift them all I mean I'm not I'm using a map okay I you call me a cheater if you want I'm not truly 100 I'm not discovering it all on my own I never said I was there to discover it all my own I just want my save file to say I 100% of the game yep well actually there's more to do beyond the 100% actually but yeah whatever Breath of the Wild is that kind of crazy right and I'm trying to get it all done before the the story DLC comes out that's not gonna happen it's not gonna happen I could already tell you because now I'm playing Mark the King of the Valley and like MVA 2K18 is coming out and then really soon I try Samus Returns and Odyssey and now LA Noir is hitting next month oh hard no November so much yeah well hey well I can't like well I guess I just got through you so don't read this like I get a game I have a year right oh man anyways I think that's going to do it for the podcast this week I really want to thank Michael for coming on and thank you so much for your support of our channel on Patreon it means a lot more than you can even fathom I'm just it's weird too because you also live in Wisconsin so yeah so number one supporters also Wisconsinite we are so kind well thank you for letting me come on and and yeah and don't worry about it oh just uh just to throw this out there you guys throughout this podcast I've probably seen us have like these Nintendo Prime models and Nintendo Prime shirts I don't have any Nintendo Prime hats or anything yet but I'm going to put a link down to our merch store on every segment of the podcast this week and you will can go down there and if you'd like some of these bugs are actually really out there they're very nice well when I got this mug in I was like whoa it's like this this ceramic outside it's not like printed on it's like glossed over and then steel on the inside it's really nice um anyways so I'll have a link down if you guys want to get some Nintendo Prime theme merch in the description obviously full disclosure I get a cut of every sale it's just I think that's pretty obvious it's our merchandise right but gotta throw it out there because I don't like misleading people um and yeah I don't think I have much else this is obviously Eric Moore over here uh oh this is something that I should mention um and I'll probably have to put a mention at the end of each segment is that if you go to the description below we also have a download link to the full audio podcast because we are going back I'm sure by now you realize this we have gone back to segmenting the podcast one topic per day the following week after we record just because uh we weren't we weren't seeing the kind of numbers we wanted to see on the full long audio podcast version I probably just because we're smaller and that's just the way it is people pay more attention to the headlines uh and then they get into what we're saying after they read the headlines so we're just gonna go back to segmenting uh but that does not mean you cannot enjoy the full audio podcast as I said it is in the description below it's also on iTunes uh and you can go ahead and download it and listen to it in your cars listen to it while you work however you want to do it uh so don't worry we still have that for you as an audio only thing also I always have to mention if you would like access to the audio version early you can also subscribe for five dollars a month on Patreon and that gives you access to the full audio like exactly what we're putting down in the description but before we even release a video uh so you can get access to that early and what's nice about that is because we record on Thursdays that that early audio version comes out like a couple days later so that means you're most up to date with the podcast so by the time these topics hit during the week maybe they're not as relevant today but they were relevant if you were a Patreon supporter so that's just kind of how it is uh or if you like Michael you can come on the show you can come on the show that's right 20 a month I don't even remember it was Michael's idea or someone in the comments mentioned an idea like why don't you make a higher priced tier where people can just come on the show I'm like sure yeah and then I didn't think it was actually ever gonna work and then Michael yeah Michael did it so he's the only one but that that is that is okay we we hope to have your continued support and also everyone else's continued support out there even if you can support us monetarily through Patreon uh or through donating through any of our live just your ship just just thank you for your view thank you for your like or even your dislike uh thank you for the you know the hopefully you subscribed I mean we hope this is the thing you enjoy uh the podcast to me is something I'm very very very passionate about very passionate about it is what I want to build this channel around I don't want us to be just another news channel I want us to be built around the conversation of being Nintendo fans right so that's just my hope and dream hopefully you guys can all make better reality anyways folks I'm Nathaniel Fajad that is Mr. Eric Moore over there and as always we have Michael on the other side but as always as always as of this fifth segment of this episode we have Mr. Michael over there and thank you so much we will probably see you in a couple weeks because we haven't what another reminder is that like we haven't hit our $100 goal yet on Patreon that's what's gonna that we hit that goal then this comes a weekly show but right now we're about every other week we'll have to be weekly yeah hopefully you guys help me because it happened anyways thanks for joining me catch you in the next one


As you know, it's pretty rare for me to deem a high salaried hitter or a high salaried stack to be a priority for a Slate in daily fantasy baseball because almost always I want to spend that salary on what's predictable, what's predictive, where I can find the most obvious and highest probability path upside, usually that's via pitchers. Today's Slate I think is a little bit different because there are two stacks that I like a lot that are in tremendous spots and will cost you a pretty penny. And I think that they're attractive enough where I do want to prioritize them even on a Slate where Garrett Cole is pitching. So our job for today is to decide, do we go Cole or do we go with those high salaried stacks? And if we do with the high salaried stacks, which pitchers do we utilize for tonight? Let's dive on in and get you set. Welcome on into the solo shot. That's right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network in Numberfire.com. My name is Jim Sonnis. I am a senior writer and analyst for Numberfire.com. Here to break down today is 12-game main Slate with lock set for 705 for tonight. There is one weather note for this Slate. There is a chance of rain in Chicago for the Cubs and the Reds. Looks like it's rolling out before first pitch, but you'll want to check back on that one later on to make sure that game is good to go. Update on that one coming up later on today on the 4pm stream that is on 4pm on the FanDuel YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter pages. We will still be doing the MLB Q&A's even with NFL season now here. We will be changing around the order of things eventually. Like on Thursday, we're going to have our Bucks Cowboys preview. That'll be at 4pm. MLB DFS will be at 4.30. Friday, we're going to have our Snake Draft Q&A back with myself. JJ Zacharyson and Brandon Cadulla, that'll be at 4. MLB will be at 4.30. But at least for the start of this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll still be on air 4 to 4.30 with the MLB Q&A. No PGA today because they are off this week after the tour championship last week. But we will still have MLB as always at 4pm. So make sure you subscribe there, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter. And also subscribe to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy Podcast Feed because NFL is back this week, our first preview podcast of the year. Coming up on Thursday, 10 a.m. Eastern on the FanDuel YouTube page and up on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy Podcast Feed after that. Recap podcast 9 a.m. Monday on the FanDuel YouTube page. Solo shot will be at 8 a.m. on Monday. So changing things around a little bit here to account for NFL season, but still plenty of baseball coverage coming your way. You're on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy Podcast Feed. Hey, sports fans. Fandals offering exclusive promotion for new sportsbook users. Join Fandals sportsbook today and make your first bet. If you lose, we'll give you a refund up to one a thousand dollars in site credit within 72 hours. Your first bet after depositing will qualify. If you have multiple selections on one bet slip, you'll be the first selection you made. Head over to Fandals sportsbook today and make your first bet. Must be 21 plus and present in Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia. New users only. Max bonus $1,000 site credit. See full terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler in Colorado. 105-224-700 in Iowa. 1-800-Bets off in Indiana. 1-800-9 with it for confidential help in Michigan. 1-800-270-7117 in Tennessee. Call the red line at 1-800-889-9789 or in West Virginia. 1-800-Gambler.net pitching preview for this Tuesday main slate. Garrett Cole is the highest salary pitcher on Fandals. Checking in at $11,300. He is well worth that, but he's also facing the Blue Jays. That will factor into our discussion for today. Blake Snell on a heater is at 10-1. Logan Webb, despite being at Coors Field, is $9,700. Still makes sense, given how good he has been. Max Freed is $9,300. Aaron Nola is $9,000. We have Wade Miley, James Caprellian, Stephen Matz, Eric Lauer and Eduardo Rodriguez as the others at $8,000 or higher. And when I'm looking at this slate, I do want to get to Garrett Cole and I will have some coal tonight. But I don't think he needs to be the top pitcher, given the match with the Blue Jays, given the viability and desirability of the high-sourced stack. So to me, the number one pitcher is going to be Max Freed. And a lot of that's because of the situation he is in. He is at home and facing the Nationals, and they are a beaten-down shell of a team right now. They are better against lefties and righties, but I don't think they're a team we need to fear right now. And Freed is pitching really well. He is not quite in like the Zach Wheeler zone, where he's like amazing in every department, but he's getting there where he's just super well-rounded. He's been using his curveball more over his past 13 starts. This is a very large sample for Freed that has led to both good plate discipline numbers and good bad at ball numbers. He has a 26% strikeout rate with a 5% walk rate in that time. His flyball rate is just 27% and he's not letting up a lot of hard contact. And Freed has put up those really impressive numbers in some tough matchups. He faced the Dodgers and the Giants in his past two starts. And he had nine strikeouts in that Dodgers game. He also had nine against the Nets at the end of July. So what that means is that Freed does have a path to upside. And his salary at $9,300 gives us more flexibility to load up on the high-sourced bats that I really do want to prioritize for today. So, no, I don't always pass up a high-strikeout pitcher to save salary. In fact, I very rarely do that. I think in this spot, though, it's a pretty fair trade-off because Freed does have upside. He's got a really good floor, too. And it is a difference making salary at $9,300. So I'm OK, quote, unquote, settling for Freed here and using the Savians on the high-upside bats. So to me, I think that Max Freed grades that well enough where I am OK, making him my number one pitcher for today. I think that Zach Allen is the other guy who will let you load up on some high-sourced bats without totally sacrificing a path to his ceiling. He's down to $7,900. He's facing the Rangers, and that's a big part of it here, too. They have an 83 WRC plus against Reides with a 146 ISO. The Rangers don't draw many walks, so they are a plus matchup. And now they lose a DH tonight with this game in Phoenix. The low walk rate that I mentioned before is a great thing for Gallon because he has been getting strikeouts recently. He has a 26 percent strikeout rate in his eight starts where he's been using his fastball more often. But his walk rate is 9 percent. And that's an issue that Gallon has had in the past. It's hurt him at times in this stretch as well.  We do want to go at Gallon more hard in situations where he's facing teams that don't draw a lot of walks. And the Rangers fit that very well. He's a more appealing pitcher in situations like this. In this eight game stretch, Gallon had nine strikeouts against the Rockies and Coors. He had eight against the Dodgers at home. So he's been put in some tough spots, but he's still performed well. And this spot tonight is not as tough. He's at home facing a rough offense, losing a DH. So he's not going to score as well as Cole, but he's going to get you a lot more juice out of your hitters. Like if you want to get to Mookie Betts and the highest desirable giants for tonight, I do think that it's a situation where Gallon makes a lot of sense and I think it is a tradeoff I am OK making. So to me, Zach Gallon, despite being imperfect for a lot of reasons, is still a guy I would like to use for today. So if you are like me and you decide I love the Giants, I love the Dodgers, want to get to both those teams, I would say Max Freed and Zach Gallon are your top two options. With that said, the Giants salaries are not all that high. They've got a lot of midrange guys. They've got a value guy in there, too. So you can potentially stack them specifically with Garrett Cole for tonight. The Dodgers might be tough, but I think the Giants can work and it might be a bit cumbersome. And you will need a viable second stack, but you can make this happen. So I am going to have Cole despite his $11,300 salary. Cole is my number three pitcher for tonight. He's in a tough matchup facing the Blue Jays. And that's another part of why I'm going to go to Freed first over Garrett Cole for today. But Cole is filthy right now. He's been leaning more on his slider over his past six starts, which has helped him regain the dominance that he had earlier on this year. He has a 2.37 skill interactive ERA in that six start sample. He has a 40 percent strikeout rate with just a 6 percent walk rate. And he's also letting up hard contact at just 29 percent of the time, which is the best mark on this slate. So if we're looking at like this from a performance perspective, not accounting for matchups, salary, et cetera, et cetera, Garrett Cole is on his own planet right now. The matchup is tough. Luckily for us, we have seen Cole in some tough spots in this recent stretch. He has faced the Red Sox, the Rays and the A's in this time. And he's had at least eight strikeouts against all three of those teams. He did let up earned runs like that. That Rays game, despite getting like 10 strikeouts, is not a shiny pinnacle of, you know, showing why we should spend up for Garrett Cole tonight. That's why he's third on this list, not first. But if you have double digit strikeout upside, you deserve to be in our player pool, even if we do want to spend up at hitter. So I'll have less coal tonight than I have of freed and gallon, because, again, I do want to prioritize them first. But Cole will be number three for me. And I want to have enough to benefit if he blows up once again. So in terms of exposure for me tonight, it is freed one gallon to coal three could maybe talk me into some other guys. But I think that I feel pretty good ranking those three at the top of my list for today. So that's the thought at pitcher. Let's talk about stacks. And it's been kind of the underlying thing throughout the day for today. And the reasoning why we did want to try to find some salary for pitchers because the Giants, the Dodgers, to me, far away the top two stacks. And I would like to get to a lot of bull for today. Let's start the Giants. They are at Coors Field, and that means that they go from having the worst park factor in baseball to having the best. It's also a very good matchup. They're facing Chichi Gonzalez. Gonzalez's velocity has been down for a while now for about the past two months. And in those seven outings, he has a 5.65 skill interactive ERA. His strikeout rate is 11 percent with a 6 percent walk rate. That means he's letting him play 82 percent of the time. And that's a course field.  Gonzalez is not doing that. He's doing the opposite. And forty four percent of those balls in play are hard hits. Only thirty nine percent are on the ground. That is going to lead to Calamity, and it has. He has a six point nine one ERA in this stretch. That is even with three of the seven appearances being on the road. Now he's facing the Giants. They have a 108 WRC plus against Reides. They have a 200 ISO, even with so many of their games being in a really bad park for offense. They get extra base hits. I think that they are an elite level staffer tonight. And I will do what I have to to be in on them here. And luckily for us, the salaries aren't that bad. You know, it's not to the point where, like, you can easily stack them as coal, but, like, you can make it happen. They've got Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford all at thirty three hundred dollars. We can get there with coal. Tommy Lestella is twenty seven hundred dollars. He actually lead off against a righty a couple of days ago. He has a thirty six percent fly ball right against Reides. So I'm very willing to use Lestella. And I think that he is the best value play on this slate. So although I'm putting coal third on my list, I would not I would not assume you can't stack coal with the Giants. I think you can. So I'd at least give it a shot for today, because I think you can make it work. And it won't be that difficult. But it does mean you're going to have to go a little bit salary conscious with your second stack. Part of the reason why I put coal third as opposed to first, despite the Giants, middle and salaries, is because I want to spend it for the Dodgers, my second stack as well. So I do think that they great out really well here. It may be tough, but it is worth it for sure. They're facing Jay Hap. Hap is still having issues. He faced Cincinnati last week and they are a team that's pretty rough against lefties, despite some talented individual batters.  They scored seven runs against him in just one inning. He allowed two home runs in that time with no strikeouts. And we've seen Hap have other blowups in the stretch. The good performances he has had have mostly just come against Pittsburgh. Like he's faced them three times in the stretch and he's dominated them. But the Dodgers aren't Pittsburgh. They have a 108 WRC plus against lefties. They have a 196 ISO, a 38 percent fly ball rate. So it's a tough matchup for Hap, who has slipped up in lesser spots. And I think the Dodgers are great. If the Giants weren't in as good of a spot as they are, I think they would be a no brainer for the top spot tonight. The Dodgers would be that is if the Giants weren't as good as they are. The Dodgers would be our top stack for today. They'd be the top stack on most slates, but I'm OK, putting them second. And again, prioritizing them on this slate, despite the fact they are very high salary. As far as the Dodgers individual batters go, they are a lot of their guys are good against lefties and righties. You know, whether they have a lot of lefties who can do lefties well. The guy to me who gets the biggest bump up against the lefty is Chris Taylor. His ISO against lefties is 245. It is 169 against righties. He's still able to get some stolen bases off of lefties, too, which is a nice talent to have. So I don't use Taylor much against righties. It's going to be a bit over sourced for me there, but it's a different discussion against lefties. I will be in on him here at thirty four hundred dollars. I think that he's tremendous. Will Smith at the same sourced tremendous. He should play today because he was off yesterday. So I do think that Taylor and Smith midrange plays in the Dodgers who can grade out well. And you could go with the strategy of peppering the midrange Dodgers. And passing up the Giants and a Cole situation and then going to the lower sourced second stack. But to me, if I'm getting just one of these two teams with Cole, I'd rather go with the Giants over the Dodgers. Now, as mentioned, we're trying to get to Cole with the Giants or the Dodgers. We need a lower sourced second stack to make it work. I think the Orioles work for that spot. They're facing Jackson, Coar. Coar just came back up last week for his first start since June, and he did pitch really well. He held Cleveland to two runs over six innings. And he had six strikeouts. That was much better than he was previously. There were still some issues, though. Primarily, Coar let up a lot of hard contact. Eight of the 15 balls in play he allowed were hard hits. And not many of those were on the ground either. We also saw Coar let up some runs when he was in the minors before he got called back up. Like he was getting strikeouts, but he was letting up earned runs. So because of the strikeouts, the Orioles are not in a slam dunk spot. But they're also not a bad offense. They're WRC plus against righties is up to 98. They have a 39 percent fly ball rate. They have a 170 ISO, and they're in a good park as well. Coar's not bad. It's possibly figured some things out while he was in the minors. And there is some potential there. But there were still some flaws last week, though, when he had that really good game. So I think we have the leeway to stack against Coar here. And I will be doing so for tonight. One of the guys who will work well with the strategy of trying to use the Orioles to get salary flexibility is DJ Stewart, if he plays, they have faced a ton of lefties recently. So Stewart hasn't played all that much, but he does tend to play versus righties. And the lack of playing time has pushed Stewart's salary down to $2,500. But he has a 207 ISO against righties. He has a 51 percent fly ball rate. And in this park, that is double long upside. And that gives you a lot of flexibility. So I want to be high on Stewart here, assuming he does play. I think that he makes a lot of sense at $2,500. And I will be in there for tonight. He's not like the best hitter all around, but he can go deep. And I think that that is pretty attractive, honestly, where he's $2,500. And I do need the salary savings, for sure, out of my hitters. Let's talk about some more potential one-offs and stacks in things to watch. The Royals could get us in value in that exact same game. They're facing Alex Wells. Wells has led up a 54 percent hard hit rate this year, with just a 16 percent strikeout rate that is a tremendous combo to stack against. I'm not expecting to have a bunch of salary left over from one-offs. So, you know, it's tough to say Jamon, Salvador, Perez, not about the Montesey. But like, if you do that salary, those guys are amazing. I love them. Otherwise, Edward Olivares could hit cleanup for a minimum salary once again. So Olivares is salary saver here on the Royals. Perez, Montesey, great one-offs. If you can get there and you could just go with a Perez, Montesey, Olivares stack, not opposed to that by any means. I think that that does gray out pretty well. But overall, the Royals is another spot to go to for tonight. Two other offenses I like for one-offs or potentially stacks are the A's and the Reds. The Reds are facing Adrian Sampson. Sampson is getting stretched out as a longer option for the Cubs. And things haven't necessarily gone great from a peripheral's perspective. In the shorter role, his results are good, but the peripherals are not quite as good. Tyler Naikwin, $2,900. He could be a fun one-off as well. So Naikwin in there, Olivares. And I think those are the primary lower salary guys here. As for the A's, they're facing Jimmy Lambert. Lambert has spent most of the year in AAA. And he had got a lot of strikeouts, 32 percent strikeout rates. But he still had a 4.98 ERA because he was walking way too many guys. The strikeouts have not been there for Lambert in a small sample in the majors. He's led up a lot of flypalls on not as high in this A's stack because the parking which is taking place. But I can still get to some because the matchup is pretty good in the offense. Solid, despite the fact they have petered off a bit recently. So for one-offs, the Royals, the Reds and the A's. But I'm ranking them behind the Giants, Dodgers and Orioles for tonight. Let's finish up here with some Dinger calls. Going back to the teams we discussed in the stacking section, the boring home run call is Brandon Bell. Brandon Bell has amazing power, is usually mired in a terrible park, but now goes to Coors Field, facing a righty, let it slip a lot of balls in play. Brandon Bell to me, just way too obvious as a home run call for tonight. The boring one, let's talk about DJ Stewart. Again, 51 percent fly ball right versus righties in a great park for hitting. Facing guy who will probably let up some hard contact in the majors. I think that's enough where we can like him quite a bit. The home run calls for today, Brandon Bell and DJ Stewart. That's all we got for today here on the solo shop, but we are back Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Still a full week of the solo shot coming your way here on the Fandal YouTube page at 9 a.m. and up on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed after that. So make sure you are subscribed to Fandal YouTube page and also subscribe to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. If you've got questions for me, I am on Twitter at Jim Sonnis. J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. You can also follow the Fandal Podcast Network at Fandal Podcast. Big thank you to everyone for tuning in for today. Hope you all had a fantastic Labor Day weekend. It's NFL season. Going to be a fun week. We'll talk to you all once again in the very near future. This has been the solo shot right here on the Fandal Podcast Network.