Happy Friday in The Dongers Club, my favorite day of the week to write an article. While this isn’t quite the normal Friday that I am used to writing about, I cannot resist the competitive juices that are flowing through me as I write this and I anticipate this being a fantastic slate and a fantastic weekend. Or maybe it’s just that I am having my first Abita as I write this since … well, since something we don’t need to talk about happened in football.
As always, we begin Friday’s in the Dongers Club with the Dongers Club Friday Anthem. Please stand and Gentlemen remove your hats.
You are going to want to have more than one lineup today and that might be normal for some of you but others will say — it’s only six games how and why would I need more than one lineup? Simple. There’s plenty of juice out there tonight and I am going to be on a few different spots which make it so that I want to play extra lineups.
You see, when should one decide if they are playing more than one lineup? Or more than five? Or maybe do 150? Well, when it comes to doing 150 lineups …
150 Lineups? Ya’ll gonna make me lose my mind, up in here. We have no time for that here. But the fact of the matter is if you like multiple spots then you play multiple lineups and you do it with an equal invested amount and in an area where you can return an equal investment. If you can’t do that, then you might be laying on your back looking up at the roof of the church while the preacher tells the truth and it hurt’s. RIP DMX, such a lyrical genius.
Only six games and the Walker Buehler on a Friday at home narrative was killed because the game is a damn day game. Let’s dive into the weather status on all six games.
WEATHER
Anaheim at Dunedin (Toronto): Hey, can we officially just keep the Blue Jays and Raptors and give Canada two more hockey teams in exchange? I vote Pittsburgh and St. Louis. St. Louis because who the hell wants to go to St. Louis to watch a hockey game and Pittsburgh needs zero explanation. Weather here in Dunedin Florida is warm and humid and breezy. Giddy up.
Detroit at Cleveland: It’s 70 and wind is blowing OUT with a scent of Julioooooooooooooooo in the air.
Philadelphia at Atlanta: Wait a minute. I thought there was a boycott on sporting events in Georgia? What is going on here? Sure, it’s humid, it’s Atlanta for Christ’s sake. Not extremely hot, nothing of note. It’s fine. Just normal.
San Diego at Texas: Windy again, could close the roof.
Oakland at Houston: Roof closed so I have downgraded it slightly.
Cincinnati at Arizona: Speaking of roofs….
There’s really not a lot here that gets us extremely excited today but a couple decent choices
ZACH PLESAC (FD: $8,600 / DK: $9,600)
Pairing talent, opponent and stadium together Plesac grades out the best as he doesn’t put himself in trouble with walks, doesn’t give up an extreme amount of hard contact and overall does well against LH hitters, which in this ballpark is obviously favorable. Detroit also doesn’t walk a ton and outside of the young kids Castro and Baddooo hasn’t shown any consistent power — and those guys are just a little above their heads right now.
JOE MUSGROVE (FD: $9,700 / DK: $8,500)
Musgrove will be terrific at home and not as great on the road because of how well PETCO park should fit him. Tonight we get that first road challenge but it winds up being in his favor because Texas could close the roof due to wind mechanisms in place, and it’s not that extremely hot if it does stay open. The Rangers lineup has a few easy strikeouts in it and a few guys who have no power despite not striking out much. So the boom or bust play with Musgrove could wind up being that he finishes with 8 strikeouts and 2 hard hit balls which might die at the track.
- Also consider game stacking the SP here.
LANCE McCULLERS JR (FD: $9,000 / DK: $9,100)
Oakland has an offense which has been ice cold to start 2021 and given that they have played most games at home and faced the Dodgers for part of those games you can understand that they’ve only scored over 3 runs twice. But none the less they’re just not that good on offense with Chapman, Olson and Laureano really doing limited damage that kills this lineup. McCullers K% drops massively vs a RH heavy team but he’s got the best stuff of these three options so the upside has to be considered. Overall, Oakland is probably the best low owned high upside stack tonight so McCullers is definitely third on my radar but one to consider.
ANGELS
Welcome to TD Ballpark in Dunedin Florida, the stadium I have nicknamed the 401k/IRA/Retirement whatever you want to call it because of the name and because it’s gold for fantasy. This is Coors level quality offense all season long when the Jays are here and tonight we have a mediocre sinker baller on the mound for the Jays. Mike Trout obviously is good at Baseball & the rest of the Angels lineup around him should produce as well.
REDS
The roof is open in Chase Field. Need I say more? I’m torn between this and the game in Dunedin so that’s one reason I want exposure to both with a couple different lineup’s tonight. Arizona’s bullpen has somehow not set records for futility yet, but the time is coming. Reds have a good mix of LH and RH bats which should keep this lineup moving even when they get into the ‘Zona bullpen and we have to like Winker/Moose/Naquin/Tucker B to start things off.
BLUE JAYS
Everyone on Toronto not named Gurriel and Teoscar is hitting right now and one of them is about to get hot. Gurriel vs a LHP figures to be the most logical one to get it going today if you want to dive here, otherwise Bichette/Vlad/Semien are at the top of our radar today.
INDIANS
I can imagine Cleveland is showing up to the park tonight and looking at the line-up card wondering if it is a joke? We seriously get to see Julio Teheran twice in one week? Seriously? And that’s legal? Eddie Rosario, Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes are essentially the only Indians we’ll ever want to roster but I like this spot for Amed Rosario and Cesar Hernandez to table set things. Cleveland WILL score in the first inning tonight and should put up 6-7 runs somehow — I just hate “stacking” them.
CATCHER
Both guys below are cheap and in terrific ballparks. No brainers in my mind
- Tucker Barnhart
- Alejandro Kirk
FIRST BASE
- Freddie Freeman
- Jared Walsh
- Vlad Jr.
SECOND BASE
- Marcus Semien
- David Fletcher
- Jose Altuve
THIRD BASE
- Mike Moose Tacos (3B on DK, 2B elig on FD)
- Alex Bregman
- Matt Chapman
SHORTSTOP
- Josh Rojas – Arizona has been a horrible offensive team and they couldn’t hit in Coors so not sure why we think they can hit at home — but if anyone puts up 8 at 2% tonight it’s an Arizona stack and that would mean the lefties have to show up starting with Josh bleepin Rojas.
- Amed Rosario
- Beaux Bichette
OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore
- Shohei Ohtani
- Harper, Bryce
- David Peralta
- Jesse Winker
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Mike Trout
- Eddie Rosario / Franmil Reyes
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr
OUTFIELD – Value
- Akil Baddood
- Tyler Naquin
THE DONGERS CLUB
- Eddie Rosario – OF – Indians – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Shohei Ohtani – OF – Angels
- Freddie Freeman – 1B – Braves
- Mike Moustakas – 3B – Reds
- Tucker Barnhart – C – Reds
- Beaux Bichette – SS – Jays
- Lourdes Gurriel – OF – Jays
- Jose Altuve – 2B – Astros
- BONUS …………………………… David Peralta – OF – Diamondbacks
BETS
- Reds / Dbacks OVER
- Angels / Jays OVER
- Tigers / Indians OVER
- Phillies / Braves OVER
- Athletics / Astros OVER
