The link to tonight’s Dongers Club Member Appreciation Contest is Below. No rules on your lineup and free to enter but remember this is a 2 day contest with the second part being on Friday. Total cumulative points between the two nights is used for the Standings.
In May’s contest we will have some ‘creative’ rules spread across a full week…
DraftKings Link For – April Dongers Club Contest
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WEATHER
Some rain to monitor today, including, yes, the Nationals …
- Marlins at Nationals – Light Rain, Fall like conditions. Rain should taper off and I would suspect this game plays just fine (Famous last words!)
- Orioles at Yankees – Not as clear here, nor is this a game I want any part of. Crossing it off…
- Hope the roof is closed in Toronto
- Chilly in New Comiskey (Chicago)
- Roof likely open in Texas, Arizona
Overall, it’s just chilly/cold not humid everywhere. Lots of long fly outs today.
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It would have been nice for all those ace’s last night to be on today’s slate instead.
CARLOS RODON
Rodon should be 70% owned if not higher in some contests today. He’s the best pitcher on the slate who is pitching lights out with his new team and is pitching in an extremely friendly environment at home against an extremely friendly lineup in the Athletics.
KEVIN GAUSMAN
I put a lot of stock into taking the safe floor on pitching right now and Gausman is the next best thing after Rodon in that regard. The positives are easy looking at his pitch profile with a near 30% strikeout rate to both LH and RH batters and the fact that he controlled these Red Sox bats last week in Fenway. The negative though is exactly that — he just faced this team. But only Devers is hitting the ball hard consistently for Boston and he has never done well against Gausman.
DANIEL LYNCH
Two lefties will face off in Chicago in a game which I would project for the under to cruise in easily today. Neither team is hitting much (although KC is arguably better lately than Chicago), and the idea of using Dallas Keuchel off his disaster start mid week last week is not one to be comforted by. Lynch on the other hand is a lone bright spot of consistency among the young Royals arms & is trending up towards having a 6+ strikeout game out of nowhere soon.
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Limited upside guys I think will pitch well tonight include
Triston McKenzie (Isn’t going longer than 4 IP most starts)
Daulton Jefferies – Late slate SP2
Chris Bassitt
Eduardo Rodriguez – Best environment for SP’s today.
Chris Paddack – Ditto
Nick Pivetta – Jays lineup isn’t the same as it normally is today.
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This is very much a 2-2-2 type build for one lineup players. If you have a second or third it should then be loading up more on a stack build that you believe in to finish first or DFL.
DODGERS
Freeman, Muncy, Bellinger, J.Turner
Once again in Chase Field with an open Roof and Zach Davies is coming off one of his better starts. Look for LAD to be highly popular once again and Freeman/Muncy are once again top plays.
RANGERS
Miller, Semien, Seager, Garver
Reverse splits Eggs Over-easy is our easy guy to pick on tonight. He has started to drift into the middle more lately being vulnerable against anyone who stands in a batters box. The Rangers top of the lineup matches up well in terms of power off Odorizzi and if the roof is open tonight in Texas we should see a couple balls manage to make it out off him. Semien has a multi-HR game coming soon.
MARLINS
Jazz Chisolm, Jorge Soler, Jesus Sanchez
One of the keys to young players is having seen them before, which a good number of the Marlins top of the order guys have with Josiah Gray, so I don’t think he will have as much Whiff success versus them tonight and he has shown in his young career that he can give up hard contact to the LHB.
Both Jazz and Jesus Sanchez would be must owns in a Marlins stack, while Jorge Soler is finally waking up and has a .525 xSLG against Gray’s profile. We know the Nats pen is not great, so any damage done on Gray should result in another time through the lineup doing damage.
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CATCHER
Home Runs are down across the league and there’s no obvious easy button on hitting today. Will Smith is definitely a logical play on back to back nights but lets be frank, find someone cheap or in a great batting order spot like Zack Collins hitting cleanup for Toronto.
- Zack Collins
- Mitch Garver
- Daulton Varsho
FIRST BASE
Freeman is almost a .400 hitter life time in Chase Field and loves the batters eye. You won’t need me to keep repeating this every day, but as long as he is in the low 5’s on DK, he’s fine.
Nathaniel Lowe on the other hand is never going to be confused with a .400 hitter anywhere, but he has been striking out less frequently and hitting clean-up is ideal vs Odorizzi
- Freddie Freeman
- Nathaniel Lowe
- Matt Olson
SECOND BASE
Two, if not three, of my favorite players are here on DraftKings tonight along with the best cheap bat tonight in Gavin Lux. Semien and Jazz are must owns if you roll out a Texas or Marlins stack while Whit Merrifield is starting to drastically increase his season presence and gets an easy left to have a 4 hit night vs.
- Marcus Semien
- Jazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
- Whit Merrifield
- Gavin Lux
THIRD BASE
Well let’s just round out the infield with another Ranger why don’t we? It’s nothing more than sub 4k lead off vs a SP who is our target tonight.
- Brad Miller
- Austin Riley
- Alex Bregman
SHORTSTOP
Ever notice that every player and their brother is SS eligible on FD but DK has it right? Its disgusting to be honest. So is this position today.
- Corey Seager
- Dansby Swanson
- Trea Turner
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
Nobody will have Juan Soto, the best hitter in Baseball against a SP he hits very well.
- Juan Soto
- Jorge Soler
- Cody Bellinger
- Kyle Tucker
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- George Springer
- Mookie Betts
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr
- Seiya Suzuki
OUTFIELD – Value
Great options here in the Outfield for cheaper HR’s.
- Franmil Reyes
- Jesus Sanchez
- Chas McCormick
- David Peralta
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- Jorge Soler – OF – Marlins – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Kyle Tucker – OF – Astros
- Freddie Freeman – 1B – Dodgers
- Justin Turner – 3B – Dodgers
- Jazz Chisholm – SS – Marlins
- Franmil Reyes – OF – Guardians
- Alejandro Kirk – C – Blue Jays
- Marcus Semien – 2B – Rangers
- BONUS …………….. Juan Soto – OF – Nationals
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CORE PLAYS
Carlos Rodon
Marcus Semien
Jorge Soler
2 Dodgers
Expected Chalk
Rodon
Dodgers
Yankees
Best Low Owned Offense(s)
Marlins
Best Leverage / Pivots
SP2 pivots against “chalkier” popular teams like the White Sox
Favorite Bets
Royals/White Sox UNDER 8.5
Astros/Rangers OVER 9
Marlins ML + Guardians ML Parlay
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