It is Friday and it is July and you are probably wondering … Hey, what happened to the Dongers Club Appreciation Contest for June?
Well, nothing. I just pushed it back a week to make it the end of the first half appreciation contest. It will run starting next Tuesday, July 5th for 4 periods each with some light rules attached to them and the total score from your top 3 entries will be used for the overall standings. So check back next Tuesday for contest details and we’ll roll from there.
Today we have 15 total games, 11 of which are on the Main slate. There’s one in Wrigley Field today at 2 pm that includes Boston and the Cubs (very nice!) and then three games in the senior citizens circuit which are all looking to be high scoring.
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WEATHER
There are no major issues with the MAIN slate of games tonight weather wise.
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TONY GONSOLIN
Something which I have consistently noticed in DFS is that on Friday’s for whatever reason the ownership on pitching is ALWAYS on east coast guys. Where as early in the week it feels like many use late night hammer pitchers.
Is this because people actually are going out on Friday and don’t want to bother with worrying about a late scratch (something that almost never happens with pitchers) here? I dunno, but I bet you we see Gonsolin around 2-5% owned today. Compared to Burnes/Cole he is facing a worse offense and is at home where opponents are hitting just .208 off him this season.
CORBIN BURNES
I had Chris Bassit here but he has been scratched. So Burnes should be okay to use on DraftKings but I still believe Gonsolin is the #1 SP on the slate.
Pittsburgh’s offense is greatly improved and playing very well of late. They should only strike out around 20% tonight but Burnes can always push that number higher.
BRAD KELLER
Happy Brad Keller day? Keller does well vs the Tigers and should really carve through the lefties here with his slider today. We’re slightly picking on a team who was on the west coast but more rolling with a cheaper mid range SP who can get you a solid good start for his cheap price tag tonight.
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OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS …
Cristian Javier – Yes, the Angels strike out a ton, but he’s coming off an out of this world start and the 1st inning Ohtani HR is going to put him back into reality.
James Kaprielian – Kap vs Gonzo in SafeCo Field (T’Mobile) is the other spot for cheap pitching tonight.
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The best games for insane offense today are Boston/Chicago, Atlanta/Cincinnati, St Louis/Philadelphia and Miami/Washington.. They also happen to be the four games not on tonights slate. They’re all in great parks, where as the main slate is more about bad pitchers who will struggle with long innings. Which makes this a nice slate to have a 2-3-4 or 3-4-5 type stack in your lineups compared to other slates where it’s just pairing two guys who can hit homers together and building around that.
Look for lots of long innings and teams who can put the ball in play will benefit.
METS
Nimmo, Marte Lindor, Alonso
The best team to just put the ball in play? Has to be the Mets, who are coming off a sweep at home to the Astros and thankfully for them get to face Glenn Autta-be out of the game by the 3rd inning.
DIAMONDBACKS
Walker, Peralta, Rojas
Yes, we must look at Coors Field today. This smells like a duck and damnit it’s gonna Walker like a duck tonight as the Diamondbacks should feast off Antonio Senzatela. Rojas-Thomas/Marte/Walker and bring em home with the freight train David Peralta. The Alek Thomas/Christian Walker prices on DraftKings are silly stupid.
Also it’s Charlie Blackmon’s birthday for the Rockies. Just, FYI, ya know.
ORIOLES / TWINS
Buxton, Correa, Rustchman, Odor, Mullins
Joe Ryan continues to give up too many fly balls and the Orioles have nice got a balanced lineup with 3 lefties in Mullins/Santander/Rutschman who make them a harder lineup to cruise through.
Meanwhile Spenser Watkins has allowed 100% of his homers this year to RHH, which is music to the ears of Carlos Correa and if he returns, Byron Buxton.
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Today’s BOOST+ Players …
Jorge Polanco, Alek Thomas, Charlie Blackmon, David Peralta, Francisco Lindor, Julio Rodriguez, Brandon Nimmo, Kris Bryant, Josh Van Meter
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CATCHER
- Sean Murphy
- Adley Rutschman
- Gary Sanchez
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FIRST BASE
- Christian Walker
- Anthony Rizzo – LiC
- Trey Mancini
- Pete Alonso
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SECOND BASE
The names might not be sexy here but these are all top level plays in my book. Odor is the sneakiest play on the slate today.
- Jorge Polanco
- Rougned Odor
- Ketel Marte
- Josh Van Meter
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THIRD BASE
Weak position today with lots of good 3B on the earlier games. Donaldson has good history in Cleveland, but Rojas in Coors and Moncada’s value rank them higher overall.
- Josh Rojas
- Yoan Moncada – Value
- Josh Donaldson
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SHORTSTOP
- Francisco Lindor
- Bobby Witt Jr
- Carlos Correa
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OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
Outfield is insanely deep today.
- David Peralta
- Joc Pederson
- Byron Buxton … Hopefully he returns at home tonight.
- Charlie Blackmon … Birthday Boy
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OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Andrew Benintendi … Love Beni in this game but hard to expect enough AB with men on base for him to have a huge game.
- Shohei Ohtani … Ohtani Road Friday’s
- Starling Marte … A must in the Mets scak.
- Brandin Nimmo … Ditto
OUTFIELD – Value
- Alek Thomas
- Oscar Gonzalez
- Anthony Santander
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The Dongers Club
- Francisco Lindor – SS – Mets – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Christian Walker – 1B – Diamondbacks
- Charlie Blackmon – OF – Rockies
- Byron Buxton – OF – Twins
- Shohei Ohtani – OF – Angels
- Rougned Odor – 2B – Orioles
- Sean Murphy – C – Athletics
- Josh Donaldson – 3B – Yankees
- BONUS …………….. Joc Pederson – OF – Giants
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CORE PLAYS
Brad Keller
Christian Walker
Francisco Lindor
David Peralta
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BETTING PLAYS
Diamondbacks/Rockies OVER 11.5
NY Mets ML
KC Royals ML
White Sox / Giants OVER 7.5 – Sneakiest game tonight but I cannot stomach a full stack of either team.
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