Today is the FINAL Sunday Dongers Club of 2022 and this is mostly because once NFL starts the MLB contests just go poof and there has never been much demand for MLB on Sunday’s then. MLB will still continue around NFL to the end of the season and in the playoffs.
Yes, I know there is still another Sunday without NFL next weekend.
Go read the other article talking about Site News that I posted this morning. I’m going on a Vacation starting on Saturday and thus next Sunday’s article and the articles for that week will be picked up by our September call-ups. Hopefully they can do as good as Raul Mondesi always did in September but for now I must go out on Sunday with a bang.
GIFTastic of Course…
Alright, let’s open up this jar and see what we got.
Max Scherzer vs the Rockies
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Dylan Cease in a day game. Shocker.
Eric Lauer on a Sunday. Shocker.
Where is Logan Webb for some real Afternoon Delight?
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Speaking of American League Cy Young’s, Justin Verlander is also pitching.
So too is Kohei Arihara
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Sean Manaea faces his old team the KC Royals. Manaea was part of the Ben Zobrist trade to the Royals back in 2015. A critical move that helped the Royals win the 2015 World Series. Which really feels like forever ago at this point.
The other lefties we have going today include a classic match-up between Nick Lodolololo and Patrick Corbin in DC and Tucker Davidson is getting to face the Blue Jays, good luck sir.
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And then, ladies and gentlemen …
We have ….
Jacob Junis back on a Sunday vs an AL Central Team
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WEATHER
Mother Nature is not going to do any pissing on my Final Sunday of Baseball.
We are all clear.
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Dylan Cease has not thrown over 100 pitches since July 17th and after I called him out for never going more than 6 innings he had a 7 inning appearance vs the Twins on that day but hasn’t topped 6 IP total since then. He is a great pitcher, he has a filthy slider and should still finish with 7+ strikeouts today, but 6 innings for 10.6k is tough to say you must have.
Max Scherzer has the piss poor Rockies, but hey look, Ryan McMahon is locked in now and I stand by what I wrote last time about Max. That said, he’s going to get about a million runs in support today, so he’ll still win over 6 innings & 2 ER allowed.
So here’s where I am looking…
JUSTIN VERLANDER
Ho hum. All I did was say pass on JV last outing and he went 6 innings, 10 strikeouts and didn’t give up anything. Squadoosh. Baltimore is a better team than the Twins right now (who JV just faced) and I hate picking on them or betting against them however they should be greatly overmatched by Verlander today and among the big three, it’s him or Cease that I would ride.
NOAH SYNDERGAARD
It’s kinda amazing how well Thor has pitched since coming to the Phillies. I guess JT Realmuto will have that type of impact and now he isn’t as concerned with giving up easy steals either. The Pirates are a pesky team who probably have a sneaky game in them somewhere, but right now the Phillies pitching is shutting them down and I trust Thor to have another strong outing today.
ROSS STRIPLING
Toronto desperately needs a shutdown game from Stripling so they can jump out to a lead and bait the Angels into letting Mike Ford come in and pitch. So basically he needs to get through the 1st inning and then he will take the lead. Not a sexy Stripper here but good enough to give you a solid SP2 type production if you aren’t comfortable using Thor against the Pirates or my Sunday sleeper below.
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THE SUNDAY SLEEPER
JACOB JUNIS
What else were you expecting here folks? It’s the JuniGoat… I just hope every pitch he throws to Max Kepler is 20 feet off the plate.
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Other Pitching Thoughts …
Nick Pivetta is a little tempting but I expect Tampa wins that game somehow and Pivetta falls apart around the 4th or 5th inning.
Max is my fade. Cease is fine and Lauer is a no for me because of two guys I can’t get past hitting homers today for the Cubs.
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This is a hitting slate. If it winds up being a bunch of 2-1 games then Rob Manfred can go to hell because there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn’t be a slate filled with teams scoring early in games and one where I would encourage spreading around your offense.
TIGERS
Detroit isn’t the BEST team today but they are the best value team on DraftKings against Kohei Arihara who is not having back to back great outings.
- Riley Greene
- Victor Reyes
- Javy Baez
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ASTROS
He only comes out on Sunday’s. He’s the lean and righty type. The team is new, but we’ve seen this before. Oh oh, here he comes. Watch out Voth, he’ll chew you up. Oh oh, here he comes. He’s the Manciniiii…
You will want at least two Astros today, maybe not five as the Orioles pitch decently but Voth probably won’t have any K’s today.
- Trey Mancini
- Yuli Gurriel
- Jeremy Pena
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BLUE JAYS
The beasts are awakened today. Very strong vibes of this being a scenario where Toronto explodes and puts up an 8 spot on the Angels and their bad bullpen once Tucker Davidson is relieved of his duties this afternoon.
- Matt Chapman
- George Springer
- Vlad Guerrero Jr
- Alejandro Kirk
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THE METS
The only thing slowing down the Mets today might be their focus, because they should absolutely rake this afternoon
- Pete Alonso
- Jeff McNeil
- Brandon Nimmo
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PADRES / ROYALS
Series of higher scoring games should continue today. But the Royals really did nothing after being able to hit Yu “I suck in the first inning” Darvish yesterday. Today though with the warm temps, wind blowing out and former Royal Sean Manaea coming into town they’ll do more throughout the game.
San Diego is a good FanDuel play but tough to afford on DK. That said, Soto/Machado could have massive games today.
Salvy is going yard.
- Padres: Soto/Machado (FD), Bell/Cronenworth (DK)
- Royals: Witt, Dozier, Perez
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CATCHER
Not a bad Sunday to pay for catcher. Top or bottom here pay up for the guys who will go yard or punt down for guys who can hopefully get a few RBI
- Salvador Perez
- Willson Contreras
- Alejandro Kirk
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FIRST BASE
- Vlad Guerrero Jr
- Pete Alonso
- Jose Abreu
- Yuli Gurriel
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SECOND BASE
There are some great plays at second base and I think all three of these guys are going to be in that 2-5% range.
- Jeff McNeil
- Kolten Wong – Wong has a huge DCPA boost today.
- Wilmer Flores – Day game Wilmer, except he isn’t getting a lefty to smash against, but if he is hitting top 3 in the lineup he should have good opportunities.
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THIRD BASE
- Matt Chapman
- Ryan McMahon
- Manny Machado
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SHORTSTOP
- Bobby Witt Jr
- Jeremy Pena
- Jose Barrero
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OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Trey Mancini
- Seiya Suzuki
- Harper, Bryce
- Victor Reyes
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OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Juan Soto
- George Springer
- Brandon Nimmo
- Eloy Jimenez
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OUTFIELD – Value
- Riley Greene
- Sunday Whit Merrifield
- Aristides Acquino
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I obviously missed that Nolan Arenado was back last night. Given that he had been thrown out on Thursday and then off for the birth of a child he was the obvious Chairman. But we won’t make that same mistake today. The week long drought ends today…
- Trey Mancini – OF – Houston Astros – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Juan Soto – OF – Padres
- Seiya Suzuki – OF – Cubs
- Salvador Perez – C – Royals
- Jose Abreu – 1B – White Sox
- Matt Chapman – 3B – Blue Jays
- Bobby Witt Jr – SS – Royals
- Kolten Wong – 2B – Brewers
- BONUS ………………… Bryce Harper – OF – Phillies
- BONUS 2 ……………… Pete Alonso – 1B – Mets
- BONUS 3 ……………… Manny Machado – 3B – Padres
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FADES?
I listed a good amount of hitting spots today, but there are a few teams which I am not heavy on today and others might be. They are the Phillies, Reds, White Sox and the Fenway game. Of those, the White Sox might be the most tempting vs Zach Davies but it’s really just Eloy and Abreu.
CORE PLAYS
Salvador Perez
Trey Mancini
Victor Reyes – Value too good to pass up
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BETTING PLAYS
ML Parlay: Jays, Rays, Astros, Mets
Overs, overs, overs.