A Happy Friday afternoon to each and every one of you. Guys, it’s the last Friday in May and …. GUESS WHO IS GOING TO POUND HIS CHEST THAT HE WAS RIGHT?????????
That’s right. The Summer Baseballs are coming out tonight. Which, is a little worrysome for my pitcher play of the day, but ah, fear not, what can go wrong. We nailed it last night and we’ll nail it again tonight.
I say all of this just to really give a PSA that we’ll have an afternoon article for what should be the MAIN slate tomorrow and I expect there to be a million homers on Saturday afternoon. So, just plan accordingly.
WEATHER
- White Sox at Orioles: They moved this game up to 4:30 PM, so cross it off…
- Rockies at Mets: Evening rain
MAX FRIED (DK: $10,300, FD: $10k)
You can make your decision one way or another on this series, I don’t care. I’ve seen it a million times and I can tell you exactly how this series plays out. There will be one game that’s a pitchers duel. There will be another game that is off the charts offense 10-9, and then there is another game which starts out white hot with 5 runs in the first three innings and then completely dies off.
The Sunday game is the ESPN Sunday night game, so that’s the latter of those three with Yarbs vs Yamamoto going. Tomorrow night is Will Warren and Landon ‘My job is to give up Homers’ Knack…
Tonight is the pitchers duel, and it features home town boy Max Fried back in L.A. where hes has good starts (sure, last year wasnt) and comes in pitching as well as he has all season & might (i.e. SHOULD) be under 5% owned on a slate with limited pitching depth options up top. Lock and load a 7 inning 2 hit performance from Friex.
NICK PIVETTA (DK: $9800, FD: 10,300)
This is the obvious one everyone will draw towards. PETCO’s been warming up of late, but a night game is still one that usually favors the pitchers. Pittsburgh’s likely to hit under the mendoza line today vs Pivetta & his strikeout range is going to be 6+ with 6 innings and limited damage. Hard to see him not delivering as a chalky SP1.
OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS
So those two are the 1a and 1b for me tonight. One chalk, one contrarian. This means everything else is either you pivot off one of them down to a cheaper arm or you pay up for both. I’ll pay up for both, but if lineups dont make it easy then we have these as secondary options. Although Framber Valdez (DK: $9200) definitely is a third option in the top end as well.
ZACH EFLIN: This is the best SP3 tonight IMO. But the rain could push him out early.- Jeffrey Springs: Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas/Whatever. They’re winning tonight and Springs just needs to get through 5 innings to get the win.
- Have fun paying $8700 for Matthew Liberatore
- Cal Quantrill … Home/Road splits have been good for Quantrill. Do we factor that in much here? I mean, the guy still is Cal Quantrill. However, not many offenses are more lost right now than the Giants.
ATHLETICS
Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, Shea Langeliers
Last night was 1992, tonight is 1989 and the Athletics are going to look like McGwire, Canseco, Henderson, Henderson, Steinbach, Weiss and yes, Carney fucking Lansford out there.
BRAVES
Marcell Ozuna, Matt Olson, Ronnie Acuna Jr.
I didn’t initially come running to this game, but my lord how good is the Braves BvP against Giolito? You’re gonna hear that touted up in a few spots and it really should get noted how Ozzie Albies has finally started to hit with Acuna back now. Who is the position player that’s pitching for Boston tonight to serve up the 2nd HR of the game to Ozuna? Rafaela? Story? Nick Sogard???
NATIONALS
Josh Bell, James Wood, CJ Abrams, Keibert Ruiz
The Nats are on fire and the D’Backs are scuffling. Things should flip at some point, however for now we gotta like the Nats and their lefty heavy lineup as long as they are facing a mediocre RHP. Kelly limits the long ball we this year – but has still yielded a .442 xSLG, the second highest of his career. Also, Josh Bell is 4-10 with 2 doubles and 2 HR off him lifetime.
OTHER NOTES
- METS: The rain lingering around could be the downfall here. Otherwise, please justify how the Mets aren’t scoring 6+ tonight?
- TIGERS/ROYALS: Please go back and re-read what I wrote about Fried and the Yankee/Dodger series. Ditto this one, only check who is pitching tomorrow and then do the math on this game has the runs. It’s tonights.
CATCHER
- Drake Baldwin
- Shea Langeliers
- Keibert Ruiz … This fucking guy
FIRST BASE
- Matt Olson … I’m not a big BvP guy but hard to not noticed 7-15 with 4 HR.
- Josh Bell
- Paul Goldschmidt … Just throwing this out there in case I forget tomorrow (I won’t…). He has owned the Dodgers in L.A.
SECOND BASE
- Ozzie Albies
- Jose Altuve
- Colt Keith
THIRD BASE
- Nolan Arenado
- Austin Riley
- Miguel Andujar
SHORTSTOP
- Bobby Witt Jr.
- Jacob Wilson
- CJ Abrams
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Lawrence Butler
- Marcell Ozuna
- Riley Greene
- Wyatt Langford
OUTFIELD – Tier II
- Brent Rooker
- Ronald Acuna Jr.
- Tyler Soderstrom
- Lawrence Butler – OF – Athletics – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Nolan Arenado – 3B – Cardinals
- Bobby Witt Jr – SS – Royals
- Wyatt Langford – OF – Rangers
- Marcell Ozuna – OF – Braves
- Matt Olson – 1B – Braves
- Miguel Andujar – 2B – Athletics
- Keibert Ruiz – C – Nationals
- BONUS …………… Riley Greene – OF – Tigers
TOP BETS
Athletics ML
Tigers/Royals OVER 8
Red Sox/Braves OVER 9.5
Yankees/Dodgers UNDER 9