Happy Friday! We have Diamondbacks (ARENADO) vs the Cubs in Wrigley this afternoon, a decent Turbo slate and then an okay Main slate tonight.
WEATHER
All clear
COLE RAGANS (DK: $8300 – FD: $8200)
If your not really looking to use a pitcher off a ceiling start then I certainly can respect that, but like, hey, that’s your choice and all that. So, yeah, good luck. The command was on point vs the Angels and thus it kinda helps when you flip from 4+ walks a game to none and look at all those whiffs back on the scene. The Angels BTW are one of the top walk teams in the league this year. A mechanics fix and Ragans is in the midst of one of his multi game dominant streaks. Trust the southpaw up in the great north west tonight because this feels like a throwback Clayton Kershaw late night west coast hammer hot stuff…
SHANE McCLANAHAN (DK: $8200 – FD: $8000)
Everything after Ragans is even for me today. He’s the ace. The Giants could become a threat vs LHP if Willy Adames ever gets his head out of his ass — not likely going to happen yet. Handle Ramos and Chapman and this is not a tough spot for McClanahan. The downside as always is that he could easily just stop at 60 pitches and you’re left with a boring ole 8 FPTS.
ZACK WHEELER (DK: $9500 – FD: $9000)
Second start back for Wheels & he gets a Marlins team returning home from their west coast trip where they played extremely well in LA. The one guy who would scare me in normal simulations is Kyle Stowers but he has just one game in the last 5 with a hit and isn’t walking much either. His slump likely breaks soon but we’ll deal with that on Sunday.
OTHER PITCHING NOTES
- Emmett Sheehan: The best of the other options.
- Noah Schultz: I love that he is coming out on fire. Tatis is not struggling, he’s just weak as hell and cannot get the ball over the fence, but he’s still making good contact and a big threat — as are Laureano and Machado. I’ll pass on road here.
- Bryan Woo: No. Hard no.
HOUSTON ASTROS
The Red Sox are calling up prospect Jake Bennett. Bennett is a 6’6 lefty who throws with long arm extension relief similar to that of like Chris Sale or Max Fried, but with less velocity.
Jose Altuve, upon hearing this …
And we can stack the full team here, as it’s a veteran team that knows Fenway well & gets a tall left handed glass of milk on the mound making his debut for Boston. Walker and Yordan are elite plays as well.
Donny, play the music for the Chairman tonight.
- Jose Altuve
- Carlos Correa
- Yordan “Hey, thanks for betting me against Bassitt and losing all your money, now watch me double dong against a lefty” Alvarez
KC ROYALS
You can call me a homer if you want but I’ll take the lowest owned team tonight in a pitchers park on a Coors slate. The Coors game does not tempt me one bit & I just cannot stop thinking about how KC is going to crush Woo. He hasn’t handled lefties with ease & the Royals have three who can go yard.
KC is my strongest gut play on the board, dont let me down boys.
- Carter Jensen
- Vinnie Pasquantino
- Bobby Witt Jr.
- Jac Caglianone
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
We now go live to a white hot Trea Turner upon landing in South Beach for the weekend, a spot he has always for some reason raked in.
Okay, to be honest, he really looks more like Kyle from Road Trip, but either way between his recent play at the plate, stadium history and the Marlins still being weak at holding runners this should be a nice weekend for him.
Shoot, the more I think about it, this whole Phillies team has Road Trip vibes with it. The manager is out, they just won a double header against a bad Giants team and now they travel down to South Beach. Party time is definitely coming and not until after they get some offense going. It’s The Phillies 2026 Road Trip …
OTHER “POPULAR” GAMES
- Jays at Twins: Two bad pitchers, cold conditions. I’ll fade it mostly all around.
- Orioles at Yankees: I think your upside is better with a road team like Houston or KC or Philly than the Yankees. Warren is an OK SP option too the more I look at it.
CATCHER
- Carter Jensen – Unless KC does something moronic and sit Jensen he is going to homer. And Salvy likely DH’s tonight or plays 1B if they wanna let Vinnie rest, but why … why would KC do that. The proper lineup is as follows. Maikel, Bobby, Vinnie, Salvy, Jensen, Jac. Anyways. Yes, I like the Royals tonight. Jensen is the core bat. He’s homering at $4100, so why are we paying above $4100 for anyone else?
- Salvador Perez
- Yainer Diaz
FIRST BASE
- Christian Walker – Everything about Bennett screams that Walker should crush him. We’ll see here.
- Vinnie Pasquantino
- Bryce Harper
SECOND BASE
- Jose Altuve
- Marcus Semien
- Ozzie Albies
THIRD BASE
- Jose Ramirez
- Bo Bichette
- Junior Caminero
- Austin Riley
SHORTSTOP
- Trea Turner
- Bobby Witt Jr.
- Miguel Rojas
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Yordan Alvarez
- Kyle Schwarber
- Austin Martin
- Dylan Beavers
OUTFIELD – Tier II
- George Springer
- Teoscar Hernandez
- Andrew Benintendi
- Jac Caglianone
- Jose Altuve – 2B – Houston Astros – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Carter Jensen – C – Royals
- Trea Turner – SS – Phillies
- Yordan Alvarez – OF – Astros
- Christian Walker – 1B – Astros
- Kyle Schwarber – OF – Phillies
- Jose Ramirez – 3B – Guardians
- Dylan Beavers – OF – Orioles
- BONUS …. Marcus Semien – 2B – NY Mets
BETS
- KC Royals ML
- HOU Astros ML
- Guardians / Athletics OVER 9.5
- Blue Jays / Twins UNDER 8.5
NEW TOOL
I’ve been doing a little working on a new tool which is looking at various factors on top of our HR model and other models to pick one hitter from each team as the top HR play of the day. Here’s the board if you are interested in mixing and matching some of your own HR picks. These are all data/model driven.
