A lot of Baseball for a Monday but they did is wrong in cutting the Turbo slate into its own early window set of games. There’s even a 4th game in Texas today between the Mariners and Rangers if you are into that sort of thing.
But then, it’s a Monday in July, what else are you doing at 2PM?
WEATHER
Delays, Delays, Delays. Lets see what we get here….
- Guardians at Reds: This should start on time and then rush to a finish
- Cubs at Cardinals: Likely chance of storms, but they get the game in. Extremely hot here.
There is a general feeling that after the All-Star break you simply lock in on your model & ratings and trust it on a daily basis, with a few pivots here or there. Simplify the process with MLB and trust the data to cover 70% of what you have. Well, tonight is one of those nights my friends with pitching.
The bottom line is you need to obviously factor in a chance of storms in the Cleveland / Cincinnati game, but I think they start on time and get through enough before any bad weather comes in. This puts Mr. Burns at the top. After him though, we’re basically leaning into the trust that the Angels lineup is more ass than not most nights & Imai can post back to back 6 inning quality starts.
THE MODELS RANKINGS….
- Chase Burns (DK: $11,300)
- Tatsuya Imai (DK: $6,800)
- Max Fried (DK: $8,600)
MY PERSONAL FAVORITES
- Max Fried (DK: $8600): Second start off the IL, and Fried is probably going to be over owned considering the White Sox are decent at home. That aside, the southpaw was fantastic in his return & is a favorable 3k below Chase Burns. I’d start here because he is the anchor and should have enough room to go up to 75-85 pitches tonight. He’s essentially an SP2, with upside as an SP1 until they are comfortable letting him pitch until Boone has to stomach going out there to remove him in a 1-0 game.
- Brandon Sproat (DK: $7300): Keep scrolling, yep, keep going. There it is. The Brewers at the Giants. Yes, that’s the game & series we want to be invested in for pitching. Who’s going for the Brewers? Who cares. We’re using them all series.
MY PERSONAL FAVORITES
- Payton Tolle: Going into Sacramento will scare some. I think it’s not as bad as you might be led to believe, but enough of a reason to not go here.
- Martin Perez versus Zach Thornton: Feels like a yucky 4-3 game, neither pitcher posts a great score and neither posts a negative score.
It’s such a cruel cruel world that the Diamondbacks @ Pirates game is not on the MAIN slate tonight. I would take a game stack of that with a -10 pitcher over any of these main slate teams.
CUBS vs CARDINALS
Lots of individuals here look like we need to just start off with this game and then build around it. The homer fest between Jordan Walker and Seiya Suzuki specifically is one of note and Ian Happ always seems to murder St. Louis too.
- Jordan Walker
- Carson Kelly
- Seiya Suzuki
- Ian Happ
RED SOX
I guess we have to go here. The 2026 version of the money-ball Athletics going up against the … Athletics. This hinges entirely upon what the Athletics do with their bullpen arms tonight, because Boston’s not going to come out and just crank 8-10 home runs. They gotta get men on base via walks and then have the key hits. But Contreras, Mead (should be in) and even Duran could be your HR plays here.
- Willson Contreras
- Wilyer Abreu
- Jarren Duran
ASTROS
Yordan or Bust.
- Jeremy Pena
- Yordan Alvarez
CATCHER
- Carson Kelly
- Connor Wong
- Jonah Heim
FIRST BASE
- Willson Contreras
- Nate Lowe
- Nick Kurtz
SECOND BASE
- Caleb Durbin
- JJ Wetherholt
- Ozzie Albies
THIRD BASE
- Amed Rosario
- Curtis Mead
- Bo Bichette
SHORTSTOP
- Jeremy Pena
- Elly De La Cruz
- Masyn Wynn
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Yordan Alvarez
- Wilyer Abreu
- Jordan Walker
- Ian Happ
OUTFIELD – TIER 2
- Seiya Suzuki
- Jarren Duran
- Yordan Alvarez – OF – Houston Astros – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Carson Kelly – C – Cubs
- Jordan Walker – OF – Cardinals
- Willson Contreras – 1B – Red Sox
- Ian Happ – OF – Cubs
- Amed Rosario – 3B – Yankees
- Jeremy Pena – SS – Astros
BETTING CARD
- Cubs / Cardinals OVER 9.5
- Atlanta ML
- Houston ML