Brace yourself for a wild week in MLB DFS scheduling. There are a TON of mid afternoon games all week this week — including a wild Wednesday slate and a mini Friday slate. Mostly this is due to the MLB schedule and teams who were on the road last weekend opening up their season at home either today, tomorrow or Friday of this week. Some of the schedule start times are very questionable — including the desire for teams to continue to play 6:30 PM EST games which has the sites including them on a mini slate before the main slates.
All in all, I think there was a lot to DISLIKE about the fact that we had a five game Friday slate and then two FIVE game slates on Saturday. Basically, it might feel like the season is a Month old but we haven’t had a ‘normal’ slate yet. Tonight is close to that with seven games on a Monday night, but you gotta remember we have had
- Opening Day
- Three five game slates spread out over two days (Fri/Sat)
- A Sunday slate
That’s it so far. We haven’t had the nice routine of Mon-Tue-Wed 9-13-10 game slates. It’s coming and I greatly prefer that routine so hopefully we start to get lock at 6:40 PM EST in stead of 7:05 when those spots arise.
In other news, the Warden heard me playing Opera Music as a result of having MPE removed on FanDuel and has brought it back today, so we’re going down into isolation because the morons at FanDuel are just being Obtuse.
WEATHER
There are no issues today, and it is a little chilly out in Anaheim for the Astros/Angels game which really brings me sadness as it’s a good spot.
Expect the roof to be closed in Seattle which helps hitting slightly.
Jake from deGrom
Don’t worry, everything is going to go surprisingly good because like a good neighbor, Jake de Grom is just that good. First start of the season for deGrom and he hasn’t pitched in a little longer than he would have liked since the Mets opening series vs Washington was PPD. But still, for only $10.7k tonight you can get by with even a mediocre outing from deGrom. I am not expecting him to blow the slate up, but I will take the free points as an SP1 on DraftKings.
Frankie Montas
The secondary choices tonight are extremely lacking in their strike-out upside, but the other pitcher in this game (Dustin May) is certainly going to gain a lot of attention and I think it’s the wrong side. I’m a known anti-Dustin May guy and while Oakland is terrible and can’t do much offensively right now, they do profile well against him in a couple top of the order spots. Plus with the Dodgers likely always babying May I would prefer to have an extra IP or so from Montas. The Dodgers get that ole first game out of Coors spot too which favors a nice underdog play on the Oakland side tonight — seeking their first win.
Michael Wacha
Now you understand why I am fine taking that deGrom spot on DK, no? Look, I kind of want to say Pivetta can do well but not against Meadows-Randy-Lowe. No sir. Boston can’t hit, they aren’t good and they haven’t been good for well over 2 years now. I don’t known why everyone insists that they’re a good offense but Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz aren’t walking through the back doors at Fenway Park anytime soon. There’s a better chance of fireworks coming from Ben Afleck and Jeremy Renner in Fenway than Xander, Devers and Renfroe. Hell, X is on life support right now…. Oh wait, wrong X.
PRIMARY SPOTS
ASTROS
Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa
Houston is on a bit of a pissed off tour to start the season. You want to bean Correa? Okay, he’s a lock to get into a brawl this season. Kyle Tucker has always hit LHP well, should continue to hit well in this park (he’s had limited time here but has great history so far) and will be looking for his first (and second) HR’s of the season in this series. Tucker plus a locked in Bregman and Correa give you a nice Astros stack tonight against Jose Quintana.
WHITE SOX / MARINERS
I’m playing this as the Mariners win, but I do have a ton of respect for the White Sox bullpen. With the roof closed in Seattle it should benefit the hitting (like it would in Milwaukee) and Carlos Rodon is one of those fragile chalk pitchers today. He has never really shown ability to have good consistent control and if he does get pulled early we get the very weak part of the White Sox pen (the middle). Seattle is far more likely to string out a bunch of hits than homers, so the HR upside comes from the White Sox side.
SECONDARY TEAMS
SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco hits LHP very well and Morejon gives up lots of Hard contact. He’s going to be the chalk SP2 that you want to get a leverage lineup in against today.
NEW YORK METS
A Dongers Club Manifesto theory is that the Mets always do well in Philly in the first game of a series. However, the PPD series over the weekend can’t help their hitters timing and they do have a terrible history of just not hitting when deGrom pitches. Mostly a one off spot
TAMPA BAY
If it was warmer in Boston (50) and wind wasn’t cross from left to right then we’d have reason to look here heavily. But those conditions just aren’t very favorable. That said, it is Nick Pivetta and the Boston bullpen on the menu, so not much else needs to be said.
CATCHER
- James McCann
- Martin Maldanado
- Yasmani Grandal
FIRST BASE
- Matt Olson
- Ty France
- Andrew Vaughn
SECOND BASE
- Brandon Lowe
- Keston Hiura
- Jose Altuve
THIRD BASE
- Alex Bregman
- Evan Longoria
- Kyle Seager
SHORTSTOP
- Carlos Correa
- Fernando Tatis Jr
- JP Crawford
OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore
- Michael Conforto
- Austin Meadows
- Kyle Tucker
- Austin Slater
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Yordan Alvarez
- Luis Robert
THE DONGERS CLUB
- Kyle Tucker – OF – Astros
- Austin Slater – OF – Giants
- Keston Hiura – 2B – Brewers
- Austin Meadows – OF – Rays
- Matt Olson – 1B – Athletics
- Alex Bregman – 3B – Astros
- James McCann – C – Mets
- Fernando Tatis – SS – Padres
- BONUS ………………………………………….
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