It’s the first Tuesday in May and tonight is not a random Tuesday, but we do have a Dongers Club Appreciation Contest for you to join. Keep in mind that CJNIII or whatever his username is (Carmen, the Dolphins fan and resident Philadelphia Weather Guy) won the 4th leg of the April contest and has a 10 point bonus coming into this month. Here are the rules for this month’s contest.
- Will run every Tuesday in May for the Main Slates. May 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th
- Combined score from your top 3 scores on those four slates will be used. This allows for you to miss one contest and still not be dead.
- Each week will have a different “THEME” associated with it, YOU MUST FOLLOWS THE RULES PEOPLE!!!!
- If you do not follow the rules, there will be a penalty assessed to your score for that week.
- Winner take all prize getting either a Dongers Club Swag Pack or Site Credit
- The person who comes in second place will receive a 28.3 point lead going into the June contest and oh boy if they blow that the jokes will be real…
Tonights Contest Link
https://www.draftkings.com/draft/contest/107559126
Tonight’s Rules — THE RULES ARE IN THE CONTEST HEADER!!! NO EXCUSES!!!!
- You must stack 5 hitters from one team in your lineup. Which means playing Nola and Bauer aint so easy tonight. YOU MUST HAVE FIVE HITTERS FROM THE SAME TEAM! I dont care if they are all 2k punts who arent playing. You must have 5!
- If you have 4, I’ll deduct points.
- If you have 3, I’ll deduct points.
- If you have 2 …. shame on you. pay attention cheater!
Tuesday, May 4th
Thanks to some rain outs last night today will be a 12 game slate with one of the games only appearing on DraftKings as the Dodgers and Cubs will play a 7-inning game there as part of a double header make-up.
Games with storms
Mets at Cardinals – I think it will be fine, but we gotta check again around 6:30 pm
Braves at Nationals – Storms should be gone by first pitch, however it is the Nationals so who the hell knows. It should play, there is a window to play.
Tigers at Red Sox – The forecast calls for Sprinkles! I kid you not… (see below)
Astros at Yankees – Game plays
Brewers at Phillies – Game plays
I was in love with Aaron Nola as the SP1 on FanDuel tonight over deGrom and thought he would be a great pivot on DK too, now that deGrom is scratched that is going to change things from an ownership perspective quite a bit. We don’t want any part of the Mets-Cardinals game and even considering a Cardinals stack to me just isn’t worth it. So wipe that game off the books. What this does do is bring Trevor Bauer squarely into play for me on a lineup where I am rolling a cheap Tigers stack against bad Pivetta chalk and paying up for both pitchers on DK. Otherwise, nothing else really changes other than we’ve gotta trust a mid range SP2 which was already the case.
Aaron Nola (DK: $10,400 / FD: 9,200)
And here is your guy who is stupidly priced on FanDuel, thanks for coming everyone! I love this spot for Nola against a bad Brewers lineup.
No seriously, Nola is a machine at home and especially in night games at home where he has held hitters under .200 since 2019 and now he gets a 28%+ strikeout match-up in Milwaukee. Yes, Yelich is back but so long as Ryan Braun doesn’t show up and hit some batting practice then we have to like Nola tonight as our SP on FanDuel.
And now we look for an SP2 tonight on DraftKings…
Nope. Turn the car around and go back and plug in the two high priced guys above and punt.
In reality, we can’t do that very easily tonight, there’s not enough value out there unless you are getting really creative. I do like two teams below that are fairly affordable on DraftKings to make it work, but in reality we need a diamond SP2 tonight to pair with Nola if you want to be stacking and that’s why I made the contest tonight a “MUST HAVE A 5 MAN STACK” rule. If you want to play Nola+deGrom that is what the optimizer is there for. Lock them and 2 of your favorite bats in and then hit opto and pick one of the three choices.
Justin Dunn (DK: $7,700)
This is the most tempting of the cheap arms tonight. This kid has stuff and I have labeled him a baby Flash Gordon. The main concern is his command at times and power lefties, two things the Orioles are severely lacking. When I said Baltimore would hit in Seattle I didn’t realize he would be one of the guys they face. He has 6-8 strike out potential tonight.
Mike Minor (DK: $7,100)
Franmil is a big concer however Minor should get around 2x tonight on DraftKings tonight. I wouldn’t rush here at all on FanDuel though and you gotta have either deGrom or Nola in your lineup on DK tonight. Do not go two mid range pitchers IMO because Nola is throwing a gem himself and deGrom is still alive.
Quick thoughts on other guys to expand your player pool with if we lose deGrom to rain or you just need salary
Trevor Bauer: Bauer is going to throw a complete game tonight. But it’s only 7 innings, so is that CG bonus enough to beat out Nola if Nola somehow manages to get an 8th inning in? It’ll be close, but don’t overlook Bauer as another option tonight on DK. (Bump with deGrom out)
J.A. Happ: He doesn’t strike out a ton of guys but the Rangers don’t hit LHP very well either. Solak, Garcia, Trevino probably could have a big hit off him and Gallo is sneaky, so I do not want to ride with a no K J.A. Happ when I can have higher upside plays elsewhere. Prefer Dunn/Minor over him.
Johan Oviedo: Why not right? The Mets can’t hit when deGrom pitches, it’s the most long running tradition we have. In fact, if you stop and think about it there’s more data to back this up as a large enough sample size than actually indicating that deGrom himself is an elite pitcher. If you want to dismiss the Mets hitting stats whenever he pitches as not enough data then how can you actually include his data? I am being very sarcastic here, but … it’s actually true if you stop and think about it.
ATLANTA BRAVES
Freeman, Riley, Swanson, Ozuna
Nationals Park and Humidity? Oh boy. The Braves were very quiet on Sunday after a late night in the ‘Tampa’ area if you know what I mean and then had a Monday off (note to self going forward on Tampa Beach Theory?) before going up to Nationals Park to meet ole Joe Ross and the Nationals. Which is basically the equivalent of a bad 60’s band which never made it on the Ed Sullivan Show. The Ed Sullivan Show was in the 60’s right? Anyways, I just wrote about 50 words more than I needed too to tell you that Freeman is the National Killer and the RH bats on the Braves should benefit against Joe Ross who is allowing an ISO well over .200 to RHB this season. He struggled with the Cardinals on a similar type night at home and should struggle here too.
TAMPA BAY RAYS
Meadows, Lowe, Zunino
I can easily make a case that despite Yankee Stadium and Nationals Park being on this slate that this is your best stadium out there. Anaheim has continued to play well for hitting and especially lefty bats out there with the short wall in right field. Now the Rays will get what we had hope for last night in a match-up against a RHP — only tonight with former Ray Alex Cobb on the hill we’ll be eating that shit up like I would at a picnic in August. Ok, horrible Dad joke about Cobb and Corn on the Cobb… Get it? Anyways. Meadows – Lowe season tonight as they both go yard and Zunino the killer of AL West parks should be back tonight.
HOUSTON ASTROS
Correa, Bregman, Brantley
A tradition unlike any other, the Astros whooping up on the Yankees. Buzzers or not, Domingo German has been bad this season and no there’s no domestic violence jokes to be made in this article, but Carlos Correa has gone on record since he came into the league that he wanted to be Derek Jeter and he wanted to be recognized in the big city and thus he’s always been one to shine when in Yankee Stadium. Great match-up as well since German is struggling with RH bats.
DETROIT TIGERS
Tascha! Did you know Pivetta was going to be the biggest chalk flop of the year, even in the Thunderdome? So what are you waiting for, the Tigers to score 10 runs?
Ahhh….
Miguel Cabrera
Robbie Grossman
Castro, Goodrum, Candelario
Schoop there it is..
Schoop there it is..
Schoop there it is..
RAMOS!
CATCHER
- Mike Zunino
- Wilson Ramos
FIRST BASE
- Prince Frederick County Freeman
- Jonathan Schoop – We got all these MPE guys out here and yet on DK you can’t stack Miggy and Schoop for the right leverage on Pivetta. The fucking Pivetta sheep are going to run so good tonight because when he is getting lit up by the Tigers since he doesn’t throw change-ups nobody can benefit with the leverage play of the Miggy-Schoop there it is play.
- Vladdy G
SECOND BASE
- Brandon Lowe
- Niko Goodrum
- Nick Solak
- Luis Arraez – Basically the one cheap Twin you can get tonight to play with the high $ pitching…
THIRD BASE
- Alec Bohm – $3700 Cleanup vs Poop Face Eric Lauer.
- Austin Riley
- Rafael Devers
- Jeimer Candelario
SHORTSTOP
- Carlos Correa … Correa in New York where he has always wanted to play.
- Dansby Swanson
OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore
- Austin Meadows
- Mitch Haniger
- Ronald Acuna Jr
- Max Kepler
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Michael Brantley
- Kyle Schwarber
- Jorge Soler – The only Royals I like today are Hunter Dozier and Soler. The Royals generally do not do great against pitchers they’ve really never seen before.
OUTFIELD – Value
- Adolis Garcia
- Kyle Tucker
The Dongers Club
- Austin Meadows – OF – Rays – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Freeman, Freddie – 1B – Braves
- Carlos Correa – SS – Astros
- Brandon Lowe – 2B – Rays
- Alec Bohm – 3B – Phillies
- Kyle Schwarber – OF – Nationals
- Max Kepler – OF – Twins
- Mike Zunino – C – Rays
- BONUS ………………………….. Michael Brantley – OF – Astros
LINEUP CONSTRUCTION THOUGHTS
Chalkiest Stacks
- Red Sox – Meh, Fulmer keeps the ball down and the weather isn’t going to help the Boston fly ball bats much here either. This game has to be won with singles and walks.
- Braves – Good chalk IMO
- Royals – I am not heavy on the boys in Kauffman tonight.
Team with most upside getting overlooked and also not being attacked with a SP (i.e. Low owned secondary stacks)
- Astros
- Phillies – Tiny park here and Lauer has blow up potential.
- Blue Jays
Best Leverage Spots
- Tigers
- Mariners
3-Entry Max Builds
- Nola & Dunn
- Nola & Minor
- Bauer & Nola … with Rays and Tigers