I have taken plenty of Thursday’s off this season when we have short slates, but I just had to jump in for the Mets @ Phillies considering … THEY ARENT PLAYING TOMORROW?  Why?  This is so stupid.  They are just ‘off’.  On a Friday.  In the middle of a series.  Supposedly this is done so that they could have a Thursday night national TV game.  Okaaaay? You can’t show us White Sox and Yankees? There has to be a better game than the damn Mets and Phillies, right? What else? Cardinals and Ro… oh, okay.  I get it now, nobody wants to watch those teams.  Fair.   WEATHER Giants at Braves – They PPD Heavy winds out in Philly & New York   Well, shit, maybe I should have stayed on the bench today.  You’re basically locked into either trusting Jose Soriano in Sacramento (I dont hate it), or going with the two lefties in Kauffman Stadium tonight. Ryan Weathers would normally be in the mix, but you should be fading him given the short slate ownership. Noah Cameron:  Cameron has pitched well for KC, which is a rare bright spot & a slight disadvantage for the Cardinals going vs LHP Matthew Liberatore Jose Soriano:  Could be limited to about 5 IP, short slate makes him viable though.     METS Old habits are hard to kick, and this includes the Mets first game in Citizens Bank Park theory. Juan Soto Francisco Alvarez Jared Young   WHITE SOX / YANKEES Chicago is going to nuke Weathers here.  Small park with that wind and his HR struggles. Miguel Vargas Randal Grichuck Junior Perez   CATCHER Francisco Alvarez   FIRST BASE Jared Young Ben Rice   SECOND BASE Marcus Semien Jazz Chisholm Jr.   THIRD BASE Miguel Vargas Alec Bohm   SHORTSTOP #AlwaysBobbyWitt Jacob Wilson Bo Bichette   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Juan Soto Randal Grichuck AJ Ewing Mike Trout   Juan Soto – OF – New York Mets – Chairman of The Dongers Club Francisco Alvarez – C – Mets Mike Trout – OF – Angels Ben Rice – 1B – Yankees BETS Mets/Phillies OVER 9.5 Cardinals/Royals UNDER 9

Happy National Mascots Day to all who celebrate!   WEATHER All clear   GAVIN WILLIAMS (DK: $9300) I would like Gavin even on a big 15 game slate with other aces going.  Yes, Milwaukee is a tough and good team at home so it might be a low scoring 1-1 game, but he has been far more consistent this season & is not walking many batters in general.  His last two starts were repeats vs the Yankees & has been good vs NL teams.  It’s a 20 fpt game. MAX SCHERZER (DK: $6500) I understand that in 2026 we’re not rushing to use Scherzer and in a park which is typically known for offense.  But, the Red Sox management is so dumb that they put together the worst home Fenway team in the history of Red Sox baseball.  This team has a weakness in that they’re really not a power hitting lineup consistently.  So the flaw that Max has, might be negated enough to get him through 6 & he’ll have the win if he does that. KYLE BRADISH (DK: $8300) Going west for Bradish, he is the type who gets a nice benefit from pitching in the pitcher friendly Seattle versus his normal Baltimore home.  Blind logic says dont use the SP twice in a row vs the same team when the second game is on the road.  Big exception though when the pitcher did get hit the last time and now shifts to better conditions.  That said, he is below Max for a reason.   BLUE JAYS Springer, Kirk, Kaz, Clement.  Gotta play guys not related to Vladimir Guerrero Sr first, but I think Vlad is too cheap to not use in a full 5 man Toronto stack. Kazuma Okamoto George Springer Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Alejandro Kirk   CUBS Ian Happ Alex Bregman Nico Hoerner   PIRATES Spencer Horwitz (1B) Bryan Reynolds (OF) Brandon Lowe (2B)   CATCHER Alejandro Kirk Adley Rutschman Drake Baldwin   FIRST BASE Spencer Horwitz Paul Goldschmidt Vladdy Jr – Jesus Christ man, do something….   SECOND BASE Nico Hoener Brandon Lowe Travis Bazzana   THIRD BASE Kazuma Okamoto Miguel Vargas   SHORTSTOP Gunnar Henderson …. …. …. …. …. …. …. keep scrolling …. …. …. little more …. …. …. stop! …..  Luisangel Acuna …. If he isn’t the cheapest SS left, take whoever is.   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore George Springer […]

WEATHER All clear   Nobody is the true number one today.  I am still not on the Nolan McLean bandwagon and I refuse to take my loss on the Mets sucking in Cincinnati – so you won’t be hearing any Nick Lodolo touting from this fella here today. Casey Mize (DK: $9900):  If you are some weirdo who thinks Aaron Rodgers was the best Quarterback in 2011, or you like to play hitters against  your pitcher then this is your guy – because you can play him, take the -1 for the Yordan Homer, but also get the +14 for Yordan homering. Kyle Leahy (DK: $7700) Zach Littell (DK: $5800):   Cannot stop lefties.  Lucky for him, that’s really just Jensen and Cags.  Massey is likely back in after sitting the last two nights, so I don’t think he has a big game here either.  It all leads to Littell doing better than he should.     MARLINS Liam Hicks Kyle Stowers Owen Caissie METS Beaux Bichette Mark Vientos NATIONALS James Wood Curtis Mead   CATCHER There should be a couple lefty lead off catchers today.  Hicks is a much preferred option in my mind simply against Painter. Liam Hicks Carter Jensen Francisco Alvarez   FIRST BASE Spencer Torkelson Mark Vientos   SECOND BASE JJ Wetherholt Bryson Stott Gleyber Torres   THIRD BASE Curtis Mead Blaze Jordan   SHORTSTOP Beaux Bichette Trea Turner   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Yordan Alvarez Jac Caglianone Kyle Stowers Brandon Marsh   OUTFIELD – TIER II Herbelto Hernandez James Wood Riley Greene   Yordan Alvarez – OF – Houston Astros – Chairman of The Dongers Club Trea Turner – SS – Phillies Liam Hicks – C – Marlins Mark Vientos – 1B – Mets BONUS ….. Spencer Torkelson – 1B – Tigers   BETS Marlins ML

THE U. S. OPEN Highlights:  Shinnecock Hills Golf Club Par 70 – 7,440 yards Only one hole has water 151 Bunkers Fairways are wide but roll so some good shots will get to the rough NOTE:  This is a 156-player field.  Top 60 and ties make the cut!!  This will be a brutal cut this […]

WEATHER Expect a delay for the Giants-Braves game in Atlanta, but I think they’ll play.   DAVIS MARTIN (DK: $9000) Martin versus Cole is a very good RH pitching matchup.  Martin had one blip up in Minnesota two starts ago, but we have chilly temps for this time of year in Yankee Stadium + No Judge of course & Martin really isn’t bothered by lefties all that much.  His breaking pitches and his fastball will keep him upright enough to match Cole toe for toe in what I have as a good pitchers duel. ANDRE PALLANTE (DK: $7800) I’m not one to lean into BvP that much – but I decided to check while looking for a single reason to not use Pallante tonight.  I found nothing.  In fact, I found what the overall data and logic says.  Machado/Bogaerts/Merill/Tatis really haven’t done a ton as long as Pallante is not walking them and the Cardinals righty is keeping his walks down & keeping the ball down as well.  San Diego looks awful offensively tonight. GERRIT COLE (DK: $9500) I cannot write what I wrote above, and then write what I am going to write below and not come to the conclusion that Gerrit Cole is one of the top 3 arms tonight.   GUT PICK MERRILL KELLY (DK: $6900) This pitching slate absolutely fucking blows.  Watch all the ‘blah’ guys get you are 14 tonight without being blown up.  Such is the case for “please close the roof and I wont suck” Merrill Kelly – who is at the end of his line as a pitcher and hopefully never appears in this article again after we sneak out one more 13 point game from him.   OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS Hunter Brown will return for Houston tonight.  They got him 10k against a Tigers offense that’s woken up.  Just silly Logan Gilbert likely with the most Logan Gilbert line ever tonight.  6 innings, 3 ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 5 K. Robert Gasser is tempting vs the Jose Ramirez-less Guardians   ASTROS Framber is BACK in Houston???  Aye.  I know he’s not very tall, but he is himself a lefty and this is not usually good for the pitcher coming back home. Christian Walker Isaac Parades Jose Altuve Yordan Alvarez   METS I’m going right back here.  Sure, I was too cute last night.  Now we get reverse blowout theory + […]

WEATHER Wind blowing out to RF in Wrigley over 10  MPH and temps above 70 degrees.  Not extreme, but favorable. Roof Closed in Arizona Roof Closed in Houston Roof Closed in Texas All games play.   MacKenzie Gore (DK: $7800) Gore at home and a LH heavy lineup.  The Twins are 24th in AVG/SLG vs LHP on the season and not really a big breaking ball hitting team.  Should be a Gore 8+ strikeout game. Ryne Nelson (DK: $6500) Roof closed season in Arizona now.  Angels offer lots of strikeout upside still.  They’ve got the second highest projected K% tonight & not enough lefties to really offset that with power surge.  A Trout double is fine, the rest of the team will be quiet.   MY SLEEPER PICK   After those two there’s really not much else.  I can see Walbert Urena and Shota Imanaga being popular plays, and obviously Chase Burns is the ace going today that everyone will use.  I have no desire for that group.  Shota’s gonna be okay but is seeing Colorado in back to back starts. Jared Jones (DK: $7000) Jones should still be a little restricted on his PC and yes it is scary to use pitchers in Sacramento, but the weather isn’t insane and don’t confuse this with the Vegas series.  Jones has been pitching fine since coming back, he should be good here.     TIGERS A very underrated park shift and one that Spencer Torkelson loves.  Kai-Wei Teng also really struggles with lefties, walking them almost 14%, so throw in that the RHH should be able to power to LF and the lefties are on base and we have a fantastic 8 or 9 spot opportunity. Spencer Torkelson Riley Greene Kerry Carpenter   CUBS Chicago kinda woke up out in San Francisco, which being in San Francisco can definitely help with the ‘woke’ if you know what I mean.  Okay, bad jokes, but hey, I tried.  Back at home they’ll be a chalky spot versus Mikey Lorenzen & we should just be chasing a couple guys for solo homers. Ian Happ Moises Ballesteros   METS On the opposite end of the chalk spectrum is the Mets.  Oh, they’re on the spectrum all right, or at least being a Mets fan probably is.  However, the Mets into Cincinati historically no matter who is on their team tends to boost their stats.  It’s […]

WEATHER All clear   SPENCER ARRIGHETTI (DK: $9900) Spencer is such a fine fellow.  He is going to spend 2+ hours of his Sunday afternoon with the Baseball Handicap Association of Kansas City, MO.  What a fine gentleman he is. EMERSON HANCOCK (DK: $8800) We gotta make our stand on some of these “its hot and good wind” games today.  Hancock gets hit hard up in the zone, the Nats lefties will want it down and in.  It could lead to him taming Wood and Abrams like he has done for lots of LHH on the season. WILL WARREN (DK: $7800) Alejandro Kirk is not going 3-3 again after his return yesterday.  So that’s one threat.  It’s literally just Okamoto and a not so motivated Vlad Guerrero Jr. here.   SUNDAY SLEEPER Zac Gallen:   Two games that I thought were going way over went way under and here I am going with a bad pitcher who hasn’t been good in a while.  Yep.  The Reds are righty heavy, they don’t really hit RH fastballs extremely well but do swing at them a ton.  I can see a path here for Gallen to start well and then go into cruise mode if his hitters wake up and spot him 4 runs early. FADE Casey Mize:   Mize returns now from the IL and I was going to be a sheep and just try to say – hey, no Bubba Ramirez – lock him in.  That’s a little bit of a trap.  He’s never been a 110 pitch guy to begin with and needs lots of ground balls and good drop on his splitter.  If he does get that, he can handle Manzardo/Schneeman.  But if he doesn’t this is still a good lefty lineup and in good conditions for lefty power today.  This is a sneaky over game.   METS Sundays.  Citi Field.  Overs.  We should be paying close attention here to Bo Bichette, who is hot and being almost as much of a free swinger as Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau you have to think his hot streak continues until he has a day off.  If Benge is on base, he’ll score and Elder has struggled with Soto in 9 prior meetings.  Mets do well, Riley/Olson/Smith do well for the Braves.  Yeah, I think we get the over here pretty easily. Bo Bichette Carson Benge Juan Soto   OTHER TOP GAMES Padres/Orioles […]

Lets win some money today.   WEATHER All clear   Today’s highlight is the return of Tarik Skubal to the mound for the Tigers.  A quick return for the ace who really just seems to be trying to put himself out there to prove he should get all the money in the world.  The man is a fade today, but I’m really curious how much they let him go because I think he is going 150% and high risk of another injury. Meanwhile, with Eight Games today that are at 4PM on Saturday’s where the lowest temperature is around 86 degrees I don’t think you need to be too upset when your pitcher gives up a 1st inning homer or suffers a difficult path to producing a good score.  Thus, we could say just don’t pay up at all, but there are some viable options to look long and hard at Yoshinobu Yamamoto (DK: $10,800) Chicago’s on a roll and I have to admit, I am happy for them.  Actually, no, fuck the White Sox forever because Jack McDowell did not deserve the Cy Young in 1994.  But alas, we go here to pick on them with Yoshi.  He’s one ace I trust among the three. Luis Castillo (DK: $7200) Back in the rotation and I doubt Seattle is looking to pull him before he gets to 100 pitches.  The Nationals offense has drastically dropped off.  Wood/Lile/Abrams definitely are going to get on base, but with the feeling you just wanna sneak by with pitching today I’ll go down on price & his veteran ability to hopefully get out of a jam is adventageous. Sean Burke (DK: $7000) Maybe Ohtani returns, maybe not.  Shouldn’t matter.   Everyone?  I can easily justify a case for just about every team on the afternoon slate today. Diamondbacks vs Reds Absolutely in love with this game.  They had men on base all game last night but neither team could put the kill shot on the two lefties early.  Now we get two guys not likely to get ahead to get out of jams.  And day game in Cincy with that small ballpark just adds fuel to the fire.  Which position player is throwing the 9th for Cincy??? Corbin Carroll Pavin Smith JJ Bleday Sal Stewart Tyler Stephenson   Mariners I like Cade Cavalli – but his fastball is not good enough to use 40% […]

A nearly perfect weekend set of series begins tonight and there are two games in the Turbo window that easily could have been pushed to 7:05 PM giving us an almost perfect slate. I say almost perfect, because once again I question why the Cubs do not automatically get a home game at 2:20 PM on Friday’s in the summer and if we cannot give them weekend home series then lets at least have some game on this afternoon?  I mean, the damn World Cup is supposedly this massive event and yet, it’s hardly ever on itself.  Give us a damn game this afternoon, we deserve it.   WEEKEND PREVIEW So, what makes this weekend so fun?  It’s built with only three divisional series and they’re all very good (Tigers/Guardians, Braves/Mets, Yankees/Blue Jays).  It also features only ONE “Home & Home” repeat where MLB is forcing teams to play each other twice in a short time span (Cubs/Giants).  Here’s some immediate narrative/Dongers club thoughts on the series that stand out to take note all weekend & oh yeah, pretty much EVERY school system is out as of today. Marlins at Pirates:  Marlins sneaky lefty power could be huge all weekend.  Hate that this is a ‘Turbo’ slate today, but we get Pirates afternoon Saturday overs tomorrow, so thats nice. Mariners at Nationals:  The Nats are dying a fast death right before our eyes.  The hitting is slumping at times but is good at home and their bullpen is crumbling.  For those long time DFS players, this is also the series that really cemented the Nationals not giving two shits about weather and PPD because they once played through a monsoon to get the Mariners out of town as quick as they could.  O/U on 2.5 position players pitching in this series.  Take the over. Padres at Orioles:  The Machado return to Camden is one thing & getting it on a weekend for him to hit one out Sunday is a blessing from the schedulers. Tigers at Guardians:  Lefties in Cleveland! Rangers at Red Sox:  I got nothin. Zona at Reds:  Ooh, now this is sweet.  Always love me some Arizona on the east coast in the smaller dimension parks.  Neither pen is good.  There’s a Chairman here tomorrow. Braves at Mets:   Austin Riley & Ozzie hit well in NY Yankees at Jays:   No Judge/Stanton should help out the Jays, but I […]

If one plays a Thursday afternoon five game slate, they should be in the mindset of doing one quick analysis, set your lineup and then move on. Do not tinker. Do not over think. Just click, and play.   WEATHER All clear   Christian Scott (DK: $8300) Tyler Phillips (DK: $6200) … Arizona was the team who originally invented the South Beach theory, so I gotta always pick on them when leaving Miami. Keider Montero (DK: $7700)   Royals / Rangers Kauffman Stadium is always weird with these summer day games.  Sometimes you get a 14-11 game like we should today and sometimes the Royals show up and you get a 2-0 game.  I’m loving the way Jac is swinging right now and they’ve seen Rocker so they can hit him.  If anyone deals in this game, it’s Wacha, but I cannot trust him to go more than 5 and the Royals pen will serve up 5 runs on their own as well. Jac Caglianone Josh Jung   Marlins Road Merrill Kelly and he struggles with lefties – which is what the Marlins strength is right now.  Kyle Stowers has turned it on of late with a homer yesterday and looks to be very healthy.  I think the Marlins wind up being your best 5% owned play today. Kyle Stowers     CATCHER Carter Jensen Moises Ballesteros   FIRST BASE Vinnie Pasquantino Michael Busch   SECOND BASE Marcus Semien Nico Hoerner   THIRD BASE Josh Jung Maikel Garcia   SHORTSTOP Bobby Witt Jr. Kevin McGonigle   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Jac Caglianone Kyle Stowers Owen Caissie Riley Greene     Jac Caglianone – OF – Kansas City Royals – Chairman of The Dongers Club Josh Jung – 3B – Rangers Kyle Stowers – OF – Marlins Michael Busch – 1B – Cubs