FanDuel got the slate right tonight, DraftKings did not with it cutting off at 7pm.  Not that it matters much with once again the A’s having a home game and no humidor in place in Vegas.   WEATHER Rangers at Royals:  Should see a brief delay here in game.   Chris Sale (DK: $11,000) I dont think Sale has a dominant ‘insane’ Sale start tonight back in Chicago – but you are not likely to see him have a negative score to where fading him puts him in the easy win spot.  Possibly there is some pop-up storm that knocks him out of the game, but the pitching choices get pretty slim. Reid Detmers (DK: $7500) We go to Anaheim for pitching once again – which feels weird, but thus is the slate.  Lambert’s in play too in a game stack play.     Same song and dance once again tonight.  Just impossible to ignore the Vegas game with no humidor in place to reduce the carry on the Baseball’s there and Coors is once again a favorable spot to go into IMHO. Brewers / Athletics Christian Yelich Brice Turang Garrett Mitchell Sal Frelick Carlos Cortes Brent Rooker   Cubs / Rockies Lets just keep pissing on ourselves here. Alex Bregman Ezequiel Tovar Ian Happ   Blue Jays / Phillies I hope Luzardo is chalk tonight because he should get light up.  Not sure it’s enough to full stack the Jays, but enough to fade Luzardo and go a one off or two. George Springer, Vladdy Jr, Kaz Okamoto Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner     CATCHER If Jonah Heim plays again for the Athletics, I think he’s just too hot in Vegas to ignore. Francisco Alvarez Carson Kelly Braxton Fulford   FIRST BASE Vladimir Guerrero Jr … He is going to wake up a little today. Harper, Bryce Alec Burleson   SECOND BASE Marcus Semien Willi Castro Jeff McNeil   THIRD BASE Alex Bregman Josh Jung Alex Karros   SHORTSTOP Ezequiel Tovar Corey Seager Trea Turner   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Brent Rooker Ian Happ Christian Yelich Kyle Schwarber     Vladimir Guerrero Jr – 1B – Toronto Blue Jays – Chairman of The Dongers Club Brent Rooker – OF – Athletics Alex Bregman – 3B – Cubs Jeff McNeil – 2B – Athletics Christian Yelich – OF – Brewers BETS Milwaukee/Athletics OVER 14.5

There is a heavy Turbo/6PM slate and I hate it because we drop down to a 9 game MAIN slate with lots of good action in the Turbo window.  Thus we miss out on me being able to tout Logan Gilbert and Paul Skenes.  I know you are all so greatly disappointed…   TURBO SLATE PICKS SP Rankings Max Meyer Payton Tolle / Nick Martinez Eric Lauer   Offense/Stacks Rankings Yankees (Lefties) Orioles/Mariners Dodgers (Lefties) Tigers   MAIN SLATE WEATHER All clear of PPD risk. From a ballpark/weather standpoint you have very warm and wind out to RF in Coors to go along with another Vegas game and extreme heat in Kauffman Stadium.   Good night to consider two lineups – which is partially driven by the hitting chalk but also because I think you take a gamble big time on SP2 options today.  For the aces, these are the winners… Chase Burns (DK: $10,500) – Lineup #1 Now this is a massive arm-talent shift for the Padres to have to swap from Abbott to the hard-throwing RH Burns. San Diego is 23rd in SLG against RH sliders (and 27th in wOBA against them) while sitting dead last in the majors in SLG vs RHP (.275). They’ve got no ability to turn on anything with power, and add in Burns’ arm (our model has him at a 25.7% strikeout rate, projecting ~9 K) and we’ve got an easy 25+ spot. Zack Wheeler (DK: $10,700) – Lineup #2 Yeah, this is a risky pitching slate today. I’m once again going to pick on Toronto and hope the Phillies pitchers can deliver at a high price. Sánchez got there with the whiffs last night & Wheeler should tonight as well.  5 HR in his last two games is a real concern, so don’t expect him to be perfect – we need him to not walk guys and then give up 2-run bombs. Wheeler is my pivot off Burns if you slide down for a second lineup.   SP2:  THIS IS A JOSE URENA SLATE!!!!!! For those who do not know, a time long long long ago, I won a $1500 ticket on FanDuel to one of their big contests.  Well, my dumb ass said, lets get sneaky on this random Tuesday slate with lots of offense projected and take this Jose Urena fella, he looks like he could have some talent.  No […]

WEATHER All Clear of any PPD risk The Brewers and Athletics series will be played in Las Vegas.   If you are wondering, yes, the stadium is obviously really good for hitters.   This is the pitchers slate.  You have to be pretty crazy conspiracy theorist to think that the Baseballs are going to be juiced enough to blow up every pitcher tonight (**** KISS OF DEATH ****).   Thus on one hand, you just pick anyone, but on the other, how can you not want to pay up and take 30 potentials? Cristopher Sanchez (DK: $11,500) Vlad just isn’t going to hit until August and knowing how the Jays look he might just take the rest of the year off at that point.  Without him producing this lineup is a little starved of RH threats on a consistent basis because Okamoto has cooled off and Alejandro Kirk isn’t quite back yet (although there’s a chance he returns this series).  But for now, we trust the hottest pitcher in May and into June. Miles Mikolas (DK: $5000) You might want to go digging here for a cheap SP2 just to fit a full team stack in that Vegas game.  Or, in general to get some good one off OF out there tonight.  Mikolas is certainly not going to post a 30, but he is going to every once and a while manage to go 5 innings when not in a really hitter friendly spot.  Giants had a long trip back from Chicago last night (or this morning?) and now they gotta turn around and try to hit at home — something they don’t do well. Spencer Arrighetti (DK: $9500) In the – he was also pitching well – category is Arrigheti, who had a big blowup with the NL Pirates, but now gets a familiar and not great at avoiding strikeouts Angels lineup.  I’m moving him down to third because I just don’t see Sanchez having a hard time in Toronto & I don’t see some good bats failing tonight.  Thus, how do you confidently have Arighetti in your lineup without Sanchez?  You…  Don’t.  So he’s more of a FD play or a “I got really creative with my bats and made it work” pick.   DONT LOVE Gavin Williams:  Yanks just saw him and did fine.  It would make perfect sense to see an almost repeat performance today. Logan Webb:  I […]

WEATHER Mostly good to go.  A chance of showers in Atlanta and Minnesota could bring delays but no PPD.   JACOB DEGROM (DK: $9600) Prefer deGrom over Schlitter for the Ace today.  He’s really been held back by the long ball, something that certainly is a risk vs Cleveland’s heart of their order (Ramirez, DeLauter, Manzardo).  But he has also been great vs lefties in general & we know Cleveland is going to try and throw a ton of those at him today.  I trust the vet, with the roof obviously being closed in the graveyard down in Texas. SHANE BAZ (DK: $8500) There’s something here.  I have never been a Baz guy, but maybe he’s just dominant within the division.  Three straight starts 6+ IP, 4 total ER, keeping the walks down, striking out at a good rate and his hard hit rates are in general pretty balanced across all his pitches.  It’s a battle of his Knuckle-Curve and Gausman’s splitter today up in Canada.  And, well, I don’t play one of these guys on Sunday’s…  So lets go with Shane and the Orange Birds. SUNDAY SLEEPER Aaron Nola:  No man in 2026 should look at Aaron Nola in a day game and think —  yes, I wanna put money on that.  But, you.  Yes, you.  You know its the right play.  Don’t try to sit there scared that Colson or Benintendi (okay, he might) are going to hit one out to RF.  This won’t be a repeat of yesterday on Painter — who absolutely has not turned the corner.  A veteran pitcher like Nola saw that and will come out today with the responsibility to push through 7 innings to rest the pen.   Whenever I see tons of pretty good hitting spots I naturally gravitate towards a one off day.  This comes with the caution that we’re always likely to see one or two teams just explode late in games off bullpens on Sunday’s.  Often times, that is also a road team who you might not expect it.  So, I present to you first the tier of teams who could be those road teams to just nuke the bullpen today. Mariners:  Maybe my favorite sleeper team today.  Yes, definitely my favorite.  Good weather in Comerica, horrific Tigers pen & Naylor/Arozarena/Julio have good history vs Flaherty Athletics:  Power lefties against Burrows.  The Houston pen is pitching much better though […]

I’ll just be doing this one article today with nothing for the NIGHT slate except for a quick summary at the bottom of this article.   WEATHER All games will play.  There’s a slight chance you see a minor delay in either St. Louis, Philly or Wrigley just due to storms or rain drizzle but I doubt it.  It’s humid, hot and mid afternoon Saturday.  You know the drill by now.  1st inning homers galore at 4PM   KYLE BRADISH (DK: $8000) When you think Bradish is done he rises up and pitches like an ace.  That’s what he’s doing right now.  So, yeah, naturally everyone is going to take him at this discount & watch him implode?  Stop being so negative.  Bradish’ curveball has nearly a 50% whiff rate & Vladdy/Varsho/Okamoto/Sanchez are all swinging at it a ton.  In fact, Okamoto might spin himself like a robot and kick some poor little kid swinging at it. BEN BROWN (DK: $8500) I have to admit that I did not have Ben Brown being the Cubs best pitcher on my BINGO card, but then that’s not really saying much these days.   We have reverse blow out theory in full effect after the Cubs were a major let down on Ferris Buehler Friday.  Brown’s held opposing RHH to a .182 wOBA and is striking out the lefties at nearly a 30% clip.  If he keeps those metrics up today he’ll be just fine avoiding Willy Adames depositing balls into the bleachers and Raffy Devers realizing he too can hit home runs.  Pass through those two bats & Brown is gonna pitch a shutout through 6. ALSO DONT HATE Landen Roupp (DK: $8800):  If playing I would pair with Brown Shane McClanahan (DK: $9500):   Looks like he is tiring out.  The price isn’t reflective of what you will get, but he is safe from a -13.   THE ONLY CHEAP ARM I THINK I LIKE ZACK LITTELL (DK: $5700):  High Risk spot here.  The rare Saturday 4PM game in Arizona for … some … weird … reason?  Huh?  What are they doing?  Must be a National TV day.  So, yeah, lets roll with Littell as a ‘Saturday’ Sleeper here.  Wait, I gave zero reason, right?  Mostly beacuse Arizona’s only got two lefties at the moment and they’re 1-2.  If Littell catches them sleeping in the 1st inning he’ll cruise to a 14-16 FPT […]

We go with an almost perfect Friday today but there are 2 games in the 6:40 window which did not make it onto the Main Slate.  Enjoy a good Wrigley series as the Giants & Cubs should battle it out with bullpens reeling and that thing in the air you smell is a Seiya Suzuki 7-10 day streak that is about to light up very quickly with home runs almost every day.  Probably starting tomorrow. The MAIN slate is very deep tonight with choices.  I went almost 5 deep on pitching as well as the stacks.  I am standing by my belief that we’re into high scoring season on the schedule.  Runs will be up, multi-homer games will appear, and someone is gonna go yard 3 times very soon.  Bullpens are also wearing down…   WEATHER We have chance of pop up storms in Minnesota and St Louis tonight.  Both though are really good hitting environments overall outside of that and I wouldn’t fade them even though they are divisional games   Trey Vesavage (DK: $9000) There’s one guy in Adley Rutschman who is a slight concern, but the issue with Yesavage is only going to be if his control is off.  I think with the depth on the pitching front tonight it can be tempting to look around for someone maybe in a less hitter friendly spot – but his upside should be the key here.  7 strikeouts is a great floor & he blows past it. Ryan Weathers (DK: $9300) If the velocity is up in the upper 90’s he’s gonna mow through Boston.  They cannot hit anything over 95+ mph. Parker Messick (DK: $9600) Texas ranks 27th in avg, 25th in SLG and 21st in K% against LHP on the season.  Roof will be closed in Texas again and Messick’s really good at avoiding long bad innings. Chrsitian Scott (DK: $7600) The one thing the Padres do well is hit fastballs, which is their only hope here that they can drill a couple out on Scott.  We can live with a solo hr or two as long as he goes 6 innings.  What we cannot have is a pitcher vs a team who gets into long innings (20+ pitches), walks guys, has men on base and struggles.  None of that is what we expect vs San Diego and not from Scott right now.   OTHERS I THOUGHT […]

WEATHER All clear   CHRIS SALE (DK: $10,500) RYNE NELSON (DK: $6200):  On a short slate you really just need that one big contrarian spot.  This is mine.  I think Nelson shuts down the Dodgers in a get-away game.   No single team tonight is the ‘play’, but rather hoping you get the right one offs correct.  One player I dont think will be chalky but is a must is Kody Clemens for the Twins.  Not the Chairman, but close. ROYALS / TWINS:   Perez, Massey, Clemens, Buxton CUBS:  Suzuki ASTROS:  Pena, Parades   CATCHER Salvador Perez – Nice of Andrew Benintendi to set the stage as being Mr. Target for the real Mr. Target to roll in.  This, of course, only after Edwin Encarnacion has been retired.  Long live the Parrot Moises Ballesteros   FIRST BASE Christian Walker Matt Olson   SECOND BASE Michael Massey Ketel Marte   THIRD BASE Austin Riley:  Position sucks.  It’s here or Ike with Pena in a mini Houston stack Isaac Paraedes   SHORTSTOP Jeremy Pena Geraldo Perdomo   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Kody Clemens Brent Rooker Ronnie Acuna Jr. Bryan Reynolds   Jeremy Pena – SS – Houston Astros – Chairman of The Dongers Club Kody Clemens – OF – Twins Ronald Acuna Jr – OF – Braves Salvador Perez – C – Royals   BETS Royals / Twins OVER 9 Houston ML  

WEATHER I am sure I will write about this in tomorrow’s Testi-Friday article, but the weather is really fucking good this weekend and into next week.  Combine that with schools closing around the country and the need to shut down the lockout talks and folks you know it’s time for some fucking explosive games. Enjoy the offense.   Not a clear path here to finding two clean pitchers, but it is a 4 game slate, so what do you really expect? It appears that for some reason the Red Sox are going to forego the opener for Bryan Bello despite the drastic splits differences in his results when he has to start the game versus coming in after someone has already set the table for him.  If he winds up pitching after someone, I like him.  If he doesn’t, I don’t.  It’s that simple folks. So we simply go with Wheeler – day game – mid week – at home – against a team who cannot hit worth shit right now.  Pretty straight forward that he goes 7 innings, allows 1 ER and strikes out 10.  After that, it’s pure survival mode with Crow & Bello being potential options to get there, although I do have desire to see Cecconi pitch a gem. Zack Wheeler Slade Cecconi   BREWERS Walk, do not run, because who the fuck wants to waste their energy running right now?  But still, get your ass over to the Brewers for their 7 run outburst that’s coming in the first 3 innings once again today.  Contreras & Yelich are locks. Yelich Turang Contreras   PHILLIES Harper Marsh Schwarber     CATCHER William Contreras   FIRST BASE Harper, Bryce Rhys Hoskins … Really like Rhys here as well.   SECOND BASE Turang, Brice Jackson Holliday   THIRD BASE Jose Ramirez Alec Bohm   SHORTSTOP Willy Adames Andruw Monasterio   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Christian Yelich Jackson Chourio Kyle Schwarber Brandon Marsh   William Contreras – C – Milwaukee Brewers – Chairman of The Dongers Club Christian Yelich – OF – Brewers Jose Ramirez – 3B – Guardians Bryce Harper – 1B – Phillies … 1st inning, 2-1 count. Kyle Schwarber – OF – Phillies   BETS Padres at Phillies Guardians at Yankees Orioles at Red Sox Giants at Brewers

WEATHER All clear   Really tough pitching slate tonight but not because we have no options.  It’s the opposite in fact and I think I am being a little too critical on Skenes/Ohtani, but neither are the first two whom I gravitate towards.  I would start with locking in on hitters for a single lineup user tonight and then fall back into the pitching from there, because if you can pivot up to either of those aces then sure, go ahead. GERRIT COLE (DK: $9500) Cole should not get the easy 10K that he had vs the Royals last start, but he’s looking very good and should be into the mid 80’s or even 90’s on his pitch count tonight.  I get that (like me last time) you could be hesitant to use him because of PC limits but I see no reason not to trust him. ANDRE PALLANTE (DK: $6800) Best cheap option against a mediocre offense tonight. OTHER SP NOTES Shohei Ohtani:  As great as Ohtani is, you kinda need to consistently have the upside over 30 FPTS as a pitcher to be considered a lock at 11k.  With so many good options tonight he just doesn’t show that enough to me because as good as he is, he’s baseball great, not DFS great here.  Give me Skenes instead if you do want to pay up. Chase Burns:  He was sick enough that they pushed him back to Wednesday.  Probably should avoid but this is really Burns vs Cole IMO. Logan Webb:  Tough opponent and need to see him in a good routine with his sinker before you trust him right now. Gavin Williams:  Won’t make it through 5. MacKenzie Gore:  Upside is there but Cardinals long ball potential if the curve isn’t breaking in the St. Louis heat is too risky.   BRAVES The Patrick Corbin experience will not extend past July and this should be the month that his old body starts to wear down.  Atlanta, if you cannot score between 2-8 runs in the first 3 innings tonight then just move on to hockey season.  Oh wait, you don’t have a hockey team.  Well, good luck. Ronald Acuna Jr. Mauricio Dubon Austin Riley   CUBS Chicago gets some better weather at their home friendly environment. Ian Happ Nico Hoerner   CATCHER Ivan Herrera Carson Kelly Tyler Stephenson   FIRST BASE I really just want to […]

TURBO SLATE SERIES NOTES Padres at Phillies:   Machado in Philly will homer much like Machado in DC homered. Tigers at Rays:  Is it weird that when I first started to type this I almost went Lions at Bucs?  I guess it’s another high scoring spot today.  Flaherty gets hit and both pens are struggling again.   Let me know when the Caminero homer lands. Orioles at Red Sox:  Shane Baz, if you are ever going to be anything half way decent, now is the time. Marlins at Nationals:  Logically this one has good DFS value in it after the Tigers/Rays game.   Been a while since Caissie/Marsee did anything.  Ride them.   WEATHER All clear again Roof should be open in Milwaukee & closed in Arizona again.   Davis Martin (DK: $9700) If you get anything close to what he has done all season and what he just did vs the Twins you’ll take it and be happy.  Only concern is facing lineup twice in a row in a week and that sometimes goes opposite – but he’s been so consistent it’s hard to go against him now. Logan Gilbert (DK: $9000) He is fixed.  Is that only because I stopped touting him up?  Maybe.  The Mets offense is perfect for Gilbert though.  They don’t walk and they’re not a heavy enough power team to do damage in Seattle. Grayson Rodriguez (DK: $6500) One of my bigger contrarian takes tonight is that the Rockies (Sugano) and Angels (Gray-Rod) game is a very quiet, sneaky pitchers duel.     I feel EXTREMELY confident in the three pitchers above and also EXTREMELY confident that tonight is not a heavy 10+ run night for multiple teams, but one you should focus a build around 2-2-2-2 setup or 3-2-2-1… PIRATES Best game tonight, former Pirate Mike Burrows gets to once again struggle with lefties in a good lefty lineup.  If (when) Horwitz gets on base he will DEFINITELY score because Burrows has almost no shot at getting anything past Lowe/Reynolds. Spencer Horwitz Bryan Reynolds Brandon Lowe Oneil Cruz   WHITE SOX Unlike Martin, he is not good and so the twice in one week gets compounded.  Key word here being pounded…. Miguel Vargas Chase Meidroth Andrew Benintendi   DODGERS The hit it hard last night, they should be able to finally hit with men on base tonight.  This is less about chasing homers and more about […]