Anyone else find it weird that MLB has almost no day games this week?  I realize they are scared of warmer weather but it’s just weird still.  There are a ton of series which will go into tomorrow still and speaking of tomorrow, I will be off from writing an article as Rob Geriak steps in for the MAIN slate tomorrow night to provide his MLB thoughts to help you out.  And if you aren’t reading his NASCAR stuff each weekend you should be to pick up some winners there as well. Tonight we have 12 games.   WEATHER Blue Jays at Orioles – The balls should be flying out of Camden tonight (Baseball’s that is). Rockies at Red Sox – Expect this game to have a chance of a delay at the start.  It is possible that they PPD it but I doubt it.  Don’t wanna touch either pitcher, so it’s a matter of waiting it out for hitters or not. Yankees at Mets – Similar deal here, but I believe this one plays Roof closed in Arizona   After a very rough start on the week with pitching we have a loaded group today, including Gerrit Cole vs Justin Verlander as the marquee game of the night.  Not only is there weather issues there, but we do not want to touch that with a 50 foot pole….  And it’s not a 10 foot pole because of inflation, duh. TOP ARM Tyler Glasnow (DK: $9400, FD: $10.1k) Will the fans come back out to Oakland tonight after creating a pretty cool environment last night in their protest of the Ownership?  The team has won 7 in a row after all and has done it against some quality teams.  Tonight though Glasnow could thrive off a little bit of a let down and more so in MLB a team who is a little too aggressive/full of themselves at the plate.  High fastballs and lots of whiffs on the slider from Glasnow tonight should get the job done. Clayton Kershaw (DK: $10.8k, FD: $11.1k) So my pick last night of Yasmani Grandal actually fits into a theory tonight because he has caught Kershaw before, but it was definitely a while ago.  That one little bat is why I move Kershaw down to the #2 spot behind Glasnow – similar to Max being #2 last night because of Stanton.  Unlike Max though, […]

Broken down by pricing tiers, Mark Farris outlines his favorite PGA DFS plays on DraftKings

We almost have perfection today as School is out around most of the country and teams have removed the silly 6:10, 6:40 local start times on the East coast.  Except for Detroit, where they still want people to show up before 7pm to watch the lowly Tigers play Baseball.  I really don’t think it helps the ticket sales Detroit but hey, do whatever you gotta do.  The DFS sites of course just cannot live without that extra 30 minutes of lock time to get more entries into contests as they have opted to say no thanks on the Braves/Tigers tonight and give us just a 14 game slate.  One away from the perfection of 15 on a Tuesday. Lots of new series starting up today and by new I mean spots which you haven’t seen all season like the Jays in Camden, that annual Subway Series, Brewers making their annual trip to Minnesota, Pirates at Wrigley, 2019 World Series re-match in Houston, the “we both got rid of Franmil Reyes” series in PETCO and White Sox at Dodgers.  Oh, and yes, the Reds and Royals are playing again, sorry in advance…   Although with the Reds winning last night they are one step closer to winning the NL Central and with the Athletics winning last night, the Royals are one step closer to having a chance at the #1 pick in next years MLB Draft.  So, that’s kinda nice I guess, except MLB of course now has a lottery system so I’m sure the Royals will screw it up somehow.   WEATHER Pirates at Cubs – Wrigley could have trouble draining today which could lead them to decide to PPD this one.  Again, no pitcher consideration in this game, but either the game is PPD before it locks or they play Rockies at Red Sox – Should not be as ugly as it got in extra innings last night (cash that Rockies win though), but chance for an in game delay does loom here.  No impact on using pitchers though, so move right along. Roof closed in Arizona. Roof should be closed in Texas.   There’s no Zach Eflin tonight folks, it’s a bunch of bums obviously according to the comical pricing algorithm on DraftKings.  By comical I mean, we have nobody who is 11k but the slate includes Zack Wheeler, Corbin Burnes, Max Scherzer and George Kirby — of which […]

A typical Monday with just seven DFS games to satisfy your thirst tonight and only one team who was home yesterday is also home tonight (St. Louis)   WEATHER No concerns. The roof will be OPEN at Chase Field.   This slate is void of high strikeout arms.  Of the 14 options today, only three of them are coming in off a start where they had over 30% CSW rate and 7 of them were below 20%.  On the season there are only three who average over 30% total.  Not a ton of consistency on the board today. Meanwhile, Zack Eflin is $11,000 versus Oakland tonight.  Zack Eflin. Yes, that Zack Eflin. TOP ARM(S) Jesus Luzardo (DK: $9600) I am not in love with Luzardo today, but then I am not in love with any pitcher tonight.  He has the one thing nobody else has and that’s high end strike-out rates vs a team who strikes out a ton.  He also has what everyone else has and that’s major red flags. The Mariners smash fastballs from southpaws, he has always been a horrible west coast pitcher as well and Ty France/Teoscar Hernandez come in hot.  But, 7 strikeouts over 5 innings should negate the damage enough.   SECONDARY ARMS Luke Weaver (DK: $7500, FD: $) There’s Good teams, and then there are Bad teams, then there’s 50 feet of crap.  Then there’s the Royals.  It’s not one specific thing with the team and the offense certainly isn’t the main culprit here, but you can just tell when you look at a team when the hitters are in sync.  Baseball is often misunderstood in that regard because everyone thinks of it as an individual game, however momentum or “streaks” in Baseball come from when you can tell that a lineup is taking their approaches at the plate with a team mentality and not “hey cool, I’m new to the big leagues, let me see what I can do here”.  It’s a winning culture thing and right now the Royals just don’t have it.  So maybe there’s a Pratto long double tonight or more likely Melendez has a 2-2 night off Weaver who is horrible vs LHH, but the Royals aren’t posting a 5 spot on Luke and they’ll run themselves out of any big innings tonight allowing Luke to do just fine. Connor Seabold (DK: $5400) On a normal slate we […]

If you woke up just now and didn’t look at FD or DK earlier then congrats, you missed out on some drama.  Let me catch you up real quick here. The Astros and Guardians game is moved up to 12:40 due to big storms coming in later in the day.  So thus the slate locks at 12:40 now on both sites and will include that game. The Diamondbacks and Tigers are playing the Sunday Brunch game, I am sure it will be very entertaining. The Padres and Rockies game is included on FanDuel main.   WEATHER HOU at CLE – As mentioned above, they have bad weather coming in and thus want to get this game going faster and over with. WSH at ATL – Storms throughout the day.  I really dont like this game. CIN at STL – This will be delayed for sure, but they should be able to wait and play MIA at CWS – Similar here, likely delay and then play without issue.   TOP ARM(S) There’s a high contrarian route which I will outline below, but really your MAIN lineup should be focused around these two guys, with the first one being the #1 overall play on the board today. Freddy Peralta (DK: $8800, FD: $10.2k) Winners of four in a row, the Oakland Athletics have dreams of replicating Moneyball or replicating the Major League film script, but alas that should come to an end and one of these days very soon you’ll see that no hitter notification that Oakland is being no hit.  Today could be the day we get that along with a 12 strikeout performance from Peralta.  Oakland lacks talent and they cannot hit quality fastballs, which they should see over and over and over again today. Hunter Greene (DK: $8000, FD: $9600) – Slight weather concern I am taking a calculated risk that the Reds and Cardinals simply take the smart approach and wait for the rain to clear and then get the game played.  St Louis is off tomorrow and Cincinnati just has to go to Kansas City, so very limited travel if they wait until 4 or 5pm to start this game.  Once they do start it, Greene is going to mow through the Cardinals.   SUNDAY SLEEPERS Normally your Sunday sleeper is someone like Taijuan Walker in the 5500-8000 price range who is going to pitch a nice […]

Overview Sonoma Sunday should be exciting just like the XFINITY race was on Saturday night. The drivers will go 110 laps on the 12-turn road course and with qualifying set we know where to look for drivers. Most comparable tracks: Watkins Glen International, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Circuit of the Americas *Note: all pricing is DraftKings […]

Overview Saturday night road course racing at Sonoma is on the menu as the drivers will handle the 12-turn 2.520-mile road course. With a mix of road course ringers and Cup drivers among the field, this is sure to be a fun and exciting race. Qualifying is set so let’s dig into who we’re looking […]

The DK main slate is locking at 1PM and runs through the 4PM window of games, which totals 11 games but does not include the 6PM Houston vs Cleveland game. FD main slate includes 4PM through 10PM, which is 7 games total.  FanDuel early is the 1PM window of games. This will be the only article and it will cover the DraftKings slate.   WEATHER Padres at Rockies – Coors Field:  Some showers coming through here during the gametime window.  Could cause a delay or two, but the game will finish barring a water mane break or something like that. Dodgers at Phillies – CBP:  Ball should jump here today. Royals at Orioles – OPACY:  Same here. Rangers at Rays – COSTCO:  Free snacks today down at the Tropicana Costco Warehouse.   TOP ARM(s) Sandy Alcantara (DK: $9500) I still believe in Sandy who appears to be pitching poorly (because he kinda is) but still has very good stuff and is still an Ace.  The walks have gone up somewhat, but last start it was back to normal and just had some struggles with a lowly Athletics team.  I don’t see him struggling again with this White Sox lineup.   SP2 CANDIDATES Johan Oviedo (DK: $7500) Mets are without Pete Alonso (obviously) and just not great offensively of late versus RHP hitting .238 with a 30% strikeout rate over the last week.  Lots of risk here certainly with Oviedo, but it’s a dicey slate overall for pitching, so trying to find someone under 8k for my SP2. RYNE NELSON (DK: $5400) Best among the cheap options.  I would suspect we see ownership going to Andrew Abbott in his second start, but I would rather pick on Detroit than even the lowly Cardinals.   OTHER PITCHING NOTES MacKenzie Gore and Michael Kopech have the best strikeout upside among the other pitchers going today not named Nate Eovaldi (expensive vs a good Rays team).   ORIOLES Rutschman, Santander, Urias Anthony Santander should break out of his slump in a big way vs Singer. DIAMONDBACKS Walker, Longoria, Marte Zona is great vs LHP and The Tigers bullpen has come crashing down to earth. DODGERS Mookie, Freeman, Outman Hey Look!  Freddie Freeman is up to $6,000 as he continues his NL player of the week campaign.  Dodgers should make life miserable for Nola today.   CATCHER Adley RUtschman Francisco Alvarez Sean Murphy   FIRST […]

You know, if we cannot have a Cubs game on a Friday afternoon the least we could have is a full 15 game slate and we are pretty close but will have to do without Rangers/Rays and Diamondbacks/Tigers.  You laugh, but there are three playoff teams in there and then the Tigers, who are quickly fading away into the sunset.   WEATHER No PPD risk tonight. Baltimore, Philadelphia and NYY will have rain late in the night but the games should be clear to finish up without concern. Wind blowing out to LF in Atlanta.   TOP ARM(s) SHOHEI OHTANI (DK: $10.4k, FD: $10,000) Lock on Ohtani for your Friday big slate chalk on FanDuel, and if he is below 40% then folks did it wrong.  Ohtani at home is the good Ohtani, Ohtani below 11k is win the slate Ohtani and a high Swinging Strike rate team like Seattle?  No debate here, Ohtani on both sites is SP1. GERRIT COLE (DK: $11k, FD: $10.5k) The Boston Red Sox are on a train straight for DFL in the AL East and by a lot of games.  They started of 2023 competing but the combination of injuries and realizing that they roll out a bunch of bad hitters is quickly adding up.  Expect Cole to have a dominant outing tonight, is it enough to push him above Ohtani though?  No.  But rolling both together on DraftKings will put you above the place line with 1 or 2 HR and not much else today.   SP2 CANDIDATES MARCUS STROMAN (DK: $8700, FD: Too pricey, dont play there) Stroman had two straight home starts with very pitcher friendly weather conditions and he went 17 IP against the Mets and Rays allowing 2 ER, 5 hits and striking out 11 in typical Stro-fashion.  Then he got to visit PETCO park and shutout the Padres over six and now he gets the Giants out in the stadium that replaced the dumpster known as Candlestick?  What a lucky run he is on right now.  The Giants are hitting below .150 over the last week vs RHP starters and that includes their trip out to Coors Field.  They’re straight dumpster trash. The Italian (DeSclafani) is another option in this same game and he is honestly my second SP2 to pick.   OTHER PITCHING NOTES I almost went to the Cease well for the first time this year.  […]

White Sox and Yankees game is NOT included on DraftKings despite being listed on DraftKings. Tigers and Phillies IS on FanDuel.   WEATHER All clear   TOP ARM(s) Justin Verlander (DK: $8600, FD: $9400) I do not fall into the category of those who think Verlander is going to look for revenge on Alonso getting hit.  That’s behind the teams right now and they wont risk JV doing something like that tonight. Bottom line, the Braves with all their potential at times still are among the more generous teams with their swings and misses and $8600 on Verlander should pay off immensely tonight.   SP2 CANDIDATES Locking in on JV with Strider is a little contrarian, I like it with one main team as a stack tonight (see below), but even that could be a tough pill to force in.  The Astros believe it or not have struggled of late with their own strikeout rates, 28% total over the last week — lots of that boosted by their performance vs Gausman in this series — and could be in line for similar results tonight, Berrios is ok — but not free of a mistake to Kyle Tucker or Alex Bregman. My Pick:  Jose Berrios Contrarian/Sneaky:  Drew Smyly   CUBS Swanson, Suzuki, Wisdom Love the Cubs.  Reid Detmers is also likely to be a chalky SP2 at $6500 on DraftKings which is even better.  They have power vs LHP and wind blowing out to center won’t hurt either. RED SOX Verdugo, Yoshida, Devers, Casas The Guardians are facing an  unknown in Dermody, but it’s the Red Sox who have the road Lefties here to hammer Civale and his horrific splits vs lefties in a lefty friendly stadium.   CATCHER Yan Gomes Connor Wong   FIRST BASE Triston Casas Josh Bell Trey Mancini   SECOND BASE Nico Hoerner Andres Gimenez   THIRD BASE Rafael Devers Patrick Wisdom   SHORTSTOP Dansby Swanson Bo Bichette   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Seiya Suzuki Masataka Yoshida Kyle Tucker Alex Verdugo   FanDuel Only:  Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner   Masataka Yoshida – OF – Boston Red Sox – Chairman of The Dongers Club Patrick Wisdom – 3B – Cubs TODAY’S BETTING ANALYSIS Good Over Upside — Meaning these have best potential to go way over… Cubs/Angels over 9, I think the Cubs score 7 themselves Red Sox/Guadrians over 8.5   Good Under Upside — Meaning best potential to […]