SLATE NOTES Sunday Site Synchronicity, ten games on both main slates today. WEATHER Colder than yesterday in a few spots, namely DC, nowhere near the same good hitting conditions today there as well as NY, Boston, Cincy Wind blowing out to LCF in Wrigley, good for hitting Wind blowing out to LF in St. Louis Wind blowing out to LF (18 mph) in Kansas City   Most of the names going today won’t “wow” you on the surface, but I don’t think this is a horrible pitching slate overall.  There are a good number of ‘new’ names to go through today.  Kodai Senga being the headliner, but we also have Jared Shuster (Lefty, Braves), Jhony Brito (RHP, Yankees) making debuts.  As well as old faces in new places such as Jameson Taillon, Mike Clevinger, Ross Stripling, Vinnie Velasquez and … CHRIS BASSITT The hound dogs first start back in the AL is against an NL team and in a nice big park, just the way he likes it.  I’ll be curious to see how Bassitt handles the SkyDome when they are back there but with him on the road in a big stadium he’s someone I trust to not blow up at all and carries enough strength vs LHB that he can avoid the pesky guys in the Cards lineup hurting him like Donovan, Nootbar, Gorman, etc.  For now, Arenado and Goldy aren’t warmed up either and probably won’t be until taxes are filed, so pick on the Cards offense today with Bassitt. JOE RYAN There are three traditions in April.  The tradition unlike any other in Augusta, GA, Taxes and the Kansas City Royals going from the #1 offense in Spring Training to the #30 offense in April.  Every.  Fucking.  Year.   They leave the warm weather in Arizona thinking they can hit a ton of homers only to go to cold Missouri where they can’t hit shit off a stick. JEFFREY SPRINGS Springs rating isn’t above a 75 on our model today, but that’s actually right where he should be.  While Detroit isn’t great, they’ll be able to put the ball in play enough here that at best you get a 20 DK fpts from him.  5-6 IP, chance for the win and 6 strikeouts.   I expect a lot of other pitchers to pitch ‘well’ today, but nobody is gonna be great and I feel best about the […]

Overview The Cup drivers will turn 400 laps totaling 300 miles in a race where dominator points will be at the forefront. On top of dominator points and the ever-common place differential points, this is a place where track position is key and thus performance from the pit crews on pit road will be imperative. […]

SLATE NOTES Both FanDuel and DraftKings have included all 12 games today, which is pretty fricken awesome that we are three slates into the season and have had 100% site synchronicity thus far.  I am not sure if FanDuel is going to recognize that there is an evening slate later tonight as well but let’s not confuse them because for once they did a full Saturday afternoon slate instead of splitting it up into 5 slates. WEATHER Lots of wind today and some morning showers but most of them will be out of the key spots.  The one rain game which I am crossing off for various reasons is the Giants vs Yankees.  I don’t like either offense enough even with wind blowing out and I don’t trust either pitcher to go deep enough on this slate either. The following games have some strong wind(s) Braves at Nationals – 20+ mph gusting all over the place, also very high Dew Point here and it feels kinda muggy.  I think we see some balls get out of the park here. Jays at Cardinals – 20+ mph winds out to RF but not as high temps/dew point Brewers at Cubs – 20+ mph winds IN/Cross Orioles at Red Sox – High humidity & winds 10 mph out in Fenway Pirates at Reds – 19 mph winds out to LF.  Big boost for hitters in a tiny park. Roof TBD in Houston, not extremely hot Roof TBD in Miami, weather is nice here   PATRICK SANDOVAL Sando-goat was in the WBC and pitched a gem in his final start there.  Historically his troubles can come with power hitters against him, which Oakland really is not and being a LHP I think he can do well at holding runners on to keep them from running.  The one big power bat to fear is Jesus Aguilar, but it’s Saturday so we’re good there, right? JUSTIN STEELE The big battle here is who wins between the winds blowing in and the Brewers trying to swing and miss.  Not even sure these weak guys can get the bat through the zone to make contact in that wind.  Pick on the Brewers, this park plays for unders early in the season and especially with the wind blowing in like it is.   Other SP Notes I am not listing a third SP today on this slate because this early […]

Top Drivers Stewart Friesen ($9,900) Last year’s winner of this race led 60 of the 149 laps for his first win at Texas in 10 tries. Overall, Friesen has been good at Texas in his truck career posting four top-fives, five top-10’s the one win, and an average finish of 13.5. Although is average finish […]

Florida Atlantic vs San Diego State We did it Mountain West!  We made the Final 4!  The team who might play at the fastest tempo today is in the game with the lower total and probably comes in as a fairly contrarian team and by that I mean the Owls.  They really have one way […]

Overview Richmond is known as “America’s premier short track” and could be considered a fan-favorite venue. The .75-mile asphalt oval opened in 1946 and the XFINITY Series has been racing there since 1982. The drivers will turn 250 laps totaling 187.5 miles making this race the one with the most dominator points available on the […]

SLATE NOTES Just a quiet 5 game MLB schedule today after all 30 teams played yesterday.  Then there will be a loaded Saturday slate with plenty of afternoon games but forewarning there is some rain/weather issues tomorrow, so enjoy the games tonight — which are mostly in Domes. WEATHER No issues.  Three of the five games are in dome stadiums and two of them (Houston/Seattle) will likely close the roof.   NICK MARTINEZ A lot of casual fans will look here and say, “oh, this guy, he stinks, I’m not using him!”.  And I admit that I was skeptical of Martinez converting back into a full tine MLB starter last season after returning from his time over in Japan.  But there’s no denying how well he pitched a season ago and looked good in the Spring down in the hitter friendly Cactus league.  Expect around 5-6 strikeouts vs a weak Colorado lineup that got carried by CJ Cron last night. DUSTIN MAY May is the key to the Dodgers success in 2023.  They desperately need the former overhyped young pitcher to look like what they believe he can be now without much limitations on him and a starting role from day 1.  This is a thin pitching slate, so I lean towards guys I know will get strikeouts and May fits that bill.     SEATTLE Julio Rodriguez, Kolten Wong, Teoscar Hernandez, AJ Pollock Hunter Gaddis will fill in for the Guardians as they’re starting the season without Triston McKenzie.  A big RH who does have multiple pitches but also has given up some high barrel % in his limited time in the big leagues.  I expect a few walks, some hard hit balls and the Mariners to do well with the roof closed in Seattle. NY Mets Starling Marte, Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Mark Canha You should know the drill facing Luzardo, he is either boom or bust.  The Mets aren’t my top team because they have the vibes of a hot and cold team and will take some time to get going in the regular season, but any mistake by Luzardo and they can have a big crooked number in the first three innings today.   CATCHER Mike Zunino … Well, the MLB schedule God’s decided to go ahead and get this one out of the way early.  Z-Pack back in Seattle and getting Ray.  I usually dont […]

SLATE NOTES We made it through all the off-season rule changes, the hot stove season and of course the World Baseball Classic.  Now it is time to rip this bandaid off and see what the MLB season has in store for us. Here are my quick thoughts on the rules changes and their impact Pitch Clock:  I love the concept of guys stepping into the box and on the mound and going.  It’s like the golfer who gets up to their shot and takes 5 practice swings, re adjusts, looks at the hole, back at the ball and over and over and then just duffs one 30 yards forward while you wait to hit your 283 yard drive.  Lets go, chop chop.  But I hate the concept of enforcing rules such as called balls and strikes in key situations and I don’t think it was that necessary as much as the players just needed to really self police themselves better. My guess is that it will impact some hitters and some pitchers, everyone differently and in the end the pitchers will be the ones who adjust faster than the hitters.  Hitters are more likely to choke up and try to just put the ball in play deeper in counts and thus we might see a reduction in homers and an increase in base hits. I believe the limit on throw overs to first base is going to burn relievers.  They’re the ones who take the longest with pitch times generally and have the fewest depth of pitches for the base runner to guess what they are throwing.  This, combined with teams being more aggressive late with the lead is going to result in most of the steals boosts coming off bullpens.  And yes, there will be a steals boost.  Mostly for the guys who were already running and run fast.  They’ll just go more often now, but you still gotta get on base to steal. The shift is going to be a minimal impact.  Why?  The only thing the shift was preventing were singles.  So maybe some more hits and RBI ops go up for lefties.  Maybe some more steals too for those guys, but generally these were home run hitters that were being punished and those numbers won’t change.  It’s a minimal impact. For DFS today we have site synchronicity!  Amazing that both sites chose to include the 1PM games, […]

The MLB DFS Manifesto for 2023 from The Dongers Club

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