A packed nine game slate on this Saturday evening with no weather issues and the return of Dustin May opening for the Dodgers. [spacer height=”10px”] I am trying very hard to not get too cute with pitching tonight, but that temptation is VERY strong with this slate.  So I am going to give you two sets of pitchers to pair together, the first being the boring, take it or leave it pair and the second being the woah, alright, lets take our pants off and get weird pair. Boring, take it or leave it pairing. JOE MUSGROVE I prefer to take the calm, quiet easy path tonight with my top pitcher.  Rather than take high strikeout options like Javier and Strider with lots of risk I would venture out to PETCO Park to trust home down Joe Musgrove.  Despite only 5 K over 6 IP in his last meeting he did have a 32% CSW rate and should produce a 20+ DK score tonight in a game the Padres will win. LOGAN GILBERT I tried really hard to talk myself off Gilbert because he could be hitting an innings wall and they won’t push him too hard right now, but there’s not much else out there which is worth saying as a boring take it or leave it play.  Gilbert’s 8k, I wish he was 7200 for this spot but lets not get too picky here.  6 innings, 1 ER, a few walks and 5 strikeouts in a game the Mariners win 4 to 1. [spacer height=”10px”] The Pants are off pairing … SPENCER STRIDER Big question tonight is will Yordan Alvarez play after leaving early last night due to shortness of breath.  Six of the Astros hitters actually have high whiff rates on Sliders and if Alvarez is out that is one less big bat for Spencer to deal with.  He is usually great early in games and could pull a little reverse Ambush on Houston. JUSTIN DUNN Tonight’s the night fellas.  You knew it was going to come based on how I have flirted with the idea of Justin Dunn pitching well.  Expect him to throw 75 pitches max, but with the Pirates not being a high walk team and swinging a lot more lately he will have a big strikeout game in limited time.  At a cheap price you can lock in Dunn as your third leg […]

There is a large early slate today with SIX games in the afternoon and then NINE on the main slate tonight.  I’m just going to do a quick notes style for the early six game slate today. The Mets and Phillies are playing two today and so for the early slate we have Jays at Yankees Mets at Phillies Brewers at Cubs Red Sox at Orioles Royals at Rays The White Sox and Guardians at 6pm is the one game we are void of for DFS. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER MIL @ CHC – Lots of Rain issues with this game.  If they do play, they play wet and with 10 mph winds out to LCF. [spacer height=”10px”] Zack Wheeler, Gerrit Cole and Drew Rasmussen should be the three most popular picks early today.  Of which Rasmussen is the one I would definitely avoid coming off a near perfect game and that is my favorite ‘under the radar’ offense spot today. Freddy Peralta and Marcus Stroman both have to deal with weather issues and I don’t want to use SP in a Wrigley Day game at all. [spacer height=”10px”] ZACK WHEELER Pay for Wheeler today vs the Mets.  Two games usually means less damage offensively in both games from either side and Wheeler is very good in home day games. GERRIT COLE This feels like a donkey recommendation because statistically the Tigers are the team to pick on with a lefty pitcher again in Reid Detmers, but I believe in Cole to do what they paid him to do and that is to deliver an ace shutdown performance today — even against a mighty Jays lineup. [spacer height=”10px”] Sleeper Pitcher Kyle Bradish [spacer height=”10px”] Orioles Hays, Mullins The magic is alive and well, no more dipping our toes in the water with the Orioles at home right now, they’re full force making their run and even though the steam might end in September I am backing them against bad pitching staffs like Boston. Speaking of which, Boston is completely off the rails right now, they are inches away from running into a brawl and I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw some guys “accidentally” get hit today or tomorrow. Phillies Hoskins, Bohm Jeckyl and hyde team, but Williams gives up HR to RHH and Hoskins/Casty fit right into his wheel house for trouble. Royals / Rays Pasquantino, Melendez, Arozarena, Ramirez, Parades […]

We have ourselves a glorious Friday slate of Baseball, which has a game already going in Wrigleyville as the Brewers and Cubs play the Ryan Braun tribute game.  Yes, Ryan Braun could probably suit up today and hit a homer on a Friday afternoon in Wrigley Field. Tonight we have some good divisional battles like Mets-Phillies, Jays-Yankees and White Sox-Indians.  We have the return of Goldy and Nado to Chase Field, we have the return of Mike Trout and we have Ohtani on the road on Friday’s. Of course, Ohtani is like 6400 on DraftKings, slightly more than Jon Berti who is 5100 vs the Dodgers and way more than Mike Yasztremski and Joc Pederson who are … facing Jose Urena in Coors.  Well done DraftKings, you bozo’s. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER I see no issues. [spacer height=”10px”] BRADY SINGER I know where Leesburg, VA is but Brady Singer is from Leesburg, FL and supposedly that’s near the Orlando area not too far from Tampa.  I’m sure it’s nice and all that and so we have Singer going to his home state and also where he played college ball.  With the way he is pitching and the Rays likely being morons and playing a bunch of lefties here we should expect him to have a similar dominant game like he did last time vs Tampa. BLAKE SNELL Don’t look now, but how about this, the younger Nationals without Soto and Josh Bell are quickly climbing up the strikeout rankings and have a 27% strike out rate over the last 10 days.  Couple that with Snell being good vs RHB this season at home and having a 24% DCPA strike out rate vs their projected lineup and we can trust this turd nugget at home in PETCO tonight. KEVIN GAUSMAN Very curious to see if an under priced Gausman at 8200 on DK is popular today vs the dead man walking Yankees.  There’s certainly risk in the law of averages/due theory with the Yankees finally going off early in a game, but with the way they strike out lately the potential is too great to ignore [spacer height=”10px”] Also don’t mind Graham Asscrack Tyler Anderson Patrick Sandoval [spacer height=”10px”] Not Using Shane McClanahan … I wrote about this a month ago and it has come true, Shane is not the same guy in the second half as he reaches his innings limit […]

Some people have been drafting since the Super Bowl, but then some people need help in this world.  For the normal folk, we are now entering into the real fantasy football draft season and it’s time to look at who my targets are this yearr. I don’t dive into giving full rankings of all players.  […]

Five games and no weather issues and three of the five games are NEW series starting tonight through the weekend.  The two carry over series are Red Sox at Pirates and Mets at Braves. [spacer height=”10px”] We take a traditional small slate approach for tonight’s slate which has two top end studs and then two guys right below them who could pitch pretty well tonight too. The studs are obviously Jacob deGrom Yu Darvish Darvish is cheaper than Jake on FanDuel so he should get a decent amount of ownership vs the Nationals compared to deGrom, but both are at the top of my list today and I strongly will look for a way to fit them both in together on DraftKings. Those second tier guys I mentioned are Max Fried Frankie Montas Both are fades because Fried is off a little extended rest due to a concussion IL stint and Montas vs the Jays isn’t worth the risk in my mind. So our next decision comes down to finding a value SP to pair with one of deGrom or Darvish and the Royals/Rays can be thrown out as neither SP there is likely going deep enough — although Max Castillo could be in play.  So our realistic cheap options start and end with … Josh Winckowski But when you realize Wincowski is only $200 cheaper than Montas or heck, even Berrios is cheaper then why take that risk here as well? [spacer height=”10px”] So in summary, the recommendation is FanDuel:  Darvish DraftKings:   Darvish & deGrom [spacer height=”10px”] This is not a stack slate.  I am going to win by finding the right play per $ at each position below, lets move on. [spacer height=”10px”] CATCHER Nobody is a must own, so we look at cheap options at C.  The one pay up C eligible player who stands out to me to have a nice game is Salvy Kevin Plawecki Salvy [spacer height=”10px”] FIRST BASE I would recommend paying for 1B today with Vlad who can win us a short slate, but the one guy who is cheap that can come through (and could fit in a stack) is Eric Hosmer.   Vinnie P remains cheap and that’s just funny. Vlad Guerrero Jr Eric Hosmer Vinnie Pasquantino [spacer height=”10px”] SECOND BASE Rodolfo Castro Michael Massey [spacer height=”10px”] THIRD BASE Rafael Devers … Our stud tonight [spacer height=”10px”] SHORTSTOP Oneil Cruz Kevin […]

We have SIX early games with FIVE games later on the MAIN slate.  I will be writing up both of these slates and playing on both sites today.  The six early games include: Rockies at Cardinals Athletics at Rangers Astros at White Sox Dodgers at Brewers Cubs at Orioles – Island make up game from June Diamondbacks at Giants WEATHER No issues [spacer height=”10px”] LOGAN WEBB Not many guys are pitching better than Webb right now, who yes, is pitching in a day game for the 5000th time this season.  Webb’s been under 100 PC each of the last two starts and still managed to get 7 and 8 IP in those games.  That’s how good he has been and that’s also how bad his opponents have been (Pitt & Oak), so at some point he’s going to face stiffer competition but there’s nothing stiff about Arizona. ZAC GALLEN There’s some logic here to just game stack Webb with Gallen, take a 40 point combined outing hopefully between the two and move on with pitching today.  They’re both sub 9k so fitting them together works out well. ADAM WAINWRIGHT Waino has blow up games in the division against the Reds and sometimes the Pirates, otherwise he is hardly ever going to be pulled early and not give you 90+ pitches over 6 innings.  There’s a good number of Rockies who actually grade out well on the model but I can’t trust Colorado enough to sustain long innings.  He’s better on FanDuel where BB/H wont hurt you but I don’t mind throwing him in on DraftKings too in a game I think is low scoring. [spacer height=”10px”] Popular plays I am not liking Dane Dunning – His one ‘Elite’ Start lately was against his former team – The White Sox – and although the Athletics look like prime meat here, I cannot trust his bozo. Corbin Burnes & Andrew Heaney – These two rank pretty high but I am of the belief this game has some offensive juice in it today. [spacer height=”10px”] A recent trend with MLB DFS is being able to build star and scrub lineups over on DraftKings for hitters.  Once again today, we’ll be going to the Athletics and Rangers for our cheap fill-in’s to work around higher $ stacks. ASTROS Alvarez, Tucker, Bregman, Pena A couple years ago Lucas Giolito would have been on our radar against the Astros, […]

WEATHER Light rain for Rays vs Yankees, either that or everyone is just crying at how much the Yankees suck.  Game should still play though. [spacer height=”10px”] CARLOS RODON Rodon in Chase Field vs Arizona is a fade, but at home in San Francisco is in that Robbie Ray type category from last night.  This late in the season when we get an easy match-up we lock it in and move on, which is what I am doing tonight with Rodon. GERMAN MARQUEZ A little contrarian tonight, yes?  Look, I have some bats I like and thus I am not double paying up for pitching.  Marquez was good vs the Cardinals in Coors and should repeat similar results in St. Louis if not better.  He’s been bad all year but likely pitches well the last 6 or so weeks of the season. DICK MOUNTAIN! After having to face Houston and Atlanta, Rich Hill should be thrilled to face the Pirates tonight in gigantic PNC park.  His pitch count limit is still gonna be 75-80, but he offers a nice value option which is a pivot off Montgomery and one that should get strikeouts, where as Monty is going to be lucky to have 3 K’s tonight. [spacer height=”10px”] YANKEES Judge, Rizzo, Benintendi, Torres Hello, 9-1-1… Yes, I would like to report some funny activity going on over there at Yankee Stadium?  I think someone is locked out or something because they’re walking around with flashlights on. Yep.  Someone broke into the juiced ball vault.  The one labeled “JUDGE RECORD BREAKERS” because tonight the ball is going to FLY out of Yankee Stadium and *poof*, look at that, all the Yankees offensive struggles have magically disappeared. ATHLETICS (Rangers good too) Pinder, Bolt, Bride, Neuse They say Iron sharpens Iron.  Well I say Young Beats Young…  We have a young P vs a young lineup who is about as Green as they come…. You see, their uniforms, they’re green.  Right?  And so, we call young people “Green” when they’re all unaware of what they’re doing and just play above their heads. Follow me people, this isn’t basic math like implied run totals. Rangers Plays:  Seager, Lowe, Tavares, B.Miller METS Lindor, Marte, McNeil, Nimmo Nobody eats eggs on a Wednesday night for dinner, and the eggs are gonna get cooked tonight as the Mets get some revenge on the Braves taking the first […]

Only DraftKings understands early slates, they have a 6 gamer while FanDuel has two three game slates.  The most unusual thing about these games is that the Padres and Marlins are playing a 4PM get away game and that game just wreaks of a no hitter. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER No issues for the six early games. [spacer height=”10px”] MIKE CLEVINGER If either lineup gets no hit today you would logically say its the Marlins.  And while I am open to the idea of a SP game stack with Lopez here to utilize a little mid week south beach theory, I gotta start with Clev to be solid enough and get through 6 innings today without allowing an ER. DREW SMYLY Smyly is pitching great, which means he most definitely has something in his contract to warrant a bonus for pitching well because I cannot see any real motivation for the old vet to be doing this well now.  I say old, and yet he is only 33, but it sure does feel like he is 50 doesn’t it?  Anywho, he profiles great vs the Nationals, who look like they’re ready to be that team we pick on with pitching finally. RANGER SUAREZ I’ll be trying to sneak past the early game without much hitting in it and Suarez makes sense as a very reliable pitcher to use today.  The whiffs and strikeouts might not blow your socks off or anything but he’s going to take the mound, pitch for 6 innings and walk off a winner. [spacer height=”10px”] Other Considerations Pablo Lopez – In a gamestack with Clevinger. [spacer height=”10px”] We get the Phillies and Reds who were jacking out home runs left and right yesterday in Cincinnati and we also have a bunch of players today who look good & are coming off spots where they just did it.  Will things automatically repeat themselves or do we just go ahead and hitch our wagon to a game or two and stack them up?  My gut says that we will find that scoring isn’t insane today but that it’s easier to just hitch your wagon for that one or two big innings around a primary stack. BLUE JAYS Bichette, Gurriel, Chapman, Merrifield Austin Voth is basically the worst pitcher going on this slate on paper, but he has lots of Tanner Roark’ism about him and that means he finds a […]

A few teams are calling up some prospects, but there is no greater name in Sports than SHEA LANGELEIERS who is coming up for Oakland today.  He was a primary prospect that the Braves sent to Oakland earlier for … who the hell did they get?  Oh right, Matt Olson.  How’s that working out for Atlanta?  Pretty good I’d say. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER Nothing at risk of PPD, chance of slight showers here or there but nothing that should impact any DFS decisions. [spacer height=”10px”] ROBBIE RAY Holy cow, how does Robbie Ray not put up a 30 spot today?  Oh, right, he’s Robbie Ray.  But seriously, a lefty vs the Angels in Anaheim with his strikeout capability is about as solid of a play as one can look for tonight. NICK PIVETTA The main key to beating the Pirates is having the ability to handle Reynolds, Hayes and Cruz.  The other key is to just not be a douchebag.  I think Pivetta can handle Reynolds, Hayes and Cruz. Two of them will be lefties which limits Pivetta’s strikeout goal tonight but the damage should be low in what is a good pitching park shift for him too. ZACH PLESAC Plesac gets the Tigers again, this time in his home park and yeah there’s some LiC in play today but hard to not expect another solid game from Plesac. [spacer height=”10px”] Also don’t mind Justin Steele Patrick Corbin [spacer height=”10px”] Sleeper Pick DYLAN CEASE Nobody is pitching better right now and he’s getting Houston at an optimal time as the Astros have gone a little cold.  The allure with Cease is that he’s pitching way above his height right now and should be pretty low owned given that he’s the lesser trusted SP (vs Verlander) in this game and the opponent is known for not being one to attack.  Great contrarian pick with the AL Cy Young winner tonight. [spacer height=”10px”] BLUE JAYS Vlad Jr, Teoscar, Bichette, Chapman Gotta think Toronto has a better showing tonight vs the Orioles in what is really starting to feel like a must win game for Toronto to avoid a late season collapse.  Kremer has low K% against RHH so we’re going after that weakness with an obvious RH heavy lineup. MARINERS Haniger, Rodriguez, France, Suraez Another reason to like Ray tonight is he should have lots of run support.  With a mostly RH […]

BMW Championship (Playoff Week 2) How about these calls?: Will Zalatoris ($9,500) – For anyone that has followed my articles for a couple of years, you know how much I liked Ian Poulter.  Well, welcome to my new, younger version of Ian Poulter.  I love this guys tenacity and desire to win.  He may not […]