Ten games start us off on Monday, which does not include the two 6:40 PM games and also does not include Tigers/Guardians who are playing two today in Cleveland. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER All Clear. [spacer height=”10px”] JULIO URIAS In my mind, Urias is the cleanest pitcher going tonight at his price.  The downside once again is that he never gives you that dominant 105 or 110 pitch type outing and with the Dodgers very secure in their standings I see no reason why that would change today.  But for a safe production outing, Urias vs Milwaukee is it. LUIS CASTILLO Castillo has been great for the Mariners thus far and yet he could still have his worst outing as a Mariner and still be just fine tonight.  The first inning is critical usually for Castillo and tonight that’s going to be very true.  If Seattle can get the lead here off Ohtani then Castillo can win this game and the only part of the Angels lineup which he should have to be careful with is Ohtani-Ward. I wouldn’t pay the 11.2k for Castillo on FanDuel, but even with one mistake today he would still finish over 20 DK fpts. MADISON BUMGARNER Pricing is very hard today, there’s a ton of higher dollar arms but none of which stand out as in dominant games.  Finding a value SP is going to require a little trust in a dangerous arm and Bumgarner is back in a park he obviously knows and it’s not his first return to San Francisco as a non Giant.  Without a ton of good hitters in the Giants lineup he should be able to get through 5 or 6 innings tonight without much damage against. [spacer height=”10px”] Also don’t mind Ohtani (on FanDuel instead of Castillo) Josiah Gray (Should pitch better vs Cubs back at home, but still gives up 2 HR) Yusei WTF, and I say Kikuchi! [spacer height=”10px”] BRAVES Acuna, Riley, Olson, Contreras, Harris II Gimme all the fireworks with Carrasco on the road and not just the Mets hitters vs loud mouth Strider today.  Humid in Atlanta and a big series for these two lineups to wake up and try and do damage vs each other. BLUE JAYS Springer, Guerrero, Bichette Bradish against Toronto is going to go poorly for Bradish.  He navigated through 5 innings last week against them but the big advantage will […]

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.  […]

Those on FanDuel will have the Diamondbacks-Rockies game to navigate.  It features a match-up between young arms Tommy Henry and Ryan Feltner. WEATHER All games play. [spacer height=”10px”] Two games today feature top level pitchers for us in DFS with Wheeler vs Bassitt and Bieber vs Gausman being the headline games.  Except one of them is more about the teams than the pitchers and I am treating it as such. CRISTIAN JAVIER All the obvious reasons here.  Oakland’s lineup isn’t good, Javier pitches well at home and he’s priced exactly where he should be.  Enjoy the ~2x from Javier.  He should not pull one of those massive games out of his hat today but he should be fine. SHANE BIEBER This is the game that looks good on paper for pitching and not the Bassitt vs Wheeler one to me.  I would like to take Gausman as the home guy against a lineup that many think is worse, but they’re not.  Toronto offers lots of K upside that Cleveland doesn’t and Beebs should do that vs them today. BRADY SINGER Sunday Sleeper Go ahead Dodgers, bring out all your lefties.  Do it.  I dare you.  Lets roll Singer.  We ride today.  I know what you are thinking, after all these Singer starts now I finally hype him up?  Well, he is great in day games for one, but really great vs LHB which the Dodgers likely drop 6+ out there today.  His strikeout upside can offset a bad inning, plus most of his strikes are called strikes, something the Dodgers are very patient about taking and don’t mind swinging in 2 strike counts.  Advantage Singer, our Sunday Sleeper. [spacer height=”10px”] OTHER SP NOTES The other Sunday Sleeper I wanted to write up is Justin Dunn, but I need to see more in the bigs this year before I jump back on my Dunn train at home vs the Cubs who have a couple sure thing homers today IMO. Logan Gilbert should bounce back for about 4 innings then fall apart. Braxton Garrett and South Beach Theory is in play today. [spacer height=”10px”] REDS Solano, Votto, Senzel, India There’s a path for Keegan Thompson getting hit here by a weak Reds lineup.  He’s struggled on the road allowing opponents to SLG .525 off him and has given up a good amount of power to RHH as well.  Small park, good enough weather and a […]

The Marlins and Braves are playing a double-header, so by now you know the drill.  FanDuel has no clue and DraftKings has the second game on the Main slate. Tonight’s marquee game is Aaron Nola and the Phillies against Jacob deGrom and the Mets with the under-card clearly being Dylan Bundy returning to Anaheim to face Reid Detmers right?  Okay, not so much. We do welcome Lance McCullers Jr. to the 2022 season as he is making his season debut and if Houston can get him up to speed that would be tremendous for them ahead of the playoffs.  All in all, there’s quite a bit of depth on the pitching front tonight. WEATHER Hot and wind blowing out in Kauffman Stadium, which is really bad for Brad Keller considering he is likely getting hit hard. All games play. [spacer height=”10px”] LOGAN WEBB DK: $9,100, FD: $9,900 The Pirates continue to have their best hitter, Oneil Cruz, hit low in the order which I kind of like to allow him just to get PA without any pressure.  Then again, they are the Pirates, so what pressure is there really?  This is a typical fall game in San Francisco as temps might get below 60 degrees and every hitter in the Pirates lineup projects to be over 20% strikeout chance except for Michael Chavis.  Are you really concerned with Michael Chavis?  Didn’t think so. JACOB deGROM DK: $10,600, FD: $10,800 Jake won’t be as electric as he was last Sunday…   You’re still playing Jake.  This one is going to be fun. LUCAS GIOLITO DK: $7,500 (Not worth it on FD) Another early evening game in Chicago should benefit the pitchers in the early innings.  Giolito hasn’t been what people expected this season but he does have a 30% strikeout rate against LHH, so the better Tigers hitters right now likely don’t touch him up much. Mr. Anderson DK: $6,700 (Not available it on FD) My, name is Ian….  Hopefully he takes on that type of attitude finally as in prior spots when he looked good he shit the bed.  Game two of the doubleheader and I’m not really concerned with having to monitor the first one here.  Miami is very limited at their home park and at $6,700 if you want to trim on pitching $ Anderson works out well. [spacer height=”10px”] Pitching Quick Thoughts Burnes – Kind of has gone […]

One game is starting early down in Miami (Braves/Marlins) and the Reds/Cubs are off on travel today after the Field of Dreams game last night.  We will have no weather issues in the forecast for tonight and it’s cooled off a little bit around the league temperature wise. With NFL pre-season starting up, my guess is MLB is saving their juiced balls for the playoffs and I like some unders tonight believe it or not.  Even Yanks/Red Sox doesn’t stand out as a must own offensively.  Then again, we do have Coors Field on the slate. WEATHER All Clear [spacer height=”10px”] MAX SCHERZER Max gets to draw a Phillies lineup that is potentially without Schwarber and that’s a big deal given how much damage Kyle has done to the Mets pitching this season.  Mets fans are probably going to look back and realize that Max getting hurt was the best thing that could happen for them this season.  He’s now in that mode that Max is usually in back in May but in August and with a big series on hand they’ll get what they paid for tonight from the Ace. TYLER MAHLE Mahle continues to be a reverse splits guy and being in Anaheim that helps since it plays better for lefties with the short wall in right.  Ohtani is still likely to get on base against him but the Rengifo-Walsh-Stassi’s of the world are not.  He should put up a 6 inning, clean game with 7 or more strikeouts today. I prefer both of these guys over Carlos Rodon tonight but don’t have anything bad to say about Rodon if you opted to smash him in. [spacer height=”10px”] TIER THREE GUYS After Max and Mahle (which sounds like a new Family Comedy series coming out on ABC this fall every Thursday night) there’s a handful of optional picks who fall into the third SP category today that are less expensive on DK and actually could be just fine on FD too. Mike Clevinger, has always had better success when he faces weaker teams and while young kids Joey Meneses and Keibert Ruiz are hitting well for Washington they still possess a lot of weak bats in this lineup.  But Clevinger just feels obvious to me vs the Nationals, he will pitch well, but not dominant. Same is true for Michael Kopech against the Tigers.  I’ve been down this rabbit […]

Today is just an afternoon slate in MLB with two games later tonight and this is a great way for a Thursday to be spent because then we can relax tonight and then power up for a big Friday. This six game slate is like a Wedding as it features something Old (Gibson, Greinke) something New (Ed Cabrera, Garrett Hill, Cole Ragans) and something used (German Marquez).  Loads of fun for everyone and so lets go ahead and Ambush this Wedding slate, shall we? [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER All Clear [spacer height=”10px”] This feels like the Monday night slate when I said just go right down the 1-2-3 for the easy balance of pitching today, but also has a feel of that type of game stack SP and game stack hitter slate as well. For pitching Dylan Cease, Merrill Kelly and Zach Plesac are the trio of starters who likely are the most popular for good reason and certainly grade out the best. DYLAN CEASE … Is the guy who is pitching lights out, he is doing what Shane McClanahan did early in the season and faces a Royals team which historically had been striking out a ton in day games at home.  The young kids are on fire here, but Cease is one of those attack em where they cant hit em guys who can drop a 12 K game in 6 innings today. MERILL KELLY At the end of the season someone is going to file a protest claiming that the Pirates never played the Diamondbacks, because that is how irrelevant this series has felt all week and I don’t love how much we have used up Merrill Kelly this season but why not one more time for the guy who throws 7 or even 8 IP every single damn time without having to throw 120 pitches. Best Punt SP’s JT Brubaker (PIT) Zack Greinke (KC) [spacer height=”10px”] My Fade Zach Plesac – I know his profile should do well vs the Tigers, but he has not pitched well recently and my feeling is this is the right chalk to attack with leverage instead of KC hitters vs Cease (even though it’s very tempting for me). [spacer height=”10px”] Quick run down through each of the games MARLINS vs PHILLIES PHI – Schwarber, Bohm and Hall are the three Phillies I want to see in their lineup today and no reason why any […]

WEATHER Jays at Orioles – Lingering storms throughout the night.  Hitters should be okay, but pitchers are not. It has cooled off quite a bit in Boston. [spacer height=”10px”] JUSTIN VERLANDER Not going to over think this one, the Astros should come alive to beat the Rangers tonight and Verlander is in a great routine every start to give you 6 innings minimum with 7 strikeouts minimum and not get blown up.  Easy button on JV today. SANDY ALCANTARA Even though Coors is likely the top hitting environment tonight it has value there, and pairing JV with Sandy is going to net you 50+ DK points today and give you a much needed advantage over the field.  Sandy’s pitched well historically in Citizens Bank Park and I expect him to do that in a low scoring game tonight. AARON CIVALE Detroit is a dead man walking lineup right now, Civale is very cheap as he makes his first appearance in nearly a month, so there is likely some limitations with him but if the pitch count remains low he’ll do just fine. [spacer height=”10px”] CONTRARIAN PICK Nick Pivetta  I wasn’t expecting to see sub 70 degree temps tonight for Fenway, with the Braves being a big swing and miss team there’s a path where Boston gives up 4-5 runs but also Pivetta has 7+ strikeouts tonight. [spacer height=”10px”] CARDINALS Pujols, O’Neill, Arenado There are certain things in DFS that just make us go, WTF…  One of these things most certainly has to be $2,000 Albert Pujols likely in the lineup against a lefty in Coors Field tonight.  The joys of life. ASTROS Alvarez, Mancini It has been way too long since Yordan Alvarez had a huge game, and too long since most of Houston went off too.  Mancini+Alvarez make for a solid combo tonight. GUARDIANS Jones, Ramirez, Gimenez, Naylor Unfortunately Oscar Gonzalez is out tonight, but this is still a good lineup to target.  One area where it got warmer today is in Detroit, with Cleveland having the advantage of facing Drew Hutchinson and his .283 home BA allowed, the Guardians should have lots of innings with multiple men on base, so we’ll need bottom of the order guys like Nolan Jones to come through. [spacer height=”10px”] CATCHER Yadi Molina Austin Hedges Salvador Perez [spacer height=”10px”] FIRST BASE Albert Pujols Josh Naylor Matt Olson – I like going with some […]

There are three things in this world which I will just never be able to figure out. Women The Pirates FanDuel I say this because the White Sox-Royals game today is an 8PM game and FanDuel has not picked up on this time change and not only has it listed at 2PM but also has it on their Early Slate today.  We have no word on if the game will count on the slate or not, because technically it WILL play after the slate locks.  So I have to assume for analysis purposes that it’s in play. Here’s my analysis. Its the White Sox and Royals, move on with your life….  Alright fine, the Royals kids are hot, so we’ll be on them soon enough, just not here. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER All the real six games early will play without issue.  We have 3 games on the west coast and 3 games on the east coast in not so amazing ballparks.  I believe the roof in Milwaukee will be closed, panels maybe open. [spacer height=”10px”] BRANDON WOODRUFF When Woody faced Tampa a few weeks back he was coming off the IL and was masterful with 10 strikeouts over 5 innings pitched.  The lineup is a little bit different, but not any better as they really only do well when facing a pitcher who can’t command the zone — something Woody hasn’t had any challenges with.  So after failing to beat the Pirates and Reds the Brewers should take this mini 2 game set with the Rays behind Woody. JUSTIN STEELE The Cubs should smack Josiah Gray around, giving Steele the lead and he does a great job keeping the ball in the park while offering some increased strike out potential.  Look for the narrative around the Nationals not being a heavy strikeout team to change as these young kids they’re letting play have some pop upside but will swing and miss a lot more as well. [spacer height=”10px”] Also dont mind:  Walker, Springs This slate is mostly around attacking SP who give up way too many HR in certain splits. METS Vogelbach, Lindor I don’t think this game is an automatic 10-1 Mets win, but the Mets for certain are the chalk team to look at strongly.  TJ Zeuch hasn’t pitched in the Majors this season and the former Jay isn’t very good with a bad sinkerball.  He’s the type […]

Look what we have here kids, it’s everyone playing in the 7:05 PM Window of games on a Tuesday night in August.  Thank you for no Senior Citizen’s Slate of games which means we have teams like the Marlins and Reds on the slate. However, we don’t have all games on the slate and that’s probably good news as the White Sox and Royals are going to play two games today with the first one at 4pm and the second one on neither FD or DK. Rejoice, there will be no White Sox stack recommendations. However, we do have minimized pricing on hitters, and look at that, a ton of donkey contests tonight to lure in the NFL people to try and win. [spacer height=”10px”] WEATHER It’s August, therefore it’s Humid still and uh yeah, we’re going to be playing a few overs tonight… Marlins at Phillies – They could see storms and there is an ‘Excessive Heat Warning’.  Sounds fun. Braves at Red Sox – Well fuck me sideways.  Braves in Boston in August with lots of humidity and Dick Mountain Jays at Orioles – Similar to the Philly game, only less likely for a storm delay. [spacer height=”10px”] The theme for tonight is “We meet again”.  Lots of guys who have faced each other and a few who have squared off recently such as Ohtani vs Kaprielian and Cole vs Castillo. SHANE BIEBER This is probably the 28th time this season that I have wrote about how Shane Bieber is starting against the Tigers and at least 3 of those times he has wound up getting scratched due to rain issues.  I see zero rain in the forecast in this spot so Beebs vs the Tigers is in play once again. His last outing in Detroit hopefully scares some away as he got roughed up then, but the current form of the Tigers make me think we’re going to get elite Beebs today. Shohei Ohtani is the other main high end SP option off Bieber with Cole actually being a close second in a bounce back spot but neither of which I will use over Bieber. MARCUS STROMAN No wind issues, no humidty issues, the only thing that can fuck this up tonight is Marcus Stroman himself and he has had a very solid season in Chicago padding his stats against some weak competition and in an environment […]

FedEx St. Jude Classic (Playoff Week 1) Im-Kim-“See ya Kim”!  Damn that Si Woo getting sick on Sunday!  I guess he and Jason Day shouldn’t have eaten at the same place. Despite that, my Im-Kim-Kim Seuss call wasn’t that bad!  I had 3 of 5 lineups with 6/6.  I swear Chris Gotterup made a bogey […]