Quick breakdown for the 5 game slate that begins at 6pm.  As noted this includes the 2nd game of double headers in Cleveland and Toronto. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER All games play [spacer height=”20px”] NESTOR CORTES YU DARVISH There is a big gap on this sltae in terms of guys who can give you 20+ and those who are lucky to get to 10.  So I am putting both of these two together and Nestor is the dangerous one IMO against Cleveland after they whooped them in the first game.  So look at Darvish as your SP1 but given that the slate is very thin, I wouldn’t hate going both. JOSH WINCOWSKI Bostin wins tonight, take that to the bank and take Wincowski as your cheap sleeper SP2. [spacer height=”20px”] ROCKIES Bryant, Joe, Cron Hey Cool.  Dallas Keuchel is pitching in Coors! RED SOX Story, Devers, Xander, Verdugo Boston and then Toronto would be the other teams I focus on for offense.  Boston should bounce back with a win and beat up Alec Mills and a bad bullpen [spacer height=”20px”] Today’s BOOST+ Players … Vlad Guerrero Jr, Alex Verdugo, Teoscar Hernandez, Brendan Rodgers, Ketel Marte, Connor Joe, Jarren Duran, Trevor Story [spacer height=”20px”] CATCHER Elias Diaz Austin Nola [spacer height=”20px”] FIRST BASE Vlad Guerrero Jr CJ Cron [spacer height=”20px”] SECOND BASE Trevor Story Brendan Rodgers [spacer height=”20px”] THIRD BASE Rafael Devers Manny Machado [spacer height=”20px”] SHORTSTOP Xander Bogaerts Wander Franco [spacer height=”20px”] OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Teoscar Hernandez Alex Verdugo Connor Joe Kris Bryant [spacer height=”20px”] The Dongers Club Trevor Story – 2B – Red Sox – Chairman of The Dongers Club Kris Bryant – OF – Rockies Vlad Guerrero Jr – 1B – Blue Jays [spacer height=”20px”] CORE PLAYS Darvish, Story, Bryant, Vlad [spacer height=”20px”] BETTING PLAYS Jays ML Padres ML Rockies ML Red Sox ML [spacer height=”20px”]

Alright, two articles coming today.  There is what I consider the MAIN slate that locks ta 4PM today on both sites and then DraftKings has a 5 game evening slate that includes the two double header games today, so I’ll do a quick analysis on that slate as well. The two double headers are Tampa/Toronto and New York/Cleveland. Thankfully, both sites have the same 9 games on the 4:05 PM EST slate. And yes, today is Saturday.  So Happy Mt. Rushmore Saturday HR Club Day [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER Marlins at Nationals – PPD Risk or they just wait it out which is more likely.  I have one play in this game and his name is Nelson Cruz Cardinals at Phillies – I believe this game plays. All other games are free and clear of PPD risk and obviously they are day games so the temps are nice. [spacer height=”20px”] DYLAN CEASE I think Dylan Cease and Logan Webb have something written into their contracts that says they must start in day games only. For Cease this will be his 11th day game start of the season compared to 5 night starts.  In the night starts Cease has posted a 5.32 ERA but in day games?  He’s been the Cy Young candidate I thought he would be with a 1.41 ERA.  Call it luck of the opponents if you want too, but the Giants aren’t exactly a tough opponent for him and it’s not that warm out in San Francisco — which is a big deal in that park. Webb meanwhile is making his 12th day game start compared to just 4 night games, he has opposite splits though in Day/Night games this year but is certainly not a horrible SP2 to pair with Cease and just roll along. GEORGE KIRBY After correctly fading (and betting against) Kirby early this week vs Baltimore I now am on the Kirby train vs Oakland who has only won back to back games once in the past month or so and that was vs the damn Royals.  So Seattle is winning and the only Oakland hitter who grades out slightly okay is Seth Brown. We just need Kirby to command the zone and if he gives up a solo bomb to Brown then so be it. LOGAN WEBB This is a great lineup for Webb to face as it’s mostly RHB and he is very risk […]

Overview NASCAR is back on a road course this weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Road America is a 14-turn 4.048-mile road course and the drivers will run 45 laps on Saturday. As usual at road courses, there’s a good mix of Cup Drivers, road-course ringers, and up-and-comers involved in what promises to […]

It is Friday and it is July and you are probably wondering … Hey, what happened to the Dongers Club Appreciation Contest for June? Well, nothing.  I just pushed it back a week to make it the end of the first half appreciation contest.  It will run starting next Tuesday, July 5th for 4 periods each with some light rules attached to them and the total score from your top 3 entries will be used for the overall standings.  So check back next Tuesday for contest details and we’ll roll from there. Today we have 15 total games, 11 of which are on the Main slate.  There’s one in Wrigley Field today at 2 pm that includes Boston and the Cubs (very nice!) and then three games in the senior citizens circuit which are all looking to be high scoring. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER There are no major issues with the MAIN slate of games tonight weather wise. [spacer height=”20px”] TONY GONSOLIN Something which I have consistently noticed in DFS is that on Friday’s for whatever reason the ownership on pitching is ALWAYS on east coast guys.  Where as early in the week it feels like many use late night hammer pitchers. Is this because people actually are going out on Friday and don’t want to bother with worrying about a late scratch (something that almost never happens with pitchers) here?  I dunno, but I bet you we see Gonsolin around 2-5% owned today.  Compared to Burnes/Cole he is facing a worse offense and is at home where opponents are hitting just .208 off him this season. CORBIN BURNES I had Chris Bassit here but he has been scratched.  So Burnes should be okay to use on DraftKings but I still believe Gonsolin is the #1 SP on the slate. Pittsburgh’s offense is greatly improved and playing very well of late.  They should only strike out around 20% tonight but Burnes can always push that number higher. BRAD KELLER Happy Brad Keller day?  Keller does well vs the Tigers and should really carve through the lefties here with his slider today.  We’re slightly picking on a team who was on the west coast but more rolling with a cheaper mid range SP who can get you a solid good start for his cheap price tag tonight. [spacer height=”20px”] OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS … Cristian Javier – Yes, the Angels strike out a […]

The brain trust at FanDuel has blindly set today’s slate and not included the two 6pm games when we have very few games overall to pick from.  So FanDuel is a less than optimal 5 game slate while DraftKings is a nicer 7 game slate. Included today we have a one game series between the Yankees and Astros in Houston, which is just the dumbest thing I have ever heard of.  The Astros were in New York and they couldnt stay there and just play this game in Yankee Stadium and have a home game changed with someone else later on?  Thanks Manfred. We also have new series starting up with the Brewers/Pirates, Rays/Jays, Padres/Dodgers (finally) and Athletics/Mariners. WEATHER No issues again today.  Tough scene for those who charge for MLB Weather advice, but I assume they have all moved onto doing NFL touting now that July is almost here. Seriously.  Enough with the God Damn Fantasy Football shit. [spacer height=”20px”] AARON NOLA Nola went nuts on the Braves earlier this season in Atlanta and if Ronald Acuna remains out tonight then we should like him to do the same at home where in his career he’s always been a better/safer pitcher.  This is another game he has 10K+ potential in despite the long ball starting to get cranked up in Citizens Bank Park. LOGAN GILBERT Not sure why the model is not as high on Gilbert as it should be against Oakland, but the Athletics are continuing a road trip that took them to the east coast for some beatings and the Mariners are continuing a long homestand.  Gilbert and Seattle are -237 favorites tonight.  I would play that straight up if I were you because they should roll on the A’s. MITCH WHITE The Dodgers and Padres will FINALLY meet and San Diego remains banged up so we have our value play in White at $6,400 on DraftKings tonight. [spacer height=”20px”] OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS … Yusei Kikuchi … I say, where the hell is Zunino? [spacer height=”20px”] BREWERS Yelich, Adames, Tellez I always like lefties going into Pittsburgh but I would be shocked if Willy Adames does not have a multi-hit or multi-HR game today for Milwaukee.  He is someone to build around in all lineups today. RAYS vs BLUE JAYS Diaz, Franco, Arozarena vs Springer, Bichette, Teoscar We have Matt Wisler’s Mom who is expected to be followed […]

WEATHER No issues tonight.  There’s a little extra wind out to RF in Coors Field. [spacer height=”20px”] SHOHEI OHTANI Ohtani at home and with a RH heavy lineup and if you want to fade him then play Kopech instead with a little leverage given the likely chances that he strikes out 30% of the Angels tonight (high chance of that so a game stack is ok).  Ohtani is very good at home and has 34%+ strikeout rate vs RH himself.  While the White Sox hammered the Angels pen last night I would not bank on them having another 11 run game tonight. MICHAEL KOPECH Copy and paste what I wrote about him above here.  For $7,600 Kopech has to be popular on DraftKings tonight I would assume.  This is too good of a boost for someone who does well with missing bats — including up in the zone.  He’s in play on both sites. ANDRE PALLANTE Pallante has used his slider heavily against righties so far in his stay in the bigs and opponents are slugging just .395 off it thus far.  Meanwhile the Marlins could be without their only batter who hits sliders well in Jazz Chisholm Jr tonight.  After that, they have 32, 37, 25, 28, 31 and 30% strikeout rates on at bats that end with sliders.  If Jazz is out, expect a good swing and miss game for Pallante as tonights sleeper cheap SP on DraftKings. [spacer height=”20px”] OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS … Kyle Wright … This is the only other SP I would consider today. Hunter Greene … Too much of a roller coaster for me to buy into him today.  If this was a 4 or 5 year veteran then alright, but no thank you on a rookie who is this volatile. Sandy Alcantara … This is the poorest match-up Sandy has graded out all year. [spacer height=”20px”] TWINS Today we begin our DFS journey behind Max Kepler and Jose Ramirez in this game and I would trust Byron Buxton is not leaving Cleveland without a HR, so that would be tonight or tomorrow for sure. BRAVES Atlanta remains an elite offense against LHP even without Ozzie Albies.  Nice weather in Philadelphia against Ranger Suarez who has struggled at home this year. RED SOX I believe Boston will touch up Manoah today.  If you have been following along we saw Manoah go through a slight dip and […]

Here is the breakdown for the afternoon slates between FanDuel and DraftKings FD:  Five game early slate including the Milwaukee/Tampa game DK:  Four game early slate Both sites have an ‘Afternoon’ Tilt slate as well, which will not have written content for it but as always is available via the Tools/Dashboard. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER Mother nature has blessed us with the rare Weather Synchronicity.  Outside of the game down in Tampa the other four games all have wind blowing OUT between 6-10 MPH and temps between 75 and 85 degrees. [spacer height=”20px”] You’re not going to find two pitchers on DraftKings that make you feel comfortable so don’t sweat it too much and this is a slate where I take a short slate approach of loading up on pitching in one game (if you can), hitting in another and just letting the chips fall where they may. JAMESON TAILLON (& Cole Irvin) Yankee Stadium in the day time just seems to play quiet, no matter the day of the week, the pitchers or anything else.  New York is going for a sweep today and should get a bounce back performance from Taillon that puts him into the mix. Cole Irvin is a very risky pitcher for sure given that he has allowed all 9 of his HR on the road and 7 of them to RHB.  Look for him to just work nothing but sinkers on Judge (walk) and then hopefully put away Rizzo and Stanton so that Donaldson/Torres in the danger part do not come up with men on base. ERIC LAUER (FD) When Tampa is bad they are generally bad against LHP but this year they’re a little better in that split.  That said Lauer when he is on and not walking batters will figure to do just fine against a lineup that probably has 8+ righties in it.  Lauer’s got a 25% strike-out rate this year vs RHB and I love the under in this game as I think its low scoring all around. [spacer height=”20px”] ASTROS vs METS Alvarez, Bregman, Lindor, Canha, McCannon I simply love how the Houston Astros are taking their nutsack and dropping it square on the chin of these New York fans in both leagues.  Do not be fooled that Taijuan Walker had 3 good starts against the Angels and Marlins because he is walking into a buzz-saw with this Astros lineup […]

I am a little disappointed that I didn’t ride on the Orioles harder last night as they’re a team who I have liked going into Seattle and for some reason there was George Kirby chalk which is just hilarious.  Granted, some of us backed the White Sox to win a game, which is equally hilarious. Today we move forward with 15 games on the MAIN slate(s) and one of those is G2 of a double header between the Twins and Guardians.  Hopefully in the two games today if the Twins score 11 runs again they can get more than 0-12 out of Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton and Max Kepler. Over the years I have been stubborn about being a one lineup guy, because it is what I am better at.  But tonight is most definitely a slate to mix and match things up with 3-5 lineups as it’s very evenly spread out. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER 12 MPH Winds out with 80 degree temps for Reds vs Cubs in Wrigley. Looks like we have no storms which means no PPD risk today. Of note, I heard over the weekend that the Chase Field Roof has been transferred to the 60-day IL with an injured cable.  Obviously it was not going to be open for July-August games but this is a bummer come late September when Arizona has a home game on a Saturday night and the whole world is throwing money at some stupid Astros stack against a short pitcher trying to double down their NFL money and we scoop in with a Chase Field stack.  Oh well. [spacer height=”20px”] We have Tarik Skubal, Robbie Ray and Carlos Rodon all pitching on this slate tonight, so insert the Spider-Man pointing Meme. I have been playing FanDuel for a long time and on a 15 game slate when there are a high number of good SP options out there you will easily find enough value hitters that fit in around them to take their 8-10 strike-out performance to the top.  So don’t be a sheep and think “oh, I can go cheap SP and pay for the bats” because there’s PLENTY of value out there. Yes, we can make a similar case on DraftKings but finding a second pitcher who is a mid-range value is worth it tonight. CARLOS RODON The better of the three lefties and it doesn’t hurt that he […]

JOHN DEERE CLASSIC The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting.  We have the Scottish Open (newly added as a PGA event) next week and The Open the following week.  This week however, will be birdie-filled but probably not as interesting as we’d like.  We have one of the weakest fields I think […]

Back to back days with a 9 game main slate on this Monday and a bunch of new series starting up that are just riveting like Pirates at Nationals, Rangers at Royals and Orioles at Mariners! And yes, there is Coors Field on the slate. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER No issues, all games play. Wind blowing IN at Cleveland [spacer height=”20px”] LUCAS GIOLITO Giolito’s biggest challenge in 2022 besides playing for a horrible manager is that he’s giving up lots of homers.  But he is striking out batters just fine and has a 31% CS/Whiff Rate.  The Angels are of course still a horrible offense when it comes to avoiding strikeouts and for those reasons combined he is our top pitcher tonight. PABLO LOPEZ Pablo is great vs RHB and should be able to limit big hits from the lefties in this lineup as well.  So look for a nice low scoring game where the Marlins need a 7 inning clean start from Pablo. TYLER WELLS Wells is a nice value option tonight.  He has been excellent at getting strikeouts with his CHG and SLIDER vs lefty hitters which he should see a good amount of tonight — even if Winker is suspended before the game.  Seattle isn’t a team that is going to go off every single night right now and I like the Orioles to give him some run support here too to get a win at a cheap 6k price. [spacer height=”20px”] Quick Notes Kevin Gausman should have another ‘better’ start back at home tonight but the Red Sox are on a roll and even if he does get 6-7 strikeouts I think he will serve up 3-4 ER too. Sonny Gray has not been as good away from home this year and the Guardians are not going to strike out at all.  Don’t be a fish here. Jordan Montgomery is probably uber chalk on DK at $7,600.  You really want an uber chalk J-Mont?   Thanks, I didn’t think so. [spacer height=”20px”] RANGERS Seager, Garver, Semien, Garcia Last week we rolled with Kris Bubic in a great start against Angels chalk.  Tonight we hammer the hell out of Kris Bubic back at home and I suspect that Jackson Kowar is no doubt the man out of the pen after him today, so Corey Seager, have a nice double dong game vs the Royals again if you will, please. […]