A nice random Tuesday to close out May, which was a good solid month and we finish up the 3rd day of the Dongers Club Appreciation Contest.  Before we get to the standings for tonight, let’s cover the rules for this contest entry.  Pay close attention because you could easily nullify your entry if you don’t make sure the lineup going into this contest follows the rules. May 31st Rules:  ISO Tuesday.  Every player in your lineup (pitchers included) must be a one off from a different GAME.  This means you cannot have 2 players from the same team or the same game.  So you cannot have say Bryan Reynolds and Freddie Freeman in the same lineup.  If you think this is challenging then once again — to bad.  Honestly, just click game by game pick a guy and move on.  It’s really not that hard as we have 13 games on this slate and you have to pick just 10 players. Click here to join The BONUS for tonight is a big one.  It is somewhat similar to last Tuesday’s CHUG rule, except tonight you must be the ONLY person in the contest with the player to get a bonus.  If they hit a HR, you get +14 for each HR hit.  Last week, only one person had Joc and he hit 3 homers.  So pick your one offs wisely.  Here are the standings going into tonight, the bonus can change lots of things but as of right now, SKG1000 is running away with things. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER Two games have a little bit of rain but I anticipate both WILL play.  Even if we lose both we still have 11 games so the rules will apply. Brewers at Cubs – Light Rain Marlins at Rockies – Light Rain — UPDATE PPD Extremely hot in Camden Yards, so we put the new wall to the ultimate test. [spacer height=”20px”] KEVIN GAUSMAN DK: $9,700, FD: $10,200 Gausman will be back at home and he is getting the lowly and banged up White Sox offense. A few more LH bats will be here but Gausman is striking them out at a near 27% clip and is likely go go over 30 DK fantasy points in a strong start tonight. Torontno is also a stadium which continues to play towards unders with the new Baseball + Humidor combination in effect there.  This […]

THE MEMORIAL So, this week we go to Jack’s Place!  This is a pretty loaded field and my time constraints this week are going to limit my eloquent writing to “just the facts, ma’am”! Muirfield Village is a course that can wear you out!  In 2020, if memory serves me, they played the Workday event […]

Both sites have a 6 game evening/Main slate which includes G2 of the Brewers-Cubs Double Header. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER All games play without issue. Roof projected OPEN in Chase Field and TBD in Texas. [spacer height=”20px”] WALKER BUEHLER A recent stretch of rough starts could keep some off Buehler but this is when he turns it around and just starts to trust his primary pitches against a weak lineup. DAVID PETERSON The Mets could use some length from Peterson today and the Nationals won’t strike out a ton against him but his 51% ground ball rate is 2nd highest on the slate to Aaron Ashby who is also a viable SP2 but will have some windy conditions in Wrigley to deal with.  Good park, mediocre offense against him and a fair price point has Peterson as a comforting SP2. [spacer height=”20px”] Other Thoughts … Zac Gallen has upside with how Atlanta strikes out a ton but with the roof open I will pass on using him at all today.  Drew Smyly and Aaron Ashby are next best believe it or not on my list tonight but the wind should continue to push the ball out of Wrigley so I can’t really pull those triggers. I am not on Drew Rasmussen vs the Rangers and think they will continue to hit well. [spacer height=”20px”] AMBUSH STACK Arizona Diamondbacks Rojas, Smith, Varsho, Marte, Thomas ‘Zona will see Spencer Strider to open it up for Atlanta, who can be good enough to go 2-3 IP but this is a lineup that walks at a high rate and should be patient to not chase too many pitches.  Given the price and how well Arizona has been this month I trust stacking them with Boston over other spots. GOOD WEATHER, GOOD PARK, BAD SP The Boston Red Sox Xander, Devers, Verdugo, Story I have this theory that the Red Sox at home are always the play on a Holiday and this concludes the 5th game of a long rare extended series, which means if they get into the bullpen they will continue to pile things on. Boston has scored 7 or more runs in 6 of their last 7 games and has hit double digits three times in that stretch.  The one downer was a 1 run effort, so there’s really no middle game with this offense right now. SNEAKY GAME Rays vs Rangers TB:  Kiermaier, […]

Naturally the British DFS Company has said fuck you to our American Holiday and rolled out a set of games that will yield them zero entertainment and zero profit.  Stupid FanDuel. Six games this afternoon on DK, which is broken up into a 3 and 4 game slate on FanDuel and then we have the same main slates later tonight. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER Wind blowing OUT to Left Center in Wrigley Field around 16 MPH. Wind blowing OUT in St. Louis around 17 MPH Wind blowing OUT in Philadelphia to Right Center Warm, Warm, Warm. Colorado has a very low dewpoint today of just 48.  It is going to feel incredibly comfortable out there and I can see this game playing under expectations. [spacer height=”20px”] FRAMBER VALDEZ Valdez has always had just one major issue and that is walks, but he has been better this year at just 8% walk rate and pitches very well on the road historically.  He is a heavy ground ball pitcher who has handled these Athletics well outside of a couple HR to Chad Pinder — which I do not see happening today. Look for a 7 inning upside game from Framber Valdez and consider him your easy SP1. LOGAN WEBB Webb’s price will make him an interesting decision today.  The Phillies had a short little bus ride down from New York to Philly after their night game last night and have to turn around for a day game today while the Giants had the early flight out of Cincinnati and should be rearing to jack a million balls into the seats today before they go and enjoy a nice Lobster dinner or something. So bottom line here is I am backing the Giants and there’s a chance that Webb if he can fix his early innings issues comes out and pitches 6-7 strong against a tired Phillies lineup.  His price is making it such that he really can do that without being perfect and still be a viable SP2 [spacer height=”20px”] Also consider on DK: Pablo Lopez Nobody will touch Pablo for 10k+ as the highest priced pitcher in a day game out in Coors, but he’s been dominant this year and when you have someone in great form that is contrarian it’s always worth consideration. FanDuel Very Early: Start drinking early and go Dylan Bundy. [spacer height=”20px”] GOOD WEATHER BOOST Wrigleyville – Tellez, […]

Bonus write up today with a good 5 game afternoon slate. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER Never an issue with the afternoon tilt slates and such is the case today.  All games out west play. [spacer height=”20px”] MACKENZIE GORE Do you think the Pirates will take another from the Padres?  No, me neither.  Gore is the best pitcher on this slate and we won’t overthink this one. DANE DUNNING He’s facing Oakland and while I see the ball carrying a little more in Oakland today it’s still Oakland. [spacer height=”20px”] DODGERS A report came out that Zach Davies was outed by his soon ex-wife that he left her for some side piece on the road and since then he has gotten lit up like a christmas tree.  The Dodgers should continue that beat down on Davies today. ANGELS We once again should be looking at the Anaheim home game on Sunday’s, the warm weather here will benefit both sides but most specific Shohei Ohtani going yard off Berrios. [spacer height=”20px”] CATCHER Austin Barnes Max Stassi FIRST BASE Jared Walsh Freddie Freeman SECOND BASE Ketel Marte Luis Rengifo THIRD BASE Matt Chapman Eugenio Suarez SHORTSTOP Jeremy Pena Corey Seager OUTFIELD – Mt Rushmore Shohei Ohtani Mike Trout George Springer Brandon Marsh [spacer height=”20px”] Shohei Ohtani – OF – Angels – Chairman of The Dongers Club George Springer – OF Austin Barnes – C Jeremy Pena – SS Matt Chapman – 3B [spacer height=”20px”] CORE BUILD Ohtani Walsh Springer Chapman [spacer height=”20px”] BETTING PLAYS Angels/Blue Jays OVER Rangers ML Dodgers + Padres + Astros ML Parlay [spacer height=”20px”]

We have some nice weather conditions on this Memorial Day weekend and with the most underrated month of the calendar year (June) coming up I am most definitely in a good mood today, so let’s Ambush the Competition. On this day in 1982, Cal Ripken did not play.  He would go on to play the next 2,632 games.  It’s a shame he didn’t make it to 2,803 games. On this day in 1995, Yankees SS Derek Jeter made his Major League Debut going 0-5. On this day in 2010, Phillies SP Roy ‘Doc’ Halladay tossed a perfect game.  He opened the game with a 3 ball count to three of the first four batters he faced. These nuggets courtesy of @theaceofspaeder on Twitter. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER The weather today is very nice and all games will play and with favorable conditions for hitting. [spacer height=”20px”] MAX FRIED Lots of good high end pitchers on this slate today, but I trust Fried to continue his solid May run where you know you get 6-7 innings out of Fried, an efficient pitch outing and 6-8 strikeouts.  The Marlins offense usually does better when they go into Atlanta, but outside of Cooper and Soler I don’t see much in this lineup that should have any chance of pushing Fried out of this game early.  Plus, he’ll get plenty of run support. LUIS SEVERINO What’s more American on a Holiday weekend than going to Costco on a Sunday afternoon?  That’s what we’re going to do here as we have a very nice pitching match-up between Sevy and Sugar Shane down in Tampa with two cold offenses in the pitcher friendly warehouse. I prefer Severino for the cost difference because there are limitations with McClanahan being trusted to go deep and also the Yankee lineup looks like it could actually avoid a high strikeout game against McClanahan today based on some of my pitch type metrics.  For the cost savings, Severino should match Shane and continue his resurgent season. KYLE FREELAND Rather than write up a third guy who is in the 8-10k range, we should take a gamble on a cheaper arm today.  Freeland does a good job generally of keeping the ball on the ground and for $6,100 he has the best chance to deliver a 5+ inning game without a ton of damage off him.  If he can keep Cruz from jacking […]

I wish I had a simple way to break down how the FanDuel and DraftKings slates could possibly align but I think I am just going to go watch Stranger Things 4 and let my mind rest instead of this debacle that FanDuel did on their side today. All total there are 16 MLB games today as the Rockies and Nationals will play their double-header today to make up last nights PPD game and here is the breakdown between FD & DK which looks normal on the surface until you realize something which I’ll explain below FanDuel – 2 Slates They have since added a bunch of other poors slates.  I have no words here… 12:05 PM (2 Games):  Early 4:05 PM (8 Games):  Main …. that’s it DraftKings 2:10 PM (2 Games) – Turbo Slate 4:05 PM (6 Games) – Early 7:05 PM (6 Games) – Main So FanDuel is including the Noon Rockies/Nationals and Orioles/Red Sox G1 of double headers.  Please dont let them know they are double-headers they might actually cancel the slate then because they dont want too much revenue now as the IRS might flag them for actually making a profit and that wouldn’t be good for their U.K. Drug Money Laundering Scheme of a business. But what is fucking hilarious?  They made the 4PM slate the Main slate and then didn’t include three games that start at 10pm.  Three pretty important games too.  So instead of having THREE (if not 4 if you count the 2pm games) legit slates, they have … 1 Good slate and then 1 slate nobody will be awake in time to really set a lineup for. My pet turtle’s travel lacrosse team is more organized than these asshats. So here’s the plan.  Just one article that is going to cover every game from Early and Main on DraftKings, which also covers the Main on FanDuel. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER All games should play fine. [spacer height=”20px”] AFTERNOON SLATE Shane Bieber Welcome to the land of De-Ja-Vu.  A week ago Shane Beiber vs Detroit was scratched due to rain and then he came out and dazzled.  I was going to fade him last night with other options which really didn’t do well, so lets just all make sure we do the smart thing and take him now. Gerrit Cole Tampa cannot hit right now and the Yankees pitching staff is in […]

Overview With a little bit of chaos during qualifying, there are plenty of drivers starting towards the back of the field due to myriad issues among the field. There will be plenty of chalky drivers towards that back with place differential available in a race that also has plenty of dominator points available. The drivers […]

May Dongers Club Appreciation Contest – Day #2: Click Here to Enter on DraftKings Rules for tonight: Friday, May 27th:  Chairman Bonus … If you play the Chairman and he homers, you get 2x his points.  If you fade the Chairman and he doesn’t homer, you get 2x the points of the player at the same position (The Chairman will not be an OF) Standings will be updated after tonight so that you know where everyone stands going into next Tuesday’s final round. [spacer height=”20px”] Friday, May 27th … The White Sox and Cubs will play this weekend but someone at MLB headquarters decided they shouldn’t play today — which is absurd.  At any rate, we have 13 games tonight with some Tornado warnings coming through the east coast too.  Fun times! WEATHER Rockies at Nationals – Rainy/Stormy.  Very dicey situation here during the day with Tornado warnings, however if they are after 6pm and haven’t announced a DELAY or PPD then I would imagine they will play despite flying cows and stuff. Guardians at Tigers – Rain and bad baseball.  Probably try to get it in. All other games look good to go. [spacer height=”20px”] JUSTIN VERLANDER (DK: $10.5k) Verlander has faced the Mariners twice this season, they’re a young team and he had 8K over 8IP in the first meeting while they got to him a little bit in the second meeting knocking him for a whopping 2 ER and only 3 SO.  Today we go back to Verlander dominating the Mariners batters and I really don’t expect anything less than 7 innings and 9 strikeouts. SEAN MANAEA (FD: $9.7k) Manaea has become the trusted depth guy for the Padres.  Two of his last 4 starts he has gone over 100 pitches, including 110 against the same Pie-Rats on April 30th.  They won’t give you the same strikeout upside that Verlander will have but I do see us getting 7 innings out of the lefty tonight, making him option 1b after Verlander and on FanDuel this is an $1,100 difference JON GRAY (DK: $5,500) One of the more chalky plays tonight will be Shane Bieber, but there is ole Jon Gray at $5.5k vs the pathetic Athletics out in Oakland who I think will be close to him in ownership tonight.  Go ahead and ride it though, this isn’t some rookie kid who will get beat up and knocked […]

This is an odd Thursday for late May as just one afternoon game today and even the Detroit Tigers have a rare home night Thursday game tonight.  It’s a bigger than normal Thursday slate too so we should enjoy what we have in that regard. WEATHER There are two games which have weather to monitor for PPD risk and definitely a delay risk.  Each game has good SP options in them as well. Guardians at Tigers – Light but increasing as they go on. Phillies at Braves – Heaviest of the spots, highest PPD risk. Other notable weather items, but no risk: Brewers at Cardinals – Light rain, game should play fine. Dodgers at Diamondbacks – Roof Closed [spacer height=”20px”] I could list anyone first and your response is most likely going to be … Because that is just what we have tonight as we go through the various options on this slate.  Let’s discuss them in greater detail though, shall we? MARTIN PEREZ Welcome to the Martin Perez show ladies and gentlemen, come one, come all.  He isn’t just shutting down the Astros like he always does, he is shutting down everyone.  On the season opposing RHB are hitting just .219 against his Cutter and .219 against his Change-Up. Oakland’s RHB?  They’re not good vs either pitch either as no hitter has an xWOBA Over .283 against both pitches.  Oakies bad.  Perezezezs good.  Thank you for coming. SHOHEI OHTANI Toronto has been better of late with lowering their strike-out rates and Vlad/Springer are hitting the ball hard again and soon Teoscar will as well, but he won’t hit Ohtani tonight. Ohtani has a life time 9-2 record at home with a 2.20 ERA, and that is notable because on the road it is 4.89 over his career as a pitcher.  So there’s some logic to saying I’ll take Ohtani at home and with Toronto only sitting dead red or running into a hanging slider right now they’re likely to be chasing a lot of bad pitches today, giving Ohtani a nice strikeout floor in a nice 69 degree Anaheim Stadium. FRANKIE MONTAS Montas took a bad line drive off his hand the other night forcing him out after 1 2/3 IP and this is someone who the Athletics should be cautious with as he is their big trade chip that remains. Could the hand be flaring up?  Possibly, but […]