Welcome to a Friday edition of The Dongers Club as new series start up and we have 13 main slate games today.  The Pirates and Cubs are playing at night due to rain in the afternoon and will not be on our DFS slate today, neither will the Cardinals and Reds who are playing an early game in Cincinnati for a stupid reason that only the people of Cincinnati would know. [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER All games play tonight.  It’s getting warmer, but nothing really stands out as a must own spot. Roof Open in Arizona Roof Maybe open in Houston unless Verlander throws a fit. Roof ugly in Tampa [spacer height=”20px”] RANGER SUAREZ So long as Ryan Braun does not unretire to come out and hit 5 HR in Citizens Bank Park this weekend I will feel very confident locking in on Ranger Suarez’s entrance into the 2022 pitching campaign.  His last outing he turned the corner with a 13.85 DK result facing 22 batters, striking out 4 and having a 28.3 CSW%. The Brewers offense has been suspect at best all season long and the main offensive threats are lefties which Suarez dominates.  He should face 25+ Brewers, which will get him through 6 innings, striking out 8+ and wind up carrying us on this fine Friday evening.   He is my top arm on both sites. MICHAEL KOPECH You will notice that a certain top SP, Justin Verlander, is not on my list tonight.  Kopech is in a MUCH better match-up against the Twins and while they are somewhat cautious with him, he isn’t a 3 IP and done guy.  The Talent is not questioned as Kopech is one of the best Whiff pitchers out there and continues to build up his strength to go deeper into games.  I feel better about him today than JV coming off an 8 inning performance and having to deal with a Toronto lineup which isn’t striking out as much this year. CHRIS FLEXEN Until the Royals begin to turn it on offensively I will not shy away from using a SP, specifically a RHP against them.  Flexen doesn’t have enough movement on his pitches to come out and go 7 strong with a high upside against Kansas City, but he also has an extremely low risk score vs this lineup. [spacer height=”20px”] Guys that I expect to have potentially good outings but […]

The NBA playoffs continue with a 3-game slate tonight starting at 7:30p.m. The “Droppin Dimes,” article will go over my favorite plays for the slate. It will consist of three to five core plays  along with some additional plays and some value plays. You will not always see the highest-priced players or the most obvious […]

I really used to hate Thursday’s but I’ll be honest, they are growing on me and when the bulk of the games are all in the afternoon I kind of like them even more as we have one Main slate today and this is the only article for this fine Thursday, April 21st.  Joc Pederson’s birthday. Arizona at Washington – This game is only on DK, otherwise we have site synchronicity… [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER All games will play without PPD risk and are slightly warmer finally but just comfortable — not hot. BAL @ OAK:  Chilly and light drizzle chances ARI @ WAS:   Wind blowing out to dead center TOR @ BOS:  14+ MPH wind out to left CWS @ CLE:  15+ MPH wind out to RIGHT!!! NYY @ DET:  16+ MPH WIND out to LEFT CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [spacer height=”20px”] It’s kind of a weak slate on ‘easy’ pitching options today and Day games can do that often times. DYLAN CEASE After being swept in their double header yesterday, the White Sox will show up today and put a beat down on Cleveland.  We’re riding the AL Cy Young all season long, or at least through the first couple of months while he is in terrific form. Cleveland is not striking out much and isn’t a disaster offense like everyone thought but Cease will act like a true ace and shut things down today giving the White Sox an easy win.  Expect them to be much more focused defensively as well. JOE RYAN vs ZACK GREINKE So I was watching Ryan’s last start which was in Boston and Dennis Eckersley on NESN commented how Joe Ryan’s mannerisms were very much like Zack Greinke and then I just couldn’t un-see this perfect observation by Eck.  This has nothing to do with DFS other than — yep, he is facing ole Greinke today so I wanted to highlight this as it gives me a great reason to justify watching these miserable offenses today. Ryan is the far better DFS play than Greinke because Law of Averages on the Twins bats has them putting up 3 runs in the first inning and Ryan is much more likely to get whiffs and has a 36% K rate against the Royals RHB today.   Is a SP game stack in order?  Probably not, but you could do much worse if you wanted to just full stack some […]

So if you are reading this close to lock and want a Full Slate, you need to head over to FanDuel which includes: Orioles at Athletics Rays at Cubs Yankees at Tigers Angels at Astros Cardinals at Marlins DraftKings has just 5 games on it D’Backs at Nationals Blue Jays at Red Sox Giants at Mets Twins at Royals Rangers at Mariners [spacer height=”20px”] WEATHER No issues, all games should play fine but the Rays-Cubs moved theirs up  because of weather, however they intend to get it in. [spacer height=”20px”] This is another slate where one can justify just going up top and shooting for a 50 point combination between the top two guys. CARLOS RODON (DK/FD) Rare that a Giants pitcher gets a nice park shift, but Rodon has that and both lineups are coming off a double header yesterday, so we’re back to 2019 type theories when we believed that double headers which are 9 games result in lower scoring games the following day. CHRIS BASSITT (DK) Every week I will be looking at the hound dog on his way to leading the Mets starting pitching in Wins this year.  With the reduced slate on DraftKings today we’re down to looking at game stack SP options and the SF-NYM game is an ideal one where both guys should get through 6 IP with limited damage. SANDY ALCANTARA (FD) Sandy is always better at home, so on FanDuel he is definitely in play against ‘technically’ his former team in the Cardinals.   St. Louis is a RH heavy team and Sandy generally manages RH bats just fine. [spacer height=”20px”] RED SOX Xander Bogaerts, Alex Verdugo, Rafael Devers Boston will be honoring long time broadcaster and player Jerry Remy tonight.  It should be emotional there and then they get to smack around Jose “I hate the Cold” Berrios. ROYALS Bobby Witt Jr, Whit Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi If Kansas City is good at one thing, it’s coming out of nowhere to win quiet mid week DFS slates.  Chris Paddack is a limited pitch guy who doesn’t really get whiffs with anything that breaks so the Royals should be able to tee off on him tonight for lots of long innings. RANGERS / MARINERS Corey Seager, Brad Miller Julio Rodriguez, Jarred Kelenic The roof is going to be closed in Seattle but if anything that keeps some cold air hopefully out.  I like […]

Five games for our mid week MLB DFS itch and we’re going to enjoy this slate my friends as all five games will play without issue and the pitching options force us some tough decisions. There is a Double Header today and we only have to deal with 1 of the games for DFS purposes as the White Sox (Keuchel) will play two against the Tribe (Beiber).  Those are the projected SP that I see for the early game. WEATHER No issues as the roof should be closed in Milwaukee, with wind blowing out in L.A. and Cleveland but not insanely bad in either spot, while it’s 67 and sunny San Diego, of course. [spacer height=”20px”] This is another slate where one can justify just going up top and shooting for a 50 point combination between the top two guys. SHANE BIEBER I am probably less of a Bieber guy than most, but I love that he is at home against a lineup that doesn’t have a ton of lefty power and has also gone a couple days without hitting as these teams missed both Monday and Tuesday.  Not to mention the Chi-Sox had scored 3 or fewer runs in the last 4 games before the rainouts and Bieber should get through 7 innings today with 10-12 slate breaking strikeout upside. BRANDON WOODRUFF If you pivot off a pitcher, it would be Woodruff, but if you do that you best be riding the Pirates bats and I just would not do that.  I believe this game will go under with both Woodruff and Keller pitching well, although maybe not dominant.   I project Woodruff to pitch 6+ with 5+ strikeouts and he should Win. [spacer height=”20px”] MACKENZIE GORE Back to my guy making his second start, this is a big drop down from the confidence in the top two arms but if you are struggling with value from hitters today then Gore is the Dongers Club fan-boy favorite pick here unless you want to do a Keller+Woodruff game-stack in the Brewers game or Keuchel with Bieber. Specifically for Gore, he was very solid with his command in the Spring and also in his ML-Debut last Friday night.  As long as he keeps that up he will deliver solid results even with the high probability that he gives up a HR today to Brandon Drury, Kyle Farmer or Nick Senzel. [spacer height=”20px”] […]

With a couple PPD games yesterday there are a couple double-headers today and on the MAIN slate DraftKings has included G2 of the Diamondbacks-Nationals double header while FanDuel has skipped it for their main slate. This is a HORRIFIC hitting slate tonight.  There is just no way around it and if there are a bunch of 12-7 games then come back tomorrow and I’ll gladly eat my crow on that one but nobody should sugar coat anything for you as this is one of the most boring slates we will have all season long. WEATHER Better than yesterday with no PPD risk spots today at least but it’s just cold, cross windy and blech. [spacer height=”20px”] CORBIN BURNES A year ago there were times when we could look at the Pirates offense and argue that we don’t want to pick on them given that they are not one of the worst strikeout teams in the league.  That was last year and this is also Corbin Burnes. JOE MUSGROVE At some point in this year there will be a Joe Musgrove home start where he burns people for one game and then goes back to his usual dominance in PETCO Park.  That start should not be tonight.  Despite having Joey Votto on their team the Reds project as a bottom 5 offense in the weighted top of the order rankings on the model and we know Musgrove is elite at home (2.92 ERA with 1.27 K/IP a year ago) JON GRAY My contrarian arm tonight is up on SafeCo (now T-Mobile) Park.  A park which in recent years has shifted heavily towards the pitching and a Mariners lineup with limited SLG pop.  Gray had a 28.9% CSW in his first start facing 16 batters vs a great Blue Jays lineup, and should be extended further today vs a younger and more favorable Mariners lineup.  Expect a pitchers duel with Gray coming out above Robbie Ray. [spacer height=”20px”] Sleeper options to pitch well today – but not deliver enough in DFS – include … Carlos Hernandez (KC) Yusei Kikuchi (TOR) Tyler Gilbert (ARI) [spacer height=”20px”] I really don’t like any offenses tonight and see this being another slate like last Friday where you are best off going with a 2-2-2-1-1 or 3-1-1-1-1-1 type build. There is some logic tonight to also pairing Burnes + Musgrove and a 4 or 5 man anchor […]

CORE plays and top stacks as well as the right players to consider for winning NHL DFS lineups.

Full disclosure, today’s article was done early in the day and well in advance of any afternoon news such as new weather developments or pitching changes, or even God-Forbid some massive COVID related news. It doesn’t mean the analysis process changes at all, it just means that if you see something which looks like I missed a news update in the day, I did not, I just am not able to edit this article in the afternoon today. WEATHER Early warning on this week as the weather looks like it’s pretty rough through Thursday. White Sox @ Indians – PPD Diamondbacks @ Nationals – PPD Giants @ Mets – High PPD Risk Orioles @ Athletics – Light PPD Risk [spacer height=”20px”] FRANKIE MONTAS Oakland and Houston are two teams who finally get to go home and for the Athletics that should mean some nice peace and quiet in their giant stadium with no fans.  Montas draws a RH heavy lineup who should be picked on by everyone today.  He’ll deliver. KYLE HENDRICKS Ah, I get to use one of my favorite GIFs and we aren’t even to Earth Day yet – which I think is next week?  Heck if I know. This is the life of Kyle Hendricks, but with Hendricks we can usually predict with consistency when his good and bad starts are coming.  I don’t always love SP in inter-league games but a cold night in Wrigley Field with a good K% team in Tampa coming in makes Hendricks my sometimes good option today.  Like him more than McClanahan who I predict will be more popular. SEAN MANAEA The shift down to PETCO park from the OAK Coliseum for Manaea doesn’t matter but the Reds offense is what we are picking on mostly here. [spacer height=”20px”] NOT Going to touch … Clayton Kershaw – Off his near perfection game?  Nah.  Just no…   Atlanta can touch him up for 2 HR tonight and those guys would be terrific leverage on a short and cold slate. [spacer height=”20px”] The Model & Optimizer loves the Athletics tonight vs Spenser Watkins but their first home game after a long road trip to start the season and also playing in a terrible hitting environment are two big negatives for me.  I will fade anyone there who isn’t a value. PHILLIES Segura, Castellanos, Hoskins Chad Kuhl?  Chad Kuhl???  The Phillies get to go out […]

The NBA playoffs continue with a 3-game slate tonight starting at 7:30p.m. The “Droppin Dimes,” article will go over my favorite plays for the slate. It will consist of three to five core plays  along with some additional plays and some value plays. You will not always see the highest-priced players or the most obvious […]

CORE plays and top stacks as well as the right players to consider for winning NHL DFS lineups.