We keep moving along and have an unusual slate tonight with games not locking until 8 PM EST.  This is mostly due to the MLB schedule just not having games at 7PM as many of those games are starting at 6PM where teams had locked into local TV deals with earlier games for the benefit of fans.  Quite honestly, it’s stupid IMO because on a Friday night why do you need the 6PM game?  But anyways, that’s what the trend is now and I wish we had a HUGE 15 game slate but we only have 9 games. We also do not have the Yankee-Oriole game tonight because it’s part of a DH and even though you’ll see those players listed on DraftKings they are not going to accrue points.  FanDuel has excluded this game already so no issues there.  It’s the same nine game slate. And oh my god. It’s happening! Francisco Lindor is finally back in the lead off spot tonight Now, lets check in on the Minnesota weather for tonight Well that’s just grand now isn’t it…   WEATHER Colder (September Baseball!) conditions than we have seen as expected…. Indians at Twins – Cold and Rainy, could PPD.  Minnesota has a bad history of not knowing if they want to play or not.  Do a check around 7:30 PM but I would be open to fading this spot tonight if there’s still risk that close.  I don’t think you’ll need players from it if it plays even though there’s some good spots. Weather is good enough to have both roofs open in Texas and Arizona   I said it earlier this week and I want to highlight this again.  Teams who are likely going to the playoffs are not going to take any risks with pitchers.  Buehler and Paddack both this week have been pulled early at the slightest sign of injury and we saw Buehler go back on the IL and might see that with Paddack now too.   Shane Bieber If the rain stays away Bieber is the play tonight over Giolito.  Kepler is still out and wind blowing in + ugly hitting conditions makes this a spot we can trust paying up for Bieber tonight.  His FD price of $11.6 with a fairly moderate Coors game is not the right play but when locking in two pitchers tonight, we’ll need a stud and it’s […]

Man oh man.  You follow Baseball long enough and you see something you would have never imagined.  How about a 29-9 score which hadn’t happened in something like 80 years?  How about a player hitting 3 HR in a game for the second time in exactly one week?  How about that player  being in my Mt. Rushmore despite batting 7th in the order and being Adam fricken Duvall?  And yet….  We didn’t take down a million bucks?  I guess everyone is all focused on their NFL drafts.  I’ve already got my NFL analysis for the week mostly wrapped up and will get to my article by Saturday — for now, we keep at the Baseball. Both sites have reduced the contest sizes today as expected and hopefully just for tonight.  It’s only a 6 game slate on FD and DK, locking at 6:40 PM EST.   WEATHER Baltimore at Yankees is heavy risk of PPD If this game does play, I don’t see a need to look at many options although those Orioles are playing well and Cole hasn’t been dominant all season quite yet….  So it’s worthy of a flyer if you want.   Gerrit Cole is pitching for the Yankees against a hot Orioles lineup and with lots of PPD/Rain concerns.  I am more not writing him up because of the PPD/rain concerns than the match-up.   Chris Paddack This is a heavy chalk pivot off Sonny Gray who should be the highest SP1 if Gerritt Cole is rained out as anticipated.  I will ride Paddack at home against the Giants despite them being an improved offensive club this season.  Some reasons why and they have nothing to do with analytics.  First off, the Cubs and Bauer were chirping so much last night that I believe the Cubs bats will come out and punish Gray for Bauers cockiness.  Second off, do you really trust the Reds to win again and the Giants to beat up on the Padres?  Me neither.  Paddack will win and he’s coming off a good start after a rough stretch so I expect this to be his best game of the season tonight. Josh Fleming Let’s get a little weird tonight?  Fleming looks to be a middle of the road lefty who has some viability at times and in a way reminds me of heavier Danny Duffy.  So far he has been fairly good […]

Tough to be on some good teams last night and just the wrong bats for me personally. We look at a good mid week slate tonight with quite a few offensive spots and some a game which I see as bad chalk (LAA/TEX)   WEATHER No games appear to have any PPD risk tonight due to weather. Roof likely closed in Texas Oracle Park burning down Roof likely open in Arizona   …. wait… what? Yep.  Oracle Park (San Francisco) is currently fine but the entire sky is Orange/Brown and the air quality has to be put into question.  I’d say this game is at risk of PPD due to … a … um … well, a gender reveal party….   In a normal season we wouldn’t be paying up for pitching in September anymore.  We don’t pay for pitching in April and we don’t pay for pitching in September and there’s various reasons why for that.  This isn’t a normal season so I am still going to look at the studs going today but I’m also a little cautious down the stretch about forcing in higher $ guys who are projecting to be pitching come October…  Just food for thought. Trevor Bauer The difference in price between Bauer and Darvish today isn’t that big of a deal in my mind.  So it comes down to which guy in this game with winds blowing in again you trust more and for me that is Bauer.  Which, for anyone who has read me over the years is pretty much the least shocking thing considering I am just not a Darvish fan.  That said, Yu has been fantastic and is equally good but there’s a few pitch type aspects in this game tonight which favor Bauer and so I will go there.  The Cubs do walk more than the Reds, but Bauer is always going over 100 pitches, so that’s not a concern today. Dane Dunning I still do not trust Dane Dunning over the long haul but this is a very ideal spot to like the White Sox young pitcher.  He’s going to get the run support tonight from their lineup against Brubaker and he’s getting so much swinging strikes that I believe he’ll get enough strikeout points through 5 innings to easily lock him in as your SP2 on DraftKings today. Zach Davies I’m not confident Davies will get close […]

What an odd slate of games today.  Nine games as a bunch of new series kick off but there’s also some double headers and early start times.  I honestly don’t see why we cannot just have games lock at 6:05 every night when there are the 6PM games but I guess there are bigger issues out there. When I say odd slate of games, things I am just less than enthusiastic about are Brewers vs Tigers, White Sox vs Pirates and Orioles vs Mets.   I mean….  Sure, there’s some good DFS plays hidden in there but holy hell you could open up the stadiums for these games and I doubt anyone would go.   WEATHER Rain rain, go away, come again another day… Do not ask me about weather before lock.  I have been very clear about this all season long and all you’re doing is asking me a question I have already answered.  I say this not to be a dick but just to re-program it into your brains. If the game starts in a delay – run away. If the game starts on time – it’s fine. That is your golden rule for 2020.  OK?  That said, here’s the ones you’ll need to be aware of RAIN Brewers at Tigers … Light rain, wind out to RIGHT field.  I suspect Reds at Cubs … Light rain and the wind is blowing in HEAVILY. ROOFS Angels at Rangers … No word but not scorching hot, I would be shocked if the roof was closed outside of a pop-up thunderstorm coming in but that seems unlikely today. Dodgers at Diamondbacks … Under 100 degrees, gotta think roof opens up.   Walker Buehler DK ($10,200) & FD ($10,400) Despite the roof most likely being open and Arizona back at home where they are league average, this is a spot where Buehler should be more than safe to mow down the bad Diamondbacks lineup. Mike Clevinger DK ($9,700) & FD ($9,600) – prefer him on FD by a slight margin over Walker. Unlike his first start as a Padre, Sunshine has an elite strike-out match-up against the Rockies today and I don’t fear Nolan like I did last night against Lamet (which obviously failed). Spencer Turnbull DK Only – $8,500 Turnbull has been a decent pitcher this year up until his last few starts, including his last one against Houser and the […]

Happy Labor Day to everyone out there. We begin the week with an early 6:05 PM EST slate tonight that is small but not too small (6 games) and both sites are rolling out the same slate of games with a small 3 game early slate before the main appetizer.  Just as a reminder, even with NFL starting up now the Dongers Club will continue through to the end of the season and I am very likely to continue into the playoffs where there will be 16 teams and hopefully some great contests out there (won’t hold my breathe). The one day you can expect to see a drop off from the Dongers Club though will be Sunday’s and it’s likely because there just won’t be any tournaments on the DFS sites to warrant an article. Given how Sunday’s in the pandemic season have gone, that’s probably not gonna draw any complaints.   WEATHER Two games to monitor tonight, nothing heavy but definite rain… Royals at Indians – Light Rain Yankees at Blue Jays – Light Rain … Buffalo can be worse so monitor this one for sure.   Zach Plesac With Soler banged up, Whit Merrifield cold, Salvy Perez still out and Bubba Swing and Miss Starling back in the lineup these Royals are back to being an auto play against with a SP.  Plesac at home in a game that should be fairly low scoring is the safest #1 SP today to lock in. Zac Gallen While he’s facing them (the Giants) for the third time in a shot period, it’s not like he has gotten hammered against them.  The only challenge has been his own control at times and Gallen is pitching exceptionally well of late.  I prefer him by a wide margin over Max if spending up. Kevin Gausman With only six games tonight a common DraftKings build in tournaments that we should consider is game stacking pitchers in one game and game stacking hitters in another with the “optimal” one offs as necessary.  The game to load up on pitchers is either Arizona/San Francisco or Kansas City/Cleveland and Gausman should beat out Keller in strikeouts tonight, so that’s why I’d prefer this spot if you want to stack up the SP’s in a game.   Guys I am not on Max Scherzer:  Just prefer Gallen and Plesac.  He’ll do Max things.  Give up a couple […]

Get three homers, get a winning pitcher (or close to it) and you’ll cash most nights.  Such was the case last night…   We have the final non football Sunday of this short 2020 season today and what do you know, it is the first Sunday all season long where there’s no double headers, no weather issues and we have site syncronicity. DraftKings Main slate locks at 1:05 PM EST and features nine games. FanDuel Main slate locks at 1:05 PM EST and features nine games.     There are a lot of sexy looking pitchers today and no I don’t mean Robbie Ray when I say that.  This is a slate that has plenty of choices to pick from as most of these day games are in mid 70’s type weather games and feature lots of aces going — so we can likely find a good mid pitcher to consider off of the top tier guys but the real challenge is navigating away from anyone who could get into a high pitch count spot or avoiding guys that aren’t going to get that critical win today. Shane Bieber Lefties in Cleveland only works if you can actually hit the ball and that seems to be a major problem for the Milwaukee Brewers.  Getting to face Bieber today is not a spot where one should expect their horrific lineup to suddenly start making better contact.  No matter what statistic you want such as swinging strikes, first pitch strikes, average pitches per at bat, blah blah blah, it’s all in favor of Bieber today and his extremely high price tag is definitely justified. Patrick Corbin Nobody will look at Corbin today with a sane eye.  He’s facing a white hot Ronald Acuna and a team who murders LHP typically in a park that plays extreme to hitters.  So what in the world are we even considering here?  Sundays.  They’re weird and the Braves do strike out so don’t be shocked when Corbin has gone 6 innings with 7 strikeouts today and limited damage against a team who is going to mentally sleep after a long week of raking. Rich Hill I hate Rich Hill but he’ll pitch well today against a bad Tigers lineup.  Couple HR spots could get him into trouble but Hill is a mid range value play to consider on DK.  Outside of him you are either punting w/ […]

I guess I should have taken a “Bryce Harper” yesterday and by that I mean just a day of rest because that was an utter disaster of an article I put together last night which was so far off base that you didn’t even bother getting excited about a sweat.  It happens and a mental clearing of the mind was in order this morning to reset for tonight’s slate.  Because every once and a while, that is required. DraftKings has ONE more game than FanDuel tonight and it’s a good spot for pitching between the Angels and Astros. Otherwise all games are clear of any Weather issues and should be good to go tonight.     When I got to the hitting section I found that some mid to high range bats immediately leaped off the page at me tonight.  While we could obviously punt a cheap value play at a couple of positions tonight, I found that the upside of the mid range pitchers might with those good bats probably outweighs the upside of locking in two stud’s on DK tonight.  That said, both Cole and Gilolito are about the same to me, and you are fine with either one up top and yes you can fit two of these three top guys in on DK….   Gerrit Cole He has not been the same dominant pitcher this year with the Yankees, leading many to believe that he was no doubt part of the Astros “magical”  pitching last season where they all seemed to have this incredible boost in spin rate.  But really Cole just seems to have ran into bad luck with scheduling between COVID postponements, 7 inning games and having to face the Rays.  Tonight he’s in Baltimore and should cruise to a nice 7 inning win. Lucas Giolito Whit Merrifield got a hit last night which ended his brief cold slump, but then it died after that.  KC knows Giolito and got to him after a few starts last season – but I lean heavily on Gio who has turned another corner recently and should cruise through this banged up and weak lineup. Aaron Civale So Christian Yelich will homer.  Let’s get that obvious spot out of the way first.  Afterwards, Cleveland is still better than Milwaukee and will win the game 4-2 which brings Civale into play as a slightly cheaper option than the two aces […]

Today is a loaded slate in terms of pure Baseball.  There are at least five double-headers by my count going on today to make up PPD games which reduces what is normally a large Friday slate down to just 9 games on both sites. New Interleague series beginning today Brewers at Indians Padres at Athletics Marlins at Rays – Not on DFS slate.   WEATHER NOTES Good news.  No issues.  Quiet Friday! I hope…   Jack Flaherty Clear cut #1 choice today.  Jack Flaherty is just now getting into a little bit of a routine having made three starts since the Cardinals came off the COVID list as a team.  Some might see some heavy wind blowing out in Wrigley today and shy away but Jack is the better SP to lock in against a worse lineup as his own team is starting to heat up. Dustin May Limited good choices in the mid range today and so the plus side for May being at home and against the Rockies is enough to lock him in as a second pitcher. Tyler Anderson I will continue to pick on Arizona and the other cheap SP2 choice today I looked at here was Yusei Kikuchi, but I am not ready to throw in the towel on 2020 just yet.  So let’s go with Anderson picking on Arizona which has maybe 1 or 2 bats who can scare me tonight with some HR pop in San Francisco which is now a smaller park and has been much better all season.  But it is cooler tonight and Arizona has been terrible away from home all season long.   Outside The Box Brady Singer In a game that looks to be high scoring, it’s Singer who has the advantage.  Yoan Moncada came out and admitted that he isn’t right offensively and has very little power between COVID and a hamstring injury.  He’s the main LH (Switch hitter) bat that would give Singer major issues today and the White Sox do offer a lot of strike-out potential when facing a RHP.   This is very much a spread it out night, not a slate where I would look too heavy at just one team.  So if I hear anyone saying “Team X let me down tonight” or “Team Y needs to get it going” then you’ll get a slap in the face from me.   St. […]

The MLB schedule is trying to throw us a Zach Greinke eephus pitch today, but I am totally prepared to handle this.  Let’s first walk through what the challenge is on this fine Thursday of Major League Baseball DFS.  We have a total of eight games being played in the Majors today and they are as follows Game Time FD EARLY FD MAIN DK MAIN Cubs vs Pirates 1:05 YES Rangers vs Astros 2:10 YES Nationals vs Phillies 4:05 YES YES Yankees vs Mets 4:10 YES YES Padres vs Angels 7:10 YES YES Blue Jays vs Red Sox 7:30 YES YES White Sox vs Royals 8:05 YES YES D’Backs vs Dodgers 9:40 YES YES   So we can technically play every game today, including the Pittsburgh Pirates against Alec Mills.  Why do I highlight the Pirates, because it’s J.T. Brubaker … 877-CASH-NOW…. 877-CASH-NOW day…. If you get stuck in a rut and need a slump buster, Call J.T. Bru-baker…. 877-PIE-RATS…. 877-PIE-RATS… 877-PIE RATS   I am going to break down the 6 games on the DraftKings main slate for this article.   WEATHER NOTES Cubs/Pirates on FD early is the only game with some light rain.   Clayton Kershaw Arizona is a bad offense right now and Kershaw is about as steady/safe as they come in this spot today. Mike Clevinger The main reason I like Sunshine today is the location and the game time.  These mid day games in Anaheim have historically been beneficial for pitchers and we saw that already once this year with Greinke — and I expect it to benefit both Clevinger and Heaney today.  Otherwise I really wouldn’t want Sunshine making his first appearance with the Padres against a team that isn’t a horrible strikeout lineup — but then they have virtually no LH bats and Clevinger probably does want to make a nice first impression. Taijuan Walker (DK Only) I am not a Taijuan Walker believer (anymore).  I mean, I was a big fan of his back in the day in Arizona but that was long ago and I long wrote him off as you all know — because we stacked against him earlier this year and he was very good.  But he’s started to decline and now going to Toronto he’s getting to face a bad Boston lineup even though it’s in a decent hitters park right now.  But um.  Why in the […]