A great day with the 11am game already off and gone, but there’s too many 6:45 games coming up this week which will ruin Tuesday and Friday slates.  Luckily tonight DraftKings and FanDuel have the slates locking at 6:40 PM to include these early games. WEATHER Padres at Tigers:  We have the Comerica Park Wind Factor today.  Wind blowing out to left field (not quite Left Center) and its OVER 14 MPH.  These conditions have historically really paid off for offense & especially in night games. Blue Jays at Astros:  Roof will be closed   NICK LODOLO (DK: $8700, FD: $8700) Miami is continuing to roll out new young kids and likely has a couple more in today.  If Lodolo has a good feel on his breaking ball he’ll get right through this lineup —  maybe a double to Dane Meyers to make him sweat with two outs, but nothing more then that.  Should be a 6+ strikeout game. ROBBIE RAY (DK: $7500, FD: $8400) This is like Linus and his blanket for Robbie Ray.  After three east coast time zone starts and one versus his former team (Mariners), Ray is back on the West Coast, in San Francisco and at night against the random Brewers.  He’s cheaper because of some struggle starts and is still prime for the Robbie Ray after dark experience where he’ll have 8 strikeouts and then walk the bases loaded in the top of the 5th only to get out of it with 3 more strikeouts. OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS I don’t have a ton of concerns with Schellenbach, Gausman, Nola, but there’s too many good bats in most of the opposing lineups to rank them ahead of Lodolo/Ray tonight.  Yeah, even Schwelly against the Cards.   PADRES Tatis, Machado, Bogaerts, Wade Keider Montero and the wind == homers galore for Detroit.  Tatis is the best hitter in Baseball at the moment, Machado/Bogaerts both should pull with hard contact & Tyler Wade will triple if he gets one into the outfield. TIGERS Carpenter, McKinstry, Torkelson, Greene Wind boost also helps the home team of course & Randy Vasquez is the one wart in the Padres pitching.  Detroit should hit him just fine. BRAVES Olson, Harris, Verdugo Soft tosser Fedde, so we go with Olson, Harris and … *gulp* Verdugo?  No, we banned him…   CATCHER Patrick Bailey Elias Diaz Alejandro Kirk   FIRST BASE Vladimir Guerrero […]

I got time to get this put together early in the A.M.  Adjust for lineups as they change today but we have a BIG Sunday slate with good options all around. WEATHER All Clear   JESUS LUZARDO (DK: $9500, FD: $10.6k) I don’t write the scripts, I just point out what is obvious to us.  Jesus.  On a Sunday.  On EASTER Sunday.  Against his former team.  Nothing more to say here, and so far Luzardo has been very comfortable in Philly now that he wears the Phils colors.  Just going off game logs, the Luzardo’s been drawing tough draws at home (Dodgers & Giants), he’s done just fine & the Marlins have a 34% strikeout rate over the last week versus LHP. MAX FRIED (DK: $9700, FD: $10.6k) I’m ready.  I am ready for my first investment into Max Fried for the season.  Depending on lineups coming out I’d try to get him in as SP2 with Luzardo and trust him instead of Skubal — who isn’t bad either but very pricey. TANNER HOUCK (DK: $7100, FD: $7200) Definitely can’t be as bad as last time.  It’s the White Sox for crying out loud.  Houck isn’t terrible, but man he had a horrific Monday earlier this week, this is an easy bounce back spot where he won’t be dominant but is good to trust for SP2. THE SUNDAY SLEEPER The criteria for Sunday Sleeper should always be a guy that you likely don’t use in 4 out of every 5 starts that he pitches, but this one time, on a Sunday when ownership is low is when he could produce a great cheap pitcher play.  Nobody really feels confident with that pick today, however I am going to stick with the system and go with the one who stands out the most out of the bottom of the barrel. GRANT HOLMES (DK: 6600, FD: $7600) It’s a winning streak for the Braves and not coincidentally they’re doing it against the pathetic Twins.  Holmes last two starts were really good.  He might serve up one solo HR to a RHH but beyond that the Twins do swing a decent amount and should help him avoid walk issues. OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS No Glasnow for me Kelly/Taillon going 0-0 in Wrigley after all the fireworks would be ironic.   ORIOLES Cincy is opening a lefty so not sure if orioles will stick with […]

This is a good big main Saturday afternoon slate today and my comments/notes on the evening slate are at the end of this article. Three of the BEST games today are not included on FanDuel, who did what I thought DraftKings would do – but we got a NICE big 11 game slate on DK which locks at 1PM and includes Marlins/Phils, Royals/Tigers, Diamondbacks/Cubs. WEATHER Overall this is a good hitting weather slate with the cames in Citizens Bank Park, Comerica, Camden, Fenway and Citi Field having comfortable situations for hitting.   What makes this slate so good is the depth on both SP and hitting spots.  We are definitely not deprived of pitching options today. PAUL SKENES (DK: $10.8k, FD: $10.6k) I smell an ELITE Skenes start.  His last one was good and most of his starts this year have just been going through the motions to be honest. JOSE BERRIOS (DK: $7400, FD: $8600) Every once and a while I gotta just pull out the “gut feeling” card when touting up someone.  This is a big time gut feeling on Berrios.  Nice potential for this game to be a SP battle & if so, I trust Berrios who will have a high volume of swings and misses – which equates to put aways to get out of jams and strand runners. GAME STACK PITCHERS? This is not a terrible slate to consider game stacking pitchers and there are two games which might shock you in that regard.  We have a cold weather game in Coors Field and then the opposite of yesterday’s late innings in Wrigley — which BTW was an under game early for the starters. CHASE DOLLANDER (DK: $7400) & MACKENZIE GORE (DK: $7800, FD: $9200) We didnt really touch on Gore and Dollander before the PPD announcement yesterday and I guess that was me just assuming the game would be PPD.  They’re both expected to just slide into this Saturday afternoon Coors game & although it’ll be cold – we can still trust the pitchers.  Gore’s curve ball could get hung up and not get as many swings and misses as one would like — but I trust both guys. ZAC GALLEN (DK: $8300) & BEN BROWN (DK: $7600) Lean Gallen as an isolated play, but don’t hate Brown either.  Weather won’t be an insane factor today.   PHILLIES Kepler, Harper, Schwarber The Phils have […]

Hello friends, what a fine day of Baseball we have going into this Eastern Weekend.  A little heads up, there is unlikely to be a Sunday Dongers Club this weekend. We have the return of Cubs home Friday afternoon games today, making this a nice TestiFriday with the Cubs hosting the D’Backs, then a 3 game Turbo slate and then onto our MAIN 11 game slate. WEATHER Nationals at Rockies:  PPD White Sox at Red Sox:  Chance of rain   This is an offense slate.  It’s a holiday weekend technically & warmer temps in a few spots.  If you wanna believe in conspiracies then tonight feels like a night when the HR alerts go off non-stop to get folks back into the hype of the long ball. LOGAN WEBB (DK: $9000, FD: $9800) After a LONG road trip the Angels got cold late & are back home.  Go spend time with the wives, kids, or whoever you have too and then oh shit, we gotta go to the park and … oh wait, we’re down 6-1 in the 7th inning and Logan Webb has 9 strikeouts.  How did that happen?  Well, you’re the Angels.  That’s how. FREDDY PERALTA (DK: $9500, FD: $9600) I dont think there is a bigger BOOM or BUST play out there today than Peralta.  The Athletics can be sneaky, they have shown some hitting pop & if they lose it’s most likely because of bad pitching lately.  That said, they’re still a lineup filled with whiffs & Peralta is looking good this season thus far. DREW RASMUSSEN (DK: $8300, FD: $8600) Yes, the Yankees know the park from Spring Training but how often are they playing at night in the bad lighting?  Death.  Taxes.  Rays at home on Friday nights my friends. OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS For the punt on pitching 2 crowd, Bryce Elder might do well but the Twins are finally playing in warm weather and might feel like they grew 3 inches tonight, too risky. Miles Mikolas & Drew Peterson are the two most likely to get into a pitchers duel that nobody wants to watch.  But even then, why bother, they’re not free.   It really is a spread em out and bang em out night.  Wait, that’s kinda odd sounding, but I mean play a 2-2-2 type core stack build today.  Offense should be a plenty… REDS While the Orioles will look tempting […]

WEATHER We are all clear   Tanner Bibee (DK: $7900, FD: $7500) Griffin Canning (DK: $7400, FD: $7100) … That’s how bad it is tonight folks Michael Lorenzen (DK: $8100)     GUARDIANS … Ramirez, Kwan RANGERS … Seager, Joc ROYALS … Perez, Massey     CATCHER Logan O’Hoppe Salvador Perez   FIRST BASE Yandy Diaz Vinnie Pasquantino   SECOND BASE Gleyber Torres Michael Massey   THIRD BASE Jose ‘Bubba’ Ramirez J.D. Davis   SHORTSTOP Corey Seager Taylor Walls   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Jorge Soler Joc Pederson Nolan Jones Steven Kwan     Jose Ramirez – 3B – Cleveland Guardians – Chairman of The Dongers Club   TOP BETS Guardians ML

We have a normal Thursday with two slates that are both small.  This early one sets up as a classic gamestack SP and hitting slate where you pick really two games to focus on for SP and hitting and then ignore the other two for most builds. WEATHER Rain could come into play mid or late game in Chicago, but not enough to PPD it.   BRADY SINGER (DK: $8500) My Ex.  We are back together again.  I’m referring to Singer of course here and we get him in a day game with the Mariners in a getaway spot.  Singer’s pitching better as he gets some better coaching in Cincinnati, using more pitches and balancing them effectively. EDWARD CABRERA (DK: $7200) South Beach Theory and a good spot to consider game stacking pitchers for certain.  I know I said stack pitchers, but hey, we’re splitting them up.   ATHLETICS/WHITE SOX Davis Martin is not good the Athletics should get him early & JP Sears is as automatic for a RH homer as they get once a game. Athletics- Butler, Rooker, Bleday, Soderstrom White Sox- Vargas, Robert, Vaughn NATS/PIRATES Some late fireworks wake up Oneil Cruz last night but I had already locked him in as the top pick on this slate.  Pirates might get some life and should murder their former teammate Trevor Williams. Nats- Wood, Ruiz, Crews Pirates- Cruz, Reynolds, McCutchen   CATCHER Edgar Queero Rob Brantly Enrico Palazzo   FIRST BASE Spencer Steer Tyler Dosterstrom   SECOND BASE Matt McLain Luis Garcia Jr   THIRD BASE KeBryan Hayes Eugenio Suarez   SHORTSTOP Elly De La Cruz Xavier Edwards   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Oneil Cruz Lawrence Butler Bryan Reynolds Luis Robert Jr.   Luis Robert Jr – OF – White Sox – Chairman of The Dongers Club Andrew Vaughn – 1B – White Sox Oneil Cruz – OF – Pirates Shea Langeliers – C – Athletics Gavin Lux – 2B – Reds     TOP BETS Marlins ML Nationals/Pirates OVER 7.5

WEATHER We are all clear   BRANDON PFAADT (DK: $8700, FD: $8600) Good spot for a guy who’s gonna use 5 pitches and balance things up.   The type of approach a bad lineup for the Marlins should not do much damage against as I wouldn’t think they get more than one runner on in an inning. AARON NOLA (DK: $9000, FD: $8000) Buying a low ownership hopefully on a good pitcher that has not appeared “great” so far this season just through limited sample size.   ANGELS Alright so tonight for sure Corbin will take the bump and we don’t have to deal with whether a guy is opening or not. MARINERS We gotta think despite Cincy pitching well that the Mariners park shift boost pays off.   CATCHER Logan OHoppe Jose Trevino Shea Langeliers   FIRST BASE Vinnie Pasquantino Rowdy Tellez Bryce Harper   SECOND BASE Michael Massey Matt McLain Luis Rengifo … Lets try this again.   THIRD BASE Jorge Polanco Jose Ramirez Alec Bohm   SHORTSTOP Trevor Story – New Dad Narrative Elly De La Cruz Jackson Holliday   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore All the Angels Lawrence Butler Randy Arozarena Luke Raley   OUTFIELD – Tier II Sir Thomas Pham Dylan Crews Wilyer Abreu Corbin Carroll   Vinnie Pasquantino – 1B – Kansas City Royals – Chairman of The Dongers Club Lawrence Butler – OF – Athletics Dylan Crews – OF – Natioanls Logan O’Hoppe – C – Angels Elly De La Cruz – SS – Reds Luke Raley – OF – Mariners   TOP BETS Mariners/Reds OVER 8.5 Royals ML Nationals ML

It’s only a four game Wednesday afternoon slate but we have the return of Spencer Strider and it’s Nolan Arenado’s Birthday. WEATHER All clear Spencer Strider (DK: $10,000, FD: $9500) Jose Quintana (DK: $7800)   METS BREWERS CARDINALS   CATCHER William Contreras Luis Torrens   FIRST BASE Matt Olson Vlad Guerrero Jr   SECOND BASE Brice Turang Ozzie Albies   THIRD BASE Nolan   SHORTSTOP Francisco Lindor Brendan Donovan   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Lars Nootbar Starling Marte Michael Harris II Jackson Chourio     Nolan Arenado – 3B – St. Louis Cardinals – Chairman of The Dongers Club   TOP BETS Cardinals ML

I have to admit, part of me is actually quite impressed with the Tanner Houck stat line last night.  I mean, any old bad pitching outing can result in a -3 or a 2 or something really bad.  But going -21?  Impressive young man… WEATHER Mid-April type windy and comfortable but chilly with NO RAIN which is nice. Roof in Texas should be open and this is by far the best weather spot. UPDATE:  Very Windy.  Baltimore, New York likely see the biggest wind boosts.  Slight downgrade on Charlie Morton for me tonight (oh, hey, you just started reading.  Yeah, we like Morton)   KEVIN GAUSMAN (DK: $8500, FD: $9100) Every NFL season there is that one team who comes out and starts 3-0 or 2-0 and you see all this hype around how impressive their early games are which causes people to think that they could not only make the playoffs but be some serious contender despite having a Quarterback like, I dunno, Derek Carr, under center.  Well, my friends, we have the Toronto Blue Jays sitting at a game above .500 and people think this team wont finish last in the AL East still?  Here’s how it plays out.  They do good in April and early May and then they die off.  This includes Mr. Kevin Gausman who is coming off a dominant start vs Boston — a team swinging too much — and now gets another team who at times swings way too much in the Atlanta Braves.  I see Gausman continuing a hot start and then having some bad shoulder injury mid May.  Ride him now. JEFFREY SPRINGS (DK: $8200, FD: $9400) The Athletics pitchers have to be thrilled to get out of Sacramento.  Going into the cold and not too windy South Side is a bad pivot for the hitters, but nice for their arms.  A concern for Springs is that he has a high walk rate to RHH and the White Sox likely have nothing but RHH to roll out today, that limits his “30” point potential like he had in his first start — but 6 innings, limited damage and a high whiff rate is possible here too. OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS Charlie Morton – If you want cheap we are on the Good side of Chuck tonight.  Not a terrible play, but that wind is possibly a big risk. Tylor Megill is my #3 […]

Eight games to kick off the week with two early 6:40 PM games on the Turbo Slate.  The Turbo Slate features Paul Skenes on one game and the ice cold Phillies likely losing to the Giants on the other game   WEATHER All games play. Mets at Twins:  Very windy out to RF but chilly   There’s too many good options tonight and a couple that look like clear cut plays. TARIK SKUBAL (DK: $10,500, FD: $10,300) Milwaukee returns back home and they come back with a 38% strikeout rate over their last 76 PA against left handed pitchers.  Welcome to the 2025 season Mr. Tarik Skubal, who had his first really good start last week versus the Yankees throwing 87 pitches over 6 innings & allowing 0 ER.  We eat this ace chalk tonight and then try to figure out the rest of the lineup from there. TANNER HOUCK (DK: $7200, FD: $7600) Houck should be good with avoiding walks tonight & hopefully this stadium is cool enough in the evening and the lighting is poor enough that he’s not giving up too many homers — which is often something he does very well at. DUSTIN MAY (DK: $9300, FD: $8700) Using Dustin May tonight against the Rockies is like ordering a water with lunch before you have to go into a church or courtroom or school. you really dont want to do it, but its the right thing to do. OTHER PITCHING THOUGHTS Framber Valdez is someone that I expect to pitch decent but give up a HR today.  That HR is going to Arenado. Dylan Cease is coming off a bad start, which makes me like him slightly more tonight and he also could get overlooked being split between Skubal and May at $9800 on DK.  He’s a steal on FanDuel at $8400. Joe Ryan, Sonny Gray, Clay Holmes … All okay   BRAVES Bryan De La Cruz, Austin Riley, Orlando Arcia The pitching headlines the slate tonight along with a couple really bad “touting” spots for offenses, but this one has me licking my chops like I’m staring at a Tomahawk steak on a Saturday night.  Getting a soft tossing lefty who hasn’t allowed an ER through two games will mean they gotta jump on him early to put him into situations he hasn’t experienced at the MLB level yet, so we’re backing this with a […]