WEATHER All clear   Cristopher Sanchez (DK: $10,700) Cease vs Sanchez tonight & while the eventual Red Sox disappointment game came last night and might lead to a cold slump I am not ready to pick on them just yet.  So, we go to Sanchez in St. Louis where his ability to keep the ball […]

WEATHER All clear   LOGAN HENDERSON (DK: $10,200) Top arm today over Skubal making his Dodger Stadium home debut tonight.  No hate if you go Skubal vs the lowly Royals, but Henderson’s in a great park environment tonight and the Padres come back to earth after their nice Sunday night showing. ANDREW PAINTER (DK: $6000) […]

WEATHER All clear   George Kirby (DK: $8900) Matthew Liberatore (DK: $6100) Yoshinobu Yamamoto (DK: $10,300) … Their slide ends tonight, but the #1/#2 pitchers above are the stronger play.   I think this ends up being a deeper SP slate.  deGrom/Bradish both look okay & Roupp probably manages to get you 5 solid innings […]

WEATHER All clear   Payton Tolle (DK: $9000) Shane Baz (DK: $7800) Drew Rasmussen (DK: $9700)     Guardians vs White Sox:  Heavy on this game.  Jose Ramirez key player Cubs vs Royals:  The Royals are letting Lynch start the rest of the season and that’s a good thing.  But early in this game he probably has a few hiccups and then is quickly into the Royals pen by the 6th.  Cubs score 7 when its all said and done.  Jensey/Cags do damage for Royals. Red Sox:  Not sure how you dont ride it until it dies for good   CATCHER Liam Hicks Carter Jensen Austin Wells   FIRST BASE Jac Caglianone Willson Contreras Kyle Stowers   SECOND BASE Nico Hoerner Chase Meidroth Ketel Marte   THIRD BASE Jose Ramirez Max Muncy Alex Bregman   SHORTSTOP Jeremy Pena Otto Lopez Bobby Witt Jr.   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Ceddane Rafael Jo Adell Brenton Doyle Seiya Suzuki   Ceddane Rafaela – OF – Boston Red Sox – Chairman of The Dongers Club Seiya Suzuki – OF – Cubs Jac Caglianone – 1B – Royals Jose Ramirez – 3B – Guardians Liam Hicks – C – Rays Nico Hoerner – 2B – Cubs Jeremy Pena – SS – Astros Jo Adell – OF – Guardians BONUS …. Brenton Doyle – OF – White Sox   BETTING CARD Cleveland / Chicago OVER 8 Baltimore / Texas UNDER 8 Marlins + Cubs + Tigers ML Parlay

Administrative note before we go into tonight’s slate. I am heading out to Vegas through Sunday night – which means no DFS for me but I can place bets and trades — so stupid.  Anyways, the content schedule for the next few days will potentially be shifting around a little bit.  The plan is nothing on Thursday because it’s a whole set of split slates most likely and I’d just pass on all the get-away games that day which are balanced between afternoon and evening. Friday could actually be the hardest day to push out an article, but it appears we have Chris Sale vs Max Fried on Friday and lord I will be very tilted to miss out on doing some analysis and bets on that game specifically.  Saturday and Sunday are TBD, Sunday most likely a no go for me.   WEATHER All clear   Kyle Harrison:   Curious where the public goes on this one as everyone knows by now Skenes is just either hurt or completely saving his arm for the long haul.  But this is one of those spots you sneaky get a 1-0 pitchers duel and everyone is like – ah shit – why didn’t we play the best pitchers on the slate?  Harrison’s the safer one.  Consider SP stack. Bryan Woo:  Great at home, bad on road.  Just don’t sweat or question it at this point. Casey Mize:  Very low key move at the trade deadline but one that could prove to be sneaky good.  Mize going to San Diego is a spot I love for him   RED SOX MARLINS PADRES   CATCHER Carter Jensen Ryan Jeffers Luis Campusano   FIRST BASE Willson Contreras Ben Rice Andrew Vaughn   SECOND BASE Brice Turang Jazz Chisholm Jr Royce Lewis   THIRD BASE Manny Machado Brendan Donovan Caleb Durbin   SHORTSTOP Bobby Witt Jr. Otto Lopez George Lombard Jr   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Griffin Conine Randy Arozarena Julio Rodriguez Austin Martin     Griffin Conine – OF – Miami Marlins – Chairman of The Dongers Club Manny Machado – 3B – Padres William Contreras – 1B – Red Sox BETTING CARD Miami ML Pittsburgh / Milwaukee UNDER 7

WEATHER Twins at Royals:  Chance of storms   This slate features some old faces in new places already as Freddy Peralta and Tarik Skubal make their debuts on the road in new threads.  Peralta is going into Coors Field, where he adjusts to a new catcher who is adjusting to a new team.  I love the Liam Hicks move for the Rays, btw.  For pitching though, we steer clear of Peralta.  We also steer clear of Tarik Skubal making his debut in Wrigley.  We.  Just.  Do. RYAN WEATHERS (DK: $8500) Reverse blowout theory in full effect here.  There’s now way we get 10 homers again in this game & the Yanks could use some depth from him today.  The leash is long enough to get 6 or 7 IP easily. JOE RYAN (DK: $9800) Sometimes good, sometimes shit.  Ryan’s been mostly good in his career vs the Royals going 8-3, but the 3 losses have been really bad.  Without weather concerns I think you would go here safely but that’s one thing to caution.  Witt is expected back for the Royals, but the Loftin-Collins-Isbel easy part of the lineup will offset any top of the order men getting on base.  Trust Ryan. MACKENZIE GORE (DK: $7800) Gotta hand it to the Giants, they have quietly transitioned to the all-name team.  They’re starting Blade Tidwell, who is not to be confused with Rod Tidwell (no relation, other than brothers from another mother) and they have Buddy Kennedy, CHristian Koss, Grant McCray and some guy named Beavis and Butthead…  Oh, that says Osleivis Basabe.  Yeah, well ole Beavis had 2 homers in PETCO but the kid and the Giants down in the Graveyard pose a potential MacKenzie Gore dont fuck this up spot.  Please Gore, dont fuck this up.   OTHER SP THOUGHTS Troy Melton and Emerson Hancock are both OK, but neither strike me as usuable today.  Lean on Melton.   WHITE SOX / RED SOX Warm Fenway game in August.  Buy into this one because there is enough juice in this game to where you are going to be burned if you try to take any in game unders.  It finds a way to get right to 9 total runs, good production from the heart of the order on both sides. White Sox:  Love Grichuk, Like Vargas Red Sox:  Love Contreras, Like Yoshida.   Abreu/Rafaela been on fire, but they are […]

It’s trade deadline day and I am cautioning some light tread today but certainly not avoiding it as there’s a sharp angle I think I have tonight. The three games below feature home teams who were home on the weekend, and we’ve seen a distinct trend over the past couple of seasons that when this happens the big advantage is in those games and with those home teams specifically.  I think the trade deadline even adds onto this more. Dodgers at Cubs Blue Jays at Astros Rays at Rockies   WEATHER Clear and warm   Cam Schlittler (DK: $11,500) The Cards couldnt wake up against Max Scherzer and punted yesterday, now they get the best active SP in the American League, so good luck with that. Logan Webb (DK: $9500) Fortunately for Webb he is A) pitching in a dome so he might not know it’s not a day game and B) Facing the Rangers, who died in Houston over the weekend but still think they are contending. Bubba Chandler (DK: $6600) After a west coast trip the Brewers are back home and normally you’d see Chandler in Milwaukee and think no-way Jose, but they’re likely off and most of the hitting in Baseball is off now as well.  Outside of Jake Bauers and Brice Turang I think he’s able to do well today for a very cheap price.   HOUSTON ASTROS We know that Toronto sold, Houston is rolling & Beiber is good for 4+ ER.  The Astros remain thin on lefty bats in the heart of their order, which is potentially a gap in getting Beiber to that 4 ER early, but once Yordan has his second AB he should at minimum have 3 RBI by that point. Yordan Alvarez Jeremy Pena Isaac Paredes Taylor Trammell   RAYS Yeah, so the home team is the better side he says and then jumps to the chalk Rays in Coors.  Both these pitchers are kinda similar, mix up the velocity and location and get away with that as much as you can.  But the path for the Rays to jump on Lorenzen’s fastball to me is nice, plus i love speed guys in Coors like Simpson Junior Caminero Chandler Simpson   CATCHER Henry Davis Gabriel Moreno Carson Kelly   FIRST BASE Deep spot tonight, so you can probably get away without Diaz or Aranda from the Rays and be okay. […]

Alrighty.  Time to vent.  I have to just state my opinion on the whole Skubal to the Dodgers scenario and it’s a repeat of a theme that has been going on for what feels like decades now. Baseball is not the NFL and it’s certainly not the NBA.  But we are so adjusted into the thinking that Free Agency and Trades are the mechanism to a team being relevant and able to compete in terms of Championships.  In the NBA, you have to have a star player, and you really just need a core of 3 top players or so that was the case for the longest time.  It is the one league without question where there is the haves and the have-nots for an EXTREMELY long time.  In the NFL, the common theme is that there is parity, but that’s also because you have so few games and the mere thought of seeing your team with that playoff game is enough to mask the reality that no, your average QB isn’t going to lead you to the Super Bowl on his own.  But it offers hope, so the NFL gets by with it and everyone points to their salary cap as the structure for that success.  But at the end of the day, you need the stars at the right time in NFL to win and most of the time (actually, ALL of the time) that comes with YOUNG stars who are under contract early on.  Not through free agency.  I promise you, the Rams are not winning the Super Bowl this year. Baseball is different though.  You aren’t forced into needing that one star player to build around and win a Championship.  So the thought that one player matters and that small market teams cannot compete to keep their stars is just not true and we have decades proof of it. When was the last time the Mets won a World Series?  They spend more than anyone every season. When was the last time the Angels won a World Series?   They signed the top Asian player since Ichiro in Ohtani.  They landed the best mid round draft pick in … well, ever, in Mike Trout.  They spent insane amounts of money on All-Star corner infielders Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon.  They’re in the same market as the Dodgers.  But holy fuck is there a worse franchise over the […]

I have two strong predictions in this article tonight that I cannot get out of my gut all morning long.  And no, I didn’t eat Korean BBQ last night or anything like that.  I’m just going to leave them throughout the article and then summarize at the end in case you are slow and cannot pick up on them.   WEATHER Yankees at Cubs – If this hasn’t been PPD by 5pm then they are clearly being told by Fox that they have to wait it out and get the game in. Nationals at Braves – I expect them to try and get it in around storms.   Christopher Sanchez (DK: $10,700) They need him desperately tonight to go 7 innings, then come out again in the 8th, and then again in the 9th, and maybe the 10th.  This is the game you get paid the money to be an ace.  If you want to be considered an elite pitcher Sanchez you have to take the ball, walk out on to the field and throw a complete game shutout tonight to end the bleeding.  While, I think the Phillies drop another and then make a splash deal around 11pm EST tonight, I don’t think it’ll be Sanchez’s fault. Tyler Mahle (DK: $7100) I hate trusting Mahle on back to back starts – but I also have zero respect for San Diego hitters. Robert Gasser (DK: $7800) I know its the dog days of the summer now, but how are the Angels winning a game in this series?  Granted, I have been nailing the one off HR calls against our pitchers of late.   OTHER SP THOUGHTS Yamamoto is nice and all but not picking on Boston at the moment. I think it’s a night you need to get uncomfortable for SP2 and then win with your hitting.  Going cheap is not off the reservation either, but lord do not go with Avila obviously and while Mikolas is tempting, I’d only trust him if the game starts in a delay actually.  Ryan Feltner is worth a look.   ROCKIES Write this down folks.  The Rockies are going to score 16 runs tonight and then Matt Quatraro is fired tomorrow morning finally putting an end to his miserable disaster of a managerial job.  Luinder Avila has been somewhat of a bright spot but with some real warning signs, including 7 walks over his […]

We have a nearly perfect Friday MLB slate today.  The keys to a perfect Friday slate are quite simple actually in the summer. We need the Cubs to be playing a 2:20 PM EST home game.  Check! Preferably against an American League or NL Central Team.  Bonus Check! We need a total of 15 games across the league on this fine Friday.  Check! We need at least three, preferably four games that start out in the Pacific Time Zone.  We have five.  Check! And we need all non Cubs games to start at 7:05 PM EST or later…   Negative 🙁 Oh so close as the Reds and Pirates will play game 2 of their series starting at 6:10 PM and it will not be on the DraftKings main slate tonight, but given that it’s Skenes vs Greene I think we can give that one a pass and it’s a nice little warm up to a fantastic slate. Why? Well, yes, we have the Royals going into Coors Field.  The sad part is that Bobby Witt is perfect for Coors, but not to fear.  We have the Royals bullpen which no matter how much of a lead they have in the 9th, they’ll blow it.  I fully expect at least one game in this series to go 15 innings simply because neither bullpen can hold the lead.  You see, that’s the key to the lead.  You have to hold it. Muetaka Murakami gets to go down to see a COSTCO maybe for the first time in his life as the White Sox visit the Rays for … checks notes … yep, that’s a battle of 1st place teams going into August. The Rangers pushed back Nate Eovaldi just so he can go into Houston and hopefully destroy the Astros — more likely to give up 3 HR though. One of my favorite “that’s a random series” that happens every year and yeah, it just feels random and like a DFS winner is the Tigers at the Athletics.  In Dongers Club history, this has significance.  I doubt anyone even knows it but me.  And, well, okay fine, I’ll tell the story.  The first time I did an article posting on the SCOUT message boards it was the Tigers as a stack at the Athletics in the Oakland Coliseum on a Saturday afternoon as my contrarian top pick overall.  They went off, and […]