This is how Thursday MLB slates should be.  A heavy afternoon set of games and the two sites decided we don’t want to have fun with the Brewers and Pirates, so that game is an island showdown game.   Same is true for the Athletics and Yankees later tonight and FanDuel opted out of the Dodgers/Nationals 4PM game this afternoon.  MLB is obviously avoiding the NFL Draft tonight and that’s probably a wise move. WEATHER Everything SHOULD play but Jays and Royals will have some showers lingering around throughout the game.     A who’s who lineup of GOOD pitchers going today.   Wheeler, Verlander, Yamamoto, Ragans, Castillo and we have double MacKenzie’s as Gore and Tristan are both going. ZACK WHEELER (DK: $10k, FD: $10.6k) The Phils are looking to gain a split in Cincinnati and their pitching has come back to reality the last two games and could use some length here today.  Enter Zack Wheeler, who despite flirting with a no hitter last game only threw 106 pitches, nothing out of the norm for him and there’s no reason to not expect another 100 and 7 innings today.  With Elly continuing to hit outside the top 3, there’s also good reason for Wheeler to get through to a third time and not have much damage against him. SIMEON WOODS RICHARDSON (DK: $4000?????????) On the other end of the spectrum, Simeon Woods Richardson, who falls into the “This guy has 3 names but NO hyphen” category and has been a long time “prospect” who hasn’t really amounted to shit gets to face the fucking White Sox at min $4k price on DraftKings.  This isn’t our typical “rookie pitcher making his debut” either, because he does have a 6 IP start under his belt, and obviously — it’s the WHITE SOX.  And yes, his name is 10000% one of those Madden player generated names that comes up in year 5 of your franchise mode.  Dude would be way cooler if he dropped the Richardson or claimed that as his middle name.  Simeon Woods, that’s a good name.  Well, minus the Simeon part. JUSTIN VERLANDER (DK: $8800) I don’t see any reason to bite on Verlander instead of Wheeler on FanDuel, but it’s okay on DraftKings where ownership could be low.  JV should hit 85-90 pitches & there is no Wrigley wind issues here either.  The veteran will be fine. Other Pitching Notes […]

Sorry in advance, but tonight’s slate is gonna feel a lot like this … WEATHER No issues.   The White Sox, Athletics and Marlins are still playing Baseball and all on this slate against decent pitching.  So, yeah, this is where we are starting it off tonight, just like last night. THE CORE 3 JOE RYAN (DK: $10.4k, FD: $10.6k) Lopez last night somehow lost his velocity and lost his way, it was going so well until it wasn’t and then he was pulled early.  Not expecting that to repeat itself tonight, so we go back here as I said I would until it fails twice in a row. CLARKE SCHMIDT (DK: $8900, FD: $8900) Schmidt’s pitching very well.  Oakland, while being pesky, is still too hard to pass up here as an easy target.  Lawrence Butler is a good value for Oakland, he’s been able to have some power at times this year and is a great OF salary relief, but outside of that, I don’t see Schmidt giving up a ton of damage. REYNALDO LOPEZ (DK: $9200, FD: $10.4k) Wouldn’t go Lopez on FD over Ryan, but he’s equal to Schmidt or could be used as a Ryan pivot on DK. VALUE ARM I DONT HATE TONIGHT SPENCER ARRIGHETTI (DK: $6500) Conditions are more favorable for the pitchers tonight in Wrigleyville and this is just a punt/value without having to go Jameson Taillon.  He won’t finish ahead of half the field, but there’s a good chance the majority of the field will not go above 22 DK FPTS today.     PADRES/ROCKIES (Cronenworth, Bogaerts, Kim // McMahon, Blackmon, Doyle) Sorry, but this is more about the pitching than the elements out in Coors.  Padres are also too cheap ROYALS (Garcia, Witt, Pasquantino) Time for Kansas City to get into that bad portion of the Toronto Bullpen tonight. BRAVES (Olson, Harris, Duvall) The Marlins are returning Sixto Sanchez back to the big league mound tonight, his first start in four years and he has been used out of the bullpen for 7 games and 7.1 IP this season.  I can’t see him going long and I can’t see him not giving up 1 HR.  The bonus here is the Marlins bullpen for probably 5+ innings.   CATCHER Luis Campusano Salvador Perez Any punt not named Martin Maldanado will do   FIRST BASE Love all these guys here tonight.  Might […]

Another Tuesday where we do not have 15 games because of all the 6:40 PM and earlier games going on.  The first game is an Island 6:10 game in Cleveland and then the Turbo slate at 6:40, which is stupid because just 20 minutes later the Main slate locks, but hey, at least we get to avoid the Dodgers revenge on Patrick Corbin. WEATHER SD @ COL:  Rain but not a PPD risk spot HOU @ CHC:  Could delay start, game plays AZ @ STL:  Showers could linger.  Should be fine.   PABLO LOPEZ (DK: $9300, FD: $10.2k) Facing the White Sox.  I mean, I really do not need to say much more than this on a nightly basis.  I will continue this until picking on the White Sox fails twice in a row.  It’s working… MARCUS STROMAN (DK: $9800, FD: $9700) Believe it or not, we could see 7 strikeouts from Stroman tonight.  He’s not a K guy but I would think if ever he could do it, tonight vs Oakland is a good spot. MAX FRIED (DK: $8000, FD: $8300) It’s not May yet, but we can use Fried now.  He has once again struggled early but is turning the corner and is about to be a 10k pitcher once again.   MARINERS (Julio, Polanco Haniger, Garver) Gilbert vs Dunning is a nice match-up on paper but the heavy lean is for the Mariners batters.  The teams know each other well and I think the hitters overall do well in this series.  Julio Rodriguez is finally starting to be consistently a threat and for $5,000 is easy to afford in a cheap Mariners stack tonight.  They are clearly above everyone else for me today as the Rangers bullpen also continues to be very flaky. YANKEES (Rizzo, Soto) After going ice cold in a couple day games and after Paul Blackburn continues to give me the middle finger, I won’t miss this chance to see him fall apart. PADRES (Cronenworth, Bogaerts) Xander is maybe getting hot, Cronenworth is bad matchup for Felter.  Warmer today in Coors as well. ASTROS (Altuve, Tucker) Houston is on everyone’s shit list.  Don’t sleep on them tonight.   CATCHER Mitch Garver Travis d’Arnaud … Dude is Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth combined right now. Austin Wells   FIRST BASE Ty France at $3700 will get on base for Seattle tonight multiple times, but this […]

This Monday in mid/late April features a seven game MAIN slate with action in a suddenly warmer Coors Field (73 degrees) and five other teams playing home games who were also home on the weekend.  The one who isn’t is the Angels. As a side note, I really hate that the MLB still does the home and away scheduling for non-divisional series so that you are done with a team after the first few weeks of the season.  The Royals host the Blue Jays tonight and soon will go back to Toronto.  They just finished up with Baltimore over the past weekend.  I mean, the asshole(s) making the schedule couldn’t spread that shit out better?  I’m available for hire BTW. WEATHER We are good to go tonight.   CHRIS PADDACK (DK: $7400, FD: $6300) Facing the White Sox.  I mean, I really do not need to say much more than this on a nightly basis. BRADY SINGER (DK: $9200, FD: $9100) A baseline projection for Singer tonight needs to find a way to get through 6 innings with 5+ strikeouts.  If he can just hit those two numbers then he’ll be in the right area and his slider should be able to get him there against this Jays lineup. ALBERT SUAREZ (DK: $4000, FD: $5500) Someone at both sites should be fired here.  I realize that they think Suarez is just a RP for the Orioles, but you gotta pay attention better than this.  Baltimore is letting him start and while he only threw 75 pitches in his first start back in the majorsl, there’s no reason for him to be $4000 tonight and especially not against a team who has the third highest weighted K% on the slate.  And especially not with a Coors slate out there.  Fire every intern DraftKings.  Fire them all. Other Pitching Thoughts …  Dylan Cease made one prior start in Coors and it wasn’t anything special.  He’s not a bad play today, I just don’t trust the guy.   ROYALS Witt, Velazquez, Perez I feel like we have all been waiting all season long for the Kikuchi take it in the (negative) spot and there should be some fastball hunting from the Royals after getting shutdown by a lefty on Sunday. BRAVES Duvall, Arcia, Ozuna Advantage to the Braves simply because the Miami bullpen remains atrocious, but there are good Marlins to consider here […]

Welcome to a great Sunday of MLB Baseball action where the big question today is will the White Sox team bus make it to the field on time?  In a wild twist of events, FanDuel has 11 games on it today, including the Mariners and Rockies, while DraftKings went with the nice even ten (10) game slate. WEATHER All clear, not warm anywhere though.   If ever there was a collection of Sunday School names for pitchers it would be today.  You’ve got yourselves a Sonny vs Colin, Casey, Kyle, Ros, Cole and Seth.  Tanner, Nick, Aaron and Josh.  Mitchell “Dont call me Peter” Parker, and of course, Luis, Louie, and up until about 10:45 we had a Cristian.  But he’s now scratched, so cross him off…   AARON NOLA (DK: $10,800, FD: $10,300) So the other day FanDuel had a pitcher over 11k and he wasn’t facing the White Sox.  Nola, a good pitcher, is facing the White Sox at home.  Uh.  He should be 20k.  Hell, I would consider myself a 10k pitcher against the White Sox.  The only reason I am rolling Nola second here is because I wanted to just put the Cristian first out of respect for Sunday.  The White Sox are just horrific and don’t seem to give a shit about it either. LOUIE VARLAND (DK: $6400, FD: $6600) Varland has enough talent to put it all together but thus far in 2024, like most of the Twins, he has not lived up to that area.  That’s starting to change for them and the BABIP should turn in his favor here today.  A tough road facing the Dodgers and Orioles now eases up with Spencer Torkelson, Javy Baez and the Tigers coming in.  6 innings, 8 strikeouts on the docket for Louie V folks. HUNTER BROWN (DK: $6800, FD: $6300) Brown is being bumped up since Cristian Javier would not pitch on the Lord’s Day.  Brown is settling back into form and I love the ole switch out here for him.  He should be a chalky play now that he gets the Nationals, who really have about 7 easy outs in this lineup right now. Other Pitching Thoughts …  It’s a decent slate for mid-tier guys.  Aaron Civale, Kyle Hendricks, Casey Mize are all likely to pitch well but not clean.  Specifically Mize vs Buxton, Civale vs Soto and Hendricks vs De La Cruz […]

I was wrong, the Marlins/Cubs game is NOT on FanDuel Tonight but Angels/Reds is there, while it is NOT on DraftKings. WEATHER All clear for games to play but it’s yucky again in Coors Field.  They should be able to get the game in despite SNOW – yes fucking SNOW all day long…   SHOTA IMANAGA (DK: $9400) … Two days in a row, writing up these Asian pitchers?  Yep.  This is one I really am a fan of long term, I like his approach and think he’s going to have a great year for the Cubbies.  Night game in Wrigley with cool temps should also be great here in G2 of the double header. JOSE BERRIOS (DK: $8400, FD: $10.2k) … Very low price on someone pitching extremely well — but I do caution those starts were a cold Seattle Mariners team and the Rockies.  That aside, the ground ball rates are great and the bottom of the San Diego lineup is very favorable to help him avoid any long damaging innings. CORBIN BURNES (DK: $9000, FD: $11.2k) … It’s Burnes vs Ragans 2.0 and Ragans won the first meeting despite KC’s bullpen blowing it that night.  Expect a flip here and Burnes carves up a little too confident Kansas City lineup Other Pitching Notes Luis Castillo should be okay, but who knows in the chilly conditions there just how comfortable he will feel with the grip on the ball. Avoid both Sandoval and Ashcraft on FD   There is not a single team tonight I think you are doing a “oh, they’re scoring 8+ runs gotta stack them” just because we have quality arms going today, but the Bullpens could come into play.  The Rockies and Marlins bullpens have been among the worst but both are also in very poor hitting weather spots and I don’t need to tell you that hey, the Mariners in Coors might be popular even despite it being freezing cold. BLUE JAYS Springer, Bichette As of now it’s still TBD what the Padres are doing for SP tonight but Randy Vasquez (former Yankee) is the expected option.  Toronto could jump on him early and add some more on later in the game.  Springer/Vlad/Bichette are musts if you touch the Jays, but Justin Turner is also hitting well enough and cheap enough to use in stead of Vlad at 1B. ORIOLES Westburg, Adley Rutschman Against RAGANS?  Yes, I am […]

Back to split slates on FanDuel.  I really would hate to hear what they consider waking up at 6am to be.  That’s gotta be like super-duper-way too very early in their eyes.  The Marlins and Cubs PPD from Thursday is being made up today as part of a double-header in Wrigleyville, so G1 is on both sites and G2 is as well. WEATHER No early issues.   Too many good options on the early slate today – but really none of them are GREAT plays.  If you are on FanDuel for their 4PM window of games I would lean Kyle Harrison there. NESTOR CORTES (DK: $7100) … Gonna be chalky at this cheap price.  Tampa’s nearly a 30% strikeout team vs LHP right now & Cortes is always solid in home Yankee Stadium afternoon games. REESE OLSON / BAILEY OBER … Really not a ton of difference here, but I do lean slightly on the Ober side.  While Minnesota is NOT a good team in my mind they do win this game today, most likely off the bullpen in a late 8th inning 2 run rally to win 2-1. ZACH EFLIN (DK: $9300) … This is a very contrarian play considering Yankees at home and other options out there.  Look for a quiet/low scoring game and Eflin is able to tame the key RHH on the Yankees lineup and work around Soto. Other Pitching Notes Gallen and Blanco will probably come in with some popularity, neither to me has a high ceiling and thus not worth pushing that. Don’t hate Luzardo or Assad, dont love either though.   There’s a lot of stars headlining the hitting spots today & then we have our usual class of Saturday guys to throw in as well…. ASTROS Alvarez, Bregman, Pena, McCormick Friends don’t let friends use Alex Bregman before May, but man if ever he was going to have a big April game it should be today. DODGERS Freeman, Betts Jose Butto was able to cruise through the Royals lineup by getting a ton of whiffs on his change-up.  He won’t have that same luck vs Freeman & Mookie. RED SOX Devers, Duran PNC is quietly one of the best parks for LH power and that’s exactly what Boston has.  The weather isn’t favorable for home runs but all other factors are.   Boston really needs Yoshida to get going and he has been kinda […]

By the time you are reading this article the Marlins and Cubs should be well on their way to entertaining a crowd full of drunks at 1060 West Addison in Chicago, Illinois.  Home of the Chicago Cubs and home of Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues of course. If you are a late reader then you’re probably sitting at a watering hole as Justin Verlander prepares to make his 2024 debut against MacKenzie Gore and the Washington Nationals.  Verlander might have a no-hitter through 5. The other Turbo slate games include the Angels in Cincinnati for what should be a high scoring series, the Red Sox and Pirates squaring off in PNC and the White Sox versus the Phillies.   WEATHER SEA @ COL – This is the big one tonight.  Definitely got rain in the forecast in Coors and the Mariners (like most AL teams) going into Coors really smells like a high scoring spot. TEX @ ATL – Chance of Storms, should play   YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO (DK: $9600, FD: $9300) … I doubt he is going to be highly owned but he is pitching very well now & can put up a 7 strikeout performance even though there’s going to be 1 or 2 homers hit by the Mets.  This is the type of series where you have a 3-2 game, then an 11-9 game and then a 5-3 game.  Meaning, one goes under easy, one goes over easy and the other is right on the number.  Hopefully this is not that 11-9 game and we’ll know right away if Nimmo whiffs or hits some bullshit homer. JOE RYAN (DK: $8900, FD: $10.2k) … Ryan is facing the Tigers for a second straight start and coming off his break the seal start last time.  Can he match it cleanly tonight?  Probably not, which is why I have him ranked second but the pitching tonight is not very comforting, while facing the Tigers right now is comforting. CLARKE SCHMIDT (DK: $7900) … Clarke doesn’t do much extremely well, but then neither do the Rays offensively right now either.  It’s chilly in Yankee Stadium tonight & his blow-up risk is very low IMO. Other Pitching Notes If you play Freddy Peralta on FanDuel, God speed to you my friend.  11k?  Hell no.  DK is reasonable, but I prefer Yoshi. Chris Sale is another “could shock you at low ownership” option today to keep […]

Shockingly, not only do we have a big 11 game slate today on DraftKings, we have it on FanDuel as well.  These both include Royals @ White Sox – Game 1. A lot of late changes here, so that’s why the article is coming out close to lock.  We have Albert Suarez starting for the Orioles, he’s been in Japan of late, so Konnichiwa to him.  Bryse Wilson, not to be confused with Brian, is starting for the Brewers, which really makes me like San Diego — and hey, it’s the Paul Blackburn regression game… Maybe? WEATHER Rangers at Tigers – Rain should come in during the game, but they can probably play through it long enough to get this one in.  It’s Dunning vs Skubal, so there is definitely interest in the pitching and taking a closer look at radar right before lock.  If it starts in a delay you might consider fading it entirely. Roof closed in Arizona   Pitching grades very unique on this big afternoon/all-day slate.  There’s A LOT of arms who look really clean but many of them have a low strikeout ceiling today.  In other words, no long list of Jared Jones’ of the world out there today. Brady Singer (DK: $9200, FD: $10.5k) … No Singing in the rain issues today.  Point, click, submit. Pablo Lopez (DK: $8800, FD: $8600) … The Orioles are a power house lineup right now and a few key guys (Mountcastle, Adley, Holliday) haven’t fully turned it on yet.  They’re smashing on the Turbo slates but are back in our Main slate lives today — so go against them?  Yes.  Lopez is a veteran, and an ace, and had a couple unlucky starts vs teams who know him very well in the division.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see a 7 inning out of nowhere < 5% owned ace start from Lopez this afternoon. Brandon Pfaadt (DK: $7500, FD: $7700) … Roof closed and get away game for the road Cubs.  We saw Hunter Brown actually turn the corner last night and Pfaadt is in a very similar situation in his career path.  Today would be the most logical time for him to roll out a 6 inning clean start — just limited strikeout upside. Steven Matz (DK: $6700) … Literally everything I wrote above is a picture of Matz vs Oakland today.  Holy boring but clean. Other […]

Broken down by pricing tiers, Mark Farris outlines his favorite PGA DFS plays on DraftKings