Monday brings us an eight game slate, great series on tap here with lots of middle of pack stadiums and plenty of ‘new’ series.  Specifically tonight there is just one divisional matchup and that features the Rangers in Oakland.   WEATHER Three spots with some rain possibilities. Braves at Pirates – This one could wind up being the worst of them.  But they won’t start and then PPD, so its either an early PPD or they wait it out and get the game in. Cubs at Mets … Should play Blue Jays at Guardians … Should play     There is a clear top four today, so I am going to offer my thoughts on all of them, ranked in order of preference. Spencer Strider – $12,800 (DK) | $11,500 (FD) The big price tag on Strider is the only wart that one might be able to find with him and with a clear value option at #2 I see no reason to really get upset about using Strider when I believe he has a 10-12 strikeout window that he should hit. Dane Dunning – $7,200 (DK) | $84,00 (FD) Dunning beats out Patrick Sandoval as the SP2 in the 7000’s today.  The difference is minimal but Sandoval’s inconsistency really bothers me this season.  Dunning on the other hand seems to hate it when I attack him, so maybe he wont have what he did last start vs Chicago obviously but I still can’t see Oakland with a low .139 ISO against his pitch-type’s coming out to blow him up.   OTHERS TO TRUST … Gerrit Cole – $11,300 (DK) | $11,000 (FD) Pivot option #1 off Strider due to PPD risk Freddy Peralta – $9,600 (DK) |  $10,500 (FD) Pivot option #2.  Colorado is a little scary here for me though.   BREWERS Yelich, Contreras, Turang Ole Pete Lambert is more a 1.5 WHIP guy than what he was doing when he trucked through the Tigers-Marlins and Nationals in July.  Milwaukee should have 1-2 guys on base EEVRY inning, he only gets a Whiff over 20% with his Change-Up and Christian Yelich is slugging .501 on that.  Milwaukee is going off folks. ROYALS Witt, Garcia, Fermin Possibly losing Salvy here in Fenway is a big loss, he would pepper the green monster if not clear it twice, but Freddy Fermin is hitting so well it’s hard to ignore him […]

Today brings you an 11 game Sunday slate with just 2 games in the Tilt Afternoon slate.  It’s a heavy Sunday afternoon and the first of the final Sunday month+1 week of the MLB season before NFL kicks off next month.   WEATHER ARI @ MIN:  I would imagine with both teams needing to play this game that they will wait it out or play through some light rain.  The Twins for some reason opted to sign Dallas Keuchel AND start him today, which I assume is just a giant middle finger to the rest of the AL Central considering they could sleep walk to the title … then again, Cleveland is showing some fight now if you know what I mean.   At any rate, I believe this game will play and you weren’t going to want to use any pitchers in it anyway (sorry Zac Gallen)   Happy Za(chk) day folks.  Zac Gallen, Zack Greinke and Zack Thompson all pitching today.  No, I don’t like any of em…  The theme on pitching today is guys returning to the mound such as Jose Urquidy, Brandon Woodruff and yes, Dallas Keuchel! TYLER GLASNOW SCRATCHED   KYLE BRADISH Coming in as my favorite SP option on the day.  There is a lot to like with Bradish’s development in 2023.  He gets a 34% whiff rate on his slider and 33% on his curveball, both which should help him continue a stretch where he has had 7+ strikeouts in 5 of his last 8 games and only once in Philly did he give up more than 3 ER in that time.  The Mets are a dead man walking team as we know & I expect them to be not much of a threat. SANDY ALCANTARA Remember someone who said the best pitcher in the second half this season would be Sandy Alcantara?  Well, nobody is ready to admit it yet, but he’s putting it all back together with back to back dominant outings and when a good pitcher is on a roll, you ride him.   The Sunday Sleeper …  AUSTIN GOMBER Just 2 walks over his last 24 IP, a very good sign for the lefty and we’ll probably see some old school Goldy/Arenado chalk vs LHP today.  I don’t like it much, and with the way the entire Cardinals offense is striking out vs LHP of late there’s a good path here […]

Overview After an exciting Xfinity race on Saturday, the Cup cars hit Michigan Motor Speedway Sunday. The drivers will turn over 200 laps for 400 miles on the two-mile superspeedway. Dominator points will be important here and nailing those dominators will be even more important. Kevin Harvick has won four of the last five races […]

Main Slate for Sat, Aug 5th.   WEATHER No concerns.   CORBIN BURNES Burnes or bust today.  Watch this be the night those fake Pirates loot our money away, but I see no reason to really fade Burnesy here. STEVEN MATZ Ugh. Vomit?  Yeah, but Matz HAS been decent with back to back games not allowing a run.  No he isn’t gonna post another 0 ER over 6 IP spot today, but as we’re seeing just dont worry about finding a 30 spot from your pitchers.   The best bats in Colorado’s lineup are lefties now that Cron and Grichuk are gone.     Below are my favorite teams to build around today, using a 3-3-2 type roster construction.  One game which is ugly on paper but viable for value is the Giants and Athletics.  I actually lean on Oakland’s side against Chastity (aka the Stripper, aka, Ross Stripling) for the Giants, so we gotta like Zack Gelof who is on a tear and playing in a cloud at the moment. BREWERS Christian Yelich William Contreras Brian Anderson Willy Adames   ORIOLES Being at home I wouldn’t be rolling 5 Orioles out tonight.  But Tylor Megil should have a rough 1st inning. Gunnar Henderson Ryan Mountcastle   METS Brandon Nimmo Francisco Lindor Jeff McNeil   OTHER NOTES: Michael Grove is listed as opener for the Dodgers with Ryan Yarbrough coming in after that tonight.  So I lean the Padres RHH in that game.   CATCHER William and Willson Contreras…. The hit-men.  Like both brothers today, prefer Willie more…  You think he goes by Willie or does Willson go by Willie?  I need an answer here. Francisco Alvarez   FIRST BASE Paul Goldschmidt Ryan Mountcastle Pete Alonso   SECOND BASE Zack Gelof Ha-Seong Kim Andres Gimenez   THIRD BASE Very good position, Gunnar can be moved to SS here as well. Gunnar Henderson Brian Anderson Manny Machado   SHORTSTOP Willy Adames Francisco Lindor Amed Rosario … Him and Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas present enough to have me avoiding Snell today.  I think this is a low strikeout spot for Blake Snell.   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Christian Yelich Teoscar Hernandez Brandon Nimmo Anthony Santander   William Contreras – C – Milwaukee Brewers – Chairman of The Dongers Club Christian Yelich – OF – Brewers Paul Goldschmidt – 1B – Cardinals Francisco Lindor – SS – Mets Anthony Santander – OF – […]

Six game Early/Afternoon splits between FanDuel and DraftKings today.  DK obviously has the larger six game slate, but we’ll be covering it all so those who love to journey their Saturdays with FanDuel MLB, I have you covered.   WEATHER Rain lingering throughout the day in Wrigley but the game should play through without any delays.   Holy crap, what a dumpster fire yet again with ALL pitchers last night.  And yes, I had the wrong middle initial on Allen last night, total hack job here.  A couple changes here today as Justin Verlander makes his 2023 Astros debut in Yankee Stadium, Aaron Civale makes his Rays debut in Detroit and the Marlins are moving bullpen pitcher George Soriano into the rotation for a tilt in Texas with the Rangers. Meanwhile we also have Nestor Cortes back on the bump for the first time since May, Tarik Skubal making another start for Detroit where he might throw 75-80 pitches and Jose Berrios vs Nick Pivetta!   #1 – JUSTIN VERLANDER Saturday afternoons and Yankee home game unders.  JV getting dealt out of New York only to return immediately to NY is kinda funny to me.  His price remains affordable and there’s no reason to not play him today. #2 – JON GRAY   The offenses that I would put the most faith into warranting a 4+ man build today include: Reds Rangers Red Sox     CATCHER Mitch Garver Yan Gomes   FIRST BASE Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Nathaniel Lowe   SECOND BASE Marcus Semien Jeter Downs   THIRD BASE Elly De La Cruz … Because I like Seager so much here, I would put Elly at 3B with Seager at SS and then find cheaper bats elsewhere. Alex Bregman Josh Jung   SHORTSTOP Corey Seager   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore George Springer Kerry Carpenter Ian Happ Adolis Garcia   Corey Seager – SS – Rangers – Chairman of The Dongers Club Ian Happ – OF – Cubs George Springer – OF – Blue Jays TODAY’S BETTING ANALYSIS Good Over Upside — Meaning these have best potential to go way over… Nationals/Reds   Good Under Upside — Meaning best potential to be a 2-1 or 5-2 type game. Astros/Yankees   ML Targets Red Sox

Overview The XFINITY drivers will turn 125 laps on the superspeedway in Michigan. Despite being a superspeedway, this track doesn’t typically produce the big wrecks that we’re accustomed to seeing at Daytona and Talladega. Last years pole sitter, Noah Gragson finished third after leading 39 laps. Typically the dominator points are split between two drivers […]

Last time I checked there were still 30 teams in Major League Baseball.  Yet, here we are, on a Friday in August and there are just 28 of them who are in play for some stupid reason.  No, it’s not the Field of Dreams game, because that is coming next week, instead we have the Athletics and Giants off today.  I know you are all very, very upset about this.   WEATHER Couple spots to monitor in the Northeast tonight, both games should wind up getting played though as it’s just storms rolling through Astros at Yankees — 50-60% chance of rain throughout the game.  I do like a SP here, so we have to monitor it… Blue Jays at Red Sox — Not using SP here, it’ll be humid, ball should jump and wind carries out to LCF too.  Slight chance of rain early and then a pop up thunderstorm.   REID DETMERS The Mariners have the second highest K% on the slate, the 6th highest over the last week and rank 30th in all of MLB against what Detmers should throw 50% of the time tonight.  He’s setup to dominate as he usually pitches well at home too. LOGAN C. ALLEN We’re staying in the mid range but not going down too low on pitching tonight.  Andrew Heaney just carved up these damn morons from the south side, so Logan C. Allen at home is no concern for me ither.  The White Sox with a heavy RHH lineup project for a fairly low .134 ISO against LcA, so the risk here should be low. HUNTER BROWN Normally this is probably where I would get cold feet and run away from a SP against a bad offense that burned me the night before.  F*** it though.  New York blows, give me Hunter Brown here, he’s not limited and he is showing no signs of not being able to push through for 6 innings and 7+ strikeouts today if he can avoid a rain delay.   OTHER NOTES … James Paxton in Canada vs the Jays?  Yes.   James Paxton at home vs the Jays?  Heck no. Aaron Nola is likely to get 20 on the white hot Royals today.  Kinda think he is fine for use on FanDuel, but how can I fade the Royals right now???  HOW? Bobby Miller will give up a homer to Fernando Tatis, but still […]

WEATHER Very low chance of rain in New York and St. Louis.  No reason to expect any issues.   SHOHEI OHTANI The time of fading Ohtani post all-star break ended clearly when he went full God mode against the Tigers in a double header start a week ago.  Now he welcomes in Seattle, who is striking out slightly less and usually hits well in Anaheim, but fear not, Ohtani will reign supreme tonight. If you need stats to back it up, please, go enter a NFL Pre-Season Showdown contest instead of playing MLB tonight. CRISTIAN JAVIER Hey nice, Yankees found a way to hit Shane McClanahan, who now has an injury just like every other Rays pitcher.  Cool, lets bring in the guy who has a prior no hitter off the teams most recent no hitter upon acquiring a guy with 3 no hitters back onto the roster tonight.  The heart of the Yankees order should not be able to hit Javier. MITCH KELLER  Keller is the one SP to consider as a pivot off either Javier or Ohtani.  After a rough middle of the season I believe we’ll see the young kid get back to his early dominant form late and Milwaukee is 18th on the season against Cutter and 27th against Sinker, his two primary options.   OTHER NOTES … There is no benefit for me to justify recommending any of the cheaper spots today.  Guys like Clarke Schmidt, Matthew Liberatore, Jameson Taillon, Luke Weaver, just none of that is worth going with today.  Sorry to be boring with the two SP mentioned above, but it is what it is.   DraftKings Pairs Ranked Ohtani & Javier Javier & Keller   FanDuel Options Ranked Ohtani Javier   CUBS Happ, Bellinger, Swanson Not sure what is in the coffee in Chicago these days, but the pricing on Ian Happ against a near 50% fast ball pitcher in Luke Weaver should set him up for great success again today.  Cincinnati’s issue is NOT their offense, it’s the bullpen, so going both sides in this game once again should not hurt. PIRATES Reynolds, Suwinski, McCutchen, Davis, Hayes That’s a lot of Pirates folks.  I do not expect them to put up 11 runs, but they should get 4+ off Adrian Houser.  I simply laid out the ones who have the most interest for me today.  Hayes is kind of a one off […]

I didn’t have much of a feel for the four early games yesterday (Wednesday), so coming back today with a bonus 2-article Thursday — which feels weird to say considering I hate Thursday MLB DFS, but here we are. Oh look.  Brady Singer is pitching for the team with the longest win streak in Major League Baseball.   WEATHER Still very clear   MAX SCHERZER — DK: $10,400 | FD: $10,500 … This stinks folks.  We should have gotten lucky with Max on a big 15 game slate against a better team where he might be pretty low owned.  But on a four gamer vs the White Sox he should be near highest owned on the slate and I think he is going to SMASH in Texas…. Why?  Two words…  Mike Maddux.  That’s right.  Immediately Max had a bullpen with his new pitching coach, the famous Mike Maddux, and immediately Maddux had him make one quick change on something he was struggling with and it immediately paid off in the bullpen.  Now, let’s see if it translates out onto the field but doing this vs the RH heavy White Sox should not hurt. BRADY SINGER — DK: $7400 | FD: $8000 … We’re Back!  Back on the Singer bandwagon and I don’t wanna hear anything about it, because September has come early for the Royals win streak this year as they’ve reeled off 5 in a row and the Mets, well, they’re done.  Send those vets home and call up some more prospects folks.   OTHER Jack Flaherty makes his AL/Orioles debut in Toronto Kevin Gausman is a no go compared to Max for me.  Not even close for me, but yes, Gausman will have 8+ strikeouts.  Max will too.   ROYALS Witt, Melendez, Perez, Massey The Royals young kids are acting like it’s September Baseball right now and playing well over the last week.  Led by Witt, they’ve gotten some clutch hitting and should be able to get at least one string of hits together in an inning early against Carrasco. DIAMONDBACKS / GIANTS Marte, Gurriel, Walker, Kelly Eventually the Diamondbacks are going to explode here.  The price on Gurriel is worth jumping all over and Walker fills into a good role today behind him (hopefully).   CATCHER Salvador Perez Carson Kelly   FIRST BASE Christian Walker Ryan Mountcastle   SECOND BASE Michael Massey Marcus Semien   THIRD BASE Matt […]

WEATHER Very clear   SHANE MCCLANAHAN — DK: $9300 | FD: $9700 … It’s half all in on Shane and half all in on attacking the Yankees.  Not much else to break down here.   Sugar Shane is the right side as Cole is going to likely do something stupid and get tossed or hammered tonight.  Its gonna get ugly in the Bronx. TONY GONSOLIN — DK: $7500 | FD: $8400 … It’s not sexy at all but Gonzo is finally up to speed after getting a late start to the season — he’s good to go for 90+ pitches for sure and Oakland should not be a heavy walk team tonight either.  I think we can get 6 IP out of him at a low price too. DYLAN CEASE — DK: $8,400 | FD: $9,300 After not getting traded late at the deadline we could see Cease come out and just go through the motions against a good Rangers lineup and in that scenario he is dead on arrival.  But likely what happens is he continues to pitch well as he has most of the second half because — wait for it — he’s been facing mostly NON divisional teams.  That’s the Cease model, you gotta be patient with him and the RHH still do not hit him very well so with Seager remaining out thats the strength on Texas and I believe Cease should be expected to hit 6+ strikeouts tonight     ORIOLES Ryan Mountcastle, Austin Hays, Jordan Westburg If I was not clear enough last night that Ryan Mountcastle would be a main-stay here again today then that is on me for not SHOVING IT DOWN YOUR THROAT like the home run he hits off Kikuchi tonight. REDS Matt McClain McClain, Nick Senzel, Spencer Steer They won’t go off the same way the Cubs did on them last night, but Cincy will be more competitive today offensively against Smyly.  Lefties should be able to tame Cincinnati more than RHP will but I do not want Drew here.  The breaking pitch should struggle to get whiffs.   Other Lineups to consider tonight Dodgers White Sox Cubs   CATCHER Adley Rutschman Will Smith Seby Zavala   FIRST BASE Ryan Mountcastle Vladimir Guerrero Jr   SECOND BASE Matt McClain … Since 2B is actually deep today McClain can be pivoted over to SS.  He is a must own from any Cincy […]