There are two slates today, the 1PM slate is what I consider the MAIN slate since it has 6 games on it and then a 8PM Evening slate with just 4 games on it. For the travel narrative nerds, the Cardinals and Astros are the only home teams in the 1PM window who was on the road yesterday and had to travel back home – obviously every road team traveled. WEATHER Guardians at Orioles – Light rain, should play without a delay.   TOP ARM Nate Eovaldi (DK: $10.5k, FD: $10.2k) Eovaldi has destroyed bad lineups this season, and even though the Tigers are actually playing decent Baseball, they are still in fact a bad lineup.   SP2 OPTIONS Tyler Wells (DK: $9000, FD: $9700) Steep price here on wells but safer for going 6 innings than Nelson Ryne Nelson (DK: $6700, FD: $6900) Not gonna pay for Gray vs Houston even though he isn’t that tall and well, short pitchers do well vs Houston…   So for a cheap option w roof closed Nelson gets the bad on the road Rockies   DIAMONDBACKS Walker, Gurriel Time for Karl Kauffman to go the journey of that < 2 IP and 5+ ER start.  Arizona’s not gonna strike out at all here and should have the ball in play a ton in their big home stadium.  From a pricing perspective the upside this lineup has offensively today along with their very reasonable prices makes this a heavy stack spot. Lourdes Gurriel and Christian Walker are the key power bats, but once the lineup is posted look at getting heavy exposure to the top of the lineup. ROYALS / CARDINALS Pratto, Witt, Melendez — Gorman, Nootbar This one is my favorite spot to finish with a 9-8 type score.  KC has listed Josh Staumont as the opener going no more than 1 IP in my mind with Mike Mayers being the bulk arm after him.  Cards Lefties and Royals lefties + Witt     CONSIDERED … This is the considered, but just didn’t make the cut list –> RANGERS Good luck paying for a full Texas stack on DraftKings.  Semien/Garcia/Jung are each fantastic one offs. RAYS There will be a day in this series where Tampa hits 10 homers, it shouldn’t be vs Stroman though TWINS JP France continues to be hittable vs RHH, but Correa is still banged up and questionable if […]

Sunday – 8 main slate games to enjoy.  No afternoon article later today, but will cover the full Memorial Day slate of games in a big way on Monday. WEATHER No issues, all games will play. 10+ MPH winds blowing IN at Camden Yards Minnesota has the best hitting weather boost once again, which is just weird   TOP ARM The premier game today in terms of pitching is Darvish (9700) vs Cole (11500) and as you can tell the pricing on both could sway ownership somewhat. Darvish isn’t throwing 100 pitches, Cole will probably throw 110, but Cole needs to throw around 105-110 and get 8 strikeouts against the Padres — something he should do, pending what lineup they decide to roll out today — to justify his usage. San Diego comes in with Tatis and Soto both hitting well, but the key bat here is Bogaerts and if he sits again then Cole is all clear in my mind. So the answer here is Gerrit Cole, but by a very slim margin over just taking two mid range arms, which to me is not going to kill you so long as we get some offense today.   SP2 OPTIONS Alex Cobb (DK $8000, FD: $9300) Cobb is going to be 10%+ or more owned today, he has to be.  So he’s really not a sleeper candidate and he has a primary pitch that should murder Milwaukee with his splitter.  The Brewers offense usually does well on Sunday’s at home for whatever reason, however their ISO in this split is just .111, they have a 25% strikeout rate over the last 10 days and Cobb delivered with a 31.8 FPTS performance against them on May 6th in San Francisco. In case you are wondering how teams do facing a SP the second time in a season, the data overall shows about a 5% drop for the pitcher at most, so its there, but not significant and a 25 point performance today will do just fine. Drew Smyly (DK: $7900, FD: $8700) This should be the safe/easy one — always famous last words when it comes to fantasy sports.  Wind blowing in at Wrigley and while the Reds jumped on Justin Steele on Friday, I still would be fine attacking them with a LHP. The Reds do hit sinkers well, which they should see a lot of, but Smyly’s allowing RHH […]

Overview The longest race of the season, 600 miles on the 1.5-mile asphalt of Charlotte Motor Speedway will fire off tomorrow evening in what is a Memorial Day weekend tradition. Last year was kinda scattered as far as where dominance came from as Ross Chastain started 22nd, led a race-high 153 laps then finished 15th. […]

Five games on Saturday Night Slate Red Sox at Diamondbacks Reds at Cubs Cardinals at Guardians Mets at Rockies Marlins at Angels WEATHER No issues, all games will play.  Wind blowing IN at Wrigley   TOP ARM Shohei Ohtani (DK: $11.4k, FD: $10.3k) The debate for #1 tonight is spending almost 2k more for Ohtani versus Verlander in Coors Field.  It’s simple for me, Ohtani vs the Angels is when he posts one of those 10-12 strikeout games.   SP2 OPTIONS Jack Flaherty (DK: $7200, FD: $8300) One has to think the confidence he got against Milwaukee two starts ago is going to lead to more positive outings for Jack.  Cleveland’s not a good strikeout opponent but  they are also not a good offense hitting just .191 over the last 10 days.  Manage Ramirez and you manage a good night Jack.   Red Sox (Verdugo, Turner, Tapia, Duran) Tapia with an AMBUSh on the SHIT known as Zach Davies.  Then Verdugo doubles, Turner walks and … Why is Raffy Devers still out?  Oh well, Jarren Duran has a triple tonight too.  The heavy lefty lineup Boston brings should smash today.     ALSO LIKE Cubs (Swanson, Suzuki) Mets (Nimmo, McNeil, Alonso)   CATCHER Yan Gomes Francisco Alvarez   FIRST BASE Justin Turner Pete Alonso   SECOND BASE Nolan Gorman Ketel Marte   THIRD BASE Nick Senzel Gio Urshela   SHORTSTOP Dansby Swanson Francisco Lindor   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Mike Trout Raimel Tapia Alex Verdugo Brandon Nimmo   OUTFIELD – Tier 2 Jarren Duran Ian Happ Starling Marte     Mike Trout – OF – Angels – Chairman of The Dongers Club Alex Verdugo – OF – Red Sox Raimel Tapia – OF – Red Sox Pete Alonso – 1B – Mets TODAY’S TOP BET(s) Underdogs / ML Cardinals ML Totals Cardinals/Guardians under 8.5 Parlay Cards + Red Sox + Cubs + Mets + Angels

DraftKings locks at 1PM with a 10 game Main Afternoon slate today while FanDuel has a 1PM early and then their 4PM is their main slate.  Below are the 1PM only games Padres at Yankees White Sox at Tigers Blue Jays at Twins   WEATHER No issues, all games will play.   TOP ARM Framber Valdez (DK: $10.7k) CGSO on 104 pitches vs Oakland last Sunday with 7 strikeouts and 0 walks.  Anything lineup that avoids Framber Valdez is doing such today because they’re banking on two cheaper pitchers out performing him.  Otherwise, we have zero reasonable idea to not use him.   SP2 OPTIONS Corbin Burnes (DK: $8300, FD: $9600) The Giants outfield collection of Mitch Haniger, Joc Pederson (Injured), Mike Yasztremski and Michael Conforto was quite the interesting bunch.  We’ve basically got guys who live off getting streaky and then getting injured and right now Haniger and Conforto have really shown to turn on the heaters.  Enter Corbin Burnes at a reduced price and not being as rock solid this season and the debate on using him vs a team who should strikeout 25% of the time or trusting the Giants to keep raking?  Gimme Burnes in a nice pitchers duel in Milwaukee.  The Brewers win today 5-1.with some late offense to make it 5-1. Luis Severino (DK: $7000) I would expect around an 85 pitch limit on Sevy, so he’s really just a DK SP2 option today, but it will be enough since he is under $8000.  I also do not hate the idea of going Burnes & Severino as a main combination and bypassing Framber in hopes he is pulled after 6 innings once the Astros are up 13-0.   Other Pitching Notes … Tyler Glasnow is back, making his season debut vs the Dodgers and under 9k on DraftKings.  We’ll probably see him finish in the 15-18 DK FPTS range today, I dont think he has issues but I also do not recommend going here.     ASTROS (Bregman, Alvarez, Pena) Houston will draw an opener and then like Hulk Hogan Harris — who has had command issues in the past but pitched better of late in the minors. Either way, as long as Bob Welch, Matt Moore, Dave Stewart and Dennis Eckersley aren’t showing up today the Astros should find a way to get to 13 runs otherwise we are disappointed.  Shoot, we might even […]

Overview The drivers will turn 200 laps for a total of 300 miles on the 1.5-mile asphalt track of Charlotte Motor Speedway. With one of the best race-weekends of the year underway, this event should be extremely entertaining. Most comparable tracks: Kansas, Texas, Las Vegas *Note: all pricing is DraftKings focused Dominators Justin Allgaier ($10,400), Starting […]

The older I get in life the more old man grumpy I get, I admit it.  However, there are still a handful of days each year where it’s darned near impossible to be grumpy.  The day after Thanksgiving, the first Friday of March Madness, whenever the Falcons have a 28-3 lead and the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. I don’t care what is going on in your life, today is a good day my friends.  Every MLB team is playing as they should be and the Cubs are at home this afternoon which is a great way to kick off the 3 day holiday weekend full of doing whatever the hell you want to do. I mean, if you wanna watch Nationals and Royals this weekend at your local watering hole because the Nationals are blacked out on MLB.tv then hey, go right ahead, no judgement here!  Can’t be as bad as listening to the Royals on the radio while boating around on a lake on the 4th of July, who the hell would do that… *** This is a cry for help, why am I going to watch Royals/Nats at a bar on Memorial Day weekend??? *** WEATHER Next week it is going to get insanely hot.  This weekend is very comfortable and nice in most places and we have just one rain concern today. Mets at Rockies – Oh, you didn’t know the Mets were at the Rockies this weekend?  Hah, yeah, well, sorry, you opened the article and thus you can’t un-register those contests now…   Other notables … Wind blowing out in Atlanta Wind blowing IN at Cleveland Roof closed in Arizona   There’s a good amount of viable options to filter through today and unless people are smoking some heavy crack I don’t imagine we have bad chalk on pitching like we did earlier this week — although there is one $4,000 arm going which I’ll cover in a second.   TOP ARM George Kirby (DK: $9300, FD: $10.6k) Not many pitchers are rolling better than Kirby right now.  The Pirates aren’t among the top teams in whiffs but Kirby has also been so good at limiting damage from lefties which is the CORE of the Pirates lineup right now too that I don’t see him having any type of blow up or “i regret using him” issues today.   SP2 OPTIONS Joe Musgrove (DK: […]

This could be the weirdest breakdown of a slate we see all season.  First off, FanDuel has opted to include the 6:40 PM White Sox and Tigers game on the MAIN slate.  It’s good to see that they are willing to give us a large slate when it can mean that we get Alex Faedo as a pitching option, so thank you FanDuel. Secondly, here’s some of the other pitchers going today. Logan Webb is pitching, yes, in a night game.  But, he’s not starting.  Confused?  Well, ole Gabe Kapler is thinking he needs to try this opener thing again with his best pitcher and lord have mercy I don’t think this is going to end well, but good luck with that Gabe. Kyle Hendricks is also pitching.  He’s back.  He’s at home.  Alright, so it’s not that weird, just weird to me I guess, but we do have some new series starting up Phillies at Braves GIants at Brewers White Sox at Tigers WEATHER No issues, windy blowing in at Wrigley again.   TOP ARM Logan Gilbert (DK: 9900, FD: 10.6k) Gilbert checks all the boxes we look for in a pitcher right now when facing the Oakland Athletics… He has a pulse.  He has at least one working arm.  He’s not known to wear women’s clothing when pitching.  And he doesn’t have a hyphen in his name.  Teams who have a pitcher with these qualifications are 41-10 on the season when facing Oakland.  Put that into your spreadsheets and tell me that’s not a big enough sample size for a winner, it’s hitting over 80% of the time folks!   SP2 OPTIONS Carlos Carrasco (DK: 7000, FD: 7500) Not many times you can sit here and justify using Carlos Carrasco.  The expected chalk has to be Logan Webb with Logan Gilbert, but if Webb truly does come in after an opener I want no part of that.  The weather will help Carrasco tonight as long as he doesn’t decide to walk 8 guys. JP Sears (DK: 7300) He’s not gonna win, this much we know, but he does have enough talent to pair together with Gilbert for a SP stack.   FANDUEL ONLY Lucas Giolito   TOP STACKS PHILLIES (Turner, Schwarber, Marsh, Bohm) Everyone and their brother should be on this one, and it’s hard to ignore it.  I cannot imagine Trea Turner doesn’t go on a massive tear after […]

Early Four game write up for those psycho’s who love Thursday afternoon Baseball.  Alright, that includes me too I guess. WEATHER No issues.   TOP ARM Braxton Garrett & Kyle Freeland (Coors Arms) The way the matchups are setup today with 4 games only, I encourage just riding SP game-stacks and the best one for me is the Coors one.  Not only do you get that leverage advantage over the optimizer type lineups stacking Coors, but you get a guy in Braxton Garrett pitching very well and Kyle Freeland who is usually good in home Coors afternoon games.   SP2 OPTIONS Blake Snell & Jake Irvin Snell should be the highest owned SP on the short 4 game slate against a Nationals team who has struckout more vs LHP of late but is still kinda pesky.  This is the only other SP spot I would trust.   TOP STACK St. Louis Cardinals With the cheap SP combo in Coors we can get Goldy+Nado without problem Arenado Goldschmidt Gorman DeJong   SECONDARY STACKS Tampa Bay Rays Brandon Lowe – Likely back today Wander Franco Josh Lowe   CATCHER Willson Contreras Keibert Ruiz   FIRST BASE Paul Goldschmidt F’n Matt Carpenter / Jake Cronenworthless   SECOND BASE Brandon Lowe … Rays expect him back today. Nolan Gorman   THIRD BASE Nolan Arenado Matt Chapman   SHORTSTOP Paul DeJong Wander Franco Bo Bichette   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Fernando Tatis Jr Josh Lowe Lars Nootbar Bryan De La Cruz   Nolan Arenado – 3B – Cardinals – Chairman of The Dongers Club Other Core Bats:  Josh Lowe, Paul DeJong TODAY’S TOP BET(s) STL/CIN over 10.5 MIA/COL under 11

Main Slate – 8 games. WEATHER Everything should be a go with a chance of rain in NY, KC and Colorado, but no PPD risk. Heavy winds and sub 60 degree temps in Wrigley Field.  The winds are blowing IN, so congrats to Stroman and Senga, although I am curious how heavy winds affect Senga here, I really like the Cubs as a sneaky lineup today.   TOP ARM Bryce Miller (DK: 10.1k, FD: $10.9k) Boy this escalated quickly, but I guess when you start your ML career the way Miller has and you get a team like Oakland who has a 30% strikeout rate and a .340 team SLG over the last 10 days you are going to warrant five figure pricing.   SP2 OPTIONS Tony Gonsolin (DK: $8500, FD: $9000) This will be Gonzo’s best start of 2023, he’s coming off a game where he had the most SwStr he has had all season and he’s settling into a comfortable pitch count to trust him to get into the 6th inning today.     OTHER PITCHING NOTES Matt Boyd is not pitching another gem two games in a row, even if he is drawing the Royals tonight. Sandy will be good enough, Senga/Stroman will be a clusterfuck and … well, I kinda like Zack Greinke to be honest with you, but why bother.   Players listed with each team are the primary options to build around. TOP STACK Mariners (Kelenic, Crawford, Murphy) I would imagine the Mariners are pretty popular (along with San Diego) and with Waldichuk not having any success vs LHH and the Mariners likely beating up on Oakland’s pen tonight I don’t see how this fails.   SECONDARY STACKS Marlins (Hampson, Cooper, Arraez, Segura) Hampson, Arraez and Segura, these are the key guys in the Colorado lineup.  Two of them are sub 3400 on DraftKings and Arraez is not going to go 0-5 in Coors two nights in a row. Cubs (Swanson, Happ, Morel, Suzuki) Contrarian?  Stupid?  Gut feel?  Whatever you want to convince yourself, roll a 2nd lineup out tonight with Cubs in it and sit back and watch the fun.   CATCHER Salvy Perez Tom Murphy Nick Fortes   FIRST BASE Garrett Cooper Matt Carpenter   SECOND BASE Christopher Morel Luis Arraez Gleyber Torres   THIRD BASE Jean Segura   SHORTSTOP JP Crawford Enrique Hernandez Xander Bogaerts   OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore Bryan De La […]