Lord Zola and company post on Tout AL, NL, Mixed Auction, Mixed Draft, and Head 2 Head at Mastersball.com.
Mike Gianella’s Expert FAAB Review appears at Baseball Prospectus and covers Tout AL, NL, and includes mixed prices. He also sometimes riffs.
Month: June 2016
Mike Gianella Romps, Doesn’t Quite Make Finals in Tout Daily!
Week 4 of each Tout Daily by RTSports.com period is all about the finals. Who made it? Who fell short?
Mike Gianella made a run for it, with an 84.66 point week, finishing solidly ahead of Ray Murphy and Chris Liss, but wasn’t quite able to close the gap. He finished fourth overall for the period.
Golden Tickets to the August 26th Tout Daily Finals go to Tristan Cockcroft, the three week leader, Rick Wolf, who finished first in Week 1, and Tim Heaney, who held on after tying Wolf in Week 1 and winning Week 2 all on his own. Wolf and Heaney were Top 10 finishers in Week 4, and they needed it.
Gianella rostered two of the game’s best pitchers, Max Scherzer and Danny Salazar, but it was outsized hitting from Jean Segura, Cheslor Cuthbert, Wil Myers, and Yasmany Tomas that carried him to victory.
Scherzer got the strikeouts against a Milwaukee team that produces strong winds by the lake, but wasn’t able to produce a victory.
Salazar was staked a nice lead against Detroit, but his command issues ran up his pitch count and cut his stint short. He took home a Win but struck out only three.
Other Top 10 pitchers on the week: Jake Peavy (13), Aaron Sanchez (8), Zach Davies (11), Jameson Taillon (2), Scherzer (11), Masahiro Tanaka (14), David Price (-2.67), Steven Matz (-1.67).
Scherzer was rostered by 80 percent of RTSports.com’s teams last night.
While the pitchers struggled, the hitters feasted. Other 10+ point earners were Willson Contreras (10), Melvin Upton (15), Jacob Lamb (10), James Loney (13), and Matt Joycer (11).
Yasmany Thomas’s 18 points was the big score of the night. The Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was rostered on 25 percent of teams and scored 10 points. The Diamondbacks Phillip Gosselin was rostered by 36 percent of teams and scored no points, going 0-5.
The Touts will gather next Friday for the start of Period 4 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com, the fourth of five four-week contests to distribute 15 tickets to the finals.
In addition to Cockcroft, Wolf, and Heaney, tickets have already gone to Jason Collette, Jeff Erickson, Brian Walton, Patrick Davitt, Rob Leibowitz, and Patrick Mayo.
You can follow all the action on Friday nights at RTSports.com. Use the same link all week long to play for prizes or fun.
The complete leaderboard is here. Next week we start over.
Period 3: Down to Wire Catching Tristan Cockcroft Edition!
Check out the leaderboard here.
There is one night of picks left, and Tristan Cockcroft has a 14.33 point lead over Tim Heaney, and 20.33 points over Phil Hertz (with a 20.34 lead over Howard Bender) in Tout Daily Period 3 by RTSports.com.
You can follow the night’s contest at RTSports.com. Use the link to join a league for prizes ($$$) or fun (free)!
As usual, some of the Touts have sent in their favorite picks for tonight. Here’s who they’re buying:
Phil Hertz
Recommending Aaron Sanchez ($7,000 @ Chicago White Sox) against the slumping White Sox. For hitting Paul Goldschmidt ($6,800 @ Colorado) is expensive, but he’s been hot and he’s playing at Coors.
Brian Walton
The reeling Mariners have the Cardinals coming to town, fresh off sweeping the Cubs at Wrigley. On Friday at Safeco, St. Louis’ best pitcher this season, Carlos Martinez ($8,100 @ Seattle), will take the mound. The 23-year-old has been especially good lately, having allowed just four runs in his last four starts (29 1/3 innings) for a 1.23 ERA to go with 24 strikeouts.
I am staying with St. Louis for my hitter. Perhaps baseball’s most underrated star, Matt Carpenter ($5,400 @ Seattle), is leading MLB in June on-base percentage at .514, and his .375 BA isn’t bad, either. I don’t see M’s starter Wade LeBlanc slowing the red-hot third baseman down. (As a side point, Carpenter is also now second base-eligible in many full-season leagues.)
Lawr Michaels
I am trying to exploit the lower end pitching to pick up some points, and Steven Matz ($7800 @ Atlanta) facing the Braves—no matter how hot they have been–coupled with Aaron Sanchez ($7,000 @ Chicago White Sox) facing the Pale Hose, coupled are my chosen path.
As for hitters, a pair of pinstripes—Carlos Beltran ($4500 vs Minnesota) and Didi Gregarious ($3600 vs Minnesota)—facing the Twins and lefty Tom Millone seem like great plays.
Scott Swanay
Aaron Sanchez ($7,000 @ Chicago White Sox) The end is near (at least for his days as a starting pitcher)! He’s been a revelation—experience the rapture before it’s too late!
Socrates Brito ($3,800 @ Colorado) Stacking hitters for a potential Coors Field slugfest is always a sound philosophy.
Charlie Wiegert
Steven Matz ($7800 @ Atlanta) Going against the grain with this pick as the two teams are going in opposite directions, but hoping Matz gets 8-10 k’s and the Mets can score so he can get a W.
As for hitters, stacking Nick Hundley ($3,900 vs Arizona) and Nolan Arenado ($6,800 vs Arizona) at Coors.
Mike Gianella
Max Scherzer ($9,800 @ Milwaukee) He burned many of us the last time he started on a Friday (May 27, against the Cardinals), but his high strikeout potential facing off against a Brewers lineup with the third-highest strikeout percentage in the majors is simply too much to pass up this week.
Jay Bruce ($5,300 vs San Diego) Bruce is a reliable stand by for me in DFS when I’m spending heavily on the pitching side. Bruce faces Colin Rea, who has a .470 SLG against away from Petco.
Jeff Boggis
Max Scherzer ($9,800 @ Milwaukee) By no surprise, Max Scherzer is the highest salaried pitcher in tonight’s contest at $9,800. He has a good matchup tonight as he goes on the road to face the Milwaukee Brewers. Over the past 4 starts, Scherzer has rewarded DFS managers who have paid up to roster him. For his 4 starts in June, Scherzer has 28 innings pitched, 3 wins, 4 earned runs, a K/BB ratio of 38/3, an ERA of 0.96 and a WHIP of 0.675. That’s money in the DFS bank.
Charlie Blackmon ($6,400 vs. Arizona) Over the past 14 days, Blackmon is hitting .288 with 12 runs scored, 4 home runs, 7 RBIs, and 2 stolen bases. He is at home tonight and faces left-handed pitcher Archie Bradly of Arizona, who owns a season ERA of 4.83. Charlie Blackmon has at least 2 hits per game in his last 4 games played.
Derek VanRiper
Peter O’Brien ($2,500 @ Colorado) It’s amazing that he’s tucked away as a catcher at this price, facing a lefty, and at Coors no less. While it’s extremely chalky, sometimes chalk is necessary.
Thanks to POB pricing, Max Scherzer ($9,800 @ Milwaukee) is much more reasonable as the most expensive pitcher on the board. Many of the top arms are on the road tonight, but the Brewers’ team K percentage is always appealing and the 7.5 O/U makes that matchup one of the lowest on the board in what figures to be a big run-scoring night around the league. I’d rather pay the extra money for Scherzer to get the max ceiling arm than try to navigate the other options in the top price tier.
Gene McCaffrey
Max Scherzer ($9,800 @ Milwaukee) against the Brewers should be a 10-K outing. Carlos Gonzalez ($6,500 vs Arizona) is expensive but worth it. Both are chalk picks but no sense losing to everyone. Beat them somewhere else. UPDATE: Cargo is out Friday night with a sprained wrist.
Tim Heaney
Max Scherzer ($9,800 @ Milwaukee) Going into today’s action, Milwaukee leads all teams with 506 K’s against right-handed pitching. That will send Mad Max charging down Fury Road.
Willson Contreras, ($2,400 @ Miami) Here’s hoping for a repeat of last week’s Peter O’Brien selection, with another underpriced big bat who qualifies at catcher but may not necessarily play there.
Jeff Erickson
Jameson Taillon ($4,800 vs LA Dodgers). I suspect at $4,800 he’ll be heavily owned, yet using him opens up the door to use one of the aces going tonight *and* pay up for a couple of elite hitters.
I’m going with cheap AZ hitters in Coors—Peter O’Brien ($2,500 @ Colorado), who should be roughly 98 percent owned with his price at catcher, and Phil Gosselin ($2,100 @ Colorado)—and then pay up for Encarnacion + Donaldson against LHP Carlos Rodon in Chicago.
The Tout Wars FAAB Reports for June 20!
Mastersball has commentary about five leagues, plus Todd Zola’s wisdom about each.
Mike Gianella has wisdom about Tout AL and NL FAAB moves for the week, and dabbles in the mixed player pool via the LABR pickups.
Tout H2H: Approaching the End of the First Half
As we approach the major league halfway point, so too do we approach the halfway mark of Tout H2H. Ten of the season’s 22 contests are on the books, and Brent Hershey has a four-game lead over Jeff Zimmerman.
Tout H2H contests are each worth six games. Most run one week, though four (at the start of the season, midway, All Star break and the week following, and the end of the season) are two weeks long.
The winner in hitting in each contest earns two wins, and the winner in pitching earns two wins.
Ties split the two games.
The winner in overall points for the week, the WPF (for) and WPA (against) columns above, wins another two games, and the loser loses two. Ties, again, split the two games.
So, a dominant week means a 6-0 record, a terrible week is 0-6, but any record in between is possible.
But this isn’t all the scoring in Tout H2H. The league also adopted roto scoring, which would determine 36 games worth of the standings. Teams would be ranked in the 10 categories as they are in a traditional roto league, and the first place team would earn a 12-0 records, while the last place team would earn a 0-12 record. These, and those of all the teams in between, would be added to their H2H record.
There are three roto contests: First half, Second Half, and Full Season.
The first half won’t close until July 3, halfway through the season’s 11th H2H contest, but we thought it might be fun to take a look at the roto standings with two weeks to go.
You can click on the graphic to see it larger. Click this link for the full standings, with category detail.
What it shows is that the two top teams and the last place team in H2H contests (so far), are atop and beneath in the roto standings, but in between there is a jumble.
Jake Ciely loses four places, Stefania Bell gains five. And so on and so on. Certainly all of this will change some in the next two weeks. The big question is whether teams will try to stack their squads, to make up points in the roto standings.
Given the six-man benches of each team, that might prove harder to do than improving one’s team’s record in H2H play. What is for sure is that each team has options.
Totally Buzzed! Bender Edges Moyer Inside on a Night Hitters Rule!
Pitchers on Top 10 Teams This Week and Points in Tout Daily by RTSports.com
- Lance McCullers 10.66
- Jose Quintana 11.66
- Zach Davies 12
- Matt Harvey 7
- Joe Ross 13
- Matt Shoemaker 12
- Michael Fulmer 9.66
- Jeff Samardzija 16
- Jonathan Gray 8
This list, which we usually run at the end of the Tout Daily report, usually helps explains who won and who lost that week. This week is different. The only difference maker on the list, Jeff Samardzija, was rostered by only one Top 10 team, a team that finished tied for 10th on the evening.
The night’s winner, Howard Bender, had rostered two fine arms (McCullers, Quintana) who pitched two quality starts but didn’t earn wins.
The night’s second place finisher, 6.33 points behind, was Steve Moyer, who rostered Zach Davies (QS, no decision) and Matt Harvey (bad game).
What they had in common was Michael Saunders, whose three home run, eight RBI night was worth 23 points.
What Bender also had was three other double-digit earners on offense, in Peter O’Brien (owned by 30 percent of players), Paul Goldschmidt (13 percent), Saunders (16 percent) and Yasmany Tomas (3 percent).
Moyer also had Tomas.
Third place finisher Scott Pianowski owned O’Brien, Goldschmidt and Franklin Gutierez, whose two homers and six RBi was worth 19 points, the second biggest earner on the night (and owned by 11 percent of teams).
Sixth place Rick Wolf rostered Salvador Perez, who earned 11 points on the night.
Steve Gardner, in 10th place, unearthed a big night from Josh Donaldson worth 14 points. Donaldson was on 28 percent of rosters, but his huge price tag must have cost him some productive pairings.
This is how, on June 17th, the Tout Daily winners did it.
Bender’s big win, and Tim Heaney’s 26th-place finish on the night (he started with Matt Harvey and Matt Shoemaker, just like fifth place finisher Jeff Erickson, but was unable to find a complementary piece for Peter O’Brien) has stirred the Period 3 pot.
Tristan Cockcroft takes advantage of Heaney’s stumble to move into first place. Heaney is 14.33 points back in second, and six farther points behind are Phil Hertz, Howard Bender, and Rick Wolf.
A few points behind them are a bunch of teams who are going to have to have a big weeks to pass the many teams ahead of them. The Top 3 finishers in the period, after next week’s contest, win golden tickets to the August 26 final.
The complete leaderboard is here. (UPDATE: The board and story were corrected at 1:35 pm ET to reflect fixes to an editing error. Tristan Cockcroft and Scott Pianowski gained four points, and Brian Walton’s entry was entered.)
Follow the game each Friday here at ToutWars.com, where the touts reveal their picks on Friday afternoon, and at RTSports.com, where you can watch how the contest unfolds on Friday night.
You can also play for prizes or fun every day of the week at RTSports.com.
Touts Daily Ups! Who Are They Rostering? June 17 Edition.
Tim Heaney has won the first two weeks of Period 3 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com. Touts across the country have adopted the #anyonebutheaney hashtag, hoping to make up ground in this crucial week.
You can see the leaderboard here.
The Top 3 finishers in each period win a golden ticket to the August 26 finals.
Who are the Touts taking to take on Heaney tonight?
Phil Hertz is recommending Matt Shoemaker ($5,900 @ Oakland) and Yoenis Cespedes ($5,500 vs. Atlanta) tonight.
Jeff Boggis:
Matt Harvey ($8,200 vs. Atlanta) When I evaluate pitchers in DFS formats, I have three criteria. I want to roster a pitcher that is trending in the right direction as far as his performance. I also look at the best matchups in regard to the pitcher obtaining a win. Finally, I look at pitchers that have high strikeout rates. Matt Harvey meets all 3 criteria. He’s been pitching much better as of late with 3 consecutive quality starts. He has a great matchup tonight at home against the Atlanta Braves. And in his last 3 starts, Harvey is averaging almost 6 strikeouts per game.
Chris Davis ($6,400 vs. Toronto) I am rostering Chris Davis tonight based on his favorable matchup tonight against Aaron Sanchez. Lifetime, Chris Davis is batting .600 (6/10) with 3 home runs, 4 RBIs, and an on base percentage of .692.
Lawr Michaels:
Matt Shoemaker ($5,900 @ Oakland), who has resurrected himself with five straight quality starts, facing the injured and offensively anemic Athletics (it pains me to say this).
The last cycles I have been trying to milk—although in all honesty, unsuccessfully—the low-end pitchers by stacking my outfield with some big sticks, and the truth his, my hitters have indeed come through all over. That means Kole Calhoun ($5100 @ Oakland) facing Kendall Graveman seems too good to pass up, while Michael Conforto ($5000 vs. Atlanta) against the Braves John Gant (0-1, 5.62, 1.75 WHIP) similarly seems like potential fun.
On the low end, second sacker Whit Merrifield ($3500 vs. Detroit) has hit safely in nine of his last ten games and is hitting .344-2-4 this past week, so I am hoping the Royals new keystone man will keep it up for at least another day.
Mike Gianella:
Josh Donaldson ($6,600 @ Baltimore) With a relatively weak pitching slate tonight (and with my BFF Jake Arrieta unavailable because he’s pitching this afternoon), I decided to cut against the rain and go with cheap pitching and a hitter-heavy lineup. Donaldson leads the group with a tasty match-up against Mike Wright in hitter-friendly Camden Yards.
Robbie Ray ($6,000 @ Philadelphia) I’m not a big Ray believer, but the Phillies have been absolutely dreadful against southpaws this year and Ray is coming off of an impressive start against the Marlins. Only the Braves have a worse wOBA against lefties in 2016.
Scott Swanay:
Julio Urias ($5,400 vs Milwaukee) The Brewers strike out a lot, and if the Dodgers’ braintrust decides to let him throw more than 80 pitches tonight, he may even have a shot at a win!
Jaff Decker ($1,600 vs. San Francisco) Low-cost option who has some power, has some speed, and bats left-handed, which should be enough to earn him the start against Jeff Samardzija.
Charlie Wiegert
Matt Harvey ($8,200 vs. Atlanta) has been hot, and the Mets got some bats back, so he should get a win tonight against ATL, and 7-10 k’s.
Going with a couple hot hitters hoping they continue: Victor Martinez ($4,800 @ Kansas City), Kyle Seager ($5,700 @ Boston), Carlos Gomez ($4,700 vs. Cincinnati) and Will Myers ($4,300 vs Washington). If they all hit HR’s, I should have a good night.
Gene McCaffrey
Few look as good as Michael Fulmer ($6,500 @ Kansas City) these days, against a weakened KC attack.
Watch Pete O’Brien ($2,100 @ Philadelphia) strike out three times and hit a 450-foot home run.
Brian Walton
What is not to like about Joe Ross ($7,600 @ San Diego) and the first-place Nationals invading PETCO Park to take on the last-place Padres? At $7600, Ross is just the eighth most expensive pitcher of the day, performs especially well against right-handed heavy lineups and has three very strong outings in his last four.
I watched Jose Altuve ($6000 vs Cincinnati) go 3-for-7 in the Astros’ just-completed series at St. Louis and it is no fluke. The second baseman has multiple hits in seven of his last 10 games and feasts on lefties, such as very hittable Reds starter John Lamb, who gets the road start Friday night.
Tim Heaney
Matt Shoemaker ($5,900 @ Oakland) Love that he’s still this cheap after his recent ace-like run. Fly-ball concerns hardly exist when he visits spacious Oakland.
Pete O’Brien ($2,100 @ Philadelphia) Really hope no one notices this light-tower power hitter is still listed as catcher and is facing a southpaw. Oh, wait, they publish these tips, right? Zoinks.
Tout Wars June 13 FAAB Report Reports!
The fellas over at Mastersball survey the week’s moves in five leagues, and live to tell about it. Big purchases? Tim Anderson, Danny Duffy, Carlos Estevez, James Paxton, Matt Garza, Daniel Mengden, Zack Godley. Plus a Tout AL blockbuster trade involving first division teams. Teams are making their moves.
Mike Gianella covers Tout AL and Tout NL moves, with some commentary about mixed pricing, too, over at Baseball Prospectus.