Four periods are done. Seven Touts have eight tickets to the September 1 Tout Daily Finals at Draft Kings. We can name them: Todd Zola has two tickets. Andrea LaMont, Derek Carty, Howard Bender, Lenny Melnick, Jeff Boggis and Jeff Erickson have one apiece.
Tickets will be awarded to the first and second place finishers in Period 5, and an 11th ticket will be awarded to the tout who scores the most points over the contest’s 20 weeks. Right now Zola has a 50 point lead over Carty for that bonus ticket.
For tonight, we have picks for tonight’s contests at Draft Kings.
MIKE GIANELLA
Top pitcher: James Paxton (12,200)
I generally don’t like running non-Kershaw/Scherzer arms out there over $12K but Paxton has been dominated and gets a nice matchup against the Royals tonight
Top hitter: Mike Trout: ($5,300)
The best hitter in baseball gets a soft matchup against Cotton
CHARLIE WIEGERT
Top pitchers…going on the cheap side again with Jamie Garcia, making his Yankee debut at Cleveland. This will be bust or boom, as the Indians could pound him and he’ll be gone by the third, or as I’m hoping, he turns in one of those unexpected performances like he did in St. Louis many times.
Top Hitters…stacking Colorado, why not? Reynolds, Arenado, Story and Freeland (although I’ll get 0 points for his hitting). Also hot hitters Upton, Sanchez, Revere and Altuve.
PHIL HERTZ
I’m going with Madison Bumgarner and Evan Longoria.
JEFF BOGGIS
My top hitter for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Andrew McCutchen ($5,400 OF-PIT) versus San Diego. Andrew McCutchen is hitting .265/.409/.559 with three home runs and nine RBI against Travis Wood in his career, and owns a 1.292 OPS against left-handed pitching this season. There is a 72% chance of rain tonight, so check your lineup prior to 7 PM tonight to make sure that the game is not postponed.
My top pitcher for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Madison Bumgarner ($11,300 SP) versus Arizona. Back from the DL, de was terrific in Sunday’s no-decision against the Dodgers, allowing just five hits and a walk over seven shutout frames.
LAWR MICHAELS
Yu Darvish ($11,100): Darvish has certainly been dominant with 148 strikeouts over 137 frames, allowing just a .225 opposition batting average, and the Mets have not seen much of him.
Elvis Andrus ($4600): Low price tag for a guy with a .290-15-46 line hitting atop the order, but Andrus also gets to face Bartolo Colon, and that should be fun for the entire Rangers team.
RICK WOLF
Kevin Gausman: No pitching in baseball has been hotter in his last three starts except maybe the Klubot. Kevin Gausman comes with a $4,000+ savings over Paxton or DeGrom. He has struck out 24 hitters in the last three games in only 20 2/3 innings pitched. He averages 30 DraftKing points a game in those three contests. That is FILTHY.
Tim Beckham: Love to ride the hot hitters, especially at off positions. Tim Beckham has an OPS of 1.356 over the past 7 days. He has settled into the Orioles lineup nicely. He homered last night and is 7 for 12 with 5 EXB hits since joining the Os. He will continue that tonight as the implied runs for the Os is greater than five. Ride the hot hand. That means two things.
TODD ZOLA
PITCHER Still waffling, especially since I’d love to use Ivan Nova but the weather looks risky. I reserve the right to change my mind, but currently my lean is Madison Bumgarner hosting the DBacks in AT&T. I like using an ace and even though Arizona is dangerous, the park helps a bit.
HITTER Jaime Garcia has done a reasonable job keeping the ball in the yard, but it’s rare finding a top power hitter, with the platoon edge priced as cheaply as Edwin Encarnacion ($4200). My only concern is I don’t like using one-offs against a team with a good bullpen and I’m not sure if I’m going with a full Tribe stack.
GENE McCAFFREY
Pitcher – outstanding Ks continue from Brad Peacock, with a much better than average chance at a Win vs. the Blue Jays.
Hitter – Adrian Beltre is rarely a bad bet; certainly not against what’s left of Bart Colon.