From Mastersball, some chatter about this week’s mellow FAAB action. And charts showing the current standings and FAAB left for each team. Is it coincidence that in the AL and NL leagues the first place team also has the most FAAB?
Mike Gianella, who is in first place in the NL and has $106 of his original $100 budget left, weighs in on the moves on Tuesday at Baseball Prospectus.
…but Scott Engel’s big week lands him a ticket to the finals!
Engel’s 51.25 points for the week, good enough for second place on the week, leapt him from 13th to second place overall for Phase 4 of the Tout Daily contest, a ticket to the August 28th finals where 15 rosters will compete for $2,000, and designation as Tout Wars Daily Champion of 2015.
But for the week Engel finished second, behind Eno Sarris, whose team jumped from 25th to fourth with a 53 point week. Sarris’s team featured a strong pitching performance by Andrew Cashner (15 points, owned by three teams), and solid hitting from Joey Votto, Ian Desmond, and Charlie Blackmon, all popular choices, and Carlos Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig, both owned by three teams.
Sarris’s team (click to enlarge):
Engel’s team was built around Ian Thomas, the Dodger reliever who wasn’t supposed to last five innings but did (earning a win), and cost just $4,200. Engel was Thomas’s only owner. Engel used his savings to also roster Votto, Desmond and Blackmon, and then added the pricey and productive Todd Frazier and Mike Trout.
Twelve of the 15 tickets have now been awarded to (ordered by total points in the four phases): Lenny Melnick, Scott Pianowski, Adam Ronis (two tickets!), Michael Beller, Ray Murphy, Scott Engel, Jeff Boggis, Charlie Wiegert, Lawr Michaels, Jeff Erickson and Tom Kessenich. Kessenich did not play in Phase 1, suppressing his total.
The highest scorer yet to earn a ticket is Seth Trachtman, who has topped 150 points twice and is fifth overall, but is not yet in the finals.
Trachtman and the rest of the Touts will start the fifth and final phase in the July 31 Tout Daily contest by Fanduel.
See the complete Leaderboard here.
Scott Engle’s Phase 4 Week 4 team (click to enlarge):
We asked the Touts to share their picks for best pitcher and best hitter in tonight’s Tout Daily Week 16 contest. For more about Tout Daily visit here.
Tonight’s contest is Week 4 of Phase 4 of the five phase contest. The top three finishers in each phase get a ticket to the big August 28 final, with big money and the chance to be the first Tout Wars Daily champ. Going into this Week Ray Murphy has a 10 point lead over Charlie Wiegert, with Brian Walton and Todd Zola just behind.
The leaderboard is here. Three of the current Phase Top 10 (Jeff Boggis, Michael Beller and Lenny Melnick) already have a ticket to the finals, with Boggis more than 11 points behind Walton in third place..
Scott Pianowski, Jeff Erickson, Adam Ronis (has two!), Lenny Melnick, Lawr Michaels, Tom Kessenich, Michael Beller and Jeff Boggis have tickets to the finals already.
Here are this week’s picks!
I will pass on all four pitchers over $10,000 today, and take number five, the Yankees’ Michael Pineda ($9600 at Minnesota), who draws the Twins on the road. The 26-year-old has been pitching well as of late, with 26 strikeouts in his last 27 2/3 innings and a 2.28 ERA.
None of the Cardinals hitters have seen Atlanta’s Manny Banuelos, but shortstop Jhonny Peralta ($3300 vs Atlanta) hits lefties consistently well and has been quietly leading St. Louis’ offense all season long with 14 home runs and 48 RBI. Peralta remains a relative bargain as the seventh-most expensive shortstop on Friday.
Chris Tillman ($6,300 at Tampa Bay)
Brian Dozier ($3,700 vs. New York Yankees)
Chris Archer ($10,600 vs. Baltimore) On a slate full of aces, I’m trying to save up with him, and hopefully the O’s continue their recent underachieving ways. I might still find a way to pivot to Max Scherzer if I can save enough with the bats, but FanDuel’s pricing is getting more aggressive with hitters.
David Ortiz ($3,300 vs. Detroit) I really want to find a way to get Joey Votto in there, but Ortiz at home against Justin Verlander is really enticing too, and $1.2K cheaper. Plus, he homered yesterday, so form is pretty good, too.
Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox) This is the last week of the phase 4 contest and I am within 11 points of the elusive golden ticket into the finals. So my strategy tonight may be more aggressive than in other weeks as it is an all or nothing type lineup for me tonight. I started a week ago, thinking about how I would construct tonight’s roster and my goal was to build my roster around starting pitcher Zack Greinke. One data point that I did not take into consideration was around Zack’s wife being pregnant and about to go into labor. Greinke has decided to be with his wife on Friday and won’t be pitching tonight. So my plan B for pitching tonight came down to rostering one of three players: Max Scherzer ($12,000), Felix Hernandez ($11,300) or Corey Kluber ($11,000). Scherzer is at Pittsburgh, Hernandez hosts Toronto, and Kluber hosts the Chicago White Sox. Looking at all three matches, I like my win probability highest with Kluber. His K/IP is similar to Scherzer’s and I can roster him at $1,000 less. Most will roster Scherzer, but I need to slightly go against the grain.
Joey Votto ($4,500 at Colorado) A great matchup on the road at hitter friendly Coors Field in Colorado and facing Colorado pitcher Eddie Butler. I think the stack of the night is any value players on either Cincinnati or Colorado.
Michael Pineda ($9,600 @Minnesota Twins) I could easily go with Kluber or Archer , but Kluber cost more, and it’s hard to expect the Rays to score enough runs to get Archerthe win. Pineda offers a nice combination of upside, matchup, and affordability.
Robinson Cano ($3,400 vs. Toronto) Drew Hutchinson (RHP), is the starter. You may not have noticed, but most of Cano’s struggles this year have come against left-handed pitching. He’s hitting .282 with eight of his nine homers off of righties. He’s also hitting .354 in July and .407 since the All-Star break.
I’m spending the bucks and going with the “safe” pick, Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox), mainly because I think he gives me the best chance to stay in the top 3 spots of the monthly leader board. Safe, because I think he has a good chance of double digit strike outs pitching at home against the White Sox. The sleeper pitcher I like tonight is Jon Niese, pitching against the Dodgers, which might be an audition. I could see the Dodgers trading Carl Crawford to the Mets to get his arm in their rotation, which needs help!
I don’t have the money for all I’d like in the Colorado/Cincinnati game, but I’ll take Nolan Arenado ($4800 vs. Cincinnati) as my guy to click. And with Kluber, I need a few value picks, rolling the dice with Ryan Rayburn ($2200) and Chris Parmelee ($2200).
The usual Friday batch of tough calls, but I like Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox) among the pitchers, at home vs. a White Sox attack that ranks 25th against righties in OPS. His salary requires some cheap hitters and I’ll start with Salvador Perez ($2,200 vs. Houston) to ruin Scott Kazmir’s Astro debut.
Andrew Cashner ($7,300 vs. Miami) Only three teams have been worse than the Marlins with the stick this year. Only three teams have had less power. Cashner — who has admittedly has had some homer issues this year — is home in San Diego, which will be the third-coldest park today, with the bonus of having the wind blowing in tonight. Oh and by using him, you pocket a cool $4,700 from the most expensive pitcher of the day. Cashner may not be as great as his fastball suggests he should be, but he’s also a decent pitcher in a good situation going up against a bad offensive team.
Joey Votto ($4,500 at Colorado) Right now, Eddie Butler does not have good command. And you know about Joey Votto, meaning something like three walks is your floor on the day. Add in the platoon advantage, and the Coors Field effect, and Votto looks like he’s in line for a good day.
Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox) With a leg up on a golden ticket entering tonight, I’ll be playing this lineup as a cash game. I’m giving a slight edge to Kluber over Scherzer as the day’s top play, since a) Kluber’s a little cheaper, and b) while both are likely to go deep into the game, I don’t have to worry about Kluber getting pulled an inning or two early for a PH. In a possible low-scoring affair in Pittsburgh, that’s a bit of a risk for Scherzer.
Joey Votto ($4,500 at Colorado) Votto is an OBP machine, going to Coors Field to face an RHP who has more allowed more BB than K on the year? I’d pay almost anything for Votto in that spot. $4500 is a bargain.
If you want an ace, you aren’t short for options this week. There are arguments to be made on behalf of Max Scherzer and Felix Hernandez, but I’m riding with Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox). I’ll take some savings from the top two options on the board and go with Kluber and his strikeout ways against the disappointing White Sox’ offense.
Todd Frazier ($4,900 at Colorado) against Eddie Butler in Coors Field. I don’t need to say anything else, right?
I am going Jose Quintana ($8,200 at Cleveland) as an arm, since I am 40 points down and can afford to gamble, but I like Quintana’s strikeout numbers, he is pitching at home, and Cleveland is up-and-down.
As for a stick, switch hitter Mark Teixeira ($3,900 at Minnesota) against gopher baller Tommy Milone seems like a fun choice to me, although that game, with Millone facing C.C. Sabathia at Target in what portends to be a swinging affair (of course, that means the final score will be 4-3 and all my picks will give me “oh-fers” instead of gophers.
Chris Archer ($10,600 vs. Baltimore)
David Ortiz ($3,300 vs. Detroit)
Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox)
Joey Votto ($4,500 at Colorado)
Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox) I wasn’t wild about any of the pitching match-ups tonight, but this seems like the best choice of the lot. He’ll get a fair number of Ks, the White Sox offense doesn’t scare anyone (now that I’ve said that, Jose Abreu will inevitably slug five home runs tonight), and Jose Quintana hasn’t been as good a pitcher on the road as he had been at home.
Marlon Byrd ($3,100 at Colorado) He’s one of the least expensive options for getting in on the action for the Reds-Rockies game at Coors Field, which has the potential to be a slugfest given both the venue and the two starting pitchers (Butler and DeSclafani).
Jon Lester ($9,600 vs. Philadelphia –early games only) Inside Edge predicts no pitcher to wow tonight, but Lester’s the best against the “hot” Phillies, so you’ve gotta get that lineup in before 4. (Scherzer is middle of the pack – veddy interesting.)
Joey Votto ($4,500 at Colorado) He’s en fuego and expensive and at Coors tonight, but IE says he’s worth it. Make up your own joke about “the Butler.”
Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox) We’ve got an ace day so there are options w/Max, Felix, Archer, and Kluber. Kluber’s 5-10 record is pretty lame, but it’s certainly not an indication of his pitching. His skills are almost identical to last year’s Cy Young campaign. He’s particularly toasty of late, too: 2.65 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, and 42 Ks in 37.3 IP (plus a 6.0 K:BB ratio). The White Sox have been very disappointing offensively after some high expectations coming into the season. They are 28th in wRC+ against righties this year.
Charlie Blackmon ($4,800 vs. Cincinnati) Another high-dollar selection here, but sometimes the more obvious answer is in fact the right one. DeSclafani started the year horribly against lefties and while he has improved recently, he still a sharp split and now he’s in Coors against a righty-destroyer like Blackmon w/his .897 OPS against them for the year and .941 OPS against righties in Coors.
Corey Kluber ($11,000 vs. Chicago White Sox)
Joey Votto ($4,500 at Colorado)
Mastersball.com takes a look at this week’s few transactions here.
Mike Gianella’s look at AL and NL transactions appears on Tuesday each week.
Ray Murphy rostered Lance Lynn, the week’s most productive pitcher, in this week’s Tout Daily by FanDuel, which proved to be most of the margin of victory.
That’s because on the hitting side, Tom Kessenich and Jeff Boggi$ (the preferred spelling whenever Jeff finishes in the money), the second and third place finishers, similarly to Murphy rostered two of the day’s big sticks, Kyle Seager and Hunter Pence. They fell short, however, by the difference between Lynn and their shared pitcher, Jose Fernandez, who pitched decently but did not beat the Phillies.
Fourth-place finisher Rick Wolf had Lynn on his team. He also had Jose Iglesias’s huge day, but lacked a strong second bat.
With his Phase 4 Week 3 victory, Murphy moves into the lead for the Phase by 10 points, ahead of Charlie Wiegert and Brian Walton. The latter is the only team to finish in the Top 10 all three weeks of Phase 4. The top three teams in the Phase will win tickets to the August 28 finals, when 15 ticket holders will vie for $2,000 in winnings.
Two Top 10 teams for the Phase are already ticket holders. Jeff Boggis and Michael Beller are 11 and 16 points respectively out of the Top 3. Players may win two tickets to the finals.
Phase Four finishes up next Friday, July 24th.
See the whole leaderboard here. Read more about Tout Daily. Visit FanGraphs.
Doubt Wars is the game in which players select their own teams based on Tout Wars auction prices, and see if they can outdraft the pros!
Second half Doubt Wars lets you draft a mixed league team using Tout Wars AL and NL prices. Put together your very own special $260 team and compete against 29 other teams for second-half honors!
To enter send the email address you are registered with to webmaster@toutwars.com. You’ll be assigned a team and can draft your team using the Create Roster button. It costs nothing.
But don’t delay. Teams must be created before the start of games on Monday, July 20th!
We asked the Touts to share their picks for best pitcher and best hitter in tonight’s Tout Daily Week 15 contest. For more about Tout Daily visit here.
Tonight’s contest is Week 3 of Phase 4 of the five phase contest. The top three finishers in each phase get a ticket to the big August 28 final, with big money and the chance to be the first Tout Wars Daily champ. Going into this Week Charlie Wiegert has a big lead, with Gene McCaffrey, Brian Walton, Seth Trachtman, Ray Murphy and Todd Zola and many others all in the fight.
The leaderboard is here. Only one of the current Phase Top 10 have a ticket to the finals.
Scott Pianowski, Jeff Erickson, Adam Ronis (has two!), Lenny Melnick, Lawr Michaels, Tom Kessenich, Michael Beller and Jeff Boggis have tickets to the finals already.
Here are this week’s Tout picks. I’ll be updating this as they come in, so check back later if you get a chance.
Julio Teheran ($8200 vs. Chicago Cubs) Teheran is a disappointment this season because of his 4.56 ERA, but hidden in there is a bout of home dominance. He has a 2.04 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 2.9 K:BB ratio in 53 home IP. He needs to make sure Anthony Rizzo doesn’t beat him. Lefties have been a big issue this year (.859 OPS).
Gerardo Parra ($3,400 vs. Pittsburgh) He’s been a hot DFS pick of late and he should be again today as he is just smashing righties this year with a .313/.345/.498 line. He doesn’t usually do much vs. lefties, but his .829 OPS in 50 PA vs. them this year might even protect us for a PA against a lefty reliever late in the game, but even if he is pulled late or this small sample of good work vs. lefties isn’t skills growth, he’s still worth his price tag.
Julio Teheran ($8200 vs. Chicago Cubs) has been the biggest disappointment of my NL Tout squad in the first half, with just six wins in 18 starts and a 4.56 ERA. However, the Braves starter is showing signs of life, having allowed just three earned runs in 14 July innings. Teheran draws the Cubs at home to start the second half Friday night. I am staying with my man and using my savings on hitting!
Miguel Sano ($2600 at Oakland) Some of the prospect luster wore off the Minnesota third baseman while he sat out last season recovering from Tommy John surgery. In the 11 games since the 22-year-old reached the bigs, however, he has reminded us all of his immense potential. Sano brings a .375 average, two home runs and eight RBI into Oakland to face Sonny Gray.
Jose Fernandez ($10,500 at Philadelphia) My strategy that has worked best for me in this contest is to draft an elite pitcher and then look for hitter values to stay within the salary cap. Kershaw was originally scheduled to pitch tonight, but has traded places with Mike Bolsinger in the Dodgers rotation. I like both Sonny Gray ($9,900) and Jose Fernandez ($10,500) tonight, but from a win probability and higher strikeout ceiling, I am going to spend the extra $600 on Jose Fernandez tonight. If you further analyze the pitcher versus hitter matchup, current Philadelphia Phillies hitters are batting only .162 in their last 37 AB’s against Jose Fernandez. The number is slightly higher for Gray versus Minnesota hitters at .182.
Mike Trout ($5,400 vs. Boston) and Bryce Harper ($5,000 vs. LA Dodgers) Each week I have wanted to play either Mike Trout or Bryce Harper, only to have my player either hit a home run the following night or the player that I did not select hit a home run. Well, I am imposing a brand new hitter strategy tonight and it is my “build a team around Trout and Harper” strategy. This way, I feel I have at least doubled my odds of success tonight and I take the guessing out of the equation. I was going to not roster Harper tonight based on his matchup originally against Clayton Kershaw, but with Mike Bolsinger now starting tonight, Bryce Harper is back in the lineup for tonight! By rostering the law firm of Fernandez, Harper, and Trout, this leaves me with an average salary of $2,350 on my remaining 6 hitters.
Friday night’s contest was dominated by Noah Syndergaard, who scored 24 points for Seth Trachtman and the next five finishers.
Trachtman also got big games out of Neil Walker and Kelly Johnson.
Runner up Charlie Wiegert got big games from DJ LeMahieu, Carlos Gonzalez and Mark Trumbo.
Gene McCaffrey added Prince Fielder, who was owned by a quarter of teams, and Matt Kemp, to Syndergaard.
Week 3 of Phase 4 will come next Friday. The top 3 finishers in each of the contests five phases will compete for $2,000 in prize money on the night of August 28th.
Trachtman’s winning squad (click to enlarge):
Charlie Wiegert takes a commanding lead over the field after two weeks, though no lead is safe in this game.
Charlie is followed by Gene McCaffrey and Brian Walton at the halfway point.
