Author: Todd Zola

Going back to his DraftKings username Rotogut, Vlad Sedler relied on his instinct to trounce the field in Week 5 of Tout Daily. This marked the first week of Period 2, making Sedler, from Fantasy Guru Elite, the leader for the next set of Golden Tickets awarded to the top three scorers in each period.

With more than a deck of aces to choose, Sedler opted for Clayton Kershaw, supporting him with salary-saver Andrew Suarez, who outscored the future Hall or Famer. A Nationals mini-stack drove Sedler to the top as he was the only Tout to click in Matt Adams and his pair of homers while only three others used Trea Turner. Check out Rotogut’s complete roster below.

Wiseguy’s Gene McCaffrey finished 13 points off the lead, fueled by Justin Verlander’s outstanding effort. McCaffrey’s hitting was topped by Bryce Harper and Travis Shaw, each smacking a big fly.

Next was Rotowire’s Clay Link, posting the third highest total of the week. Link’s pitching was key with Max Scherzer and rookie Mike Soroka each eclipsing 20 points. Charlie Blackmon was the leading hitter.

Sedler, McCaffrey and Link have a leg up on the next three Golden Tickets while Todd Zola, Rick Wolf and Link remain the top three overall points scorers in the quest for the wild card entry into the Tout Daily Survivor Finals. Here’s the overall Leaderboard.

Be sure to check out the Tout Daily picks every Tuesday as the participants share a favorite pitcher and hitter for that night’s slate.

Here’s the Week 5 leading line-up:

Aces are wild on Tuesday’s slate, featuring Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Noah Syndergaard. There’s also the highly anticipated debut of Mike Soroka.

This is especially interesting since this is the first week of a new Tout Daily Period. What will everyone do, play it safe? Look for cheap pitching then load up on sticks?

Let’s find out.

Michael Rathburn (Rotowire, @FantasyRath)

Mike Soroka (ATL – SP) $4,000: $4000 allows me to grab an ace.

Lorenzo Cain (MIL – OF) $4,500: Brewers smash Homer(s) tonight.

Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire, @JeffBoggis)

Chris Sale (BOS – SP) $12,400: You have to pay up if you want to a top quality pitcher. Sale has pitched OK in his last 2 starts, giving up 3 runs in his last 2 starts. I like him at home tonight against Kansas City.

Bryce Harper (WSH – OF) $5,300: Bryce Harper has not hit a home run since April 16th, but it’s time for him to warm up with the Washington, D.C. weather.

Mike Gianella (Baseball Prospectus, @MikeGianella)

Noah Syndergaard (NYM – SP) $10,800: Thor’s K/BB rate is fifth among MLB qualifiers and while the Braves offense has been hot I like Thor as a relatively cheap anchor compared to some of the other aces on the slate.

Tommy Pham (STL – OF) $4,900: I didn’t do a full stack against the White Sox James Shields but the Chicago hurler is in for a long night against the Cardinals’ more potent bats.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola)

Michael Wacha: Velocity up, needs better command. Warm and winds blowing out is a concern, but White Sox middling lineup without DH. Still waffling over my ace, but leaning Verlander for some salary relief and high K potential.

Travis Shaw: Not only is Homer Bailey a gas can, but after 5-for-5 stealing last night, Brewers aren’t afraid to run on Tucker Barnhart

Clay Link (Rotowire, @claywlink)

Mike Soroka (ATL – SP) $4,000: Too cheap to pass up.

Kris Bryant (CHC – 3B) $5,000: Think he will be lower-owned than he should be after the recent beaning. Only slugging .389 against RHP so far…seems like a good night for some positive regression with 16 mph winds blowing out at Wrigley.

Lawr Michaels (CreativeSports2, @lawrmichaels)

Jarlin Garcia: Kind of an unknown with just 27 innings hurled this season but an ERA of 1.00 to go with an 0.815 WHIP.

Jose Altuve: Buying cheap pitchers means stacking with big-time hitters, and Altuve, who leads the majors in hits with 40,

This week, the Touts were asked

Who are your biggest draft regrets? Why didn’t you draft them and why have they changed your mind?

Patrick Davitt (BaseballHQ, @patrickdavitt): I ran myself out of fundage before I could get Tesocar Hernandez as a late-gamer. I haven’t changed my mind about Hernandez. I still wish I’d got him.

Larry Schechter (Winning Fantasy Baseball, @LarrySchechter): I got too much power, at the expense of OBP and SB. I wish I’d bid $22 on Whit Merrifield for more SB, and I could have done without Chris Davis or Albert Pujols. I got them at good prices, but didn’t need the power; and Pujols has a poor OBP projection.

Doug Dennis (BaseballHQ, @dougdennis41): Why did I draft Marcus Stroman? Could have done a lot better for that $12.  I really thought I’d sneak Yonny Chirinos onto my reserve roster, so I sure wish I had grabbed him for $1 instead of, say, Trevor Hildenberger. Finally, Blake Parker and Alex Claudio didn’t work at all as prop bets. I wish I’d have gone 50% on those bets, or combined that money for a surer thing, but c’est la vie.

Mike Gianella (Baseball Prospectus, @MikeGianella): My approach is valuation rather than player-centric, so I seldom if ever regret missing out on a specific player. However, in one of my drafts I passed on Dee Gordon and Charlie Morton and have been kicking myself for the past month. I passed on Gordon in the 2nd round of this 15-team draft because it seemed “too early” to draft speed, even though my valuations had his high speed/batting average combination as the correct pick in that slot. My offense in this league is fine but my batting average could be better, and Gordon would have helped. I had a mid-round decision between Sonny Gray and Charlie Morton in this same draft. While I had Gray ranked slightly higher my instincts said to go with Morton, a pitcher I liked better and whose higher ceiling would have been a better fit for my team at that point in the draft. My biggest weakness in drafts is often being too doctrinaire about rankings in the mid-to-late rounds and while I have improved in that area the last couple of years, I didn’t adjust with the Gray/Morton decision and it has cost me dearly.

Al Melchior (FNTSY Radio, @almelchiorbb): Not nominating Jose Martinez as a $1 player. If I had done it early enough, I could have gone a few extra dollars on him if necessary, and it still would have been a great value. Then I wouldn’t have needed to trade Scott Kingery to get Yuli Gurriel.

Glenn Colton (Fantasy Alarm, @glenncolton1): Staying with the idea Chris Archer is an ace. Yes, the K’s are nice but two straight years of an ERA over 4 should have caused us to value him as an RP2 – even in an AL only. Yes, the 6.61 ERA will go down but will it go below the 4.49 FIP? I sure hope so. After all, it was not supposed to be Porcello and Gausman carrying Archer on our LABR team.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola): I was on Gerrit Cole all off-season. There was a latent park upgrade with a loud team upgrade. I had faith the Astros brass would recognize throwing more curves would be a good thing. Yet, too many times, I passed on Cole, confident I could get…wait for it… Luis Castillo a few rounds later. Oy vey. I’m still confident Castillo will right the ship, but what’s done is done. Don’t get me started on Sonny Gray…

Scott Pianowski (Yahoo! Fantasy Sports, @Scott_Pianowski): One of my leagues auctions shortly after the season starts, and I told a non-competing friend that I would get Gerrit Cole “no matter what” (very much against my owner profile; I’m a value guy). Ha ha, I didn’t get him. Joke’s on me: he’s got a different repertoire, a better team around him, the park helps. All those double-digit strikeout games carry signature significance to me. I have one Cole share, but that’s a very light bag given how many leagues I play in. I also regret buying a reduced-price Matt Carpenter, as I generally tread carefully around guys with his physical concerns. I figured last year was his floor. Now I’m concerned maybe it gets worse, maybe his body simply isn’t right.

Scott Swanay (FantasyBaseballSherpa, @fantasy_sherpa): Johnny Cueto, J.A. Happ, and Charlie Morton all went for less in the Tout Mixed Auction than I had them valued for. However, because I insisted on spending over $40 for Clayton Kershaw, I was too busy filling out my pitching staff with the likes of Garrett Richards, Matt Shoemaker, and Drew Pomeranz to pay up for some of these better (at least to-date) options.

Michael Beller (Sports Illustrated, @MBeller): Gerrit Cole immediately came to mind after I read this question. I was on him all winter. I’ve got the receipts over at SI.com. But he has already been mentioned a few times, so I’ll go with Kyle Schwarber, another guy who I loved all winter and then couldn’t find a way to get onto any of my teams. I get a pass in my home league, which is a 14-team keeper where he was already on a roster, but I had three drafts/auctions from scratch, and Schwarber is on nary a one of those teams. Yes, I am a born-and-bred Cubs fan, so I’ll admit that had a little something to do with my love for him, but his draft-day cost was silly. It was almost as though people forgot that he had played all of 1.5 seasons in the majors before this year, and that he spent the entire offseason rehabbing a gruesome knee injury before his lone full campaign. It’s generally a bad idea to write off high draft picks who become elite prospects and key members of World Series teams less than 1,000 plate appearances into their careers. There isnt a specific reason why I missed out on him. Just one of those things. At least I am a Cubs fan, though. I can still enjoy what he is doing instead of kicking myself every time he leaves the yard.

Ray Flowers (Fantasy Guru Elite, @BaseballGuys): Hard to change to dramatically after just a month. I guess it would be mot owning more shares of Patrick Corbin and Sean Manaea. I wrote glowing Player Profile reports on both, so my followers certainly have them both. Should have taken more of my own advice I guess.

Peter Kreutzer (Ask Rotoman, Fantasy Baseball Guide, @kroyte): My Tout Wars team has been horrible. Part of that have been injuries to Elvis Andrus and Josh Donaldson, and another part has been the slow start of Paul Goldschmidt. I’m partly kidding about this, but Goldschmidt is a guy I’ve never been as high on as other people. His modest minor league record made me a little doubtful, and how can you trust sluggers to keep running as they get older? Etc etc etc. But as sometimes happens, I found myself in position to get an admittedly great OBP guy, as Goldschmidt is, at a fair price. So I bit, and then I fretted, because players like this almost always jinx me. I doubt them, they’re great for other fantasy owners, and when I finally go for them, they have their only down season. For example, if you look at Justin Verlander’s career, the one year I bought him was 2008. So, I have regrets, and Goldschmidt is one. The other? I thought Didi Gregorious was generally underappreciated by the fantasy intelligentsia in the preseason. He went for only $4 in this league! I already had Dozier, Andrus and Whitfield at that point in the auction, but I’m sure UT was open. Yuck.

Welcome to the weekly Tout Wars FAAB report, on its new home right here on the Tout Wars site. Each week, we’ll review the free agent acquisitions from all five leagues, with commentary from a league member, as well as yours truly. We changed the timing of the weekly run to 1 PM ET every Sunday, with the report posted later that afternoon so you’ll have time to digest and apply to your own leagues. In addition, I’ll be joining Lawr Michaels and Justin Mason on the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY Network every Sunday at 3:20 PM ET to discuss the results.

You can find the complete list of Tout Warriors here. Everyone starts with 1000 FAAB units, less any penalty incurred by finishing below a designated point in the standings. This is a means of keeping everyone motivated to keep playing all season long. The minimum bid is $0. FAAB units can be traded as well as rebated for players released off the DL.

The report will list all winning bids along with unsuccessful tries and contingencies. This provides the maximum level of information to help gauge interest on the players.

The American and National League only formats are 12-team leagues, as is the new points-based head to head league, The Mixed Auction and Draft each have 15 clubs. All the leagues have four reserves with an unlimited DL, expect the head to head league, which allows six reserves.

The headings above each league are links to publicly accessible sites where you can see standings, roster and a complete review of transactions. The initial auctions and drafts can be found here.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Ron Leibowitz’s Commentary

Caleb Joseph – The Orioles catching situation continues to shuffle between Chance Sisco and Caleb Joseph. Neither player has been able, so far, to run away with the job. The pendulum has swung back to Joseph at least temporarily with Sisco striking out 40% of the time. Joseph, 31, continues to be a high-strikeout, aggressive, right-handed hitter with occasional power. From my team’s perspective, he is still an upgrade for me with Bruce Maxwell rarely playing.

Chris Tillman – Larry Schechter purchased the longtime Orioles for $33 and like me had no one else bidding against them. Tillman’s been awful, striking out less than 5 batters per nine innings while walking just as many and home runs galore with a non-inflated BABIP. It should also be noted his velocity is down 2 mph from last year to under 89 mph. Larry must see something in him or have a plan here, but I wouldn’t recommend him unless you’re trying to actively torch your team’s pitching staff.

Daniel Palka – Journeyman outfielder who came over from the Twins on waivers earlier in the season. Platoon left-handed hitter with 20+ homerun power who is filling in alongside Trayce Thompson while Avisail Garica is on the DL. Perhaps the most attractive temporary outfield fill in on the free agent market at the moment, but is probably up in the Majors only temporarily.

Todd’s Take

I’m with Rob with respect to Tillman.  Maybe Larry needs a challenge with so many titles and bet someone he could win Tout Wars with Tillman on his roster. Even this week’s matchup isn’t ideal as he takes on an Angels club among the league leaders in homers versus righties.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Phil Hertz’s Commentary

After missing on all of his claims for the last two weeks, OnRoto’s Scott Wilderman was not to be denied this week, making the three most expensive purchases. With almost no starting pitching available at the moment in NL Tout,  it was not surprising that Wei-Yin Chen was the most expensive, going for 115, especially after his solid return from the DL on Saturday evening. Note every single available free agent starter was claimed this week.

Scott’s other two purchases were Giant infielders, also not very surprising with Joe Panik headed for surgery. One was Alen Hanson who was just called up from the minors. The former Pirate and White Sox, who has been on fire in the minors with an 1.140 OPS along with six steals, went for 103. Scott also acquired Pablo Sandoval, as an infielder not as a closer possibility :-),  for 69. In all three cases, Scott paid considerably more than the runner-up bid, but if you want someone, it’s better to pay a little more than lose out (as I did with the next highest bid on Hanson).

Also noteworthy were two owners claiming players who won’t be contributing anything for awhile. Brian Walton of The Cardinal Nation Blog’s Brian Walton claimed Korea’s finally cleared Jung-ho Kang, and Masterball’s Todd Zola claimed Red hot Braves prospect Austin Riley, betting that Atlanta’s dalliance with Jose Bautista will come to nothing. Note that both Riley and Kang will need to be active for the coming week under Tout Wars rules.

As for me, even though I’ve never been to Austin,  I wound up with weekend call-ups Austin Slater and Austin Voth. One of the biggest issues with both is whether they’ll still be in the majors next week, never mind for the rest of the season. One virtue of claiming Voth is that I already own Eric Fedde and there’s a good chance at least one of them will be in the Washington rotation by the summer.

Todd’s Take

Phil alluded to my grabbing Austin Riley. I have an opening at corner with Eric Thames on the shelf. Look at the players bid on this week – there’s next to nothing at corner. Earlier in the week, I was doing a podcast with Derek Van Riper and said for everyone to hear, I’m bidding $17 on Riley, if anyone wants him, they can bid $18. Since I know my NL colleagues listen <cough, cough>, it must be they aren’t interested. I had nothing to lose; I’d be filling the spot with a virtual zero anyway.

Actually, I had a decision to make with Kang reportedly back in the Pirates picture since he also qualifies at corner. This speaks more to my lack of confidence about Kang than it does my expectation Riley is called up, but even if I hadn’t promised to bid $17 on Riley, I prefer Riley. Your team, your call.

MIXED LEAGUE AUCTION 

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Todd’s Take

How desperate are some teams for saves? Brad Ziegler is sick, Kyle Barraclough gets the call and a bidding war ensues. Barraclough may get the job and saves are saves, but my research shows while all teams generate save chances, they correlate with team wins and staff ERA – neither of which bode well for the Fish. Still, saves are saves.

Tim McLeod not only won Barraclough, he snagged Alen Hanson, hoping he picks up more of the keystone run than Kelby Tomlinson.

At least two of the Touts were following the news as Mike Soroka was scratched from his Sunday start in Triple-A, in case he’s needed for the ailing Julio Teheran and/or Anibal Sanchez early in the week.

MIXED LEAGUE DRAFT

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Perry Van Hook’s Commentary

While most Touts bidding Sunday were content to make small or very small bids to fill holes in their lineups, Michael Beller consulted his crystal ball and bet $152 that Atlanta will bring up top pitching prospect Michael Soroka.

Of the pitchers bid on by several teams, Miami’s Jarlin Garcia went for $32, while Oakland’s Andrew Triggs went for $7.

I was one of the many teams who needed to fill a MI or CI slot and settled for the Giants Kelby Tomlinson for $2 while my first choice, Tampa’s Daniel Robertson went for $22 to Rudy Gamble.

Todd’s Take

Interesting, not only were there slim pickings at corner in the NL league, but the available choices here seem less than would be expected this early in the season. On one hand, an argument can be made to deal an excess corner if you happen to have one, assuming someone would be willing to make a very strong offer. However, on the other, it may be prudent to keep the roster flexibility in case you need to replace an injured corner. The assumption here is you’re using a 1B/OF type in the OF, or perhaps a CI at utility.

HEAD-TO-HEAD MIXED AUCTION

SUCCESSFUL BIDS

UNAWARDED BIDS

Tim Heaney, aka Heandogg on DraftKings led the scoring in Friday’s special Tout Daily contest. The weekly DFS league usually plays every Tuesday, but in a fitting way for this season, a make-up day on Friday was needed to make up for starting a little late.

Heaney, contributor for Rotowire and ESPN outpaced Sports Illustrated’s Michael Bellar and Rotolady, Andrea LaMont. The top-scoring lineup featured a pair of solid pitching performances from Corey Kluber and Miles Mikolas along with productive nights at the plate from Joey Votto, Matt Davidson and Michael Brantley. Check out Tim’s roster below.

Unfortunately, 168.85 points wasn’t enough to vault Heaney into a Golden Ticket. Friday marked the final week of the first period of the Tout Daily contest. The top three points scorers of each four-week period earn a Golden Ticket into the Survivor tournament finals. The first three entries into the championship belong to Mastersball’s Todd Zola, Fantasy Alarm’s Rick Wolf and Rotowire’s Clay Link, a Tout Daily rookie.

In addition to winning a Golden Ticket, Zola won a free t-shirt from Rotowear, awarded to the top point scorer in each four-week period. According to sources, Zola let his niece pick out a shirt, as she’s a proud manager of two teams played on ESPN Fantasy.

Check how your favorite Tout is faring on the Leaderboard.

Be sure to stop by every Tuesday afternoon as the Touts share their favorite pitcher and hitter for that night’s competition.

Here’s Tim’s lineup:

It’s a special Friday version of Tout Daily as we make up for starting off a little late. This is the final week of the first period. Three Golden Tickets will be awarded to the top three scores of the first four-week phase. In addition, the top scorer will get a t-shirt from our friends at Rotowear.

Here’s some pitchers and hitters to consider for your own lineups.

Follow your favorite Touts on the Leaderboard.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola)

Jacob deGrom: Lots of aces, he has the best matchup

Joey Votto: Guessing ownership will be a billionty percent, but I’m in protect mode

Howard Bender (Fantasy Alarm, @RotobuzzGuy)

Blake Snell: Red Sox have been horrible against LHP this season & Snell appears to have his command intact and always has strong K-upside

CJ Cron: Ride the wave until it breaks. 4 HR in last 4 games and a lefty on the bump in Pomeranz? Why the heck not? He’s destroying lefties right now.

Lawr Michaels (CreativeSports2, @lawrmichaels)

Sean Manaea: Coming off his no-no, Manaea has pretty impressive totals, winning his past two starts (16 innings, 0.53 ERA, 0.375 WHIP, 14 whiffs) and the Astros are hitting .255 versus Southpaws, but with 75 whiffs against them, sixth worst in the Majors.

Eduardo Escobar: The switch-hitting Escobar is batting .364-2-4 this week, raising his season line to .303-3-11 with a .351 OBP, and facing the struggling Luis Castillo (1-3, 6.51, 1.446 WHIP) the Twins shortstop makes a nice value pick.

Ray Murphy (BaseballHQ, @RayHQ)

Luis Castillo: His stock is way down this year as he’s off to a rough start, and the Reds are awful. But he’s not as bad as he looked, and the price is tasty at $6300.

Joey Votto: Votto red-hot, facing Phil Hughes, and only $4100. I’m all-in.

Brian Walton (CreativeSports2, @B_Walton)

Danny Duffy: Bombed last time out on short rest, Duffy averaged 23 points in his prior two starts. Bargain bounceback candidate.

Giancarlo Stanton: Yes, he had a slow start, but seven hits in last three games and three RBI shows the trend is up.

Vlad Sedler (Fantasy Guru Elite, @Rotogut)

Mike Minor: A 14-game slate isn’t the best place to mess around with cheap pitching with lots of solid pricey ones on the menu. But a $5,900 Minor on DraftKings against a strikeout-prone Blue Jays squad is worth the risk in GPPs.

Joey Votto: Finally heating up after a slow start and gets to pick on Phil Hughes in a hitters’ park (Target Field)

Michael Rathburn (Rotowire, @FantasyRath)

Tyler Anderson: Needed salary relief with DeGrom. Favored on the road in a good enviroment. Decent 3 game stretch.

Joey Votto: Also in on Votto vs Hughes.

Patrick Davitt (BaseballHQ, @patrickdavitt)

Pitcher Name: Drew Pomeranz faces a TAM squad that has a wOBA of .305 vs LHP since the start of last season.

Hitter Name: Add another Vote-o for Votto.

Mike Gianella (Baseball Prospectus, @MikeGianella)

Luis Castillo: He’s struggled this year but Castillo gets a tasty matchup against the Twins away from GABP. I’m taking the discount.

Rhys Hoskins: Hoskins is off to a great start and while this is a little pricey I like him against Julio Teheran tonight.

Phil Hertz (BaseballHQ, @prhz50)

Jacob deGrom: He’s been pitching great and tonight he’s pitching in a great venue.

Yoenis Cespedes : He’s swinging better and he’s facing QB wannabe Clayton Richard.

Jeff Erickson (Rotowire, @Jeff_Erickson)

Stephen Strasburg: I like the relative price of Strasburg (and Luis Severino), and while Arizona is legit, I like facing them in DC better.

Miguel Cabrera: This is a case of automatically starting hitters that face Chris Tillman.

Pardon me while I channel Rickey Henderson, writing in third person as the winner of Tuesday’s Tout Daily.

This was the third week of the initial four week period. There will be five periods, with the top three point-scorers in each awarded a Golden Ticket into the Survivor-style finals.

Zola, known for his rugged good looks and suave demeanor also vaulted into the lead for the wild-card Golden ticket, awarded to the highest scorer over the course of the contest, a feat he’s accomplished the past two seasons.

Zola brilliantly rode a pair of Brewer homers from Lorenzo Cain and Travis Shaw to his dominating 36.05 point victory. The Tout considered one of the humblest in the industry also got a dinger from Sal Perez as well as solid outings from Rick Porcello and Kenta Maeda. Check out my, I mean Zola’s field-crushing lineup below.

Failing to not quite match Zola’s 139.65 points genius were Justin Mason and Jason Collette, finishing with 102.05 and 95.05 points, respectively.

With one week remaining in the Period, Zola is trailed by Rick Wolf and Phil Hertz in the quest for the first three Golden Tickets. Here’s the Leaderboard.

Be sure to check out the Tout hitter and pitcher picks this Friday, April 27 for the final week of the period. New this season, Rotowear is providing a t-shirt to the period champion. Zola hopes they come big enough to fit him and his ego.

Please excuse me, I need to have my tongue surgically removed from my cheek.

Every Tuesday, and the occasional Friday, the Touts will be playing Tout Daily, a DFS league consisting of five four-week periods. The top-three finishers, along with the overall point leader after 20 weeks are awarded a Golden Ticket into the Tout Daily Survivor Finals.

Follow the weekly Leaderboard.

Here are the Touts recommendations for Tuesday, April 24.

Charlie Wiegert (CDM Sports, @GFFantasySports)

Maeda, Porcello: Looking for wins for both, 5+ innings and k’s. Porcello has pitched great and Blue Jays scuffling, a good combo!

Matt Carpenter: He’s been seeing the ball better and getting more aggressive at the plate. I’m looking for him to take a wheeler deep tonight!

Lawr Michaels (CreativeSports2, @lawrmichaels)

Ty Blach: A total value pick, but the Nationals are hitting just .196 against Southpaws this year, making Blach, hurling at home, a fun gamble.

Brandon Crawford: Sticking with the Giants, and value picks, Crawford is under-performing, but Tanner Roark poses the perfect tonic for such a hitter to get well.

Phil Hertz (BaseballHQ, @prhz50)

Tanner Roark: Pitching well and pitching at AT@T

Mookie Betts : He’s been red hot. No reason to expect it to stop tonight.

Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire, @JeffBoggis)

Charlie Morton: There are 4 games tonight that have greater than a 60% chance of rain. Morton has been incredible so far, sporting a 0.72 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP, and a 16.4% swinging strike rate. Those who bought into the right-handers breakout last season are being handsomely rewarded early in the year.

Teoscar Hernandez (TOR – OF): Why he is only priced at $3,200 boggles the Boggis. Over the past 2 weeks, Hernandez is hitting .343 with 7 runs scored, 3 home runs, 10 RBI, and 1 stolen base.

Ray Murphy (BaseballHQ, @RayHQ)

Kenta Maeda: Home for MIA, priced under 10k. I expect he’ll be widely-owned, but I’ll still jump aboard rather than fade him.

Manny Margot: He’s been ice cold, but that keeps his price reasonable. Should be batting leadoff in Coors with the platoon advantage. 4300 very reasonable for that.

Brian Walton (CreativeSports2, @B_Walton)

Luke Weaver: Quality young arm should put prior subpar outing behind him with home start.

Yadier Molina: Ageless catcher has been red-hot while swatting six home runs already this season. Has been batting higher in the order, second, recently.

Derek Carty (RotoGrinders, @DerekCarty)

Kenta Maeda: There’s always the risk of being pulled early by Dave Roberts, but Maeda is too cheap for such a great matchup against Miami

Shin-Soo Choo: Coors is the obvious spot, but the Rangers are nearly as good as Rockies tonight. Andrew Triggs is a side-armer who throws a sinker and slider a combined 65% of the time. That implies he’ll have a wide platoon split going forward, plus he struggles to prevent steals. As a lefty with some speed, Choo is capable of taking advantage of both, plus it’s 80 degrees in Arlington today.

Todd Zola (Mastersball, @toddzola)

Rick Porcello: Maeda’s chalkier than a kindergarten class at recess, want to avoid the weather and a blow-up for my SP2, Porcello fits the bill.

Lorenzo Cain: Again, want to avoid the rain games, Cain’s been running and everyone is in scoring position with Kennedy on the hill

Clay Link (Rotowire, @claywlink)

Luke Weaver: Weaver’s strikeout rate is down as many predicted, and he’s coming off a poor start, but he’s not walking guys nor is he giving up homers. The Mets have been scuffling a bit lately and may be without Todd Frazier. Perhaps it’s a sucker play, but Weaver’s price seems too good to pass up.

J.D. Martinez: Martinez against a lefty is pretty much automatic for me, regardless of price.

Michael Rathburn (Rotowire, @FantasyRath)

Kenta Maeda: Monster favorite at home vs weak lineup. Should be in for 6 IP, W, and 8-10K.

Khris Davis: vs LHP in Texas, high total, good BVP

Jeff Erickson (Rotowire, @Jeff_Erickson)

Luke Weaver: Not very unique, which worries me, but he’s the best “affordable” option to allow for the Red Sox stack.

Hanley Ramirez: Rolling with a Red Sox stack – J.A. Happ has already allowed five homers in his first four starts.