Article Archives | Page 5 of 23

Tout Daily DFS Picks for May 26th!

We’re halfway through Period 2 of Tout Daily and Week 2 winner Vlad Sedler has a slim lead over Week 1 winner Michael Beller, who in turn has a small lead over Andrea Lamont, who isn’t ahead of . . . you know, you can check out the whole leaderboard right here.

If you’re moved to try out Draft Kings, who are hosting Tout Daily this year, they have a special offer for new signups. Deposit $5 and gain free entry to a $3 contest. Click here to for more details and how to sign up.

Now, onto this week’s picks:

LAWR MICHAELS

Antonio Senzatela ($5900 vs. St. Louis): Looking to the rookie Rockie to confuse the Cards long enough for his offense to get a lead, and thus lead the way to a big week. The low-priced pitcher allows me to really go for offense this cycle.

Michael Conforto ($5000 @Pittsburgh): The solid Mets outfielder goes up against right-hander Chad Kuhl and his 1.61 WHIP. Oh boy.

JEFF BOGGIS

Top Pitchers

Jacob DeGrom ($12,100 @Pittsburgh) Mother nature played a role last night and I expect much of the same in tonight’s slate of baseball games. I thought about starting Stephen Strasburg (WAS vs. SD) tonight, but there is currently a 60% chance of rain. I don’t want to have to make a last-minute decision of juggling starting lineups in case Strasburg’s game is rained out or delayed. DeGrom has the same salary as Strasburg at $12,100 and will take up roughly 25% of my salary. DeGrom has 76 Ks in only 56 IP. Roster Jacob DeGrom tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 2, week 3 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

Mike Clevinger ($8,000 vs. Kansas City) Clevenger rocks the mullet haircut with business up front, party in the back. He took a no-hitter into the 7th inning against Houston in his last start and is filling in nicely for the Indians while Corey Kluber is on the disabled list. Along with the mullet, Clevenger is sporting a nice 1.56 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 19 Ks on 11 IP. Roster Michael Clevenger tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 2, week 3 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

Manny Machado ($4,400 @Houston) He is dirt cheap tonight and it’s time that he emerges from his early season slump. Machado faces Houston right handing pitcher, Joe Musgrove, who owns a 4.06 ERA on the season. Machado is hitting only .210 with 6 home runs and 15 RBI against right-handed pitching this season. Tonight, he breaks out of his slump. Roster Manny Machado tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 2, week 3 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

MIKE GIANELLA

Max Scherzer ($12,700 vs San Diego) He’s almost an automatic play for me regardless of price/matchup, but the Padres feels like a gimmie.

Matt Carpenter ($4,600 @Colorado) Sits at the top of a St. Louis stack at Coors this evening. Coors hasn’t had too many high octane games yet, but with the summer approaching, we’re just about due.

PHIL HERTZ

Jacob DeGrom ($12,100 @Pittsburgh)

Matt Carpenter ($4,600 @Colorado)

BRIAN WALTON

OK, the Scherzer pick was easy, but now where to scrimp? Do you hamstring your offense or seek out a bargain SP2? I am going with the latter, specifically Zack Godley ($6,300 @Milwaukee) of Arizona at just $6300. The right-hander has been sharp in his four starts, with a 1.05 WHIP and a .195 batting average against. Godley pitches in Miller Park Friday night, but against a Milwaukee lineup that will be without Ryan Braun.

Speaking of scrimping, I am saving some money at first base on Friday night, picking up interim Brave Matt Adams ($3,300 @San Francisco) for just $3300. In five games since the trade from St. Louis, Adams has five extra-base hits and four RBI. In the smallest five at-bat career sample against Giants starter Matt Cain, Adams has a single, double and three RBI.

TIM HEANEY
Jake Arrieta ($9,200 @LA Dodgers): Going against the grain a bit here, but Arrieta looks to have figured some things out. I’ll call his name while everyone else runs away from the Justin Turner-less Dodgers.

Aaron Hicks ($4,300 vs. Oakland): It’s a bit pricey, but it definitely plays toward Hicks’ performance vs. LHP, and Manaea should endure a little resistance from a steady Yankees home offense.

RICK WOLF

Jose Bautista ($4,800 vs. Texas) In daily fantasy sports, owners try to find players who are the opposite handedness of the pitcher to get a natural edge. Well, Jose Bautista is right handed, but hitting just .154 vs LHP in 2017. Conversely, in the last 14 days, the bat-flipping Bautista is the best hitter vs RHP from either side of the plate. He is hitting .571/.638/1.036 making his OPS a crazy 1.674. He faces AJ Griffin who after twirling a gem has gone back to back with awful performances giving up 13 earned runs in less than a full 9 innings. Bautista is at home and in the two hole, so invest with confidence.

Max Scherzer ($12,700 vs San Diego) Know it is the chalk, but look at the matchup. The Padres strikeout the fourth most and after tonight it may be second as they are only eight strikeouts behind the Milwaukee Brewers. No team can see the Rays with a telescope with more than 85 strikeouts more than the next team. Scherzer is a sure thing for the strikeouts with at least 6 strikeouts in each of his last ten outings. He is striking out 42% of RHH this year which is tops in the majors. He relies heavily on his slider, throwing it more than 40% of the time to RHHs. He costs more, but is a sure thing tonight.

GENE McCAFFREY

Max Scherzer ($12,700 vs San Diego) is a must at home against the strikeout-prone Padres. No sense messing around with a 30-point game his over/under, and I’ll take the over. This means a cheapish #2 is also pretty much a must, and I choose Aaron Nola in a close call over Mike Clevinger, who is impressive but a bit walk-prone.

Several good budget choices tonight, but Starlin Castro ($3,500 vs. Oakland) at The Stadium against lefty Sean Manaea and a weak Oakland bullpen is close to a can’t-miss, at a mere $3500.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Mike Clevinger ($8,000 vs. Kansas City) had a great last outing and gets KC at home, maybe lightning will strike in same spot again!

Betts and Bogaerts ($5,200 and $4,900 vs. Seattle) vs Gallardo, Bour who has been red hot, and Harper to go deep tonight.

JASON COLLETTE

Mike Clevinger ($8,000 vs. Kansas City)

Welington Castillo ($3,700 @Houston)

Using Tout Wars to Gain an Edge in Your League

Tout Wars weekend will find many roto players checking in on the festivities for two main reasons. First are dollar values in auctions, and when players are selected in drafts. Second are draft strategies. Tout Wars, however, has more to offer than just strategies and values. This column will share that information with you this season.

Below is a preview of some of the topics that will be featured in upcoming columns:

An analytical look of Tout Wars Leagues using the statistical history of Tout Wars auctions, drafts, and results and what the numbers reveal.

A look at draft software projected standings and evaluating your rank.

A post draft analysis of the 2017 Tout Drafts.

Tips and words of wisdom from the touts.

Your questions are also welcomed as well as requests and suggestions for future columns, just post in the comments section of the page.

I look forward to helping you gain an edge on your opponents this roto season.

R. Gregory Scalf

R. Gregory Scalf is former Division I college baseball player and full time baseball enthusiast. Greg has spent time as an associate scout for the Kansas City Royals and spent 10 years coaching high school and American Legion baseball. He was the owner and webmaster at Fantasy Baseball Central which operated from 1997-2003. Greg participated in seven Tout Wars league drafts from 1999-2003. He began playing roto baseball in 1991 and still participates in his original house league.

Besides running Fantasy Baseball Central, Greg has written articles for Rotoball, John Mosey’s Fantasy Baseball, The Sandlot Shrink, MajorLeagueBaseball.com, RotoNews, BaseballHQ, Mastersball, and Sandbox Sports to name a few. He has also been a guest on CBS Sportsline’s Fantasy Fever, Talking Baseball, Rotoradio, and Fantasy Sports Weekly radio shows. Fantasy Baseball Central was also featured in several newspaper columns around the country as well as books and magazines including USA Today’s Baseball Weekly. Greg has also been one of the commentators for the Commissioner.COM coverage of the LABR drafts in the past.

Jonathan Pierce Wins Doubt Wars Mixed Too!

Jonathan Pierce won Doubt Wars NL, and he won Doubt Wars Mix, too, the first time a single player has won two Doubt leagues in the same year.

Doubt Wars players put together dream rosters after the Tout Wars auctions are done, pricing players at $1 more than their Tout Wars price. Draft day rosters are held all season long, and then combined with the Tout Wars draft day roster to form one big roto standings.

The team with the highest average rank in the TW 5×5 categories is the champion.

The highest Tout Wars finisher in Doubt was Scott Pianowski, who finished third overall. He finished sixth in Tout’s full season Mixed Auction league.

See the results here.

Pierce’s team had four 20/20 hitters and a solid rotation led by Noah Syndergaard, Kenta Maeda and Anthony DeSclafani.

For a second time, congratulations Jonathan!

Jonathan Pierce Wins Doubt Wars NL!

Jonathan Pierce has edged out If You Build It They Will Come for the 2016 Doubt Wars NL championship.

Doubt Wars players put together dream rosters after the Tout
Wars auctions are done, pricing players at $1 more than their Tout Wars price. Draft day rosters are held all season long, and then combined with the Tout Wars draft day roster to form one big roto standings.

The team with the highest average rank in the TW 5×5 categories is the champion.

This year’s highest finishing Tout NL owner was champion Todd Zola, who finished fifth overall in Doubt Wars.

See the whole standings here.

Pierce’s team was built around big seasons from Wil Myers, Gregory Polanco, Wilson Ramos and Trevor Story, plus Tanner Roark, Noah Syndergaard and Anthony DiSclafani. (Update: This story was originally and incorrectly published with the roster from Pierce’s Doubt Mixed team. Sorry about that.)

Congratulations Jonathan Pierce!

Look for the Doubt Wars Mixed results in the next day or so.

Tout Wars on the Last Day of the 2016 Season, Probably.

Today is the last day of the 2016 season, unless either or both St. Louis and Detroit win, in which case there might be a playoff and makeup game played on Monday. And then, if things go right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) there could be another playoff game on Tuesday. It’s all delineated in this story at mlb.com.

With that in mind, here’s a look at today’s action, with links to the onRoto pages where you can see the live standings (click Live Scoring in the left nav of each league’s page to see up-to-the-minute results):

Tout Head 2 Head: Jeff Zimmerman is up 3-2 in pitching over Andrea LaMont, and tied 2-2 in hitting. But it’s close! If Jeff wins a single “game” today, he is league champ. If he loses both pitching and hitting, Brent Hershey will likely win in a tie-breaker.

Tout Mixed Draft: While you would rather be Adam Ronis, up two points on Rudy Gamble, there are a number of tight pitching categories that could turn for both teams, depending on how they do today (and tomorrow, and Tuesday). It ain’t over, but Ronis, last year’s champ, is up, over Gamble, last year’s second place finisher, for now.

Tout Mixed Auction: Zach Steinhorn is up five and a half points over Fred Zinkie. If Zinkie were to pass Steinhorn in strikeouts (he’s only seven behind) Steinhorn could conceivably collapse his way out of the lead. The only problem? Steinhorn has three starters today, Zinkie none. Game to Steinhorn, probably.

Tout NL: This is one to watch. Todd Zola is ahead of Derek Carty by three points, but there are points to win and lose for one or both of them in almost every category. Todd, like Ronis in Mixed Draft, is surely glad to be up, but this one is too close to call.

Tout AL: It’s possible to conceive a scenario in which Patrick Davitt catches Seth Trachtman as Trachtman swoons on the final day to lose his five and a half point lead. There are enough points in potential play to see how it could happen, but the odds of such a perfectly awful storm for Trachtman are very slight.

THE FINAL WEEKEND: Tout Wars Head 2 Head

Done! Not really. Actually, it’s a squeaker!

Going into the last weekend, Jeff Zimmerman is nine games ahead of Brent Hershey in the Head to Head portion of the schedule, a seemingly insurmountable lead. But this week Zimmerman is losing to Andrea LaMont, 2-3 in hitting, 2-3 in pitching, and 4-6 overall, which would give him a weekly record of 0-6.

Hershey, meanwhile, has strong leads in eight categories over Paul Sporer, which would give him a weekly record of 6-0 if it holds up.

Here are the current standings:

If the current results hold up, Zimmerman finishes the head to head part of the contest at 84-48, while Hershey will 81-51.

Of course, these teams are also competing in 5×5 roto contests, for the first half, second half, and full season. These are converted to W-L records.

In the first half Hershey was 12-0, while Zimmerman was 11-1. Uh-oh.

In the second half Hershey is in first place again (through Thursday’s games). Double uh-oh.

That’s another 12-0 for Hershey and an 11-1 for Zimmerman. And it’s hard not to assume that the overall full-year standings will tell a similar story, which puts our projected finish at:

Jeff Zimmerman: 117-51
Brent Hershey: 117-51

You can bet that Zimmerman is rooting hard against Andrea LaMont this weekend, and Hershey is rooting for her.

(In case of a tie in total points, according to the Tout Wars Constitution, the team that wins in more categories is designated the winner. If neither team wins more categories, the glory—and the title—is shared.

In the second half, Hershey is up six cats to four, and in the first half Hershey led by five cats to four, so Zimmerman’s best bet to win is to edge LaMont over the weekend in at least one more category, to go 5-1 for the week.)

THE FINAL WEEKEND: The Tout Wars Mixed Draft Race

Entering the season’s final week, Adam Ronis led the Tout Mixed Draft league with 106.5 points. Rudy Gamble was a half point back, at 106, and Tom Kessenich had 104.5 points. Heading to the final weekend Ronis has opened up his lead, but Rudy Gamble has tried to keep pace. The Standings:

On the hitting side, these leaders are mostly set. There are no hitting points for Ronis to easily win or lose.

Gamble could gain half a point in homers, or lose up to two and a half points, while he could gain a point in OBP, or lose two. Clearly a good weekend with the bat is important to him.

Kessenich has no offensive downside, and has the chance to pick up two points in OBP.

Things are considerably more complicated with the pitching.

Ronis and Kessenich are tied in wins, so either could gain half a point (or lose half), but they are just one win ahead of Tim McCullough, who has four starts this weekend. Ronis and Kessenich both have four likely starters, too, but one of Ronis’s is Noah Syndergaard, whose Sunday start will be limited to 25 pitches if the Mets have clinched the wild card slot.

Ronis can also earn a point in Saves and another in WHIP, but could lose have a point in Saves, three big points in ERA and another in Strikeouts. He’s up eight strikeouts over Tim McLeod, but McLeod is making five starts this week, so Thor’s short stint on Sunday could come into play here, too.

Gamble and Kessenich are fighting in Saves, tied with 69, and can gain or lose half a point, and within .0004 in WHIP. Gamble is the trailing team, and can add a point while costing Kessenich one.

Finally, Gamble could gain or lose one point in ERA, while Kessenich has a point to lose there. It looks like good pitching could be the differencemaker this weekend.

Where we stand going into the Final Weekend:

Adam Ronis, last year’s champ, has 110.5 points. With his best weekend he could end up with 113 points. With is worst? 104.5.

Rudy Gamble, last year’s runner up, has 108 points. His best? 112. His worst? 102 points.

Tom Kessenich, who finished near the bottom last year, has 104 points. Best? 107 points. Worst? 98 points. He’s got a tough job to pass two teams ahead of him.

THE FINAL WEEKEND: The Tout Wars Mixed Auction Race

Heading into the final seven days of this Tout Wars season, multi time former champion Fred Zinkie had a one-point lead over Zach Steinhorn. Now, as we enter the last three days, Steinhorn leads Zinkie by four. The Standings:

The key battle is in stolen bases, where Steinhorn caught up with Zinkie this week. The two are tied, with 142, two ahead of Nando DiFino and three ahead of Bret Sayre.

Another race in which they’re fighting for the same points is strikeouts, where Steinhorn is five ahead of Zinkie. This might not be quite so close as it looks, since Steinhorn has eight starters this weekend, while Zinkie has only five.

The rest of the board looks pretty set for Zinkie. He’s lost two points in ERA since this past Monday, but is .04 points behind Nando DiFino and .07 behind Ray Flowers in that category. Could he regain those? Sure, but it isn’t likely.

The situation is much more fluid for Steinhorn, who could gain or lose one point in Runs, lose a point in RBI, gain a point in OBP, giving him a potential +2.5 and -3.5 in the hitting categories.

On the pitching side, he’s two wins behind Al Melchior and three behind Cory Schwartz, and two ahead of Scott Pianowski, who has only two starts this weekend. Probably set, but those eight starts this weekend make it unlikely he’ll lose ground, and it’s possible he could finish ahead of Schwartz. (For the record, Al Melchior has six starts this weekend, while Schwartz has only two.)

Steinhorn is also two saves ahead of Scott Swanay, which perhaps leaves him vulnerable to the loss of a half point. He’s got one closer (Britton), while Swanay has three (Ramos, Melancon, Bailey).

The final tally?

Steinhorn has 125.5 points. If things go right he could end up with 128.5 points. If things go wrong he could finish with 121.5

Zinkie has 121.5 points. If things go right he could end up with 124 points. Wrong? 119.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: