As we ease into the second week of period three of Tout Daily by RTSports.com, Rick Wolf and Tim Heaney share the lead in the four-week contest. The whole leaderboard is here.
You can follow tonight’s action at RTSports.com/tout-wars, and join in to make a little paid or free action of your own.
We asked the Touts who they were picking in tonight’s slate. Here’s what they told us:
Phil Hertz said, “I’m going with Stephen Strasburg ($9,200 vs. Philadelphia) against a struggling Phillies club and Cameron Maybin ($4,200 @ NY Yankees) who’s hitting .400 this month.”
Brian Walton:
Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta) has burned me so many times in the second halves of seasons that I tend to avoid him all of the time. But the Cubs righty is pitching well, having allowed just six hits with 13 strikeouts over his last three starts, totaling 16 1/3 innings. There should be more of the same coming against the Braves tonight. Hammel is just the 14th-most expensive hurler.
Off to an ice-cold start to the season, the Yankees’ Brett Gardner ($4,900 vs. Detroit) has raised his average 50 points in the first nine days of June, from .211 to .261. That stretch includes a seven-game hitting streak, with five multi-hit games, including three hits on both Wednesday and Thursday.
Mike Gianella:
Top Pitcher: Clayton Kershaw ($9,900 @ San Francisco). It’s a strong pitching slate today, and there are several ways you could shave a little money off on the pitching side to attempt to make hay with the hitters. This is also what is called overthinking it. Kershaw is money in the bank and should be the anchor of everyone’s staff in nearly every case.
Top Hitter: Jay Bruce ($5,200 vs. Oakland). Bruce has been terrific this year, and gets a nice match-up at home against a pitcher in Sonny Gray who has struggled this year and is coming off of injury.
Jeff Boggis:
Top Pitcher – Clayton Kershaw ($9,900 @ San Francisco) There are a lot of great options tonight for starting pitchers and varying salary levels. And I know that rostering the top salaried pitcher does not necessarily guarantee positive results as even Clayton Kershaw can have a bad outing. But when it comes to played Daily Fantasy Sports, I play the percentages, and the percentages say that the top pitchers are going to put up fantasy points for your team more often than not. This is why I am rostering Clayton Kershaw tonight. There is no surprise that Clayton Kershaw is the most expensive starting pitcher in tonight’s contest at $9,900, but you can roster Kershaw tonight and still have the ability to build a decent team around him. If we do a deeper dive into Kershaw’s pitching stats, he has lived up to expectations. Over his last 7 starts, Kershaw is 6-0 and is averaging 7.9 innings pitched, 23.9 outs, 0.7 earned runs, 9.9 strikeouts, and 20.9 fantasy points per game. Over this time period, he has a 0.81 ERA and holding opponents to a .146 batting average. Tonight, he travels to San Francisco to face Johnny Cueto. Johnny Cueto is going on 6 days of rest, but the stats are not in his favor. On 6 days of rest, Cueto is 4-9 with a 3.01 ERA in 34 starts.
Top Hitter – Wil Myers ($4,300 @ Colorado)
Top Team to Stack – Chicago Cubs – Anthony Rizzo ($6,500 @ Atlanta) and Kris Bryant ($6,300 @ Atlanta)
When selecting my hitters in daily fantasy sports, I typically play the matchups and roster hitters that are facing bad pitchers. I use their roster salary as a key to determine the good from the bad pitchers on any given night. This works great when stacking. It’s not often that we have the opportunity to roster any players on the Chicago Cubs as they typically play in the afternoon, but they are on the road this evening in Atlanta, and have a great matchup against Bud Norris who has a 5.28 ERA and 1.61 WHIP. My top Chicago Cubs players to stack tonight are Anthony Rizzo at $6,500 and Kris Bryant at $6,300.
I also like Wil Myers who qualifies as an Outfielder on RT Sports tonight. In the past 5 games, Myers has hit four home runs and is a value play at $4,300. He is on the road at player-friendly Coors Field in Colorado and is facing Jon Gray, who is sporting a 5.33 ERA, but has won four out of his last five starts.
Gene McCaffrey:
Pitcher: Stephen Strasburg ($9,200 vs. Philadelphia) at home against the punchless Phillies.
Hitter: Wil Myers ($4,300 @ Colorado) in Coors should put up some points at a discount price.
Tim Heaney:
Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta): I’ll keep picking on the worst team OPS with an ace-like arm — especially with the price so jaw-droppingly low.
Adam Duvall ($4,600 vs. Oakland): Despite his recent bounceback, Sonny Gray visiting Great American Ball Park looks like a winning pitching machine to me.
Charlie Wiegert:
Top Pitcher…No, not a top pitcher on my squad tonight, taking two long shots, Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta) to rack up Ks and a win vs ATL, and Ian Kennedy ($5,300 @ White Sox) to do the same at home against CWS. I wouldn’t recommend either pitcher, but they could pull off 15-20 points each tonight!
Top Hitters…with the $ saving on my pitchers, I’m taking Miguel Cabrera ($6,500 @ NY Yankees), Jose Altuve ($6,000 @ Tampa Bay) and Mookie Betts ($6,500 @ Minnesota) to click. Riding a hot Wil Myers ($4,300 @ Colorado) at COL, and my sleeper is Kelly Johnson ($2,400 @ Milwaukee), back with the Mets, hoping he takes Junior Guerra deep in MIL tonight.
Lawr Michaels says, “Ugh. I like Lance McCullers ($7,700 @ Tampa Bay) and Bryce Harper ($6,600 vs Philadelphia) and Bobby Wilson ($2,300 @ Seattle) today.
Ray Murphy:
– If you believe Matt Harvey ($8,200 @ Milwaukee) is back, tonight might be the last night to get him at a sub-ace price.
– Meanwhile, Mike Pelfrey ventures into Yankee Stadium. All Yanks bats, especially the lefties, are in play. I like Carlos Beltran ($4,400 vs. Detroit) to find the short porch.
Scott Swanay:
Pitcher –Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta). It’s tempting to shell out for a Kershaw or a Strasburg, but Hammel has been surprisingly effective this season (even if he is arguably only the fourth best pitcher in the Cubs’ rotation). Meanwhile the Braves’ offense has been unsurprisingly ineffective this season.
Hitter –Carlos Beltran ($4,400 vs. Detroit). He’s coming off a great series vs. the Angels, and he gets to take batting practice against Mike Pelfrey. Wear a hardhat if you’re going to the game and sitting in the upper deck in right field.
Jeff Erickson
Pitcher – I went with Ian Kennedy ($5,300 @ White Sox) to pair with Kershaw. At $5,300 he’s a decent strikeout producer against a White Sox lineup that doesn’t scare me, and he allows me to buy some decent hitters.
Hitter – Cubs hitters against Bud Norris seems to be a pretty good matchup, so I’ve fit in Dexter Fowler ($4,900 @ Atlanta) and Jason Heyward ($4,900 @ Atlanta) to key my outfield.
The night’s winner, Howard Bender, had rostered two fine arms (McCullers, Quintana) who pitched two quality starts but didn’t earn wins.
Moyer also had Tomas.
