The Mastersball Version, covering all five season long leagues. Written by Todd Zola, Lawr Michaels, Brian Walton, Zach Steinhorn, Perry Van Hook, and Peter Kreutzer.
The Baseball Prospectus version, covering AL and NL, with mixed prices accompanying LABR commentary. Written by Mike Gianella.
Ron Shandler bet on two starters from Chicago last night, and rode their sterling starts home to victory in Week Three of Period One of Tout Daily.
Shandler was also helped by Curtis Granderson’s two-home-run night, which led to 16 points in the Mets game versus Atlanta.
While Jose Quintana and Jon Lester were popular picks, only three percent of daily players at RTSports.com played Granderson last night. Of the Tout Daily Top 10 finishers, only Gene McCaffrey rostered Grandy.
On the other hand, second-place finisher Todd Zola rostered both Quintana and Lester, and third-place finisher Mike Gianella rostered Lester, along with Aaron Nola’s impressive bounce back from a recent pasting. Nola was the night’s highest-scoring pitcher.
None of the other Top 10 finishers owned Mike Moustakas, Shandler’s other big scorer.
Shandler’s victory was Brain Walton’s defeat. Walton had won the first two weeks of Period One of Tout Daily, but finished 32nd on the night, stacking the wrong Mets and Rays.
After three weeks in the four-week contest, Patrick Mayo has a slim lead over Walton, with Rob Leibowitz and Todd Zola battling for third place. Adam Ronis, Mike Gianella, Ron Shandler, and Jake Ciely are among the hopefuls of sneaking into the winning group for Period One.
The top three finishers in each period win a golden tickets to the Tout Daily Finals on August 26th, when a Tout Daily Champion for 2016 will be crowned.
You can see the whole leaderboard here.
Play fantasy baseball everyday at RTSports.com.
A look at the leaderboard shows Brian Walton out in front on the strength of two first-place finishes, and Patrick Mayo just behind him, based on his second and third-place finishes in the first two weeks. Then there’s a lot of folks fighting for third, or hoping for one of those two to collapse.
You can follow the races tonight at RTSports, and play a daily game yourself, for free or for cash.
Here’s who the Tout are picking tonight.
Brian Walton has always liked Matt Moore ($6700 @ Yankees), but he has had a long road back from Tommy John surgery. Last time out, the Rays’ lefty fanned 10 White Sox in 6 1/3 innings but he draws the Yankees in the Bronx Friday night. He still likes Moore as his second starter. On the offensive side, the Dodgers head to Coors for the weekend with lefty Jon Gray taking the ball for the Rockies. After taking Thursday off from his duties behind the plate, Yasmani Grandal ($4200 @ Colorado) should be in Friday’s lineup and has seven hits in his last five games.
Stephania Bell likes Felix Hernandez ($9200 @ Angels) and Bryce Harper ($6700 vs. Minnesota). BREAKING NEWS: King Felix is ill and his start is being pushed back!
Charlie Wiegert can go with Gio Gonzalez ($7100 vs Minnesota) and save a few $ and go with a hot pitcher against a weak hitting lineup. It’s time for Gio to get his first win this year, and at least 8 Ks. Evan Longoria ($5100 @ Yankees) has hit CC Sabathia like he owns him, and he’s on a hot streak right now also, so what’s not to like? He’s Charlie’s top choice!
David Gonos’ top picks are Gio Gonzalez ($7100 vs Minnesota) and Yoenis Cespedes ($5500 @Atlanta).
Lawr Michaels says that coming off a couple of decent starts, Jeff Samardzija ($7600 vs Miami) gets to toss at home against the interesting Marlins. Miami has surely improved their plate numbers over last year, ranking sixth-best in batter strikeouts and posting a .327 OBP. Still, the Giants will be home and ready to take things out on someone, and the Fish seem to be the likely west coast victims. As for hitters, it is hard to not like the Dodgers batters in Colorado facing Jonathan Gray, who will be making his first start of the season. I like Yasmani Grandal ($4200 @Colorado), and also Robinson Cano ($5300 vs Anaheim) going against Nick Tropeano.
Gene McCaffrey thinks Brandon Barnes ($2400 vs Dodgers) should do a little something and lets you use more expensive hitters, so necessary tonight, while Aaron Sanchez ($6100 vs Oakland) is home against a weak lineup, and cheap.
Tim Heaney picks 1B Ryan Howard ($3900 @ Milwaukee) because homers have been flying out of Miller Park. He’ll take this clearance-priced chance Howard launches at least his fifth against Zach Davies. SP Adam Wainwright’s ($7900 @ San Diego) early struggles have lowered his price to a more rational point for someone of his diminishing skill. But … it’s Petco Park vs. a AAA lineup, so let’s go for it.
Jeff Erickson was a doubter for his season-long leagues, much to his chagrin, but Aaron Sanchez’s ($6100 vs Oakland) still priced affordably for daily. In a two-pitcher format, especially when you want to get some Coors, you need to find that cheaper option. Odubel Herrera ($4,100 @ Milwaukee) is batting leadoff against a gas can in a pretty good hitter’s park when the roof is closed. At $4,100, he also helps save some cash to afford a Dodgers stack.
Phil Hertz says Lucas Duda ($5200 @Atlanta) is heating up and faces Bud Norris, while Jeff Samardzija ($7600 vs Miami) at AT&T is enticing.
Jeff Boggis’s top starting pitcher on RTSports Friday night’s Tout Daily contest is Toronto’s Aaron Sanchez’s ($6100 vs Oakland). Through 20 innings pitched, he is 1-0 with a 20/7 K/BB ratio, a 1.35 ERA, and a 0.85 WHIP. The price is very favorable at only $6,100, ranking him as the 17th highest salary. That is a savings of $3,100 compared to Felix Hernandez. Sanchez has averaged 13.7 fantasy points per game this season. Sanchez is at home, with a neutral matchup against the Oakland Athletics. He faces starting pitcher Sonny Gray, which is a tough matchup, but Boggis feels that Sanchez will get enough run support tonight from the Toronto offense. Boggis’s top starting hitter on RTSports is Bryce Harper ($6700 vs. Minnesota). Despite Harper being tied with Mike Trout as the highest priced outfielder, he is on a roll and can take over a daily fantasy contest on any given night. Harper is hitting .335 versus right handed pitchers and faces RHP Kyle Gibson, who has a 1.53 WHIP on the season.
Steve Moyer picks Francisco Cervelli ($3900 @ Arizona). Psst. There’s a catcher hitting .340 who’s still cheap. And Gio Gonzalez ($7100 vs Minnesota). Inside Edge, of course, likes Lester and Harvey better, but Gio’s the best balance between price and pitchability.
Mike Gianella went with Jon Lester ($8900 @ Cincinnati) and Jason Heyward ($5300 @ Cincinnati) this week.
Todd Zola and the Mastersball crew charts and talks about the five Tout Wars Leagues. Read about them here.
Mike Gianella comments on the week’s FAAB moves, and at length about all the reasons Alexi Amarista should be picked up this week, at Baseball Prospectus.
Mike Gianella’s FAAB report at Baseball Prospectus is up and it’s good! This week he adds TW mixed bids to his LABR mixed report, and LABR AL and NL bids to his Tout Wars Onlies reports. Very interesting. Read it here.
Learned that Mastersball’s FAAB report was posted (here) with this tweet:
The stat service Tout Wars uses has a Toy Box, a place league member can go to mess around with different data. Like, whose team was the best over the past two weeks? Five weeks? Two and a half months.
It also allows you to create projected standings based on Clay Davenport’s and BaseballHQ’s projections and current rosters.
Tout Mixed Draft drafted last night, and here are the projected standings (click to enlarge):
Clay Davenport’s projections, good for Wilton, bad for Murphy:
While BaseballHQ’s projections have a different look, especially for Murphy:
Who has been the most successful Tout Wars owner the last five years? Fred Zinkie.
Who has been the most successful Tout Wars owner the last ten years? Larry Schechter.
Who are the all time top 10 earners in Tout?
| TOUT WARS LEADER BOARD | Years | AVG $ p/yr | All Time P/L |
| Larry Schechter | 11 | $256 | $2,820 |
| Fred Zinkie | 5 | $461 | $2,306 |
| Mike Lombardo | 5 | $316 | $1,579 |
| Tristan Cockcroft | 9 | $164 | $1,473 |
| Jason Grey | 11 | $125 | $1,380 |
| Ron Shandler | 18 | $53 | $946 |
| John Coleman | 5 | $170 | $849 |
| Sam Walker | 6 | $140 | $840 |
| Trace Wood | 6 | $140 | $840 |
| Chris Liss | 7 | $115 | $804 |
You can find all this info and more in the Tout Wars Leaderboard, which has now been updated to include the 2015 finishes.
How is the Leaderboard calculated? Each team is attributed a $100 entry fee into the league. The winnings for each league are distributed to the top one third of the teams in the league, based on a proportional formula.
With a month left in the season we’ve crowned one Tout Wars Champion for 2015: Charlie Wiegert is Tout Wars Daily champion. But what about the other leagues? While you can alway check in on the standings and transactions by using the links in the right nav at toutwars.com, at this point it might be a good time to check in on the pennant races.
Chris Liss is having a classic Liss season, young pitching, lots of hitting, lots of risk, and is seven points ahead of Jeff Erickson and nine points ahead of Mike Podhorzer. The three have bubbled up and down around the top of the standings all season, but Liss has benefited from Chris Davis’s spectacular season, and Carlos Correa’s emergence after being called up earlier in the year. There are plenty of points in play for all three teams, up and down, for this to turn any which way at any time, but Liss is clearly the fave.
Mike Gianella is seven points ahead of standing three-time champ Tristan Cockcroft, but just two weeks ago his edge was only two points. For Cockcroft, the problem has been a freefalling pitching staff, which has won just a single game in the last 13 days, allowing Gianella to pass him. These teams have lots of points in play, too, so while you have to prefer to have the lead, there is no sitting comfortably at this point. Still, Gianella has to appreciate that he was the best team in the first half and has been the best team in the second half. Now he just has to bring it home.
At the halfway mark on the season Zach Steinhorn had a commanding lead, but that was before Fred Zinkie went to work. Zinkie was in 12th place on June 28, 39.5 points behind Steinhorn. From that point to the August 31 trading deadline he made 19 trades, and has taken a slim lead ahead of Scott Swanay and Steinhorn. Swanay was in 10th place on June 28th, and has nearly matched Zinkie in the second half. Meanwhile, Tim Heaney is just five points behind Zinkie, in fourth place. There’s a lot of pennant race to come in this one.
Adam Ronis and Paul Greco have been near the top of the standings all year long, but their weak second half performances have given Rudy Gamble a chance to open up some space ahead of them and Eno Sarris (whose had the best second half of them all). Gambles position is pretty strong, but he’s vulnerable in Wins and the pitching qualitatives,
Bret Sayre entered the last four-week contest 14.5 points ahead of Patrick Mayo and 31 points ahead of Doug Anderson. As we approach the halfway point, Sayre is 15 points behind Mayo, who has moved into a tiny lead. What looked like it might be a blowout has ended up a a nail-biter, if you’re Sayre and Mayo.
