Category: News

Friday Tout Daily Preview for July 14, 2017.

Andrea LaMont is in the lead, but not by much. The Touts are getting their Period 4 Week 2 entries in for the 2017 Tout Daily championship. Here is the leaderboard.

Some are sharing their picks with us.

PHIL HERTZ

James Paxton at home and Bryce Harper at GAB.

JEFF BOGGIS

Top Hitter – Matt Carpenter (1B-$3,800) St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates

Top Pitcher – Jacob deGrom (SP-$11,800) New York Mets vs. Colorado Rockies

LAWR MICHAELS

Jacob Faria ($8200): Crapshoot on the next Tampa future ace facing the Angels, who do indeed like to swing the bats. Faria has 37 whiffs over 38.1 frames.

Whit Merrifield ($4300): It has taken a bit for Merrifield to own second, but he has 13 hits over his last ten games and goes up against Southpaw Martin Perez for the day.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Top Pitchers…going on the inexpensive side with R. A. Dickey at home against AZ, hoping the knuckler will be dancing around in the hot humid weather, and Charlie Morton at home in Houston to shut down the Twins.

Top hitters…with the $ savings on pitching I’m able to put an All-star lineup out there tonight; Buster Posey, Anthony Rizzo, Jose Alltuve, Machado, Lindor, Harper and Judge.  Sleeper pick is Alex Presley.  While this strategy has not worked very well the last couple weeks, I’m sticking with it…tonight might be the night!
TIM HEANEY

Jose Berrios ($7,300 at HOU): I’ll go with the contrarian play against the hot offense to try winning a tournament format.

Avisail Garcia ($3,500 vs. SEA): Similar theme here. Not many people will pick against James Paxton, but I’ll roll with Garcia, who holds a .427 wOBA against southpaws during his breakout year.

GENE McCAFFREY

Pitcher – No such thing as a sure thing but Jacob deGrom at home is always a good bet.

Hitter – It’s about time for Robinson Cano to start feasting; James Shields should provide the meatballs.

Andrea LaMont takes Period 4 Tout Daily Lead!

Andrea LaMont won the first week of Tout Daily Period 4 by the slimmest of margins, riding a fine start by Zach Greinke and big nights from some stud hitters, including Freddie Freeman, Francisco Lindor, Giancarlo Stanton, and Roughned Odor.

Still, she topped Howard Bender (James Paxton, Lindor, Nolan Arenado and Seth Smith) by 1.4 points; Steve Gardner (Dan Straily, Jesus Aguilar, DJ LeMahieu, Arenado, and Nelson Cruz) by 4.1 points and Derek Carty (Paxton, Jason Kipnis, Lindor, Arenado, and Michael Brantley) by 9.05.

Todd Zola finished fifth for the the week, and is one of three Top 5 finishers this week who already have tickets to the finals. The others are Howard Bender and Derek Carty.

You can see the whole leaderboard here.

The Touts will gather next Friday, July 14, for Week 2 of Period 4. See you then!

Carty and Zola Draw First Tout Daily Blood. Again.

Derek Carty already has a ticket to the Tout Daily finals. So does Todd Zola. These two finished 1-2 in Week 1 Period 3 of the Tout Daily contest hosted by Draft Kings.

Howard Bender also has a ticket to the finals, and he finished fourth on the week, eight points behind Zola.

Sandwiched between the ticket holders was Steve Gardner, looking for a ticket of his own.

A csv file with each team’s picks and totals, plus point totals and draft percentage for all players, can be found at the link: contest-standings-41499229

The Top 2 finishers in each four week period win golden tickets to the September 1 finals.

The June 5 Tout Wars FAAB Reports Links!

Todd Zola and his merry band weigh in on this week’s pickups in all the Tout Wars leagues. Be forewarned, one goofball thought picking up Dinelson Lamet and Adam Wainwright were good ideas. As the Pink Panther once said, The Goofball? C’est moi!

Mike Gianella’s Expert League FAAB Roundup is a weekly gem. Good analysis, goodly humor, an excellent analysis of Eric Young Jr. this week, with historical context. Plus details about a man named Cactus, and another man named Anthony. This week is a particularly good one. Even if you didn’t care for baseball you might enjoy it. Though, probably not.

 

Zola and Melnick Take Tickets in Tout Daily Period 2!

Todd Zola put up more than 150 points in Tout Daily at DraftKings for the second week in a row, which was enough to land him atop the standings in Period 2 of the contest, and win him a golden ticket to the finals.

Lenny Melnick, the third-week winner, finished second for the period, 11 points ahead of Vlad Sedler, whose hot streak ended with a crash in Week 4, when he finished with just 81.8 points, in 23rd place for the week. Sedler finished third for the period, tantalizingly close.

In what is becoming a theme, Zola rostered two aces (Kershaw—32 percent of teams did—and Strasburg—64 percent rostered him) and then relied on the kindness of lesser hitters. This week it was Yangervis Solarte, Nick Castellanos, and Franchy Cordero who left a mark.

The week’s winner was actually Tim Heaney, who finished Top 5 for the first time in the period, which left him in 12th overall. He started with Ty Blach (12 percent) and Michael Fulmer (32 percent), and then got big nights from a Detroit stack (Miguel Cabrera and JD Martinez) and Nolan Arenado.

We start Period 3 next Friday with a clean slate.

Period 1 winner, Derek Carty, has the most points overall so far this year. The overall points winner will earn an extra golden ticket to the finals.

You can see 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.

The Legend, Lenny Melnick Wins Week 3 Period 2 of Tout Daily!

Lenny Melnick paid the price, rostered Max Scherzer and Chris Archer, two of the most expensive pitchers, and rode them to victory in Tout Daily’s Period 2 Week 3 contest.

With all that dough tied up in dominant arms that dominated, Lenny looked to Mike Trout and Kendrys Morales for offense, but the two combined for just 23 points.

It was, in fact, Martin Maldonado and Devon Travis, who put the legs into legend, scored 51 points between them and squeaked out a victory over Todd Zola.

Vlad Sedler had his third Top 5 finish in Period 2, and still leads the field in the season’s second contest. The period’s Top 2 finishers will win golden tickets to the season finale and a chance to vie for the championship, which is interesting because this period’s top two finishers, Melnick and Todd Zola, are tied for third right now, two points behind Michael Beller.

You can see the whole leaderboard right here.

Draft Kings Picks for Tout War Daily, From the Touts. May 19, 2017

Michael Beller got off to a nice start in Period 2 Week 1 of the four-week contest. Week 2 goes off tonight.

Here are Tout Picks for tonight’s contest:

CHARLIE WIEGERT

The last time Taijuan Walker ($8,400 @SD) pitched good was April 27th vs San Diego. He gets them again tonight and I’m hoping for another 10+ KO performance.

Nolan Arenado ($5,200 @Cincinnati) and Charlie Blackmon ($5,300) against Reds rookie pitcher Bonilla, and hot hitters Jose Altuve, Jonathan Lucroy and Aaron Judge.

GENE McCAFFREY

Luis Severino ($8,800 @Tampa Bay) has 17 Ks in 56 PAs vs. the Rays lineup, which means his expected performance range is mediocre-to-great. Which is a lot better than poor-to-mediocre.

Assuming the game is played, Brandon Crawford ($3,300 @St. Louis) has hit Michael Wacha well and he’s cheap.

JEFF BOGGIS

Chris Sale ($13,000 @Oakland) has been on fire and he is worth paying top dollar to roster him this week. Over this past 5 starts, Sale is 3-1 with a 2.68 ERA and averaging over 7 innings pitched and 11 strikeouts per game. He pitches on the road tonight at Oakland where he owns a 2.49 ERA and 0.83 WHIP on the road this season. You must be more savvy when rostering your hitters to justify Sale’s top salary at $13,000, but he can carry your team tonight. Roster Chris Sale tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 2, week 2 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

Chris Taylor ($3,700 vs. Miami) By rostering Chris Sale at SP, I must find hitter values and I think I have that tonight with Chris Taylor. After going 0/3 on Wednesday, he was given the day off on Thursday and rested for tonight’s game. Taylor will face left-handed pitcher, Justin Nicolino tonight. Chris Taylor is hitting .381/.500/.571 with 1 HR and 1 RBI against lefties this season. He also has a 0.923 OPS over the last 14 days. Roster Chris Taylor tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 2, week 2 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

BRIAN WALTON

With the big money likely on Chris Sale, I will save $4600 by leading with Alex Wood ($8,800 vs. Miami) and field a decent offense. With a 2.27 ERA, 48 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings and back to back double digit strikeout games, Wood is finally stepping to that long-anticipated next level. Making this play even better is the arrival of the toothless Miami offense in Dodger Stadium Friday night.

On offense, my pick of the day is scalding-hot J.D. Martinez ($4,700 vs. Texas). Over his last 25 plate appearances, the Detroit outfielder is 8-for-16, including five home runs, 11 RBI and he took nine walks to boot. There should be little contest between this Martinez and Rangers starter Nick Martinez (5.04 ERA) Friday evening.

LAWR MICHAELS

Charlie Morton ($8,700 vs. Cleveland): Morton has slipped into the Astros groove, adding three MPH to his fastball, averaging 18.7 fantasy points per game. That means pairing him with Alex Wood gives me solid arms and big time bats. The move is also a crapshoot, as I am assuming my mates will go for Chris Sale against the Athletics, which is certainly the called for pick.  But, going against the grain Week II gives a chance to jump by my mates with a good day, and still affords two more weeks to try and rectify a potential Morton meltdown.

Lorenzo Cain ($4,100 @Minnesota): Cain is having a solid year despite those around him, averaging eight points while facing lefty Hector Santiago, who has pitched pretty well, but is indeed vulnerable to the long ball.

Period 2 Week 1 of Tout Daily is All Michael Beller!

Michael Beller took two cheap pitchers, Dylan Bundy and Eddie Butler, stacked the Dodgers and Diamondback offenses, and easily bested the Rotowire cadre, Vlad Sedler and his Rotowire boss, Jeff Erickson, who finished the week in second and third respectively.

[CORRECTION: This post originally named Clay Link as the winner because of confusion caused by Michael Beller’s DK name. It is now corrected.]

Both Sedler and Erickson rostered Bundy and the evening’s second most expensive pitcher, Clayton Kershaw in Colorado.

You’ll find the leaderboard here.

The Top 10 for the week (wydiyd is Jeff Zimmerman, bbella is Andrea LaMont):