Face off tonight against 23 grizzled and hungry Touts in this week’s #toutchallenge. Use this link to sign up (http://partners.fanduel.com/processing/clickthrgh.asp?btag=a_7152b_984), and see how you fare in a one-day fantasy baseball contest!
Want to know who you’re playing against? Here’s a list of tonight’s Touts and their Fanduel names.
After six weeks of play, Mike Podhorzer is in first place in Tout Wars AL. He’s there, just two and a half points ahead of Rob Leibowitz, by virtue of an almost perfect offense, which has 58.5 of a potential 60 points.
Not only are Mike’s big bets on offense, like Prince Fielder, Hanley Ramirez and Jose Bautista, producing, but he’s getting outsized production from $1 endgame buys Devon Travis and Jose Iglesias.
The pitching staff, built around closers Koji Uehara and Sean Doolittle, with Scott Kazmir, Colby Lewis and CC Sabathia, has been good enough so far.
Mike’s team will be tested in coming weeks, having recently lost Alex Avila and Ike Davis to injury. Leibowitz and Jeff Erickson, who is also close, will be laying in wait for any stumble.
Get the complete standings and rosters here.
A snafu tangled the results of Tout Daily last night, when nine non touts were invited to play by mistake. Three of them finished in the Top 10, making a shambles of the official winnings screen. Here are the official results, with point totals and weekly winnings.
10.(t) Andrea LaMont 38.5 $12
Brian Walton 38.5 $12
8. Andy Behrens 38.75 $18
7. Scott Swanay 39.66 $18
6. Patrick Mayo 40.25 $24
5. Steve Moyer 40.91 $30
4. Gene McCaffrey 44.75 $36
3. Stephania Bell 49.16 $42
2. Seth Trachtman 51.5 $48
1. Chris Liss 54.91 $60
Seth Trachtman, second place finisher, started with Madison Bumgarner, who didn’t strike out many Reds but shut them down while his teammates ran up their big score. Trachtman also rostered Posey, but his team was otherwise powered by less-owned players, like Bryce Harper (14%), JJ Hardy (2%), Justin Turner (2%) and David DeJesus (2%). It seems there are any number of ways to compile a competitive team.
The top three finishers in each of the five phases will win a ticket to the Tout Daily By Fanduel final on August 28th, when fifteen entries will compete for $2,000 in prizes.
The Phase 1 winners were Scott Pianowski, Adam Ronis and Jeff Erickson.
Ray Guilfoyle has had the lead most of this season, though Derek Carty has edged him from time to time. The middle pack is a comfortable ways behind at this point.
Ray built a team without speed, opting for solid bats like Adrian Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado on the corners, Starlin Castro at SS, and Jay Bruce, Corey Dickerson, and Marcel Ozuna in the OF. He went cheap at Catcher, but is getting hefty production too from Danny Espinosa at 2B.
Ray’s pitching staff features two semi-aces, Jordan Zimmerman and Lance Lynn, and one bought closer, in Jonathan Papelbon. He’s also getting closer production out of Jason Grilli, so far, who cost him nothing, and ace production out of Mike Leake and Bartolo Colon, each for a few bucks.
Most impressive, Ray’s DL includes Kenley Jansen, so more saves are likely coming, and three certifiable top prospects, in Corey Seager, Julio Urias and Hector Olivera.
Derek Carty is competitive, despite Travis D’Arnaud’s and Brandon McCarthy’s injuries and Javier Baez’ demotion, which represents $10 wasted so far. He has plenty of steals, in Billy Hamilton, but has dumped Saves, at least so far.
From Mastersball, Rob Leibowitz, Brian Walton, Zach Steinhorn and Perry Van Hook take a look at this week’s bidding.
From Baseball Prospectus, Mike Gianella reports.
In a close victory over Tom Kessenich and Lawr Michaels, Jake Ciely took first place in this week’s Tout Daily contest.
Behind Gio Gonzalez’s solid win against the Braves, and strong contributions from Brian McCann, Edwin Encarnacion, Justin Upton, Josh Donaldson, and Jayson Werth, Ciely holds the lead in Phase 2 of the five phase contest that culminates on August 28th with a 15 team championship.
The top three teams in each phase win a ticket to championship. First phase ticket holders are Scott Pianowski, Adam Ronis, and Jeff Erickson.
Kessenich, who didn’t play in Phase 1, got off quickly in Phase 2 behind Aaron Sanchez’s strong start, and shared Encarnacion, Upton and Donaldson with Ciely. His offense was topped by Anthony Gose’s strong game.
Michaels shared Gio Gonzalez and Upton with Ciely, but his offense was powered by Cory Spangenberg’s and Bryce Harper’s monster games. See the whole contest results here.
You can see the contest leaderboard here.
For more info about Tout Daily, click here.
A closer look at Jake Ciely’s winning team.
Zach Steinhorn (@ZachMLB) is! By a lot!
Zach’s only weakness, if you can call it that, is Stolen Bases. He’s riding on the broad shoulders of Anthony Rizzo, Brandon Moss, Justin Upton, Kolten Wong, and Josh Reddick on the offensive side of things. Star pitchers include Chris Archer, Mike Leake and Ian Kennedy, with Glen Perkins, David Robertson and Bret Cecil closing.
Greg Ambrosius (@GregAmbrosius) is! But he’s just a nip ahead of Adam Ronis (@AdamRonis), with Perry Van Hook within shouting distance.
Greg is riding fantastic starting pitching from Sonny Gray, Madison Bumgarner, Dan Haren, Shelby Miller, Max Scherzer and Jonathan Niese, while waiting for Kenley Jansen to return and help Drew Storen shore up the saves.
Team Ambrosius’s offense is led by Anthony Rizzo, Dee Gordon, and Nelson Cruz. Not bad!
