Tout Daily Period 5: Halfway Home!

Tim Heaney did not finish in the Top 5 in Week 2 of Tout Daily Period 5, but remains atop the leaderboard by virtue of his Week 1 margin of victory. But right behind him are Steve Gardner and Ray Murphy, each looking for a Top 2 finish in the four week contest and a ticket to the September 1 finals.

Sitting in fourth place is Week 2 winner Derek Carty, who—along with Derek  VanRiper and Todd Zola—is within shouting distance with two weeks to go. Carty’s victory was built on the backs of Carlos Carrasco and Rich Hill, popular pitching picks who had fine nights, and strong hitting across the board, with Yoenis Cespedes leading the way.

The Touts will be back this coming Friday for Week 3. Look for their picks for Draft Kings that night late on Friday afternoon.

Tips for Draft Kings from Tout Daily Players, on August 11, 2017

Tim Heaney stepped on it in Week 1 of Period 5, winning handily over the field of Touts in Tout Daily.

Week 2 is played tonight, with the Top 2 scorers from the four-week contest winning tickets to the September 1 final.

Some Touts have sent us their top picks for tonight’s contest at Draft King.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Top Pitchers  I’m going with two “aces” that need to stop their teams losing streaks, so I expect great performances out of both, Jimmy Nelson and Danny Duffy.  Both stand in line for double digit Ks and a Win. Nelson gets Cincy at home,and Duffy gets the “rookie” White Sox team in Chitown.

Top hitters…stacking a few Nationals against Giants rookie Stratton tonight, Matt Wieters, Ryan Zimmerman and Brian Goodwin. I’m hoping Freddy Galvis will attack Seth Lugo and the Mets, and rostering studs Cano, Sano and Bautista.

PHIL HERTZ

Jonathan Gray and Mike Moustakas.

JEFF BOGGIS

My top hitter for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Freddie Freeman (ATL – 1B) at St. Louis against Adam Wainwright. You can roster Freeman for $1,000 less than Paul Goldschmidt at $4,700 tonight.

My top pitcher for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Carlos Carrasco (SP) at Tampa Bay $8,900.  Look for him to bounce back tonight after his last two rough outings.

LAWR MICHAELS

Ubaldo Jimenez ($6500): Deperate times, desperate measures, although to be sure Jimenez has been solid his last three starts and faces the easiest band potential strike out victims than Oakland.

Howie Kendrick ($4100): Kendrick is a great second half hitter on a .382-1-5 jag his last 10 games, facing the none too effective Chris Stratton and his 0-2 mark with a 6.63 ERA.

GENE MCCAFFREY

There are at least six SP’s tonight with a reasonable chance to post a 30+-point game. Tonight’s salaries are aligned well with the odds and I’m starting with Rich Hill at the top. Tonight is a good night to enter multiple teams and vary your #2 SP.

Neil Walker woke up yesterday. He faces righty Nick Pivetta and no doubt the highly questionable Phillies’ bullpen at $2700 – a big help in rostering expensive SPs.

JEFF ERICKSON

Pitcher: Jimmy Nelson – second biggest favorite according to Vegas, should get a good number of Ks.

Hitter: Gregory Polanco allows me to afford Mike Trout and Jose Altuve.

TODD ZOLA

Pitcher: He’s been scuffling lately, but that’s driven down the price for Carlos Carrasco ($9,700). I like the park upgrade and the strikeout upside, taking on the Rays in The Trop.

Hitter: There’s surprisingly ample low-priced hitters to afford good pitching as well as paying up for Mike Trout ($5,700). Trout’s price reflects a juicy encounter with southpaw Marco Gonzales.

TIM HEANEY

Danny Duffy, KC at CWS: Keep picking on the Pale Hose, who develop more holes by the day.

Andrelton Simmons, LAA at SEA: One of the more underrated fantasy bats gets a favorable platoon turn.

 

Tim Heaney Rules Week 1 of the Final Period in Tout Daily.

Tim Heaney got off to a strong start in the final period of Tout Daily last night. Strong performances from popular choices Kevin Gausman and Brian Dozier, and strong performances from not popular choices like Marwin Gonzalez and Manuel Margot, added up to an easy victory on the night.

How Heaney Did It

Second and third place were claimed by Jeff Erickson, who already has a ticket to the finals, and Ray Murphy, who finished just .55 points apart. The top five was rounded out by Andrea LaMont and Steve Gardner.

LaMont’s strong week moved into second place in overall points for the contest, where she challenges leader Todd Zola for a bonus ticket to the September 1 finals. We’ll follow that race closely in the coming weeks.

You can see the whole leader board here.

The Final Period: Tout Daily Picks Tonight!

Four periods are done. Seven Touts have eight tickets to the September 1 Tout Daily Finals at Draft Kings. We can name them: Todd Zola has two tickets. Andrea LaMont, Derek Carty, Howard Bender, Lenny Melnick, Jeff Boggis and Jeff Erickson have one apiece.

Tickets will be awarded to the first and second place finishers in Period 5, and an 11th ticket will be awarded to the tout who scores the most points over the contest’s 20 weeks. Right now Zola has a 50 point lead over Carty for that bonus ticket.

For tonight, we have picks for tonight’s contests at Draft Kings.

MIKE GIANELLA

Top pitcher: James Paxton (12,200)
I generally don’t like running non-Kershaw/Scherzer arms out there over $12K but Paxton has been dominated and gets a nice matchup against the Royals tonight

Top hitter: Mike Trout: ($5,300)
The best hitter in baseball gets a soft matchup against Cotton

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Top pitchers…going on the cheap side again with Jamie Garcia, making his Yankee debut at Cleveland.  This will be bust or boom, as the Indians could pound him and he’ll be gone by the third, or as I’m hoping, he turns in one of those unexpected performances like he did in St. Louis many times.

Top Hitters…stacking Colorado, why not? Reynolds, Arenado, Story and Freeland (although I’ll get 0 points for his hitting). Also hot hitters Upton, Sanchez, Revere and  Altuve.

PHIL HERTZ

I’m going with Madison Bumgarner and Evan Longoria.

JEFF BOGGIS

My top hitter for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Andrew McCutchen ($5,400 OF-PIT) versus San Diego. Andrew McCutchen is hitting .265/.409/.559 with three home runs and nine RBI against Travis Wood in his career, and owns a 1.292 OPS against left-handed pitching this season. There is a 72% chance of rain tonight, so check your lineup prior to 7 PM tonight to make sure that the game is not postponed.

My top pitcher for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Madison Bumgarner ($11,300 SP) versus Arizona. Back from the DL, de was terrific in Sunday’s no-decision against the Dodgers, allowing just five hits and a walk over seven shutout frames.

LAWR MICHAELS

Yu Darvish ($11,100): Darvish has certainly been dominant with 148 strikeouts over 137 frames, allowing just a .225 opposition batting average, and the Mets have not seen much of him.

Elvis Andrus ($4600): Low price tag for a guy with a .290-15-46 line hitting atop the order, but Andrus also gets to face Bartolo Colon, and that should be fun for the entire Rangers team.

RICK WOLF

Kevin Gausman: No pitching in baseball has been hotter in his last three starts except maybe the Klubot.  Kevin Gausman comes with a $4,000+ savings over Paxton or DeGrom. He has struck out 24 hitters in the last three games in only 20 2/3 innings pitched.  He averages 30 DraftKing points a game in those three contests.  That is FILTHY.

Tim Beckham: Love to ride the hot hitters, especially at off positions.  Tim Beckham has an OPS of 1.356 over the past 7 days.  He has settled into the Orioles lineup nicely.  He homered last night and is 7 for 12 with 5 EXB hits since joining the Os.  He will continue that tonight as the implied runs for the Os is greater than five.  Ride the hot hand.  That means two things.

TODD ZOLA

PITCHER Still waffling, especially since I’d love to use Ivan Nova but the weather looks risky. I reserve the right to change my mind, but currently my lean is Madison Bumgarner hosting the DBacks in AT&T. I like using an ace and even though Arizona is dangerous, the park helps a bit.

HITTER Jaime Garcia has done a reasonable job keeping the ball in the yard, but it’s rare finding a top power hitter, with the platoon edge priced as cheaply as Edwin Encarnacion ($4200). My only concern is I don’t like using one-offs against a team with a good bullpen and I’m not sure if I’m going with a full Tribe stack.

GENE McCAFFREY

Pitcher – outstanding Ks continue from Brad Peacock, with a much better than average chance at a Win vs. the Blue Jays.

Hitter – Adrian Beltre is rarely a bad bet; certainly not against what’s left of Bart Colon.

Tout FAAB Reports, Trade Deadline Edition!

Sure, before the Monday transaction deadline, it was all NLers going to the AL, but next Monday the NLers will get their chance.

In the meantime, Todd Zola and the gang at Mastersball tell us what it’s all about.

And Mike Gianella surveys the various Tout and Labr formats he’s in touch with, with lots of puns for good fun (as well as astute analysis).

The Week is Patrick Davitt’s. The Tout Daily Tickets Go To Zola and LaMont.

Patrick Davitt sat out the first two weeks of Period 4 of Tout Daily. If he had not his resounding Week 4 victory might have moved him into contention for one of the two tickets. Instead he has the satisfaction of a job well done.

Click to Enlarge

Davitt scored big with the surprising Jaime Garcia, the red hot JT Realmuto, the red hot Jose Ramirez, the red hot Brett Gardner and former superstar Andrew McCutchen. Well done, Patrick.

But the two leaders going into Week 4 were in the lead leaving Week 4. Todd Zola had a big lead going in, finished fifth overall for the week and ended up with 60 more points than Andrea LaMont.

LaMont posted the 10th best score for the week, which was enough to keep her ahead of Phil Hertz and Mike Gianella, barely. Gianella was the Week 3 winner, but his second place finish last night was not enough to put him over the top.

Todd Zola now has two Golden Tickets to the September 1 finals,  a night’s play that will determine this year’s Tout Daily champion. Previous winners were Charlie Wiegert and Patrick Davitt.

Other tickets won thus far belong to Derek Carty, Howard Bender, Lenny Melnick, Jeff Boggis and Jeff Erickson.

Two more tickets will be given out to the Period 5 winners, and another to the player with the highest point total on the season.  Right now that’s Todd Zola, who has a 53 point lead over Derek Carty, followed by Howard Bender, Andrea LaMont and Phil Hertz.

You can see the whole leaderboard here.

Who’s Picking Whom? Tout Daily Picks for July 28th.

Todd Zola has a huge lead. Andrea LaMont a nice one. Tonight they play the deciding fourth week of Tout Daily. At stake are golden tickets to the two top finishers, entry to the September 1 finals at Draft Kings.

But now, some picks:

PHIL HERTZ

Jose Quintana and Wilmer Flores.

JEFF BOGGIS

My top hitters for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest are: Marwin Gonzalez (HOU – 3B/OF) at Detroit $4,600 and Josh Reddick (HOU – OF) $4,700 at Detroit. Stacking any Houston Astros player makes a lot of sense tonight as they face Jordan Zimmerman and his 5.81 ERA and 1.56 WHIP.

My top pitcher for tonight’s #ToutDaily contest is: Alex Wood (SP-LAD) vs. San Francisco, but he is going to cost you the most to roster a pitcher at $11,700. Look for him to bounce back from his first loss of the season where he allowed 7 earned runs.

LAWR MICHAELS

Jaime Garcia ($6900): I’m a Bay Area guy, and I have some hope for the Athletics future at this point. But as of now, they suck against lefties (righties, too, as a matter of fact) and the first time they face Garcia, I give the advantage to him, especially in a pitcher’s park.

Chris Taylor ($4700): Pretty hard to ignore the smoking hot Taylor (.512-2-9 over his last ten games) facing the completely hittable Matt Moore, who carries a 5.82 ERA with 17 homers and 138 hits allowed over 111.3 innings. Ugh.

RICK WOLF

JOSE ALTUVE – Jose Altuve is the best player of anyone on the road.  He has this incredible slash line .396/.463/.507/1.070 OPS on the road since the beginning of 2016 which is more than a year and a half of absolute domination.  Throw in 46 SBs vs RHP in that time and you have a gem any time he is on the road.

DANNY SALAZAR – Salazar has been red hot including a one hit performance vs the Blue Jays just six days ago.  Salazar came off the DL to immediately make an impact and playing the hapless pale hose makes me salivate for another big win from the Indians.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Top pitchers…going on the cheap side with two guys with upside; Andrew Cashner at home vs Baltimore and Jeremy Hellickson at home vs Atlanta.  Both are in a good spot to get a W, and could have 8+ strike outs.

Top hitters…with the $ saved on pitching, I can roster some top hitters; Harper, Stanton & Blackmon in the OF, plus hot hitters Contreras, Taylor, Dejong and Donaldson.

MIKE GIANELLA

Top pitcher: Danny Salazar

It’s feast or famine with this guy, but as the Tout Wars web site pointed out last weekend I need a near miracle to qualify despite winning last week. Salazar could flame out but the upside is too much to pass up

Top hitter: Freddie Freeman

He has tailed off post-injury…to the tune of a .315/.383/.562 line in 81 plate appearances. Freeman is a beast, and has a matchup tonight against the second worst starting pitcher in K% among qualifiers

TODD ZOLA

Alex Wood ($11,700): I’m in protect mode, not only for the period but also for the overall points lead. It doesn’t get much safer than Wood at home versus the Giants.

Mookie Betts ($4,600): Though not as potent as last season, returning to Fenway Park after a road trip usually revitalizes the Red Sox offense. Regression has caught up to Vargas, at least in terms of homers, I’ll take Mookie with the platoon edge as one of my more expensive hitters, especially since he’s actually priced down a bit.

The Week’s FAAB Reports for July 24.

Todd Zola and the crew as Mastersball have lots to say about this week’s FAAB spending, and the charts to back it up.

Mike Gianella breathlessly charts the spectacle of Derek Carty buying JD Martinez in various Tout and LABR leagues, because he had the most FAAB to spend, plus all the other action for the week at Baseball Prospectus.